Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 January 1941 — Page 6

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Studios Use Bonus To Control Players

By PAUL HARRISON * Times Special Writer

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 9—It’s a y thing about the incontency of movie #salaries. Only don’t mean funny exactly, ex{0ept in a few ridiculous cases such gi who don’t act; pro- : ers who don’t produce; and a “eertain dull-witted relative who until fairly recently drew $500 a : k for the single duty of teleSirs the weather bureau each ternoon. Samuel Goldwyn used to ruin the schemes of producer groups to reduce players’ wages all along + the line. He would do this . through raids on other companies’ contract lists, justifying his big payments by declaring that stars’ ‘+ salaries automatically and inevi- : tably would rise in proportion to fritherr box office appeal. .That’s still true, generally, even in this day of almost unbreakable ‘contracts. Yet the contract is an [instrument of a lot of odd .she- ~ nanigans, I could name you an " ‘able and popular actor who's still ‘working for approximately three ‘times a truck driver's pay. He “ought to be getting about $1500 a week by ordinary Hollywood ‘standards, and it’s true the studio occasionally gives him handsome bonuses. But the company will not raise his contract wage. So he has to be a very good little boy to get his bonuses, ” f- . TAKE MICKEY ROONEY. There’s a lad who's beginning to

Life with the Marx Brothers, begin at Loew’s tomorrow when opens

get up in the dough. But he’s still a long way from a salary cor» mensurate with his box office pop» ularity. The Motion Picture Her» ald’s annual ' poll of exhibitors shows Rooney topping everybody

else in Hollywood, and by a coins

siderable mnargin, too, But Lis regular salary is only $1000 a week for 40 weeks, with a tidy bonus

a week's showing. By way of

nsually a pretty h the brothers’ lates

samples, e are the u ay

of $25,000 for each picture lin completes. If he were to carry on through the seven years of tlie agreement, his weekly wage would be $3000 at the last. From the beginning, Rooney probably will make four picturds a year and will collect a total ¢f $140,000. But that isn't so much for the box offic champion whe

betic and amusiiig experience, will vomedy with [nusie, “Go West,”

Ss at their fa-

fancy gun play.

“THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

West’ but Still Prefer Blonds and | Red Apples

miliar pastimes. Harpo also does a little harp- playing in addition to apple-eating, and Groucho leaves off his courtship of the blue-eyed Indian maid long enough for some

THURSDAY, JAN. 0, 1041"

WHEN DOES IT START?.| HURRY! LAST DAY!

with Jack a at « with Ralph y. at ll,

CIRCLE “Love Thy Neixnbor, © Benny Fred Allen, 12, 2:34, 5:05, 7:40’ and ‘Meet the Wildeat,” Bellamy 0s, Mnpgaret Lindsa: 1:30. 4:05 9:10.

“Santa Fe Trail,” yn Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Massey. at 11: 36. 1:54, 4:32, 1: Re ny

odo LOEW'S mrade X,"” with Clark 2 Hed r, Oscar Homolka, at

12:45, "with Low

“The Golden Flosoing, 11:20, 2:08,

Ayres, a Johnson. a 5:25 a 8:25

YRIC Marcus Show, with Sofia Plorence Hin Low. stage at 17:51, 3: Gea uri in rge Montgome 4:50, 7:46 and 10:

TRY A WANT AD IN THE TIMES. THEY WILL BRING RESULTS.

Virginia Gilmore, 5 at 11:07, 2:03,

you consider Bing Crosby—No. 7 on the popularity list—just. signed a new deal with Paramount which will pay him about $700,000" for four pictures a year. Deanna Durbin gets about $260,000 and earns every dime of it. Ginger Rogers, whose RKO contract expires May 1, is demanding a new deal at $150,000 a picture.

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= (LL RD MILLE

Spomsared by the lphen Picks Producers end 1 iboton of America, be

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minus of show welders

STARTS

TOMORROW

or comm oF

-LAST TIMES TODAY!

CLARK —HEDY LAMARR

MRADE X”

x *OLDEN FLEECING”

chases made in recent weeks.

best seller, plus a royalty that will bring the total to ‘$150,000 or more—the highest pce ever paid for the screen rights to a book.

And Cecil B. deMille, who usually films his pictures from original stories, departed from custom to buy Thelma Strabel’s saga of the sea, “Reap the Wild Wind,” for $25,000; Fox got Zane Grey's “Western Union” for the same figure, and “How Green Was My Valley” for $50,000. Dalton Trumbo’s book, “The General Came to Stay,” went to Paramount for $30,000, and even “Gone

| With the Wind,” ost widely dis-

cussed novel of the decade, brought only $40,000, although David O. Selznick purchased it from the galley proofs before it became a best seller. Top price paid for a book before Hemingway's latest tome was $110,000, by RKO, for Edna Ferper’s “Cimarron.” Contrast these figures with $125,000 paid by RKO for the Broadway play, “Room Service,” and $165,000 by Goldwyn for “Dead End.” The reason plays bring a higher price than hit novels is that a studio never knows what kind of drama-

Directed by WILLIAM KEIGHLEY

Hollywood Turning to the Book Market for Its Ideas

Hottest Competition of Season Is for Hemingway's Latest Story; Paramount Gets It for $100,000

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 9 (U. P.).—Hollywood is in the midst of a major raid on the book market. More than 20 novels and biographies will be turned into film fare within the next few months, judging by the pur-

Hottest studio competition of the season was for Ernest Hemingway's “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

Paramount got it for $100,000,

tization it will get out of a novel until it’s done, but a play is already tailored into the required form. Hence studios are willing to pay more for a hit play than for a bestselling novel. Among other books being converted into pictures are Christopher Morley’s “Kitty Foyle” and Hartzell Spence’s “One Foot in Heaven.” Even classic fiction and stories popular in previous generations are being used by the movies. - A few of these are Joseph Conrad’s “Victory,” Jack London’s “Sea Wolf,” Owen Wister’s “The Virginian,” and Harold Bell Wright's “The Shepherd of the Hills.”

D'ARCY LOSES IN DAMAGE" ACTION

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 9 (U. P.).— Screen actor Alexander D’Arcy was held responsible today for injuries a mother and her daughter suffered when his automobile smashed into the rear of theirs at a stop signal. Mrs. ‘Nina Hitchcock and her daughter, Mrs. Margaret Johnson,

MARTENS CONCERTS, Inc.

America’s Own Singing Star of Metropolitan Opera and Radip

Gladys Swarthout

English Theater, Monday Eve. Jan. 20th Prices—$1.10, $2.20, $2.75, $3.30. Seats Npw. Marten’s Ticket Office, Room 201—33 Monument Circle—LI. 8921

were awarded $1840.50.

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Presenting AMERICA’S FOREMOST COMPOSER OF MODERN MUSIC

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Starving;T he Four. Danghters.

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with

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May Robson, +{Frank McHugh + Dick Foran. Original Screen Play by Stephen Morchouss Avery Suggested by the Book, “Sister Act”, by Pave Bid