Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood Cerberus must have been an expert on sex appeal. Each day the passionately desirous of America's film aspirants must have practised their wiles on him, the imperious, the seductive, the dewy, the plaintive. . . . What ruby lips must have tempted, what strange perfumes filled his cage? He must have been equally an expert in male manoeuvres ; the confidential man breathed chewing-gum-freighted messages into his ear ; the breezy man tried to clasp his honest hand ; the impudent man pretended to be somebody he was not. But young Cerberus had been hired for his heart of ice. He knew them all. A narrow passage led us through the building into a big courtyard. On this side the Mexican palace had become an old-English timbered front. A garden, with carefully laid-out, box-lined walks, was centred round a fountain and ornamented the courtyard, one side of which was faced by an odd mixture of architectural styles. " Stars' dressing-rooms," said Brown, waving his hand, "but all built so that they can be used for casual backgrounds." Here the same emptiness was evident. Except for ourselves not a soul stirred ; the place might have been deserted. Brown led us between factory-like sheds that were not for ornament ; we passed into a narrow alley, on either side of which were tall, cream-coloured barns, big as airship sheds, on the huge doors of which were painted Stage 16, Stage 17. We passed on and came to a second alley, at the end of which we found a box-like building pierced with a hundred windows, over the entrance of which was a placard announcing " Stenographic Department." [70] THE SINGLE-HEADED CERBERUS