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384 MOTION PICTURES I922-I945
they succeeded in getting the gun away from him. When the man broke down, it was discovered that he was literally starving. The boys kept his gun but loaned him enough money to get a fresh start. In a few weeks he had paid back the money, and I am happy to say that he is working today as an extra and is a respected member of the community.
Such incidents were part of the daily routine of the early casting directors at Central, and during Fred Beetson's term as president there occurred one bomb plot, revealed by an extra named Major Cavell, who notified both Beetson and the police; the planting on the premises of another homemade bomb; one attempted extortion, when an eastern gangster appeared in Beetson's office and offered to protect for a price "all the stars in Hollywood" from kidnaping (he was arrested while in the office); and one major case of malicious mischief, when an anonymous extra sent a hearse from an estimable local firm of undertakers to pick up the body of a casting director, who was in the men's room when the attendants arrived. This, of course, does not include the thousands of threatening notes and "nut letters," nor the many occasions when extras, with real or fancied grievances, suddenly hauled off and punched the Bureau's executives in the jaw. Allen continued with the Bureau for about ten years, giving fine if hazardous service, and was succeeded by Campbell MacCulloch, who had formerly been an executive at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. Since 1940 the Bureau has been in the capable hands of Mr. Howard R. Philbrick.
The Bureau offices open at six o'clock each weekday morning and stay open until far into the night. Registered extras desirous of work are advised to telephone once an hour during the day until about 3 p.m., after which they may call every fifteen minutes to see if there will be a job available the following day. The reason for the increased activity in the late afternoon is that this is the time, as a rule, when directors and unit managers determine their next day's requirements. In the early days the great volume of telephone calls swamped and all but wrecked the Hollywood Central Exchange. The telephone company thereupon assigned the Bureau an exchange all its own. Today the Bureau's switchboard is equipped to handle four thousand calls per hour, and this is second only to the capacity of the switchboard in the Pentagon Building in Washington.
Provision is made for the studios to engage some extras by request, but this must now be done through the Bureau. When a job aspirant calls in, he or she is given one of six replies by the operators. The first is, "Hold the line." The operator then calls the applicant's name over a loud-speaker to the casting directors, who know just what the studios' requirements are for that particular day. It might be supposed that valuable minutes would be consumed while the casting directors consult the files to see if the caller is the kind of extra needed. But that