Time
Magazine: May 16, 1938
Dead Cats
(Thanks
to Norman for this article.)
Hollywood
woke up one morning last week to find its self-satisfied
air full of dead cats. The slingers: Manhattan's Independent Theatre Owners
Association. Inc. Their targets:
Greta Garbo
.
Marlene Dietrich
.
Mae West
.
Joan
Crawford
,
Kay Francis
.
Katharine Hepburn
.
Edward Arnold
.
Fred Astaire
. The
reason: These highly-publicized great ones were "poison at the box office."
"WAKE UP." screamed the theatre owners to Hollywood's producers. "Practically
all of the major studios are burdened with stars?whose public appeal is
negligible?receiving tremendous salaries . . . Garbo, for instance . . . does
not help theatre owners in the U. S. . . . Kay Francis . . . still receiving
many-thousands a week ... is now making B pictures. . . . Dietrich, too. is
poison at the box office. ..."
To this harsh squawk against the girls who have been hooking
customers into box offices for years, the producers themselves for the most part
maintained a shocked silence. But weeks before, Samuel (Quality, not Quantity)
Goldwyn. had hit the nail on the head. "It used to be that . . . one picture of
a double feature would be bad," he pounded. "Now you got to expect both of them
will be terrible. . . The American picture industry . . . better do something,
and do it soon."
But a few of the stars themselves had ready answers. Actress
Hepburn last week terminated the RKO Radio contract that had brought her from
$75,000 to $100,000 a picture and was considering five better offers. "They say
I'm a has-been," scoffed she. "If I weren't laughing so hard, I might cry. . .
."
Joan Crawford
had just signed a new five-year contract with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
at a figure reported to be $1,500,000. "
Box office poison
?"
chirruped Actress Crawford.
In
Boston
, maligned Mae West was breakfasting in bed. "Why, the
independent theatre owners call me the mortgage-lifter." she burbled. "When
business is bad they just re-run one of my pictures. . . . The box-office
business in the entire industry has dropped off 30%. . . . The only picture to
make real money was
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
, and that would have made
twice as much if they'd had me play
Snow White
."
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