Sodom and Gomorrah : the story of Hollywood (1935)

SODOM AND GOMORRAH 137 missed her calling in life? Why should a woman possessing her undeniably great flesh attractions engage in a profession in which she has so many superiors? As an artist's model she would have few equals. It is a pity indeed that she and women of her type waste their gifts in efforts foreign to their ability, when they have so much opportunity in other lines. But they are inflicted on the public, and to take care of them from a practical studio viewpoint, each star has a special press agent assigned by the corporation. He is with the star as much as humanly possible to record everything that the player says or does that may be consistent with the latter's stereotype. When necessary, of course, the agents supply or distort in quoting their charges. Some of the press agents really have the most ingenious imaginations. Garbo's press agent has to rely on his imagination entirely, for his sphinx-like employer seldom deigns to speak. But, on the other hand, when Mae West says, "Virtue may be its own reward but has no appeal at the box office/' then the press agent can quote her in all the papers in the land so the West fans can see what marvelous wit their idol has. And so it goes with the whole lot of them, male and female. Every time one of them comments on politics, inflation, the liquor problem — you would be surprised how many of them profess to be teetotalers — the N. R. A. and any of the half