Sodom and Gomorrah : the story of Hollywood (1935)

190 SODOM AND GOMORRAH being superciliously impolite to unimportant people, but disgustingly servile to the rich, great, or famous. He has never learned the lesson of true aristocracy, that is, to treat both high and low alike with the same polite consideration. This haughty attitude of these newly rich Hollywoodites has been copied, with few exceptions, by everyone in their employ down to the lowest clerk or door attendant. Occasionally, as a result, they find themselves in very embarrassing positions. Recently, on the day the studio luminaries were expecting as guest the Baron Maurice de Rothschild, an agent by the same last name had an appointment with a studio official and was admitted. To his utter surprise he was treated with remarkable deference and solicitude, especially in the studio commissary. In the meantime the Baron had arrived and made known his presence in the front office. The desk clerk — they are not only allowed, but encouraged, to be insupportably insolent — gruffly told him he would have to wait until they checked up to see if he could get in. They were sure he was a fraud. The minutes flew by, and the Baron, not accustomed to such treatment, grew impatient and wondered how long he would have to wait. He received a cool reply. Finally, to the utter horror of the desk clerks, as well as the executives, the mistake was discovered and profuse — oh, such profuse —