HOLLYWOOD SALARIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 May 1940, Page 9

HOLLYWOOD SALARIES

SOME HIGH FIGURES.

In the last financial year-for which reliable figures are available, Mr Louis E. Mayer earned a salary of £259,300; Greta Garbo was paid £120,000 for one picture; Marlene Dietrich, then regarded as a fading star, was called upon to pay a tax of £56,000 on her earnings in the British-made “Knight W’ithout Armour” alone; Clark Gable’s annual cheque ran to £72,000: Kay Francis, though she was appearing in “B” pictures, was given £50,000 for her twelve months’ work. These are not fairy tale figures from the fiction factories of the publicity departments. (Even the imagination of the most fanciful of the publicity men would boggle at the idea of the film executive requiring the sum of £259,300 a year." But he only receives a fraction of it. The tax folk see to that. The figures are supplied by those grim realists, the United States income tax authorities. CLARK GABLE SIGNS A NEW CONTRACT. Clark Gable has just signed a new contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that will bring him in over £300,000 during the next seven years. Years age he knew all about oil fields, lumber camps and factory hours before he got his first job as a “super” with a barnstorming troupe that landed him in Hollywood. Janet Gaynor worked in a San Francisco shoe store at £2 10s a week before she left to take a chance in the film city. Rosalind Russell, now an M.G.M. star, once waited on table and was glad to do it! She started her theatrical career with a travelling tent show, was stranded in Upper New York State, and served hamburgers and coffee in a roadside stand to earn her fare home.

COMING SOON TO THE STATE: ‘•HOTEL FOR WOMEN,” by Elsa Maxwell; introducing the sensational new find, Linda Darnell. “REBECCA,’ with Laurence Olivier, and Joan Fontaine. Produced by David O. Selznick. “RAFFLES,” a Samuel Goldwyn production with David Niven and Olivia de Havilland. “OF MICE AND MEN.” by John Steinbeck. The picture Hollywood said could never be made. Stars: Lon Chaney Junr., Burgess Meredith and Betty Field. A FORMER STAR LIVING IN ONE ROOM. Gertrude Michael, who used to earn her regular £3OO a week, is now living in one room, in Hollywood, and trying to interest the producers into J giving her a job.