MARLENE DIETRICH.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 9817, 22 February 1936, Page 21 (Supplement)

MARLENE DIETRICH.

MAY LEAVE HOLLYWOOD. JEAN HARLOW A BRUNETTE. (From a Correspondent.) HOLLYWOOD, January 11. Marlene Dietrich is the latest film star to complain about California’s high taxes—she describes them as “hardly leaving enough to pay the butchers’ bills.” At present she is finishing the film “Desire,” hut in February she contemplates returning to Germany—perhaps for good—unless there is somo abatement of the heavy taxes. Jean Harlow, most famous of all blondes, who has just signed a profitable new contraot and bought a sugar plantation in Hawaii, is reported to have gone “chestnut brown” in her film “Wife versus Secretary.” Stars “Racing Mad.” Hard hit aotors and actresses are using every means possible to lower their return of taxable earnings—and racing is one of the latest means to this end. Owners of racehorses are permitted to list their ownership as “a business venture,” and money spent in this “venture” is riot taxable. So Hollywaad’s stars are buying racehorses, and Hollywood Is described as “racing mad.” The opening of Santa Anita race track on Boxing Day drew many film celebrities —Mae West, Bing Crosby, Norman Foster, Joe E. Brown, A 1 Jolson, Clark Gable, and Ann Harding, to mention only a few. With 50,000 people attending, about £75,000 was laid out in bets. No telephoning to bookmakers is allowed from the studios, and so executives, stars and others talk in code.