Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood One couple, feeling the hand of Time on them, consulted us. The husband was a popular director, the wife an equally popular star. Both had been favourites of the public for many years ; among his many plays the director had staged at least one overwhelming success, and the wife had been able to retain her position exceptionally long for one of her beauty and fragile quality. Now they knew instinctively that the moment was approaching when retirement might threaten. Younger men with more elaborate theories of the movingpicture as art were damaging the director's position, for he was little more than a very capable story-teller. Younger women, who did not need the elaborate processes of the beauty and the thinning-shops to keep their figures trim, women tuned to the more modern needs of the more modern directors, were undermining the star's popularity. If they must retire what could they retire to ? A superannuated director may become a supervisor, or he is in danger of becoming nothing. It is true that there is a downward slope on the far side of the peak of Hollywood fame ; the fall is not necessarily precipitous. He might become a director of what is called there a * quickie,' and produce cheap commercialized films rushed off by shoddy companies and outworn stars at cut-price contracts. But no proud man, once a leader in his industry, can deliberately welcome such an anticlimax. So in one of those moments of depression when the future seems suddenly to show its teeth they asked us about Europe. " For how much could a fellow and his wife live in Paris ? " " How much have you got? " we said. " Well, if we sold this place and got together all our other stuff we might put up a hundred thousand dollars, more or less." A hundred thousand dollars ! After at least ten years of [15*]