Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Los *Angeles-cum-HoUywood heads. Hollywood tolerantly ignored that Los Angeles had any existence except as lords of the waterworks, the garbage-gatherers, and the sewage system, or when impudent Los Angeles business men declined to open credit accounts equivalent to a star's film reputation. Los Angeles, puritanical and suffering from an incipient attack of religious mania, really resented the fame of this mad colony which chance had thrust into her midst, and, though she bent to the lure of their incredible riches, she groaned audibly at their morals. Three English notables, one royal, visited the Californian coast during the month of September. They were all travelling as private persons, but American democracy does not recognize incognito. These travellers all declined the invitations of the Chamber of Commerce and the Daughters of the Revolution, but they all went to watch Fairbanks producing Twenty Tears After. The city of Los Angeles was so furious at the slight that — we learned through official circles — business with England suffered a serious set-back. Los Angeles took her temper out on British trade. Ornitz had been to a party not half a mile from his own house. After the noise, the light, the whisky, the loud badinage, and the odours of mixed scents he was tempted by the blue coolness of the Californian night to walk back to his own home. Now and again a car flashed by ; now and again a signal lamp winked and changed colour ; otherwise the streets were deserted and silent. The still charm of this Hollywood nocturne was infinitely refreshing to the writer's nerves. He walked along rejoicing in the solitude and inhaling the freshness that night always brings to California, a treacherous freshness which sometimes may turn the softness of this climate to a sudden pneumonia trap. [143]