HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 934, 2 December 1933, Page 18

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON.

(By MOLLIE MERRICK.) HOLLYWOOD, November 3. I have aways wondered at the zeal of the autograph hunters who crowd the entrances to studios, cafes and theatres, persecuting the stars. My wonder has changed to grim awe! They are business people, not enthusiasts, for a fine autograph-selling business has developed as a result of this Hollywood mania with a neat little profit to be made on the scribbled signatures of stars. ** America’s Sweetheart,” Mar> r Pickford, is only worth two dollars fifty cents in an autograph hunter’s or collector’s estimation, and Charles Chaplin’s name—off a cheque—brings a mere five ducats but Mae West or Greta Garbo bring twenty-five dollars if you are lucky enough to get them. It is said that there are only about seven authentic Greta Garbo signatures in existence. Marlene Dietrich comes in the twentytwo dollar class and Wallace Beery’s signature brings seventeen dollars fifty cents, as also does Norma Shearer’s John Barrymore and Charles Laughton bring seventeen dollars each, while Herbert Marshall and Fredric March slip neatly into the sixteen dollars class. Bing Crosby, Janet Gay nor and Marie Dressier are worth fifteen dollars. The Four Marx Brothers’ are sold at ten dollars each, but if you get all four on one piece of paper they are valued at fifty dollars. Constance Bennett and her father, Richard, bring ten dollars, as also do Sylvia Sidney and Harold Lloyd. Jn the seven dollars fifty cents classification come Gary Cooper, Lionel Barrymore, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins and Charles Ruggles, and James Cagney, Lilian Tashman, Joan