Newspapers / Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.) / Dec. 3, 1937, edition 1 / Page 8
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PIC BPV 1 Ipfli •> • Ji • l«lil ( ■''•^sSbb**' ppl 1 HP iHkiik^p^ *V K A. • * The producers who originally turned down Gable, Shearer, Taylor and Astaire get the jitters thinking of those lost millions. Million ODltfll \Mo6t I 1 OLLYWOODS ■* ■■* worst head aches can’t be cured by a mere box of aspirin. Bromos may relieve morning-after effects, but when it comes to the super colossal, million-dollar type of headache suffered by all of Hollywood’s producers, they are of no avail The headaches 1 mean are Drought on by costly errors in judgment Look at the producers who passed Clark Gable up before M-G-M nabbed him. Look at the fortune they lost thereby Those are the million dollar headaches. And it is amazing, considering the number of astute producers in the film city and the neat fortunes they nave piled up, how many of these costly pairjg they have brought upon themselves. Even Sam Goldwyn, considered by some the shrewdest of them all, has made a couple of expensive mistakes that must have sent him to bed groaning more than one night. P ROBABLY Sam’s worst headache was brought about by his oversight of that now No. 1 oox ottice attraction, Robert Taylor When he was just plain Arlington Brugh back In 1933, he w r as taken to the Goldwyn studios for a test for the Eddie Cantor picture, “Roman Scandals ’’ Cantor, himself, made the test with Lay lor and says it is the only time in nis life he had his back to the camera. When Gold wyn saw the test with Arlington doing his stuff in a Roman toga, he shook his head and told the boy, "Go home and put some fat on your legs and then come back.’’ But Brugh didn't nave to worry about his calves because Louis B Mayer and the late Irving Thalbeig saw (ossibili ties in the boy. and signed him to a $35- a-week contract. Within three years that $35 was run up to $3,500, and Gold wyn can figure that he is out a million anyway The Warner brothers and Carl Laem mle have had some choice headaches over Clark Gable. Gabit was playing in "The Last Mile’’ on the stage in Los Angeles when a scout from Universal saw him and offered him a test. Laemmle couldn’t see him as a screen actor -.ater Warner Bros, gave him a test and it is said that when Jack Warner saw it he said “I’m hiring actors, not ears." However Gable did appear in one Warner Bros, picture, “Night Nurse" with Barbara Stanwyck. If he didn't register v r itf, Warners he apparently did with Mayer, because M-G-M grabbed him the minute he was through at Warners. As soon as he had punched Norma Shearer on the chin in “A Free Soul ’’ millions of fans were sighing over him The 4-G-M boys, 1. rwever, will have to go to the bottom of the class when you consider the case of Fred Astaire. Likewise Paramount. Fred, with Ginger Rogers, rated third in the list of the 10 leading boxoffice stars last y ear. Paramount made a test of Fred Headaches: from fop, Deanna Durbin, Betfe Davis, Lil Dagover, Carmen Barnes. By Frances fcforrin Astaire several years ago Written on his card in the Paramount files of actors’ names is the fol.owing Fair screen personality—hair thinning—he also dances.” M-G-M used him in one scene in "Dancing Lady” and then let him go Some ..me latei RKO got his contract As for his red-haired dancing Dartner Ginger, she is another million-dollar headache shared by the Messrs Warner For they had Gingei under contract and didn't enew it Now Ginger is the fair-haired girl at RKO and is showing her heels to most of the beauties on celluloid as a money makei. T HIS and Gable were not the only expensive blunders made by those clever fellows at Bur bank. They once had under the roof of their screen menage that million-dollar boxoffice team, Bill Powell and Myrna Loy. Myrna had played Orientals so long she said she began to feel like one. She was dissatisfied. Warners felt that her screen career was washed up and didn't renew her option Powell, too, had made a number of mediocre pictures at l,, arners and was fast losing ’his ability to pull the nickels and dimes into tire boxoflice But Louis B Alayei ami the late Irving ThaJberg took Powell and Loy under their wings, teamed them in "The Thin Man" and now they are two of the biggest money makers .» this celluloid, era. Mayer, though, must have developed a splitting headache when he looked at the boxoflice returns on "Three Smart Girls." M-G-M had Deanna Durbin under contract for six months and all she did there was to make a short V\ hen M-G-M didn't take up ner option Charles R. Rogers, executive vice presi dent in charge of production at Uni versal. was waiting right around the comer And if she isn't a gold mine 1 never saw one Even more interesting is the story ot Charles Boyer, now sought after as a leading man by some of the biggest stars on the screen. He was a big star in Europe and was brought to Holly wood by M-G-M to plav in the French version of "The Big House ’ Then some one did a very stupid piece of cast ing. Boyer played a bit. the part of Jean Harlow's chauffeur ir. "Red Headed Woman.” He ivas so humiliated by this comedown that he left Hollywood and said he never wanted to see It again But time and Hollywood money even tually lured him back Now Boyer is under contract to Walter Wanger and is making big money for himself and his producer. PA RA MOUNT exec utives believed that Wallace Beery was through a few years ago. M-G-M signed him and it took "Min and Bill” and "The Champ” to make those Paramount big wigs realize that they had made a plenty expensive blunder They, too turned Margaret Sullavan down. The story is that it was the late Irving Thalberg who let Normr Shearer, later to become his wife, out of Uni- versal. He ottered nei a small salary to do a picture there with Reginald Denny and she asked for more money He fired her Later when he had moved to M-G-M and she was there playing bits, he was responsible for elevating her to stardom. She eventually came one of M-G-M's biggest money-makers. Bette Davis, the No 1 bad girl of the screen, was playing sugarv ingenues at Universal a few years ago She was dis missed Broken-heartei and feeling that Hollywood held no future for her. she packed her trunks and was ready to go back to New York Then Warner Bros, called her to make a test for "The Man Who Played God," in which George Arliss was to play the lead. Arliss liked Bette’s test and was responsible for her being cast for the picture Even then Jette had to be loaned out to RKO to make “Os Human Bondage" before Warner Bros realized her full possibilities as a dramatic actress And if you think Warner Bros, don t realize what a juicy boxoffice plum they have in Bette, remember hov’ bitterly they fought to keep her from breaking her contract with them last year ' Thus did Universal make a blunder which has lost them shekels galore These are some of the most extrava gant of the financial headaches suffered by major producers There are numer ous others, not in the million-dollar class but severe enough to the men in question more than a few wakeful hours 1 AKE the case ot Adolph /ukor's minor brainstorm, for instance. He brought out to Paramount from L he East a seventeen-vear-old socialite by the name ot Carmen Barnes who had written two sizzling novels on boarding school life Zukor so they say. planned to star the rung lady in a screen play of rer own authorshin. He launched a huge publicity campaign Carmen s pictures and stones of her life were plastered over the newspapers of the country This cost Paramount studios thousands of dollars But noth tng was ever done with the fair Carmen She never appeared on the screen Carl Laemmle footed the bills on sev eral of these minor financial catas trophes at the old Universal he hired lohn Murray Anderson famous scenic designer, to do the sets for "King of Jazz Then, expecting to do another Dig musical, he signed Anderson to a year s contract. He stayed at Universal for a year drawing a sa.ary 01 <",500 a week and never made anothei picture Another high priced publicity cam paign was launched by Warners a few years ago on a foreign importation, Lil Dagover. She was brought to Holly wood with a great blare of trumpets and columns of huzzas. She made one •pic ture, "The Woman irorn Monte Carlo.' with Walter Huston ano that was the last of Lil Costly experiments all these And what conclusions are to be drawn from these super-colossal headaches ? Do they prove that the oig-wugs of the in dustry are nitwits? Not at all. But it ooes prove that making motion pictures 19 greatest trial-and-error business in the vorld; but that, even with mis takes. it s nice work if you can get it.
Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 3, 1937, edition 1
8
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