Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1930)

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Is HollywoocG BY CEDRIC BELFRAGE WHETHER or not the Old English Spirit is gripping Holl>^'ood is the latest problem to wrinkle my massive dome. Of course, we all know that there are a deuce of a lotof these Limeys in Hollywood. But the full extent of the English invasion may not be percolating through into our mass-consciousness. These English chaps resort to insidious methods when they go out on an invasion. And before America realizes what is going on, she will wake up to find that Hollywood, that diadem in her gem-encrusted crown, has entirely capitulated to the Limey and all he stands for. There will be brass bands playing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" along Hollywood Boulevard, and the people, lost to all sense of shame, will be singing the words of "God Save the King" to those glorious strains. And what will Uncle Sam do then.^ Just to give you an idea how serious the English invasion is getting, here is the result of calculations I have been making on odd pieces of paper during recent weeks: Englishmen are now on Hollywood's payroll to the tune of a round $4,000,000 a year. And that means Englishmen — not Colonials. It doesn't include the Canadian division, with its Pickfords and Prevosts, nor the Australians with their Niblos and Julians. Nor does it include any but those ladies and gentlemen from the sea-girt isle who are active at the present moment in Hollywood studios. Excluded also are such Limeys of doubtful income as Charlie Chaplin. Here are the totals: Nine English directors pull down approximately $16,500 weekly. Twenty-one English contract players get approximately $38,950 weekly. Sixty-eight English free-lance players get approximately $41,650 weekly. The Money They Take ESTIMATING an average of one working week in every three for the latter group, and a conservative total of $500,000 a year earned in lump sums by a half-dozen English writers (including Lonsdale and Wodehouse), one finally arrives at a grand total of more than $4,000,000 a year, after which — if one has any sense — one gets into a hot bath and lies in it for an hour, to restore the shattered brain-cells. You have only to add on Charlie Chaplin and a minor host of cameramen, assistants, executives and stepandfetchits to swell your total up somewhere near the $5,000,000 mark. Such a mob of Englishmen could hardly be present in any community without having some effect. And 56 in Hollywood there have been unmistakable signs some time that the effect is no small one, ai that it grows steadily greater as more ai more chappies from over the bally briny po into. town. Since we are waxing statistic: here are some more figures to set you poi dering and taking headache powders: Out of the twenty-one English contra players, thirteen have arrived in Hoi wood since the talkies started. Out of the sixty-eight English fre lancers, nineteen have arrived sim 0^ 'Orribly Hinglish — 'Ollywood ari Claude Allister, illustrating tho! quaint hold Hinglish customs of wea ing the 'igh topper; taking a bawtl don't y'know; jolly well sneering; ao iK(i-k 'ard drinking Jj^ J; Portraits of Claude Allister especially '^^"^ posed for Classic by Russell Ball