Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Hollywood — First Days on the [Movie hot We walked down a narrow corridor. On either side at close intervals were set doors, with a name printed on each one. We climbed a narrow stair to the second floor ; another narrow corridor here was set with similar doors and corresponding names. " Authors," said Brown. " All this place is packed with authors trying their best to think out movie plots." At one of these doors he tapped. The card on the door told us that here we might find Mr Ornitz at a similar intellectual occupation. A woman's voice bade us come in. The room was about ten feet by twelve. Most of the space was taken up by a deep desk on which was a typewriter. The young woman was arranging a pile of papers. She was prettily finished for exhibition in the efficient business-girl's style which confesses that a woman's daily occupation depends as much on looks as on ability. " Mr Ornitz has gone over to Miss Wynne's," she said. " All the rooms in this building are similar," said Brown, as we retreated down the corridor. " Cubicles ten feet square with a typewriter ; and a stenographer if necessary. In each one is an author, worrying his mind crazy to find an original movie plot. Sam Ornitz has been brought over here on a six-months trial. You know his great novel, of course. ..." We passed back through the gardened courtyard and into the timber-backed, Mexican-fronted house. Miss Wynne's room on the first floor was larger and more cheerful. She could look out on the movie garden for inspiration, while Mr Ornitz had to content himself with the blank back of a stage shed. Three imported authors greeted our entrance. All were Jewish, and each had a distinctive character. Miss Wynne was the blonde type, which often shows how far the modern Jewish race has travelled from its Mosaic progenitors ; Joseph Isaacs was the slender, young, intellectual Jew, [71]