Star-dust in Hollywood (1930)

Star-dust in Hollywood captured at last, gave me but a passing glance and said decisively : "Won't do at all, not the type. But he'll do excellently for the bailiff." "We will let you know when you are wanted," said his assistant. I retreated to the secretarial department to bargain in purposely execrable French for my salary. A special motor-bus carried us all — directors, camera-men, sound-experts, and actors — back to Paris. "Well," said C , as we bumped along the banlieue roads of Vincennes, " your nose is in the job, at all events, and that's the important step. And, my dear fellow, you had better realize that big things may be happening soon in Paris. This talkie business has revolutionized the film industry. You can't export films any longer by just translating the titling. From a possible world-wide sale the makers are suddenly limited to the audiences of a single nation. See what a huge difference that makes ! But here in Paris it is a kind of natural meeting-ground for all nations ; it is the tactical centre. And don't you forget that with this business the important thing is to get in quick. The first-comers stay in as long as they are worth a ha'p'orth of beans. Every talkie film will have to make bilingual or even trilingual versions, and this is the obvious place in which to make them. . . ." "Do you know what the director said about you?" remarked C , after we had left the bus and were walking along the Grands Boulevards under the cafe lights. "He said : * Well, he may be a gentleman, but he doesn't dress like one.' The fact is he had a costume in his eye, not a person." " But hang it all ! " I protested, " how was I to know? You never told me." " That's true," said C . " But let this be a lesson to [{292 ]