Sally Eilers — Saying “No!” to Hollywood (1932) 🇺🇸
If you should happen to meet Sally Eilers walking down Hollywood Boulevard one fine spring morning, you would not, in the strictest sense, be meeting up with a typical movie actress. And this remains true in spite of Sally’s recent screen hits, Bad Girl and Dance Team.
Yes, Sally is under contract to a studio... she owns an ermine coat... she is a confirmed “first nighter”... she is married to an actor — Hoot Gibson... she has a swanky motorcar... a ranch, with dogs and horses... she owns an apartment in town... two diamond bracelets ... one diamond ring... a wrist watch and sables. In other words, Sally has all the necessary accoutrements of Hollywood stardom. But the point is, that unlike other ladies similarly blessed by these trinkets of movie fame, she is neither bored nor indifferent to them. Sally gets the same kick out of fame that you... or you... or you would if you had the same chance at motors, diamonds, ranches and sables and a nice fat movie contract.
Where Constance Bennett is just a trifle weary of fame with its accompanying sidewalk cheers and autograph-seekers, Sally is crazy for it! Where Joan Crawford is beginning to find the routine of the celebrity too invading on her privacy, Sally is reaching for more of the same with eager, ambitious hands. Interviews, portrait sittings and the hundred and one other items demanding daily attention may tire Gloria Swanson — but to these the Eilers spirit is indefatigable. In short... Sally is having fun!
After years of meeting ladies with the fame complaint, it is a genuine kick to run into someone like Sally. As to those ladies who profess to be “just a little tired of it all,” Sally has her honest doubts. “Take it all away from them,” giggled Sally, “and you’d hear a real holler. It just isn’t natural for a woman to be bored with an ermine coat — or even two of them.
“No,” said Sally, “I’m afraid I’m not very good human interest material. I’m not bored... nor tired... nor unhappy. We could talk ten years and I doubt if you could find a sob story in Eilers. Of course, I’ve had my little disappointments and temporary setbacks... who hasn’t? I’ll even air a few of them for you if that’s what you want. But honestly, with everything breaking so well for me now... I just can’t seem to remember the times when I was blue and discouraged.”
Which to our mind is one of the best human interest stories that has come out of Hollywood lately.
Sally feels that her present frame of mind is largely due to the fact that she is fundamentally an “average girl.”
“I suppose,” she said, “that I’ve knocked about studios long enough to have acquired the ‘Isn’t it all so futile?’ outlook, but I’ve never seen the morning dawn that I didn’t figure the good old chance lay just around the corner. I’m an incurable optimist!
“The funny part of it is that I’ve even tried to be a little bored with it all, because it seemed the popular thing to do! I’ve read so many stories of the heartaches of Hollywood that I began to feel that I should have a couple of my own. If not real honest-to-goodness heartaches... then at least a few good-sized complaints!
“With this idea in mind, I finally argued myself into believing that my dressing room on the Fox lot wasn’t large enough. I had to argue with myself, because the truth was I was crazy about my little room. But anyway, I got myself all set to march into the front office and register an Eilers complaint. Mr. Sheehan (then head of the Fox Studios) said he would see me immediately if I was unhappy about anything. As I waited a moment in his outer office, I steeled myself for the little speech. No, my dressing room was not large enough! I needed roomier quarters. What for? No, that wasn’t the way to look at it ... I needed roomier quarters!
“Suddenly they said Mr. Sheehan would see me. I marched in. I stood in front of his desk. Mr. Sheehan inquired: ‘Well, Sally,...’
“My knees began to knock. I thought of what a silly little girl I really was to take up this busy man’s valuable time. I gulped a couple of times and then said: ‘Oh, Mr. Sheehan, I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate the break you have given me and how happy I am. I...’
“Mr. Sheehan smiled. I guess he knew me better than I knew myself. For he said: ‘Don’t worry about anything, Sally... we’re taking care of you.’ Two weeks later I had a grand new dressing room. That’s how much stellar temperament I’ve got!
“The only time I did manage to get through with a complaint was the day this happened:
“‘Bad Girl’ had just been completed and we were about to have the preview. That day, as I was crossing the lot from the preview, I saw the men putting up a sample of the billboards on the picture. I couldn’t believe my eyes — but there it was right before me: SALLY EILERS and James Dunn in ‘Bad Girl’. My name was in big letters leading the cast. I got so excited that I ran to a telephone and called my father. He said that he would be ready in about ten minutes if I would call for him. I told him to have the camera loaded to take some pictures. I wanted the proof to show my children! As soon as we returned, I led him to ‘my’ billboard.
“Again I could hardly believe my eyes! A new poster was going up... a new poster that read: JAMES DUNN and SALLY EILERS in ‘Bad Girl’. I asked the workman what it meant. They explained that new posters had come through on a last minute rush order and that these new ones were what was to be used in advertising the picture. Poor Dad! I think he must have suffered more than I did over my disappointment. In fact I felt so sorry for him — we felt so sorry for each other — that I actually stormed into the front office to find out what it was all about. Mr. Wurtzel explained to me that there were plenty of actresses who could be featured in Hollywood, but that all the studios were in need of men who could be built into names. He asked me if I couldn’t see their viewpoint... and before I left there I could so thoroughly see it that I was on the verge of suggesting that they make Jimmie’s name even larger. I guess I just wasn’t meant to be temperamental.
“But when you come right down to it, what have I to be temperamental about? I sometimes think I’m about the luckiest girl in the world. Certainly no girl ever had a sweeter husband than Hooter — no, I’m not going to be foolish and say that we never have our little differences, because we do, but they are always as much my fault as his. Fundamentally we are very companionable. I love the ranch as much as he does. I’m proud of the fact that his young daughter (of a former marriage) is fond of me.
“I’m glad for the nice break I’m getting on the screen... and I’m glad when people are nice enough to write and tell me they like me. I’m glad for the friends we have in Hollywood and I’m glad I have pretty dresses hanging in my wardrobe and that I have a nice car to ride in — and I’m glad that I’m glad! If I ever get to the stage where these things mean nothing to me, something real and precious will have gone out of my life. I guess I’m just a wee bit hopeless for a sob story. Maybe you’d better call off the interview...”
What do you think about calling off the story? Isn’t it a relief... and really nice... and awfully, awfully human to hear Sally’s gay, refreshing slant on Hollywood stardom for a change?
(Above) Sally with mother and father Eilers. Sally says, “I’m afraid I’m not very good human interest material. I’m not bored, nor tired, nor unhappy.” She’s just having heaps of fun and isn’t a bit ashamed to say so!
Collection: Modern Screen Magazine, June 1932