Evening star., 1939-06-25
Comments on lurqe
Movie SuIuries
BIZ Frederic J. Haskin.

years, or considerably longer than half
q lifetime, his total earnings would
equal approximately what single mo-
ton picture executive was paid in one
recent year. The term paid" Is used
rather than learned" because a great
many people do not think one man can
earn over a million and quarter year.
That win always be question of differ
ence of opinion, but it probably is safe to
say that a majority of Americans or
people in the entire world, for that mat
ter, would be unable to understand how
so much money can be earned" in so
short span of time.
Yet there is some question about 1t,
depending on ones criterion. For ex-
ample, there are certain works of art in
the world which are considered beyond
price. Even in his lifetime Raphael was
able to accumulate q handsome fortune,
although this experience was rare for an
artist in his or any other time. But the
fortune he accumulated would be trifiing
compared with what even one of his
many works is valued at today. Who
could possibly place a money value on
Shakespeare's "Hamlet"? 1t is beyond
price. The same applies to objects Of
religious veneration other than works
of art. Who could place money value
on the Kaaba at Mecca or innumerable
relics of saints throughout Christendom?
So it might be argued that any one
who succeeded in saving one Of these
various objects from destruction would
earn anything which might be paid him.
OF course, Hamlet" could not be de-
stroyed, as it lives in the minds Of mil
lions of persons, but many physical OBJ
jects, regarded by many as having equal
value, could be. This may seem q far
cry from the field of business and the
question of business salaries, but, in at
least one sense, it is not.
There is certain kinship between the
saving from destruction of thing and
the creation Of thing. Therefore, the
man who can create wealth may be said
to be entitled to large share Of what
he creates. There is no question that
the motion picture industry has created
an extraordinary amount of wealth and
done so in relatively brief period. 1t
was not regarded as an industry until
just few years ago. 1t was scarcely
regarded as business by old-fashioned
businessmen. A great many Americans
have fresh recollections of the time when
no movie cost more than cents TO wit
ness. When the first 10-cent movies
appeared some people were scandalized
A very short time ago the motion pic
ture business had not any financial
standing whatever. 1t had no bank
credit of its own. No one dreamed that
1t could figure in the stock market. And
yet today the motion picture industry
has some $4,000 900, 900 invested in It.
y
So 1t might cogently be argued that
the men who have made this possible
have earned anything they can collect
1t must be remembered that the highest
returns of the industry go to the business
executives. Americans used to be inter-
ested in the fabulous salaries paid movie
stars and consider them the largest in
the industry. 1t is true that there are
some very large returns paid to stars,
but they are not at the top.
Now that the Treasury makes known
large incomes 1t is possible to make some
fascinating comparisons. One thinks of
banking. of the steel industry. of Oil and
such things as producing the greatest
incomes, but the opinion must be revised
on examining list of the II salaries of
100000 year and over. Eleven of these
are paid in the motion picture industry
Moreover. the first six on the list are
paid to persons identified with the en-
tertainment industry the first five are
paid by persons identified with motion
pictures and the first two to persons who
are out-and-out movie people Moreover,
only out of the II huge motion pic
ture industry salaries are paid to stars
the other seven go to movie executives,
And yet, from the general business
standpoint, there is something all out of
line in the curious picture presented.
The Department Of Commerce has list
OF the 33 largest industrial groups in the
United States on the basis of income
produced. Large as 1t is, the motion
picture industry stands almost at the
bottom-only 31st. Against that NAV
be set Treasury Department compila-
ton of persons receiving salaries from
industries of 100000 a year or more.
There are, at the latest reports, only e3
such persons. No less than 40 of these
are In the motion picture industry rs
stars or executives. This is so obviously
out OF line that it is the despair of busi-
ness commentators.
Close to the top Of the most select list
the II receiving 100000 a year and over
stands the publisher, William Randolph
Hearst, and it must be remembered that
he has important movie interests. The
publishing business is one Of great I'M
portance and yet, in the public mind. It
seldom Is looked upon as 50 looming a
thing as, for instance, steel. Yet E. G.
Grace, head Of the United States Steel
Corp stands eighth on the list of great
salaries. Tobacco forms one of Americas +
greater industries with far more money
involved in 1t than in the movies and
yet George Washington Hill, head of the
American Tobacco Co., ranks only ninth
on the salary list with five persons in the
entertainment business outranking him.
1t is interesting and, to an extent be-
Wildering, to realize that Mai. Bowes of
radio fame, outranks these great indus
trialists, standing in sixth place.
The vast Du Pont interests are Of
enormous extent and regarded as synony-
nous with wealth in industry, and vet