Evening star., 1943-05-30
By Harold Hefernan.
HOLLYWOOD

HOLLYWOOD.
Old hard hearted Hollywood has
softened up under the influence of
war. It's keeping a warm. CHEEKY
fire burning for its boys in the serv-
ice. This applies not so much to
the big-name folks, who still get
plenty of encouraging notes from
fandon at large, as it does to the
everyday Worker-the small-time
guy behind the scenes whose efforts
never received credit on the screen
There's Joseph G. Doakes. for in
stance. When Joe. eX-Studio cleo
trician. rests between tuSSleS with
the Japs on Guadalcanal, he finds
out a lot more about the old town
than he knew when he was tussling
with Kleig lights on a film set. He
has discovered that Hollywood has
a heart after all. a heart that
seemed conspicuously absent when
he was punching his time card in
the flicker factory where he used
to work.
When Joe used to wander around
the lot. the cute. blond secretary in
the big bosss Office probably turned
up her nose at his rapturOuS gazeS.
But things are different when war
comes along The same secretary
writes him the darnedest letters.
telling him what's going on in the
studio, and what's happening all
over town. At ChriStmaStime. She
sent him a gift box that contained
razor blades. cards-everything, in
fact, except pair Of dice:
Joe found out that Sam his old
partner on the juicer gang. has won
his stripes in the Air Corps. and
that Jimmy is the proud papa of
his fourth boy Also Joe revels in
the fact that his tent, one of the
pup variety. is bedecked with auto
graphed photos of every pin-up gal
on the lot. all addressed to him with
phrases that don't merely say yours
sincerely" Joe's from Hollywood
and the stars really put sentiment
and feeling into those photo lnscrip-
tions.
Looking over survey just COM
pleted by the Industry Service Bu-
reau. We find the war has tied into
a knot the bond between worker and
heads of the studios. At the same
time, it has proved that people who
make pictures are human beings,
too, no matter how stiff or bored
they used to act before Pearl
Harbor.
Joe isn't the only uniformed film
worker proud of his former aftllia-
ton. There are $500 others just
like him who are training or are
fighting on the farfung battle
fronts of the world. Maybe Joe will
be in North Africa next month and
If he is, the studios organized pep
per-uppers will follow him.
One Studios Program.
The survey shows that II studios
publish special monthly magazines
for their Servicemen. Many of the
fighting stars, including Clark Gable.
Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, James
Stewart and Robert Montgomery.
write in occasionally and reports of
their adventures are printed for the
benefit of their less-famous studio
mates. These magazines, profusely
illustrated. are mailed regularly. In
all, some 12O employees are regularly
retained in the studios to compile
such lists. keep them up to date and
see that the boys always get their
mail.
Thousands of others maintain
regular correspondence with the
soldiers through studio clubs and
separate groups around each lot.
These same people, most of them
definitely organized and either self
or company financed, or both, keep
a close watch on the families of
workers to see that they have
enough of the good things of life
to keep them happy.
AS an example of what the studios
do for their people in the armed
forces, here is the program in part,
OF one of the major lots:
l. A substantial bonus check goes
to every one on entering the services.
2. Presentation by the studio club
OF the best obtainable toilet kit.
3. Periodical packages of smokes,
food and other gifts as the mails
allow.
4. A studio club war wives and
mothers section, which meets regu-
larly to devise ways and means of
serving the soldiers.