Talking pictures : how they are made and how to appreciate them (1937)

Talking Pictures two-fingered "hunt and peck" system, "mills," as professional writers call typing machines, get their worst mauling in a studio. A typewriter repair man with special training is required to keep the machines in order. Perhaps it would not seem that keymakers would have many special duties in a studio, but a studio keymaker averages three thousand keys for offices and for vaults. Great manuscripts, fine furniture, all of these things are precious, and need to be safeguarded. One of the things guarded most carefully are new gowns made by famous studio designers. Outside gown manufacturers have become so aware of the great sales values accruing to a new gown worn by a popular feminine star, that it has been suspected that they keep agents in the various plants to tell them of a new design. To guard such designs until the gown appears in a picture, locks are changed frequently. As this is a business of pictures naturally its most effective advertising is by and with pictures. For a studio to make and deliver to theatres, newspapers, and magazines all over the world, a million "prints" of individual still photographs of stars and scenes is not uncommon. These photographs pour in an increasing stream from the publicity and advertising departments. The publicity department requires as a prerequisite of employment for its key positions four or five years of service as a reporter for an important newspaper. This is needed because this department supplies stories of studio activities, with illustrations, to thousands of newspapers and magazines on all parts of the globe. So much attention is focused on film players by their [122]