STAR SALARY CUTS

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21041, 17 February 1940, Page 13 (Supplement)

STAR SALARY CUTS

CONDITIONS IN HOLLYWOOD EFFECT OF WAR ECONOMIES The Hollywood stars have been adding up the chances of 1940 being a happy new year—and they don’t like the answer. There is talk ot salary cuts. Marlene Dietrich, who once, according to report, persuaded British film kings that her services for one picture were worth something like £IOO,OOO, has led the way to smaller salaries by accepting less than £15,000 for her come-back picture, “Destry Rides Again.” The solution to the “big money” star problem will probably be contracts calling for smaller stellar stipends plus a percentage of the profits. The reason why Mae West has been absent from the screen for so long is because her demands were too high. Now she is making “My Little Chickadee” on a salary-plus-percentage basis. So is W. C. Fields. Loretta Young has been used to getting £25,000 a picture. She accepted about half that amount for her work on “Eternally Yours.” Ronald Colman’s Altered Demand

Even Ronald Colman, whom pro-

ducers regard as the safest box-office bet on the screen today, is altering the figures on his price tag. Mr Colman, it is whispered in the executive offices, “will now talk business at around £37,000 a picture, plus 10 per cent of the gross takings over a million dollars,” which is still nice work if you can get it. In recent years, moreover, the studios have been building up - new stars “on the cheap.” The days of million-dollar contracts are over. That is* why the old-established “names” are nervous.