Modern Screen (Dec 1931 - Nov 1932 (assorted issues))

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Illustrated by RUSSELL PATTERSON By WALTER RAMSEY H OLLYWOOD has been quite dull lately! No sensational divorce rumors ... no red-hot parties where the noise was loud and the wine ancient . . . not so many naming exponents of IT strolling the Boulevard ... no one getting into fist fights at the Brown Derby or the Embassy ... not much news . . . and very little gossip! What's happened to our fair little Hamlet? Some of us who have been in Hollywood for a number of years and can remember back when have been giving Hhis little question a bit of thought lately. We can recall without much trouble or hesitation that the film capital used to be a hot-bed of whoopee and hey-hey. It took no time at all in the good old days to find a party . . . and a good one. Or gather with half the gang and listen by the hour to real juicy tidbits about the other half. You see, in Hollywood one half used to know how the other half lived ... or at least they would make a swell attempt at guessing. And while we are doing all this remembering, we can also recall that just about that time our good friend Will Hays came bounding over the horizon, tsch-tsching at 74 each bound, and took the situation in hand. Mr. Hays came to the movies as a salvation ... a sort of bulwark against the whispers of the world. His main duty was to check what Hollywood referred to as her "delightful freedom" . . . and of course he had other duties, but his main job was to clean up everything in general and movie reputations in particular. AFTER the deplorable death of Wallace Reid and the l unfortunate Arbuckle scandal, Mr. Hays put his foot down with a resounding and reverberating thwack and said: "Be good, my children, be good. A little bird said that if you didn't mend your ways the boogy man would take away your Rolls-Royce and your swimming pool and your mansion in Beverly and whatnot. To say nothing of your bed of roses and other household furniture." Immediately things began to happen! Morality clauses sprang into existence. These included every misdemeanor and felony on the books together with a lot that Hollywood had forgotten were implied by "nice and respectable movie star." It was put down that if a cute little star were to ". . . have or appear to have