FORCING UP SALARIES

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18342, 30 May 1931, Page 17 (Supplement)

FORCING UP SALARIES

RUTH CHATTERTON’S £150,000. FOR TWO YEARS’ WORK. The film correspondent of .the London Dally Mail writes— Revelations regarding the salaries to be paid by Warner Brothers to the stars they are talcing from Paramount have created a new cinema sensation in Hollywood. The position is aggravated by the belief in the Aim world that, through the activity of free lance agents, the “star-jumping racket” is just beginning. From October next Miss Ruth Chatterton, the 1 most successful screen actress of 1930, will receive £150,000 for two years’ work, and should an option for a further two years be exercised she will receive a further £200,000. ' Whether she works for two years or four years, Miss Chattertor* has declared her determlna- >: tlon to retire at the end of her Warner contract. Mr William Powell, who is also to join Warner, will be paid £35,000 for every picture In 'Which he appears. At the moment Mr Powell probably leads Mr Gary Cooper and Mr Jack Oakie as the first of the moneymaking stars among the men in the Paramount studios. The case of Miss Kay Franois is even more remarkable. By her transfer from Paramount to Warner she will no doubt enjoy the experience of having her weekly wage raised from £l5O to £550. - £l6O an Hour. Warner informs me that further starring contracts have been signed with Miss Constance Bennett, Miss Ann Harding, Miss Bebe Daniels, Miss Dolores Costello, Mr Douglas Fairbanks, jun., and Mr Edward G. Robinson. _ 1 Figures of salaries are not available in all cases, but Mr Robinson, the interpreter of gangster characters, has

made such a hit in America with his latest talking picture that for his services during the last six months he will colleot £20,000. Miss Harding’s, present contract, which has a year to run, calls for £260 a week, which is below the Warner scale, even allowing for her having received a bonus of £4OOO on the completion of “East Lynne.” Miss Constance Bennett’s contract, however, is lire most exciting. It stipulates a six-hour day and a sixday week, which is unprecedented, and calls for payment at the rate of £l6O an hour. Even so, on a production taking six weeks this rate of payment Would amount to £440 less than the £35,000 to be paid to Mr Powell.

Will Rogers’ £3600 a Week. These figures may read like fiction and may make the £250 a week paid to Rin-Tin-Tin for personal appearances in. variety look like mere dogbiscuit money; but we have for comparison the undoubted fact that , i during tho next two years Mr Will Rogers will be paid at the rate of £3600 a week. Moreover, it should be recalled that 14 years ago Miss Mary Pickford was paid £70,000 per picture for three pictures made by First National. The whole business of star salaries is now being investigated by Mr Will Hays, who, as Czar of the Amerioan film industry, is probably the unhappiest parent of the most unruly children in the world. Here the dice are heavily loaded against him. I have first-hand knowledge of an ancient grudge which is playing a large part in this disruption of the stars, and which is not yet satisfied. Also, star salaries in talking pictures are still generally less than they were in silent films, in spite of talking pictures making mudh moro v money than silent films.

Again, film agents, having tasted blood, are now believed to- be planning raids on all studios in Hollywood. They seem resolved to force an allround increase in star salaries, and it is difficult to see what producers can do' to meet this attack, In spite of their having had to spend an extra £800,0.00 in star salaries in 1930 and their being faced in the present year with an additional £2,000,000.