Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Chapter VII HOLLYWOOD— THE AUTHORS F you are in the ring of Hollywood you are in ; and if you are out only one " Sesame " will open the doors. This is notoriety of almost any kind, notoriety which has not too closely invited the attention of the police. But this feeling for notoriety is one that calculates on quantity rather than on quality ; thus, Hollywood gathers to its bosom for trial any author or playwright who touches the bestseller apex, no matter whether his particular product is suitable for moving-picture production or no. It gathers them in at ^1440 a time, and if it cannot digest spews them out again in six months. In some cases an author may refuse to be tempted by the bait. Then Hollywood often becomes yet more desirous, refusing to swallow such a snub. Exaggerated anecdotes often put a point to ordinary facts as a caricature may reveal the character of a man. Here, then, is a story that Hollywood tells of the great Mr Sam Silberstein. First we must explain that most movie magnates have risen meteorically from tiny beginnings. The earliest studios were little more than converted garages, and the earliest producers often chance-takers of small education, though quick to see the future of the new industry. A certain blend of ability, arrogance, flamboyance, rashness, and deficiency of culture that marks many a movie magnate has, in popular legend, been concentrated on the well-known figure of Sam Silberstein, whom Hollywood is amused to make the Mrs Malaprop of the films, and accumulates stories real or legendary about him. They say, for instance, that he was visiting one of the [117]