The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

have fared very well. Out of every pay check I set aside a certain percentage for rent, for wardrobe, for food, for transportation and for all of the other items on my budget. And I refuse to contract debts. I honestly believe that more girls fail in the "extra game" through poor management than ever fail because of insufficient earnings. The cost of living is remarkably low in Los Angeles, and any girl should be able to get along here on twenty-five dollars a week. Few dress extras average less. I have heard dress extras complain that it costs them every cent they earn to maintain their wardrobes. When I first reported for extra work, I was warned that it would cost me at least $2,000 to acquire a satisfactory wardrobe. Perhaps it would have cost that much if I had bought with the same reckless extravagance which most extras display. I design my own clothes. I watch the sales and I buy material in advance of my needs in order to get it at real bargain prices. I do most of my own sewing — and, whenever I lack the time to sew, I take my material and my patterns to a very capable dressmaker whose shop is in a nearby small town and whose prices are very reasonable. The net result is that I pay twenty dollars or less for an evening gown which would cost at least four times that much if purchased ready-made in one of the fashionable shops. And I have discovered that a little ingenuity, exercised in making over old things, will show a saving of several hundred dollars each year. Twenty-five to thirty dollars a month is ample to cover all of my wardrobe needs. MOST of the extra girls whom I know have their hair dressed before each appearance on the set. So do I — but "I dress my own" instead of submitting to the prices charged bv Hollywood's most fashionable hairdressers. When I discovered how imperative it is for a dress extra to be perfectly coiffured, I took a course in hair-dressing. It has paid for itself a hundred times. Too many extras have "star complexes." Instead of frankly admitting that they are extras and living accordingly, they are apologetic for their status and live far beyond their means to uphold their pretensions. They are too conscious of the caste system in Hollywood, which places a wide gulf between the extra player and the so-called featured actor. I see no reason for being ashamed of being an extra. My work is important to the finished picture; I receive a fair wage for it and I try to do it to the best of my ability. And certainly there is no cause for shame in living within one's means. I'd much rather be a capable extra than to step beyond my abilities and be an incapable actress. I'm like most girls; I would like to be a screen star with all the fame and money that goes with it — but there's no use in kidding myself. I'm an extra and the best thing for me to do is to stick to my own job until I have earned something better. People continually ask me about the way extra girls are treated on the sets. I always answer that we are given exactly the treatment which we, as individuals, invite. And I think that answer is the exact truth. Girls who show by their actions that they respect themselves are seldom treated with disrespect. In three years I have never received a single "insult." It is no more difficult to remain moral as an extra girl than it is to remain moral in any other business. It is up to the girl, herself, to determine her way of living. Several years ago, I understand, extras often were treated with lack of consideration — especially by the smaller studios. Sometimes they were required to work under conditions which were not only disagreeable but actually dangerous to their safety. But that is all changed now. If any extra meets with unfair treatment on the set, he has recourse by filing a formal complaint with Central Casting — and Central, which is a branch of the powerful Motion Picture Producers' Association, immediately takes action. My work is interesting. I like to study people and, on the sets, I have had a chance to meet and study some of the most interesting people in the world. I have worked with almost every star and every famous director. Probably they were unaware of my existence. but I enjoyed watching them at work. I'm like all the rest of you — a dyed-inthe-wool fan. I have played in pictures laid in China, in Paris, in London, in Rome — in short, in every locale on earth. And since Hollywood's technicians conscientiously try to make every picture a truthful reflection of its setting, I feel that I have learned more than I could have learned from a round-the-world cruise. My education was limited and I deeply appreciate the general information that I have received on the sets. I have learned to speak better English, for I have had the opportunity, day after day, to hear the dialogue written by famous authors. And I have made the most of the opportunity, for I am Swedish and I spoke broken English when I came to Hollywood. Another thing — and this touches my one great ambition — I have been able to study the clothes designed by some of the greatest artists in the world. Eventually I want to be a designer, a modiste, and where could I possibly receive better instruction than on the motion picture sets, studying the work of Hollywood's Travis Bantons and Adrians? The point that I have tried to make is this: being an extra is not vastly different from being a worker in any other business. The girls who approach extra work with the proper equipment and a businesslike attitude can make it pay them satisfactory wages. It is not necessary to be beautiful, it is not necessary to have acting ability, it is not necessary to have "personality." It is necessary to have common sense and clothes sense. One must know what to wear and how to wear it, and one must know how to live sanely and economically. EXTRA work is the poorest of stepping-stones to screen success, for the very qualities which make a girl suitable for stardom actually handicap her as an extra. It is not best to stand out from the crowd if you wish to work regularly as an extra. If you are too noticeable in one sequence of a picture, often you are automatically barred from work in another sequence. Certainly I would not advise the average girl to work extra for a living. The very fact that Central Casting now refuses to register a new applicant, no matter how suitable he or she may be for the work, is sufficient proof that the great majority of already registered extras are unable to work often enough to earn living wages. Depression and unemployment have overcrowded our ranks. And I know that the luck which has stuck with me for three years may turn against me to morrow. Still — I wouldn't trade jobs with any one of the girls I know. new fresh least will solve the cathartic problem for thousands ! DR. JULES BELOUX, a noted intestinal specialist and editor of a medical publication, reports: "Patients in my clinic obtained remarkable results from this new yeast. I am astonished ... It is a notable discovery." Corrects Constipation and related troubles so effectively by stimulating the whole digestive tract! NO LONGER need you constantly "dose" yourself with cathartic drugs that make you weaker, and usually make your constipation worse! For a new discovery that doctors call "the greatest advance in years for treating constipation and its related ailments" is now here! It is an entirely new yeast — a new "strain" of fresh yeast — discovered by a great American medical scientist. It speeds digestive muscles and juices. Food is thus digested better . . . carried through the body faster . . . expelled more easily and regularly. Won't you start eating this new Fleischmann's Yeast ? See how speedily you feel full of pep . . . how quickly your skin is cleared of pimples. Note how soon your appetite picks up, and how you can eat what you like without distress afterward. See how you avoid frequent colds — with the Vitamin A in this new yeast. It has Vitamins B, D and G, also— four vitamins in all, needed for health! Start feeling better Now! So get some of the new Fleischmann's Yeast now. Then eat 3 cakes every day — just plain, or dissolved in one-third glass of water — preferably a half -hour before meals. You can get it at grocers, restaurants, soda fountains ! Keep on eating Fleischmann's Yeast even after you've seen the first results. Keep it up! DISCONTINUE CATHARTICS not all at once but gradually, as this new Fleischmann's Yeast "normalizes" your digestion and elimination. You should feel better in just a few days, but keep right on. It's a food, you know. So eat it regularly and give it an opportunity to really correct your constipation ... to make you feel and look well again. Copyright, 1035. Standard Brands Incorporated (.4 s good as ever for baking /) The Neiv Movie Magazine, May, 1935 53