Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

The Absorption of c Talk ' And then in a really jolly frame of mind the massed lawyers, doctors, realtors, oil-magnates, orange-merchants, hotelkeepers, and automobile-salesmen crowded to their cars and drove into the town to continue the jolly task of boosting to more vertiginous heights the fame of the greatest city in the world. • ••••• The easy superlative is still as prevalent as it was in the days of Dickens, more prevalent perhaps, though the clamour of advertisement and publicity campaigns has destroyed almost all sense of values. The immediate thing is the only one that has worth ; only the novel is interesting. For instance, every new film is proclaimed at once as Hollywood's greatest achievement. Had we wished, after my convalescence, to book more lectures in California we could with difficulty have done so (the prophet has no honour while lodging in your own country). We should have been compelled to return to New York, fill our programme from thence, and come back with a new flourish of journalistic trumpets. The indiscriminate use of lavish praise was well illustrated to us on a rather important occasion, the first serious lecture which we had given at the Brooklyn Institute some six months earlier. We were nervous. We had tried only a few, tentative, semi-private lectures, including some at negro colleges in the South. The Brooklyn audience had the reputation of much experience and severe criticism. A lucky accident saved us. The introducer ushered us on to the platform, sat us in chairs, and then, turning to the large hall, began his opening eulogy : " Ladies and gentlemen. It is my great pleasure to introduce to you our lecturers for to-night. I am sure you will all agree with me that we may expect a very great treat. The names of these two are practically household words wherever the idea of travelling is honoured at its true value. I shall [51]