Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood The top is a platform of limited capacity, and the easier the job the more crowded the top becomes. This is especially true of the films. There are perhaps twenty-five or thirty principal studios ; these studios are capable of producing so many films a month, which keep busy in turn so many cinema-halls throughout the world. Under the present system of supply and demand the number of these cinema theatres has become almost stable, and the demand for films has become practically stable in turn. The number of films that any studio can produce a month becomes stabilized also, and thus the number of employable stars is almost mathematically limited. There is no more room at the top, and as long as the old favourites can hold the interest of the public any new aspirant must be doubly brilliant to oust them from their places. It is true, to complete the astronomical simile, that Hollywood has its comets. These are bright young girls who are able to use their eighteen years with a silver-gilt effect which tarnishes rapidly. Hollywood sucks their youth and throws away the husks as callously as ever the Minotaur devoured the maidens of Attica. These eighteen-year-old comets dash into the radiance of the spot-lights, whirl there for a moment, and are spun out again into the void and darkness. They are of a non-periodic variety. Most are found lacking in the essential quality of unique personality which is essential to anyone who would hold for long a dominant position. Others, puffed up by their position, grow temperamental. Others step over the Purity Clause and become a danger to the Publicity Department. Others fall victims to bootleg whisky. Some marry. The quality of vivid personality is naturally the most important asset of what we have called the fixed star. Chaplin, Jannings, Von Stroheim, Keaton, Fairbanks — each is unique in his own way. This shows vividly when a lesser actor attempts [170]