Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1938)

CLOSE UPS AND LONG SHOTS BY RUTH WATERBURY A TTENTION, please . . . there's something / \ going on under the surface in Hollywood ^~^\ that I think, as devoted moviegoers, you should know about ... I warn you it isn't as colorful news as the discovery of a new star like Hedy Lamarr . . . (and speaking of new stars I think you should keep your eye on that Ellen Drew girl who was in Crosby's "Sing, You Sinners") . . . but this I can assure you . . . what's going on under the surface in Hollywood right now is bound to have a terrific effect on your future happiness in moviegoing. . . . Movies seem to be about to break forth with a couple of new experiments in the producing of pictures . . . new blood is, at long last (and about time, too) coming into the producing ranks . . . which should mean things fresh and exciting as contrasted to the mass of indifferentto-bad pictures that have been released in the last year. . . . Perhaps you hadn't stopped to realize, being naturally more concerned with stars and their doings, that men like Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Adolph Zukor, naming only three who control major producing outfits, have been Mister Bigs in the movie business ever since it started . . . Zukor, for example, has been in there for twenty-seven years and always as a producer . . . younger men have developed in these gentlemen's studios, like the brilliant and lamented Irving Thalberg and the currently brilliant Hunt Stromberg and Lawrence Weingarten . . . but the Mayers, Goldwyns, Zukors have still remained kingpins, having the final word on all products emerging from their individual studios . . . these men have kept admirable stride with the developments in movies but inevitably they have become less young and very rich and thereby pretty far removed from the problems of the young, who always have and undoubtedly always will make up the bulk of the moviegoing audience . . . you have only to recall the record of the two men who have become producers, outside this group, in the last few years, to see how beneficial a thing the entrance of younger men of power is. . . . These two new, big producers are David Selznick and Darryl Zanuck: Selznick with his ''A Star is Born," "The Prisoner of Zenda," "Tom Sawyer" and a dozen other terrific hits; Zanuck with his discovery of Power, Henie, Ameche. Alice Faye and the amazing production record of the whole Twentieth Century-Fox studio for which he is responsible. . • . Miss Waterbury (above) fells of exciting things that are going on under the surface in Hollywood and labels Ellen Drew (left), Fred MacMurray's sweetheart in "Sing, You Sinners," a newcomer to watch NOW Myron Selznick, who is the brother of David and, like him, the son of the pioneer moviemaker, Louis J. Selznick, is about to embark on an entirely new and extremely provocative scheme of picturemaking . . . Myron is one of the smartest businessmen anywhere on earth and, like his brother, his heart and soul are tied up with Hollywood ... up until now he has been an agent ... a flesh peddler, as they call them in Hollywood . . . but the brand of flesh he peddles is certainly the choicest . . . Carole Lombard and William Powell are representative of the type of actor he represents . . . the writers and producers under contract to him are of similar caliber. . . . His scheme for producing, very roughly, will work like this ... a star, a director, a writer from his lists will work together on a film for which Selznick will act as producer ... all of them will be on a profit-sharing basis so that while the initial costs of the film will not be so high as they are now under regular studio management . . . and they are now colossal . . . the net income, to all concerned, if the picture is successful, will be as great as ever. . . . The announcement of Myron Selznick's plans (Continued on page 83) DECEMBER, I 938 13