PICTURES AND STARS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1938, Page 4

PICTURES AND STARS

CONTROVERSY IN UNITED STATES STRONG PROTEST BY THEATRE OWNERS. TIRED OF LOSING MONEY. HOLLYWOOD, May 4. The Independent Theatre Owners’ Association' in New York has advertised in the Hollywood Reporter that it is tired of losing money on such stars as Mae West, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. The advertisement said many of the industry's highest paid artists had become box office “poison” and advised producers to concentrate on making good pictures because .“sound judgment and a good business sense are valuable assets in an industry that is far from being art.” The advertisement named Katherine Hepburn, Kay Francis and Marlene Dietrich as other stars “whose public appeal is negligible,” and added: “There are many others.” The advertisement threatened to precipitate one of the bitterest controversies experienced even in Hollywood. Reports said that some of the actresses mentioned might instigate court action, although they declined to comment.

A New York message states that Mr John Mannheimer, executive secretary of the Independent Theatre Owners' Association, declared that the organisation “was noot attacking the stars personally. These stars if given the right kind of vehicles would be the same stars as .of old.” He added: “Pictures are being’’ground out regularly on the same old big scale, under a system of long term contracts with stars who eventually become obsolete, and we have to foot the bill.”