Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Hollywood — The Authors work. Telegrams poured in on him from the anxious Mr Silberstein, demanding to know the earliest possible date of delivery. At last the precious manuscript arrived. It was borne with ceremonious care to the office of Mr Silberstein and laid on his desk. The studio waited tense to hear the magnate's verdict. Suddenly he burst from his office waving the papers and tearing his hair. " Look at this ! " he cried. " Look here ! I hire him, don't I ? * Do your usual stuff/ I say to him. . . ." "What's the matter? Is it a bum play then? " " The play is all right," cried Mr Silberstein. " But what's the use of that? He's given me a hero what's a bee." One day in the restaurant Mr Dick came up to us. " See that table over there in the corner? " he said, in a respectful voice. " Perhaps you know who that is? " We gazed at the table, but among the company could see no one of our acquaintanceship. " I thought maybe you might know him," said Mr Dick. " That's your famous English author, Mr L . We've just hired him to come out and write a story for us. Yes, and we have had to transport his whole family over here, with his private footman and his wife's maid and his own automobile, all the way from England. And we are lodging them all at the Hollywood Hotel. It's sure fine publicity. Didn't you see the papers? " We did not learn whether Mr L consented to be shut in one of the boxes of the Stenographic Department, but we did hear that, as his story developed, a certain anxiety was manifested by the supervising staff of the company. They were uncertain whether Mr L 's story would be intelligible to the female audiences of America as represented by, say, the flappers of Oshkosh. Mr L was reported to have answered that he was writing one of his typical stories, and that he didn't care a hoot whether it was intelligible to [119]