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

Talking Pictures profession or an art he loved as long as he lived and while so doing he would have privacy. No one realizes the deep values of a private life until he sees the smothering adulation which the public lavishes upon film stars. When a star leaves a studio after eight to twelve hours of hard mental concentration, or physical action — for acting is exhausting labor — he is met at the gates by autograph hunters. He must smile and be pleasant. He stops at a filling station to get gasoline, and again the curious rush upon him. If he goes to Paris he cannot examine in quiet the art treasures of the Louvre, or the tomb of Napoleon. Nor can he travel comfortably in public places without a police escort. From the financial side his position is far from being as attractive as it seems. He earns his big salary for his exclusive commodity, his personality, for perhaps seven years, but he is required to pay taxes exactly as if he were to make that salary all his life. He has exceptional expenses for clothes and for a staff to handle his enormous mail. And from his salary he must save enough to maintain himself and his family, if he has one, the remainder of his life. For when the public tire of a star, they do so very thoroughly. Quite callously they forget in a year a star they once idolized. In two years they may not remember his name. Recently a star very greatly admired fifteen years ago walked into a studio employing twenty-two hundred people. Although he was among picture people, there were not twenty who recognized him. The star of today is always faced with the fact that, while still [i46]