Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood poured from the narrow openings between the soundabsorbing flats toward the lunch-room. It was impossible to make a way across that rush of humanity, and when it had subsided the assistant director and his superior officer had disappeared. In the afternoon the company was moved to a different scene, but the same sense of half-organized disorder was prevalent, increased by the reappearance of Alexandre the make-up man in a state of high elevation. His face was now a bright purple in tint, from which his pale eyes stared like dead turquoises. He pummelled the juicers,* dashed at the actors, and ran a friendly comb through their hair; he clutched the edges of the flats or stood rocking in the path of the furniture-removers. Monsieur Paul was good enough to explain. " This poor Alexandre," he said, " it is his New Year's Day. He is a Russian, and, exiled from his native land, he must celebrate in loneliness. " Upon the set itself a young man was exhibiting himself, dressed in heights of foppishness coming to a climax in his tie, his cane, and his buttonhole. " That young fellow/ ' said C , "is an interesting phenomenon. He was on at first in several scenes, but had little or nothing to do. As soon as he had really to act he was found to be rotten. The director bullied him to such an [290] Alexandre's new year