HIGHER SALARIES

Evening Star, Issue 22252, 1 February 1936, Page 6

HIGHER SALARIES

DEMAND BY SCREEN PLAYERS Salaries of leading players are soaring again, and America blames Britain for it. Whenever a Hollywood player becomes at all difficult about money, and the studio shows some obstinacy, .the player immediately retorts: “All right, then, I’ll make pictures in England.” Through its present-day importance as a film-producing centre. England has become a safety valve for Hollywood temperaments. British producers have shown themselves willing to pay ing prices for big names, and American stars who have quarrelled with their producers console themselves with the thought that they can get as much as they want in England, whenever they want it. There must, however, be a limit to the latest boom in salaries. It looks as though the limit had almost been reached already.

A short time ago a British studio approached Claudette Colbert to make a picture in England. Through her agent she replied that she was not interested, but that if she were she would want not less than £30,000. Irene Dnnne, too, has generous ideas of her own value to British films. Her representative stated recently that her price for a. single film in England would be £20,000. Even Miss Colbert’s thirty thousand and Miss Dunne’s twenty seem insignificant, though, beside the salary Fred Astaire is asking. Following the really sensational box office success of ‘ Top Hat ’ all over the United States and in London, Astaire is likely to become one of the highestpaid artists in the world. His contract comes up for renewal shortly, and it is understood that he will ask for at least £50,000 a picture.