Stars at Auction (1928) 🇺🇸

Hollywood has its auction block, its trading post, and its star market! Lovely ladies are “sold” over mahogany desks, and handsome gentlemen are “mortgaged” for a consideration. You must read about it — it’s terrible.

by Ann Sylvester

There is this difference from the old-fashioned slave market — the slaves were quite menial people, and stars aren’t. In place of Old Black Joe the Hollywood marts deal with beautiful Claire Windsor, peppy Patsy Ruth Miller, and others equally in ermine. However, the distinction ends there. Believe it or not, the practice of selling actors “up and down the river,” is as flourishing in Hollywood today as it ever was below the Mason-Dixon line.

“What am I bid?” is the daily cry of the auctioneers throughout the studios. “What am I bid?” Only they are not called auctioneers; they call themselves agents. If they are good enough, they are called managers.

It is a great and lucrative business, this star-trading, and is probably the most prosperous sub-growth of the movie industry. “Actors as actors are interesting, Watson, but actors as merchandise are probably the second largest industry in Hollywood.”

Ask the agents — they know. Before we go on, I hope I’m not giving the impression that agents are glorified Simon Legrees, because that wouldn’t be right, as most of them are amiable, popular people who deal in celebrity, in preference to the cloak and suit business. It is true that actors are their livelihood, but it is also true that they are the livelihood of actors.

The slogan of every agent might well be: “You furnish the talent — we get the job.”

Agents came into being for the good and simple reason that actors, as a class, are notoriously poor business men. I don’t mean Harold Lloyd, or Douglas Fairbanks [Douglas Fairbanks Sr.]. These two are exceptions. But for the most part you will find the average actor an easy-going individual, with little thought of to-morrow, or even of to-day. They have been known to manage their contracts so badly as to accept two engagements at the same time, to take salary cuts when they did not need to, or foolishly raise their salary demands to such a figure that weeks of idleness followed.

That’s why such business firms as Rebecca & Sikon, Edward Small, Lamson & Collier, Ben Rothwell, Harry Lichtig, Guy Coburn, John Lancaster, Bill Dunn, Jack Gardner, and others came into being. Needless to say, it is the job of these manager-agents to attend to all those little things like salary, engagements, renewals of contracts, canceling of contracts, and other details so irksome to the artist. For this little attention they work on a commission basis and, considering the salaries of most of the actors, it isn’t a bad job.

Most people are under the impression that only free-lance players are under contract to agents. But that is not always the case.

Take Phyllis Haver, pièce de résistance of Jack Gardner’s office. Phyllis is under contract to DeMille, but it was Jack who negotiated the deal — for a percentage of the salary involved.

All the time Olive Borden was a Fox star, a tidy sum for commission was going to Ben Rothwell, who originally discovered Olive and sold her to Fox.

Let’s consider for a minute, not the sex appeal of some of our favorites, but their selling value as commercial commodities.

Claire Windsor is one of the most beautiful women on the screen. She is also one of the finest articles of merchandise in Hollywood. The canny little Miss Rebecca, of Rebecca & Silton, told me this, and that firm ought to know. They’ve been selling Claire to producers for several years now. If Claire were placed on the auction block and sold to the highest bidder among producers, she would probably draw a larger figure than almost any other free-lancing lady.

“Claire has great beauty,” observed the little agent, “which makes her easy to sell. But she has splendid box-office value, which makes it even easier to get her contracts. Her years with Metro-Goldwyn established her as a box-office hit throughout the country, and this makes her particularly desirable for contracts with companies that produce for the small towns. Although Claire is not technically a star, she draws more money than many ladies who enjoy that distinction. Also, she is easy to manage, because she trusts our judgment. Many people have advised Claire that she should not accept some of the quickie contracts we have procured for her. But she wisely realizes that not all movie glory is confined to a picture in a million-dollar temple. Her salary, now, is nearly three times what it was when she was under contract, and she works constantly. Claire’s engagements overlap. While she is working on one picture, we will have several bids for her to consider before she finishes.

“Patsy Ruth Miller is another girl who is easier to sell than lemonade in July. Everything I said about Claire goes for Pat, too. Neither of these girls has an exaggerated. sense of her own importance. They look on the movies as a business and a profession, rather than as a means of fostering their vanity with cheap, starring contracts which offer nothing but the name.”

Conway Tearle was formerly under contract to Rebecca & Silton, but he boosted his salary to such an exorbitant figure that it detracted from his value, and he has not worked much in consequence.

Although Eugene O’Brien is not the big drawing card he was several years ago, Rebecca pauses to speak of him as one of the most agreeable actors she has ever managed.

“Gene never complained because he was not working all the time,” she says of him. “He used to say: ‘Well, Rebecca, I guess this is the day of the younger fellow. They don’t seem to want me.’ In spite of this, Gene worked a great deal. It was a pleasure to get him a contract. We have sold Gene many times, and never have we had any complaints about his temperament, or his refusal to work overtime, or any of the other eccentricities of artists.”

She went on to say that one of their most popular bets, now, is John Boles, and they are the discoverers of Jeanette Loff. Eddie Silton signed her under personal contract, and later sold her to DeMille, where she is being featured.

Jack Gardner does not allow his managerial work to end with studio business. He attends to all Phyllis Haver’s outside interests as well. This leaves Phyllis free from all worry while she is busy becoming a star. Another important client of Gardner is Jobyna Ralston, and still another is Priscilla Bonner. It is Jack’s belief that the ‘big names’ are not the only lucrative merchandise among actors. He can prove to you that heavies and character people are just as profitable to an agent as a “big name.” Matthew Betz is under contract to Gardner, and while he is not a star, he works with fewer vacations than Jack Gilbert [John Gilbert].

It is a great little business — this auctioneering. The career of no star is complete without it.

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John Boles inspires much lively bidding, hence his appearance in many pictures.

Claire Windsor is looked upon as valuable “merchandise” by those whose business it is to “sell” stars.

Photo by: Melbourne Spurr (1888–1964)

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Clever salesmanship placed talented Georgia Hale with Paramount as a result of her work in one picture.

Photo by: Melbourne Spurr (1888–1964)

One of the best bets in the star trade is Jobyna Ralston.

Photo by: Eugene Kornman (1897–1978)

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, November 1928