The Washington times., 1938-05-06
Contract Time in Hollywood

vr1HE independent theate owners Hollywood ad which
has panicked the movie world with its charges that
various hghpriced stars longer worth their hgh
prices confirms fear the movie industry pretty SICK
Inasmuch as producers not theater owners, pay the
stars salaries and nasnuch contract-reVlson tme
for many at just about this point each spring.
it has been surmised that producers putting the pay
cut heat on the through the medium OF the theater
owners That's just surmise up to now The public can
at least be pardoned for refectng that after ALL the pro-
ducers have bigger swimming pools than the stars
and usually hold onto them longer
All that aside why is it that some topfght movie stars
box office appeal may indeed the Hollywood ad charges
be burnt out?
We think there two chief reasons and that neither
of these esfes to the intelligence or cagness OF
the producers sused to be making these charges through
the theater owners organization.
For reason the movies have diluted their product
nv output so as to load the theaters with double
feature shows
Suppose various outfits in the publishing business now
pleasing their customers, suddenly to double their
49, output-the Atlantic Monthly
DHNItOn IN Vu0''ty Golfers Weekly, The News
4ULcELy SenSeG short short stories and Blue Rib
bon Fiction COSMOPOLITAN True Story Magazine. The
suit could only be dlution in quality which the GUS
toners would quickly
AS Samuel Godwyn has sagey remarked, the producers
make bad pictures without trying; when they begin
trying to make Class pictures, results are terrible
Theater owners sometimes retort that the public now
educated to twoeatre programs at 40 or 81 CENTS and
that they can't cut feature and keep the price
Why not cut the price, then sell two hours of good show
for 25 cents against four hours of bum show for
40 or so?
The bum-story movie sickness is complicated by the
fact that movie stars prime is short. Miss Ethel
Barrymore first starred in 1901 in Captain Jlnks OF
the Horse Marines" and is starring today in the spen
did show "Whiteoaks" Miss Grace George acted the
title role in mile Ffi' in 1900, and is still superb
actress Both are starring in Broadway hits One
reason for these stars durability aside from their mag
nfcent gifts has been that the public hasn't seen them
in four or five shows each year.
Movie stars have no such luck. Lillian Gish, first
hurled to fame in "The Birth of Nation" in 1918, is
leading stage star But Miss
FNOLC 4HeS Gshs colleagues in that filn-Mae
OF Hot Stars Marsh (chased over the cliff by the
Misunderstanding Walter Long, Mary Alden, Wallace
Reid, Henry B. Watha, etc.-are dead comparatively
obscure. And it goes with many star. The public
tires of seeing "ho star rushed by greedy producers
through swift succession of films especially if he
she fill only two types of role WE'LL
Add to this handicap the putrd stories often wished
able actors and actresses in these times of diluted and
deliberately cheapened movies, and think you have
the to the Hollywood ad 1t isn't the
stars fault Give good scripts any of the actors and
actresses named by the theater-owner group or Mr..
Brandt as past their peak, and money on them
to through with the old box office appeal Given
q bad play even an Ethel Barrymore will score a sad
failure.
We don't know whether the movie industry will cure
itself of its present illness Sam Goldwyn in his recent
remarks hasn't voiced much hope.