Picture Play Magazine (1932)

36 POOR Relations When at the height of her fame, Clara Bow worked tooth and nail to land Cousin William, but what of it? OH, to be related to a movie star ! "That's all I need!" cry millions of the would-be famous. Then the glory and the bank roll that automatically come with Hollywood success would be yours, too. To be related to a big name on the crest of the world's greatest racket would give you the opportunity to meet the right people, the powers that be. With such an entree, and with stellar indorsement, it would be no trick at all to follow in the footsteps of your renowned relative. It takes pull to get ahead in the movies ! On the surface there may seem to be a good deal of truth in this theory. But actually what is the advantage of pull? The facts show that such stars as Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo. Joan Crawford, Colleen Moore, Maurice Chevalier, Clara Bow, Ruth Chatterton, Ann Harding, Dolores del Rio, John Barrymore, and many others, have not enough pull to do their aspiring relatives any real or permanent good. I don't deny that introductions are valuable. If you can combine pleasure with business, meet important people at a beach club or your stellar relative's Beverly shack, so much the better. Money talks, and louder in Hollywood where sound is amplified. This I grant you. Contracts have a way of going hand in hand with contacts. You may have all the ability any producer could dream about, but what availeth it if you can't get in to display it? Hollywood casting directors believe only what they see. There's entirely too much hot air press-agented around to take stock in mere claims. Theoretically, your glittering, wire-pulling relative hints, negotiates, commands. You attend the parties of the great. You clink toasts with the producers. They are not only acquaintances, but your pals. And do you shine? According to the know-it-alls, yes. Right here is where I beg to Blossom MacDonald is sister of the great Jeanette, yet she remains on the fringe. differ. I can name at least fifty front-page names who have been doing their durndest to help actor relatives. These people have all the pull there is to have. And what good does it do? Certainly, Norma Shearer's brother, Douglas, is head of the sound department for M.-G.-M. Janet Gaynor's husband was transformed from a lawyer into a studio executive in miraculously short time, and Billie Dove might be but a memory if it were not for the recent effort of Howard Hughes to give her another chance. With such examples the envious seek to convince you of the necessity of pull. They overlook the basic fact — the most the possessor of the greatest pull can do is to give the opportunity to triumph. Just think of the pull that has thus far failed ! Greta Garbo. What couldn't she do for you if she were your sister? Well, how much has she been able to do for her brother ? So little that you may never have heard of his existence. Yet he is acting in Swedish pictures. Joan Crawford and Colleen Moore have ambitious brothers who have been trying to crash the gates as actors for years. They have given these two young men every opportunity they could. Colleen even had her brother featured in a play in Los Angeles to attract the producers. With' such pull, where are Hal LeSueur and Cleve Moore? Not in the electric lights. Which reminds one of Buddy Rogers's efforts to put his brother. Bh, across. Buddy got Bh a Para Reina Velez is played a bit in Lupe's sister. She 'Panama Flo" months ago.