Evening star., 1948-08-22
Farewell to Hollywood
Frances Marion Gives Up Film Writing
to Work on Plays and Novels
BY cynthio Lowry
NEW vnRl

: N" 7" !
Motion pictures are more COM
plicated than apartment house
plumbing" said the golden-haired
lady.
She lit q cigarette and with rapier
wit proceeded to hack Of the hand
that has fed her for "a years.
when Hollywood tracked the
word colossal to its lair, pictures
lost their significance. Now
it's in the era Of messages, Of art;
the intellectuals have taken over
and Aims aren't simple and direct
any longer. The poor people
who write for the Aims! Film
writer's are like Penelope-knitting
their stories all day just to have
somebody else unravel their work
by night"
The speaker was no 81, 1,500-a-week
hack, back in New York with q
dropped option and a foreclosure
notice on the second swimming pool
It was Frances Marion, Importantly
identified with the industry for
more years than most women will
admit birthdays. With some dis
appointment, but without rancor,
she has deliberately put Hollywood
behind her.
Several New Careers.
Past the first fine flush of youth,
well heeled, good looking and gay,
Miss Marion is launched on num-
ber of new careers. Her first his
torical novel, Westward the
Dream" has just been published; !;
she has just finished a three-act
play in collaboration with Anita
Loos for fall production on Broad
way. She has started a second play
with Miss Loos, is well into the Sec
ond novel Of proposed trilogy-
and is going to get into television
writing as soon as possible.
Neither her novel or the play
Red Lamp in My Window" has
anything to do with Hollywood. The
book Is about the development of
the citrus industry in Southern CAL
ifornia, wrapped up in a story of a
young pioneer from the Midwest and
his wife. The plot of the play is
a secret, but it's a comedy and not
about what you'd think from the
title, Red lamp means danger" /"
she said.
Il want to write about the land" "
she said. MY father and mother
went to California in 1874. They
were the pioneers"
Wrote Pickford Films.
Miss Marion obviously is some
thing of pioneer spirit herself.
She hit the films first when she
was youngster, in 1914, when D. w.
Griffith bought her scenario for an
early Mary Pickford film. After
that she wrote almost all the Pick
ford scripts. In the intervening
years she has written some 1926
movies, directed and produced many
others.
Television, she said, is now where
motion pictures were when sound
came-"you couldn't walk through
q studio without hearing everybody
trying for pear-shaped tones"
Gloria Swanson, who is one OF
my oldest friends, has a television
show" she said, land says that she's
going through the same thing, hav-
ing the same difficulties, she used
to have in the Mack Sennett days.
Duties Accomplished.
High taxes, Miss Mari6fs feels, are
the best thing to happen to Holly
wood in years. q
People have to pay suelf high
taxes that money doesn't mean as
much as it did when you could keep
most of it," she said. I'm the long
run, I think it means we may get
back to some good films, good writ
ing and it may take away the fear
of not holding a big job. Big money
meant that anybody would take any
insult, any neutrality-suspicious.
to keep it coming in."
Miss Marion worked until she felt
her major duties were accomplished
Her two sons were raised, educated