MASKED POVERTY

Hokitika Guardian, 21 November 1932, Page 3

MASKED POVERTY

THE POOR OF HOLLYWOOD.

NEW YORK, November 11. Mr Edmund Goulding, the English director of “Grand Hotel,” commenting on the tragedy of Miss Entwistle’s death, said: “The most extraordinary poor in the world are the poor of Hollywood, it is essential to their profession that they should starve in splendour. “Their poverty must be hidden behind the gay clothes and the giay smiles of their calling. Without proper food and without proper sleep they must appear care free; thev must be able to walk and talk brightly; ttiav must fit thepiselves into any one of a hundred moods when they are overwhelmed with their own misfortunes. “To help these people Mrs Abe Lehr, whose husband is general manager to Mr Samuel Goldwyn, has formed la" League of Assistance, whose'members go in search cf the secret poor. “Often the people who are hclned in this wav do not know that Mrs Lehr and her friends have searched them nut. Everv’director in Hollywood co-operates with Mrs Lehr, and every director marks these tragic names on | his. list of extras with a cross to remind him that they are necessitous cases.” Mr Goulding makes it a rule to include in every crowd scene 20 or 30 of this army, who l : w on a desperate | hope and ope miserable meal a day. |