The screen writer (Apr-Oct 1948)

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Gunn Shots By JAMES GUNN TT OLLYWOOD, the gentle gang-* ■*■ ster, in the face of slander or ridicule not only turns the other cheek but puts out its hand to be slapped and its behind to be kicked. Thus the old-hat canards go undenied through the years, to the big hilarity of everyone east of Los Feliz Boulevard. One of the most persistent mothballs, minor but irksome, is the one that can be labelled "The Hollywood Caste System," or "Strata Among the Stars." The origins of this venerable nonsense are lost in the mists of time, but the myth refuses to die. Just a while ago Hollywood got a blast along this line from the eminent British magazine writer, Mr. James Mason. And more recently we had a definitive account from Miss Lillian Ross of The New Yorker. I do not mean to disparage Miss Ross, who is, after all, primarily a humorist rather than a reporter. She is a lady with a fine talent for selection, and, I suspect, a nice flair for purely creative writing. And she talks through a very witty hat. To quote the lady: "This (Hollywood) is still a special area where . . . guests at parties are chosen from lists based on their weekly income brackets — low ($200-$500),middle ($500-$l,250), and upper ($l,250-$20,000)." (Oh, the hell with it, write this paragraph yourself. Any four-letter word signifying a loud horselaugh will do.) In the first place, the above implies that in more doughtily democratic American centers, the bank president thinks nothing of entertaining at one blow a visiting senator, a junior clerk, several millhands, and his wife's sister, who married badly. In the second, as far as Hollywood goes, it just ain't (Continued on Page 37) The Screen Writer Vol. 3, No. 11 APRIL, 1948 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Richard English, Editor Fran Manning, Associate Editor Robert Andrews Claude Binyon Taylor Caven David Chandler James Gunn Stephen Longstreet Leo C Rosten Bernard Schoenfei.d Leonard Spigelgass Leo Town send M. Coates Webster Margaret Buell Wilder CONTENTS GOVERNOR EARL WARREN: An Anniversary Message UNEMPLOYMENT IV ERNEST PASCAL: What Is A Screen Writer F. HUGH HERBERT: Attention: Grievance Committee ROBERT NATHAN : Agreement In Darien FREDERIC WAKEMAN: Collectivism, The Atom, The Writer 15/// Anniversary of the Screen Writers' Guild SAMUEL GOLDWYN: Where Do You Go From Here/ SHERIDAN GIBNEY: A Thought For The Future DAVID CHANDLER: Notes From A New Member OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II: The Authors' League Today MARY C. McCALL, JR.: A Brief History of the Guild GENEVIEVE NOSSECK: One-Month Diary of a Screen Writer WILLIAM KOZLENKO: The Short Play In Television Gunn Shots Inside Front Cover Editorial 38 Correspondence 39 Book Reviews 42 News Notes 46 Script Conference 48 Screen Credits 51 Manuscript Market 52 advertising manager: william sholl PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE SCREEN WRITERS' GUILD, INC., AT 1655 NORTH CHEROKEE AVENUE, HOLLYWOOD 28, CALIFORNIA. ALL-SiGNED ARTICLES IN THE SCREEN WRITER REPRESENT THE INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS OF THE AUTHORS. EDITORIALS REFLECT OFFICIAL SCREEN WRITERS' GUILD POLICY, AS DETERMINED UPON BY THE EXECUTIVE BOARD. YEARLY: $5.00; FOREIGN, $6.00; SINGLE COPY, 50c; (CANADA AND FOREIGN 60c). CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 1948 BY THE SCREEN WRITERS' GUILD, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. l /