BIG STARS OF FUTURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 281, 27 November 1936, Page 10

BIG STARS OF FUTURE

LONDON MAN’S MEWS. FABULOUS SALARIES. Who are the big stars of the im- ; mediate future? Sidney Bernstein, one of Britain's most sagacious showmen, who has just returned to London from a visit to Hollywood, names Luise Rainer, Robert Taylor and ' above all Charles Boyer, who is to be | Greta Garbo’s next leading man. says a writer in The Melbourne Herald. There are many persons who think r that lhe salaries earned by stars are ; ridiculously high, but the astute , Samuel Goldwyn asserts that they are not paid more than they are worth. i Mystery still surrounds a few of lhe saiF.rio., paid, although Greta Garbo's £60,000 a film and Clark Gable's I £30,000 are not disputed. Claudette Colbert received £30,0001 lor portraying Cigarette in the Twen-I tieth Century-Fox version of Guida’s “Under Two Flags,” writes Sheilah Graham from Hollywood. A London ! authority who has recently compiled) , a list of salaries says that she gets £25,000 a picture. The new figures of star salaries given by the London authority are:— Mae West, £60,000 a film, plus a share of profits; Marlene Dietrich. £40,000; Claudette Colbert, £25,000; Janet Gay- ■ nor, Irene Dunne and Jeanette MacDonald. £20,000; Sylvia Sidney, Mar- ’ garet Sullavan, Ann Harding, Miriam . Hopkins and Merle Oberon. £15,00(1; Jean Arthur, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, £lO,OOO each. Bing Crosby, Ronald Colman and i I Fredrick March are put in the £30,000 i class, and the salaries of other men ’ are: Gary Cooper, Robert. Donat. £25- , 000: William Powell, Charles Boyer, I £20,000; Leslie Howard. Paul Muni, 1 Robert Montgomery, Edward G. Robinson, Wallace Beery, £15,000; Victor iMcLaglen, John Boles, Jack Oakie, I , | John Barrymore, £lO,OOO. Directors do well, too. Five of them | get £20,000 a job. Hollywood producers will pay handi somely for what they want. Sidney , Bernstein says that when a subject is cherished, almost unlimited money ! will be spent on it. An example is “The Good Earth," with Paul Muni Land Luise Rainer, which has cost £500,000 up to now, , I There were many things which imi pressed Sidney Bernstein. He spoke of the keen demand for fresh youth I . and beauty, and of lhe great, “uplift” , interest in biographical pictures. I “General concentration on a film, i I once it has started, is astonishing,” he | said. “Everybody works from 7 a.m. jto any hour at night. The assembling and cutting keep pace with the pro-1 . duction so much that a film is often ’ ready within two days of lhe last I camera shot. | “A chief like Darryl Zanuck reads I all the morning papers for story ideas. Topical subjects can be written, made and shown before they get. stale. Toi day’s news is often to-morrow’s picture." Samuel Goldwyn Is contemplating a film version of “Othello,” and hopes to secure Walter Huston for the title role and Merle Oberon for Desdemona. • * t Craze For Historical Plays. Abraham Sofaer, an English actor of distinction, has joined the American cast of “Victoria Regina," in which I tiny Helen Hayes is making something of a sensation in lhe States. The demand for this historical play on lhe beloved Queen Victoria is so strong in (America that there is no telling when it he long run will end. Abraham Safaer is playing the part of Disraeli, I and brings a new warmth and interest to the episode at Balmoral in which [Disraeli toasts Victoria. Charles i Francis is another newcomer to the cast, his role being that of Melbourne, the statesman who was adviser to the i Queen. Miss Hayes shares in the promts of the play in which she is the I chief attraction.