HOLLYWOOD’S BAD BOY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1939, Page 4

HOLLYWOOD’S BAD BOY

AGAIN IN TROUBLE. Marshal Neilan, once . the highestpaid director in Hollywood, and certainly one of the most famous, was charged in court a few days ago with passing three worthless cheques for a total of only 100 dollars. When arrested he had only a little over a dollar in his pocket. Neilan’s life story parallels many of the famous pictures he directed. He started out as a penniless newsboy. He found an opening in the then infant movie industry, and \is agile brain made his rise swift and sure. Soon he was a top-flight director earning as much as 200,000 dollars a. year, and directing such stars as Blanche Sweet (his wife), Jean Harlow in “Hell’s Angels,” Mary Pickford, and Elsie Ferguson. But, like many more, he spent as he made, and was always in scrapes. He earned the title of “Hollywood’s bad boy,” because he was never out of trouble. He told police the other day that he ‘had to keep up a front. To get a job in Hollywood you’ve got to keep up appearances.” And so ends another Hollywood novelette.