Picture Play Magazine (Jul - Dec 1929)

16 Photo Ijy Uinthc Simplicity, even frugality, marks Greta Garbo's mode of living. good WHAT movie people do with their money is perhaps their own business, but Heaven help them if they aren't spenders in Hollywood ! There what they do with their money is everybody's business. The quickest way to achieve celebrity in pictures is not to spend when you are expected to ; it's so unusual that it's sensational. The gossips seize upon any indication of "Scotchiness" or conservatism to start their ballyhoo. They will talk about an incident indicating financial resistance for months, perhaps even years, after it has happened. They have never forgotten about the monetary inhibitions of Charlie Chaplin in the old days, any more than John D. Rockefeller, with his donations of new dimes, will be obliterated from memory of the general public. If there is laughter or deep attentiveness at a klatsch it is due generally to one of two things — somebody's romantic indiscretion, or an evidence of tightness on the part of some one who was supposed to respond to the good, old request of "Gimme." Stars as a class are not skinflints, but they all make mistakes at times in the proper, liberal gesture. A few may be downright tight, but they are the rare exception. The habit of life will dictate to a girl who has had a hard struggle, that she must not throw her money away. This goes also for the chap who has waited long and patiently for recognition, though women are more cautious than men in guarding the pennies. Of course, there are instances to prove that at certain times in their careers players must have been, without reason, just a bit miserly, and that is using a mild word to describe it. There was, for example, the wealthy star who invited another star to a lunch that consisted of pickles and coleslaw. It seems that Stingy? No9Just Time was when being really and truly a star meant old days are no more. Now Hollywood finds more holding onto their money. Read this entertaining By Edxtfin when the invitation was given, the rich star specified her apart • ment as the meeting place, and when her guest arrived, she suggested that they go to the delicatessen near by and get something. On reaching it, she turned to the other and said, "You like pickles, don't you, and coleslaw?" Then, without giving her friend time to reply, she said, "Give me five cents' worth of each, and we'll go back to the apartment and eat." That was perhaps the lightest lunch on record in Hollywood, before, since, or even during the eighteen-day-diet craze. Other stars have grumbled over paying debts and bills, and gone on living luxuriously all the while. So much did this occur for a time that some of the shops in Los Angeles were not disposed to open accounts with movie folk, unless well introduced and authenticated. It was often discovered that those who caused the trouble were living beyond their means, as is the fashion not only in Hollywood, but many other places. Again, certain players have shown a very small attitude toward those who did them service, and more than one agent or publicity man can tell hard-luck stories of fees long overdue, and likely never to come in. "Oh, he's a terrible tightwad," is consequently not a phrase unheard on the Boulevard. Lydell Peck, Janet Gaynor's husband, will not need to curb his wife's expenditures. Norma above Shearer arguing money. isn't over