PEEPING AT FILMDOM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

PEEPING AT FILMDOM.

STARS' INSURANCES. AXSO PRODUCERS AND STORIES (By SHEILAH GRAHAM.) HOLLYWOOD, July 11. If Lloyd's, of London, had its way every star, producer and director in Hollywood would be wrapped in cotton wool, have bis or her temperature taken every few hours, never pilot an aero plane, resist the temptations of polo, and drive a car at no greater speed than 30 miles an hour. The reason for this solicitude is that practically every important studio, production. executive, star—not excepting the Dionne quintuplets—is now insured with the British company against picture losses caused by accident and death. Samuel Goldwyn is carried at 1,000,000 dollars by the United Artists. Darryl Zanuck is worth a similar sum to Twentieth Century-Fox. Louis B. Mayer, Irving Thalberg, Joe Sclienck, . and, among the top acting names, Norma Shearer, Miriam Hopkins, Clark Gable and Eddie Cantor would .ill be worth 1,000,000 dollars each to their studios — when and if they died.

Lloyd's follows a two-way system of payment—for partial or total loss. "The Great Ziegfeld," on which M.G.M. spent 2,000,000 dollars, could be protected for only half that sum, as the insurance company considers no picture worth more .than 1,000,000 dollars. If, near the completion of the movie, William Powell, Myrna Loy, or Luise Rainer had been forced out of the cast by an "act of God," the studio would have been 1,000,000 dollars out of pocket. Eddie Cantors next picture has a spending schedule of 1,500,000 dollars. Should anything happen to him after the picture starts shooting, the extra 500,000 dollars' loss will be sustained by Mr. Goldwyn.

Insurance of productions and players is a. recent innovation, caused by expensive experience in the past. During the filming of "Under Two Flags," the uninsured Simone Simon fell ill and was finally removed from the cast—cost to the studio, 25,000 dollars to 30,000 dollars. Claudette Colbert, who took her

place, became sick shortly afterwards. But Twentieth Century-Fox suffered no further loss, as it was able to "shoot" around her —working on film sequences in which she did not appear —until she recovered. # The hold-up in production of "Imperial Hotel'' cost Paramount 1,000,000 dollars. The first financial catastrophe occurred when Marlene Dietrich followed Ernst Lubitsch out of the production. Margaret Sullavan, her successor, was forced

to retire froffi the film when she broke her arm. Claire Trevor's illness toward the end of "Human Cargo" necessitated cessation of work for about a week and cost 10,000 dollars for electricians and props to remake the dismantled set. Sam Hardy's death when half-way through his role - in "Strike Me Pink" necssitated reshooting the sequences ill which he appeared and cost his studio about 50,000 dollars.

Lowell Sherman succeeded in struggling through two sequences of "Becky Sharp," then collapsed and died. Almost ten days' shooting had gone into the cameras. The loss to.the studio was 150,000 dollars. Then Miriam Hopkins fell ill. Another ten days' hold-up. When she was well enough to resume work, both director Rouben Mamoulian and Frances Dee went down with influenza. Another work stoppage. The delays postponed the originally planned Foster release to the middle of summer, when theatre grosses are at their lowest: CJara Bow was operated upon- at the height of her career and, for two minutes, was dead on the operating table. The injection of a sharp steei needle into her heart caused it to beat again. But two months elapsed before she was ready to start work on the picture abandoned by her illness, and many thousands of dollars were lost. During the shooting of "Poppy" the precarious health of W. C. Fields was more closely than the British Crown jewels. He was not allowed to work more than an hour or two a day and a doctor was in constant readiness. Had illness overtaken him during, instead of after, the picture, Paramount would have lost close on a million dollars. The same studio took it on the chin financially .during the making of "The Milky Way," when everyone from star to director took time out with various serious illnesses.

Deaths Made 'Em Canny. The average premium charged by Lloyd's is fifty cents per 100 dollars per person. In the case of the quintuplets, with two of the babies in frail health, the rat© is higher. A minor star's insurance is .iround 5000 dollars. Insurance of ten or-twelve important players costs from 15,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars for one picture. In insuring "Dodsworth" and "Come and Get It" for £1000,000 dollars each, Mr. Goldwyn cannot insure the stories or the good or bad reception accorded the movies. He cannot list the fact that "Dodsworth" cost him 160,000 dollars, or that 100,000 dollars was paid for Edna Ferber's "Come and Get It." The producer buys the story and he must gamble on it himself. But for a very high rate Goldwyn can insure Walter Huston on the ground that "Dodsworth" would be useless if anything happened to Huston. The same for Edward Arnold in "Come and Get It." The recent death of Will Rogers in a 'plane crash and Go; don Westcott in a polo mishap have tightened the studios' ban on polo playing and air piloting.

Darryl Zanuck and Walter Wanger follow their own rules of polo amusement, but pay additional premiums for the privilege. It would be a sad day for Hollywood, if accident incapacitated either of them. The 1,000,000 dollars paid by Lloyd's would bj poor recompense.