The screen writer (Apr-Oct 1948)

Gunn Shots (Continued from Inside Front Cover) true. In my travels I have seldom seen a more democratic, not to say anarchistic, social set-up. True, I have never made those intimate little dinners when ten or twelve cut-of-the-picture millionaires sit around discussing Eric Johnston and babies, and where the genial matron who makes $400,000 a year as Vivian Starlight is demurely introduced as Mrs. Drumbecker, wife of the prominent pediatrician. On the other hand, I have never been hit over the head by invitations from the millionaires of New York, San Francisco, or Washington, and if I ever get to Palm Beach I do not expect Mrs. Stotesbury to meet me at the airport. But from time to time I have emerged from the Christian Science Reading Room and gone into more or less organized society and I hereby offer in evidence the guest list of a rather free-wheeling but snazzy soiree to which I was actually invited, along with the estimated figures on those assembled. The Facts : The clambake was jointly thrown by an actress ($150,000 per picture), and a fairly successful publicity man ($165 per week). The guest list was compiled from telephone numbers written on old envelopes, ticket stubs, bar checks, and even address books. The police were not called. Those Present : 1 actress so successful that she is into her studio for $40,000 in advances. 1 actor so ditto that he is into his agent for $20,000. 1 actress (supporting) at $50,000 per picture, with a friend from Bakersfield. 1 actress (star), at $30,000 per picture (this is the kind of thing that confuses people), with her boyfriend, a radio writer. 1 actress (supporting) at $400 a week, with her husband, who was last paid by the U. S. Navy. 1 actor, with accent, who has made exactly one picture since V-E Day and is thinking seriously of getting into another line. 5 former stock players, male and female, all unemployed since the Great Panic, none of whom ever made more than $300, top. 1 actor who came out for an unsuccessful test in 1944 and has remained unemployed ever since, with the best damned tailor in town (this is baffling, but not uncommon). 7 writers ( 1 at $2000, a married team at $1500, 2 around $500, 2 Social Security). 1 writer-producer, who took a $100 drop from Ms writer's salary to achieve the double honor, and wishes he hadn't. 3 maintained ladies, of hugely varying degrees of success. 1 lady so chic that she has lived sumptuously off her creditors for twenty-five years, with her ghost writer, who gets peanuts. 2 studio secretaries. 1 dance director, at a fancy figure. 2 dancers, male and female, at no figure. 1 mousy little girl whose grandfather made it in oil, with an unemployed actor. 1 second-string movie columnist, female, with an unemployed actor. 1 lady anthropologist, with an unemployed actor. 4 very important-looking executives, one of whom gets a really stupendous amount, and two of whom never made more than $500 in their lives, though they would lie on hot nails rather than admit it. 6 publicity people, ranging from $350 to $38.47. 1 director, temporarily considered a has-been though he has previously made two comebacks, last paid $75,000 per picture. 1 dialogue director, who is supposed to direct his first picture any day now, at $350. 1 agent, shoestring. 1 agent, unemployed. 3 cutters, including one who has worked as an extra since you know when. 1 night-club photographer, female, at $50 per week. 1 night-club dark-room man, at $60. 3 former actors who have gone into ceramics. 8 wives, weirdly assorted. 6 miscellaneous relatives, all of whom have been on the inactive list longer than Calvin Coolidge. 1 studio messenger girl, who snubbed me. And if anyone thinks that this was such a mad Bohemian revel that all social and financial barriers were tossed aside, I can only report that the big moment of the evening came when a couple who had been divorced six years unexpectedly met face to face. The hostess collapsed in embarrassment, and the entire company dithered in a pious confusion that would have done justice to Dry Rustle, Kansas. Come to think of it, in comparison Bucks County is downright fascistic. FRANCES GOODRICH ALBERT HACKETT DON HARTMAN LAURA KERR ALLEN RIVKIN LEO C. ROSTEN DORE SCHARY IRVING STONE Are the Writer-members of the nation's most exciting new galleries. In addition to Art, however, there is an equally exciting Book Department under the expert direction of Yetive Moss. She doesn't bother around with Best Sellers, Overnight Sensations or Pot Boilers — although she stocks them. She primarily concerns herself with your special needs and tastes in the volumes which have to do with Art, Literature, Music, History, Motion Pictures, Science, Foreign Printings, Out— of-Prints and the RIGHT Books for Children. She will assist you with your Research, she will help you build a Fine Library for your home or office, she will open a charge account for any SWG member. Always Free Delivery Service. BOOKS — CRestview 1-1155 ^TtyMoa'/ited ^J^m< meiiam i/ea 9916 Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills The Screen Writer, April, 1948 37