Hollywood's Wailers

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 142, 18 June 1938, Page 7 (Supplement)

Hollywood's Wailers

ByJeanette Meehan

F really isn't fair that so much editorial attention is given to Hollywood's wailers and grousers. According to movie commentai

tors, Hollywood stars do very little but complain about the tribulations of being movie stars. They say that stars pout about the tedium, the long working hours, the inexhaustible demands of the fans, the high cost of living, the lack of privacy, and the strain of it all on their precious nervous systems. Bette Davw, in a statement that is as simple as it is direct, says: "Of course, I love the work. But I'm working for the sam«f thing everybody eke is working for—money. And in Hollywood money comes quicker than anywhere else in the world." (According to Bill Powell it also GOES quicker in Hollywood than anywhere else in flie world.) 'i Film stars like Hollywood money for other reasons than those concerning saving accounts and annuities. Kay Francis likes the money because she is fond of travelling. Gail Patrick is a girl with domestic inclinations, who likes a nice home, and is at her happiest when she goes shopping for copper antiques, fine linen and rare china. Mae \\ est likes the money because (!«--ide- taking care of her family) she can indulge her |*i-«.ion for diamonds. l>ron- Power likes Hollywood for uiai.y rea-rins. one being that he can li.-'A afford a dress suit.

Joan Bennett explains, with a mischievous smile, that the biggest kirk she get« out of being a. movie,star is in going to the telephone and inquiring about reservations at a niglit c-lub or a theatre and being told there are none —then telling who she is and getting exactly what she wants. George Raft says the same thing. George had that satisfying experience when he'd been in Hollywood only a year. He had Jailed a music house to inquire about some records, not warning. to make the trip downtown, only to find that the desired records were not in stock. When the manager of the store f—

With constant moaning and groaning from the poor hardworked film stars you'd imagine they didn't appreciate what pictures have done for them. Bat, strangely enough, they do—well, some of them, at any rate.

found out who George was, he fairly cooed over the telephone. "Oh. don't bother to come down, Mr. Raft," he purred. '"We'll send a boy right out with them." Louise (Gipsy Rose Lee) Hovick. former stripteaser from Xew York burlesque, has a rather—er—original reason for appreciating a movie career. "It's all wonderful," beams Miss Hovick. "In Hollywood they like me with my clothes on." Take Kleanor Powell. Eleanor is Hollywood s best Press agent. She actually has nothing but nice things to say about the movies. As witness: "Before I came to Hollywood, so-called 'special advisers' warned me that all producers were slave drivers and that all movie stars were spoiled brats. What nonsense that was. "Broadway Melody of 1937 ' was my first big picture, and no group of people could possibly have had more patience with a rank amateur than the studio gang had with me. Everybody did everything possible to make mv picture debut a success. That picture might have been a trying ordeal for me. It wasn't, it was fun, and I've been having fun ever since." Marlene Dietrich likes stardom because her salary enables her to give her daughter, Maria, every advantage. Ronald Colman's greatest satisfaction is being 15 years a leading man in films. "That," observes Ronald, "is more than one mortal man could or should expect. So when I think I have something to complain about I try to take it out on my morning grapefruit where no on? can hear me." So, you see, the stars have as many grateful words as they have irascible comments. And frequently they don't take the things they complain about too seriously.