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isn't any more. Nimbly skipping around Hollywood these last few years I have discovered to my amazement that it is practically impossible to break up a beautiful friendship. Not so many months ago Paramount actually slapped a five million dollar suit on Goldwyn because Gary Cooper signed a contract. Nobody seemed to get mad. Then they called it off altogether, and Goldwyn and Paramount remain the best of pals. A pretty state of affairs indeed.
Do you find this lovely peace and brotherly love that envelops Hollvwood like a saint's halo somewhat baffling? Well, don't. The explanation lies m the Swap System, which is as old as the hills When you were very young and coveted the red kite with the fancy tail that the little boy next door owned, you didn't sock him one on the nose and run off with it— or did you, point-killer? No, you put on your prettiest smile and offered to swap him six agates for it, making your agates, of course, sound as alluring as possible. The swap was made, after you threw in an extra agate, and everybody was happy. And so it is with Goldwyn, Paramount, Metro, Columbia, Wanger and all the rest of them.
The Swap System has become the very foundation stone of the movie industry.
Happy result of the "swap" system was "My Man Godfrey," right, for which Universal borrowed Carole Lombard and Bill Powell from their home studios. Below, Joan Blondell was loaned by Warners to Wanger to play opposite Leslie Howard in "Stand-In. Center, below, Gary Cooper gets high bids; and Irene Dunne, delighted to be "swapped." At bottom of page, another "borrowed" team: Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer, for "Tovarich.'
As long as a studio has something some other studio wants you can be sure that a five million dollar law suit, even murder itself (the Warners would swap a good murder for Greta Garbo any day), will not disrupt a beautiful friendship. Why, hardly was the legal ink dry on that important five million buck document than the Paramount studio had the Goldwyn studio on the phone, and the conversation went something like this, "What's Joel McCrea doing next month? Have vou found a girl for 'Come and Get It'? What about Frances Farmer? Say, she's terrific. Why, we wouldn't think of loaning her out to anyone else — but Goldwyn, that's different." So Frances Farmer was swapped for Joel McCrea, and later Dorothy Lamour was swapped for Toel McCrea, and Frances is happy and Dorothy is happy, and they do say that Goldwyn's "Hurricane" will do as much for Dorothy as "Come and Get It" did for Frances; and Joel is happy (he's starring in Paramount's "Wells Fargo"), and Goldwyn is happy and Paramount is happy and I'm happy, and entirely forgotten is that Five Million Dollar Law Suit that Paramount slapped on Goldwyn. And who cares ? It could only happen in Hollywood. But it's too bad it couldn't happen in Europe. If those warring nations would just inaugurate the Swap -System think what a beautiful friendship they too might enjoy.
What do the movie stars think of this bartering over their beautiful bodies, or {Please turn to page 85)
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