Evening star., 1942-04-12

Reputation
Is Earned
Not Without Cause
Is 1t Called City
Of Crackpots
By Franklin Arthur,
Wide World News.
HOLLYWOOD.

EOLGY Y WOOD.
Hollywood, so some people say,
is city of crackpots, doing crack.
pot things.
Actually, it isn't true. It's popu-
lated by people just as intelligent,
just as hard working as in Topeka,
Toledo or Tampa.
But Hollywood has done it's part
to make the legend true. And what
sets the town apart is the colossal
way in which it goes crackpot. when
it does. The biggest Of its over
worked adjectives are hardly ade-
quate on such occasions.
Herewith a few of the more clas-
sic examples of things Hollywood
would prefer to forget:
The one about the foreign direc-
tor who demanded a camera crane
of unbelievable size, finally throw
ing such a tantrum that the studio
built him one. Only then was it
found that the sound stage didn't
exist with doors big enough to ad-
NIT it. The answer? A new sound
stage, biggest in town.
A fire broke out on a studio back
lot. Firemen arrived noisly, waved
aside gesticulating property man
while they attached hose to a hyd-
rant. Then they realized what the
prop man was trying to say. 1t was
a dummy hydrant. used in a movie
scene. Flames, meanwhile, cracked
merrily.
Up In Smoke.
A studio decided to duplicate q
famous boat. Laboriously, with
minute attention to detail, it was put
together inside the studio shop. But
the detail department had over
looked one thing: How to get it out
side and onto the backlot lake.
Knocking out the side of the shop
wall solved that one.
A playful star and a gun-shy prop
man figured in a classic. For a
war picture, a big fort was erected
on a ranch. Explosives were care
fully planted, to be detonated at the
sound of a pistol shot. The star,
knowing the prop mans weakness,
found him doing in the shade,
pulled a trigger on a blank pistol
beside his ear. The dynamite crew,
thinking 1t their signal, sent the
entire set skyward. 1t took a week
to restore it; six months to restore
the prop mans nerves.
A passion for authenticity de-
manded importation of a South
African hippo for a jungle picture.
None of the zoo products would do.
The beast was captured, shipped
here at great cost Hundreds Of
dollars more were spent building
him a pen at a tiny inlet in Los
Angeles Harbor. The hippo was
slipped into his haven but promptly
curled up his toes and died. Only
then did the studio learn that hippos
can't survive in salt water.
Deliver Goods Where?
The publicity drums beat loudly
for a foreign star, signed via cable
by a big-Shot producer who thought
him terrific. Fanfare marked his
coming, but the big noise was saved
for a lavish press party to mark
his arrival. That was when the
studio learned the sad news. It's
prize didn't speak a word of English.
Showplace of the town was a STU
dos new administration building.
Executives pointed with pride. 1t
was the day after its occupation
that the absence of q back door
was discovered. For weeks, until
the oversight was remedied, busboys
carried garbage from the dining
room down the polished halls, past
the executives Offices and out the
front door.
A department head was noted for
signing expense vouchers without
checking them. As a gag. one OF
his hirelings put one through for an
even million dollars. Blithely the
D. H. signed it. The resultant ex-
plosion just missed looping of .
few heads.