Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Hollywood — The Stars fortune at incredible salaries they might be able to assemble just the sum that he had once earned in ten days. "Twenty thousand pounds," we said. "Why, properly invested that would give you enough to live very comfortably indeed in Paris, provided you were not too extravagant." " Invested ! Hell ! " retorted the director. "What should we know of investment and such things ? We couldn't invest our money ; why, we'd just be swindled out of it. No ; the best thing we could do would be to bank it and spend the stuff as long as it lasted." We looked round their magnificent hall ; considered the rows of whisky-bottles on the sideboard — all of the best contraband ; we thought of the great swimming bath in the grounds lit artificially from underneath by hidden electric light. " It might last you about five years," we answered. " And what afterwards? " The director shrugged his shoulders, and grinned. Another well-known character had his bathroom fittings made of solid gold ; and when the plug was pulled a musicalbox played loudly the " Wedding March " from Lohengrin, But this magnificence was mortgaged to the limit, and a few months later the owner was hunting Hollywood for the loan of a twenty-pound note. Two of the nine masculine stars on our list were what we may call " amorous stimulants for the feminine fans," types of male beauty with water-waved hair adored by the stenographers and work-girls of America, who may carry this adoration to the excesses witnessed after the death of Valentino — that is, even to suicide. One of these young stars received 38,000 letters from admirers and had to spend some £100 a month sending his signed photo to the multitudinous [153]