Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

BETTY S FAKE EYELASHES Star-dust i?t Hollywood blinked, reddened, and died, leaving only the greenish glare of the mercury moons overhead. That hungry tint was reflected in our faces. It was lunch-time. " Everybody back on the set at two o'clock," shouted the sub-director, a dashing young man, wearing flannel plus-fours and with fair hair flowing in water waves too beautiful for any of Nature's crimp, confessing plainly the tongs' artificial aid. When we came out from the darkness of the stage into the Californian sunlight the lot was no longer deserted. Huge stages were emptying their populations : actors, directors and assistants, script-clerks, electricians, supers, and scene-shifters in a flood — toward the restaurant. Plus-fours brushed against Red Indian chaps ; overalled workmen rubbed elbows with Regency bucks ; crinolines and lace pantalettes were contrasted with the Californian girls' prevalent fashion of no stockings and skirts above the knees. A group of workboys who preferred sport to refreshment were playing a game of fives against one of the big stage-doors. The movie canteen was divided into two sections, marking a brusque division that some social psychologists are predicting as the future permanent severance of American civilization, the self-helpers and the served. In the first division was a long, oval quick-lunch counter set with tall, fixed piano-stools. Here supers and workmen jostled elbows in acute physical and moral discomfort, for it is remarkable that determined concentration on comfort has resulted in destroying comfort at the moments when it is most valuable, so that the American proletariat dines with less sense of dining than does the impoverished Albanian. [86]