Action (May 1941 - Mar 1958)

TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX STUDIO CLUB Get ten. JUNE, 1943 Volume 4, Number 6 Editor Assistant Editor Action's Cover <£clilona( Staff Joel E. Hawley Marie Lyon Lloyd Harting eporterd The Hot Set Department Marie Kramchak 3 Paint Paddle Mixes Gossip Ben Bratman 4 Go Western Jack Kessler 5 Musical Notes May Stanhope 5 Men's Wardrobe Hazel Shirk 6 Traffic Tips Tom Young 6 Cafe Society News Edith Billmyer 6 The Script Tease Audre Rochlen 7 Time . . . Marches On Spencer Cloner 8 Art Department Notes Helen Etzler 8 Mail Room Missives Paul H. Young 9 Lab Gab Fawn Farrar 9 The Plaster Cracks Wanda Kahne 10 Pen-Pushers Personals Pete Lake 10 Printables Mary Allen Gordon 12 Maintenantics A. O. Williams 12 Shavings From the Mill A. P. White 12 Transportation Jo Bonome 13 Props W. L. Post 13 Sparks from the Arcs Lee Dunbar 14 Keeping Tab Ruth O. Rosander 14 Grip Department Walter E. Pitchman 15 Lacquer Lane Laconics Benny Benson 15 Hot and Cold Facts Bert W. Thomas 16 ^^eatured Editorial Nunnally Johnson 2 The Studio Club Red Cross Dance 1 1 William Koenig Mourned 14 Special Safety News Jimmy Dinneen 3 George Wiener Shirlye Potash 4 Adios, Romero Louise Burnett 4 Fox Tales Frank B. Dessler 8 ^dxJbhmL By NUNNALLY JOHNSON I have worked for Twentieth Century-Fox tor ten years, the only time in my life I have been able to endure such a formidable allegiance. The previous record was six years, on a Brooklyn newspaper. The rule has been that either the boss or I weary of each other In much less time, occasionally in about ten minutes. God k nows I had no expectation, when I came to the company, of remaining so long, but during the first six months I became fascinated by a gateman's Inability to recognize me. Day after day, month after month, I had to Identify myself every morning to qain admission to the Lot. Once, when I covered sports briefly, I became convinced that It took longer for a professional athlete, particularly a baseball player, to place a name and a face than any other living creature. Later, after being introduced to a few of the younger actors and actresses, I was not so sure. But as an individual, this honest gateman was by all odds the champion. V^hen finally that morning came when his eyes lighted with recognition at the sight of me, five years had passed. Far better for a company than "loyalty" is what kept me at Twentieth Century-Fox long after the reluctant gateman had finally got me fixed in his fabulous memory — agreeability of conditions. I found Fox an agreeable place to work. Obviously I can speak only of my own particular little sphere but this sphere touched on numerous other spheres, of all characters and natures of work, and In all of them, with the most insignificant exceptions, I found agreeable men and women to work with. They were pleasant and accommodating. If there was irritable competition or rivalry, I didn't run across it. If there was politics. It escaped me. Almost without exception the people I have worked with have had an easy-going pride In what they were doing and a casual and amiable dignity that made association with them a nice thing to face each day. How such conditions come about I don't know. Some of It, I suppose, can be traced to the character of the bosses, up and down the scale. Some of It comes from simple human self-respect, with reason to assume fairness of treatment In return for fairness of service. The rest, I Imagine, Is just plain luck. At any rate. It acted like a man's-size dose of luminal on me, and the next thing I knew, another five years had passed. This, I reflected, was going a bit too far. Ten years In one Job! Johnson, you'd better snap out of It before the boys begin taking up a collection to buy that God-damned pigskin traveling bag with N. J. In gold letters on it. But I must say. In all honesty, that I never expect to find another such contentment as I have had here. The next time I sign up with a studio I shall pay more attention to what I'm doing. As soon as all of the gatemen at the new place come to recognize me, a simple matter next time, because I intend to carry a neon sign on my hat, Dorothy, my secretary, and I will get our things together and push off to the next place, without bothering to find out about the working conditions. They might be nice, and that would be the end. Nothing gets a man down like contentment. And nothing is sadder to leave. 20th Century-Fox Studio Club ACTION is published monthly at 10201 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, California, by and for the membership of 20th Century-Fox Studio Club. Subscription price $1.00 per year. Single copy 15c. Advertising rates furnished on request. Telephone: BRadshaw 2-2161, Station 1109. Entered as Second Class matter, April 2, 1942, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the act of March 3, 1879.