Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING MARCH 22 1936 7 $AJ: IS V ' U M V VW'1 c V" M y r' rS Xl A V A ts SJV I s 3dJ George Raft never runs away from a fight so quite a few schemers have toised pff nasty cracks in his presence hoping to provoke what they might call an “unprovoked assault” later on in i One girl got into a rich director’s house produced an automatic and announced that she was going to commit suicide or get $5000 Publicity works two s court - V- LK ' fcs’t ways in the film city and most of the stars N would rather pay M than fight gyp-gent- ry Lm the the chiselers in court she said "Peel off a fifty big boy oc I'm going to shriek for help and embarrass yoa wait Scott light terribly” “Yell sister yell ” replied the delighted toward the staAnd he made a cop 1 ' V U-tu- rn f lh fit ftr f By Paul Harrison nil WiW tion house SPHERE are numerous stories unauthenti- cated abouTlhe badgering schemes of fake real estate agents about unwary actors and writers who have been led into all sorts of traps I 1 ijtj HOIIYWOOU V' sword by which the screen stars live — and by which when Ergo it is the irost persuasive weapon in Hollywood who have y racketeers extortionists and others of the army of a taste for sucker money Talkietown you see u the last frontier for venturesome crooks and confidence men There’ gold in those Beverly Hills Ordinary rules of conduct don’trapply here because most differences are settled in private and mighty few people are willing to take then And the vigilantes haven't been organized yet although there ha troubles to” the sheriff PUBLICITY it a die two-edg- in supposedly gyp-gentr- been a good deal of talk There has been talk indeed of forming a private syndicate to hire Melvin Purvis ex sleuth to gouge the chiselers out of Hollywood or some other But interest turns to apathy when shy stars realize that such a plan if workable at all And for one reason or anothei would drag them into court and their name into print A stopped fji) $T-00- ¥ is with And the girl was saying "Maybe you’d better leave a check for $1000 My husband is downstairs with lour wit nesses” Did he pay? Of course he paid Imagine the scandal gee L 1 a ’T'HE expenence ol Jack LaRue is a But for a matter matter of record of mistaken nationality he might have been in a pretty tight spot The hitch was that the mistook him for a Spaniard instead af an and forged his name to certain letters written m Spanish It was no trick at all foi him to prove that he didn’t know a word ot Spanish and couldn't possibly have written the letters Another plot that failed was directed By a against a wealthy young director a ruse woman to entrance gained young too Tom Mix’s car was easily his house sat herself down produced an identified Anctent flivvers automatic and announced that she was bora down on it from all direc tions knocking off fenders and going to commit suicide or depart with neat $5000 The director who wouldn’t be prpducing damage suits so wealthy if he were not a shrewd judge of people decided she was in earnest several witnesses that my client Mr Shyster-litSo he was a ham a bum a suggested they discuss the problem over a highd ball so and a general "Now it occurred to my client and me that He went out to get the highballs and whis The servant rather than air this unfortunate — ah — affair pered an order to a servant with its attendant publicity in the courts dashed for a telephone Within ou 0 minutes three men walked in one of them th director’s might prefer to make a quiet settlement commen surate with the indignities embarrassment and lawyer Said the director to the girl: "I’minot going damage to his career suffered by that sterling to pay so go ahead and shoot" Much to his actor Mr Shysterlitz ” relief — although to his discredit as a ludge ol And what can the star do? Can he prove She looked at the lawyei that he never before had even heard the name people — she didn’t of Mr Shysterlitz? No indeed Mr Shysterand the witnesses and brok into sobs as she litz has witnesses all ready to perjure themThey gjve her a little put away the gun And be selves and pocket a slice of the loot sympathy money and kicked her out sides win or lose a court hearing would bring Apothpr badgerer was the pretty girl who out the fact that the star was having a pretty motorists going toflagged prosperous-lookin- g the would be bad First she’d offer that studios ward Universal And publicity big evening her The old badger game has taken a new lease for boldness apologies explaining that a on life and modern trimmings in Hollywood job depended on her arrrval by a certain time But at the first corner well crowded with traffic' A young actor whose name you know marshe’d say “Stop right here and give me all ried to a nice and young actress was overheard on a set one afternoon your dough or I’ll yell for help" Nobody knows how many actors she thus vie asking where he might find a copy of a certain But one of them finally told the An extra girl said "Drop by my apart book timized I’ll home lend it and A handsome cop was planted in a to you" ment on your way police He dropped by and found the book all sporty yellow Rolls and on the third morning filmiest the found At a traffic also in was able to offer the girl a lift He negli girl right - badger-gang-te- Italian-Amjjrica- n Antiquated flivvers bof down from all directions sus taming scratches and knocking off bumpers and fenders care fully loosened in advance When the owners claimed damages Mr Mix usually plid It was cheaper than going to court and permitting fans all over the country to get the impression that Mr Mix was a reckless driver A good many stars regularly attend the Friday night fights at the Hollywood Legion Stadium and untit recently Ihey drove up In their own automobiles Suddenly it became the fashion as at the old festivals of Juggernaut for lowly pilgrims to hurl themselves in fiont of to the advancing wheels A clevei neck-faalmost with bruise was a two or gethei always So now the good for $50 or $100 In balm celebrities go to the fights in taxis ll wood adopt “and not a dime for Then there’s George v Raft who has a repu tation for being willing ip fight at the drop There are — of an uncomplimentary remark hush-mone- have beeh in the past anyway-- quite a num her of men who have arranged to toss off a few nasty cracks in his presence in hope ol provoking what might be called in a Raft-baite- warrant "an unprovoked assault” Raft has gone to court three times and each to there have been plenty ol witoesse prove that the assault if any was amply ius tified The late John Gilbert who in his lat ter years grew quite sensitive about slanderou rumors was another wealthy actor who became But dreading a target for calculated insults the repetition of these insinuations in court he usually paid dearly for whatever contusions and abrasions he was able- to inflict on the rack time actoi who hasn't paid — and won't — ONE Victor McLaglen He can't even recall people have come to him claiming Most ol them were so astonished that by his invitation to then their and imagined grievances they forgot there Nine cases involving claims totaling about a quarter of a million dollars actually have come into court He licked every one of them usually by proving that he wasn't anywhere in the vicinity of the alleged accidents assaults and othei incidents named in the charges These unpleasantries have cost him about $10000 in attorneys' fees an amount which he doesn’t begrudge in the least "Millions for1 defense” is the idea he’d like to see Holly damages wit- for damages when leases expire Getting along though to more reprehensible swindles there are such familiar but dependable devices as puff sheets blackmail publica- faked photographs and whispering pra-paig- The quite an automobile a cross resembling between a circus wagon and a soda fountain on wheels Also it bore proudly at first Mr Mix’s name Thus eas it became a ily identified fakers the for target how many four thrice-certifie- tions That was y down stairs nesses” noxious flower along about the time when Tom Mix got his first big car ra husband My staging “accidents" abetted of course by ambulance-chasin- g This practice attorneys began to come Lto full and hgrse-ope- actor at a girl’s house to borrow a book He found her dressed in a filmy negligee and she told him: "Maybe you'd better leave 0 a check for f G-m- they consider that bad publicity They’d rather pay — pay the shysters and the tinhorns and the petty blackmailers pay It’s a pri too for the protection offered by managers lawyers and strong-arstooges vulnerable the with Hollywoodsmen vale game By all odds the commonest racket it that of carefully young vacant houses A racket that definitely does exist though is the jacking of rentals and claims for damages against movie people who are in the money In most cases prices are doubled the minute a screen personality enters any business picture Studio folk usually employ unknown agents And the wise ones to negotiate business deals d have inventories made of every rented estate they occupy even down to the condition of the last struggling shrub in a fence This is to forestall exorbitant claims corner - etormenters LLEGATIONS of slander are inciden-tally a weapon in the hands of unscrupulous and undistinguished actors Consider the plight of a star visited by a brisk attorney who says: "Last night at the Troca-derwhen you were d— ah— quite yourself you declared in a loud vwce and before A T o z four-flush- no-go- equally-promine- nt rs first puff sheets must have beep sold soon after Coster or Gutenberg or whoever it Y et they’re still a good was invented printing racket m naive and publicity-ma- d Hollywood The puffers start out by preparing an extravagantly laudatory article about some producer director or player — usually a second-ratn whose ego isn’t yet The piece then is shown to the subject "for authentication of facts” and it is suggested that maybe he er would like to buy a few hundred presentation copies or a couple of pages of expensive advertising in the "new national magazine now being launched" $ The article is printed all right along with a few odds and ends of typographical trash but only as many copiek are printed as he himself has ordered — at $1 apiece DLUFF - sheets are the opposite of puff sheets and are frankly blackmail A derogatory article is written about some Hollywood figure who is stabling a few skeletons in his closet Then he is shown an advance copy of the publication and given an opportunity to buy up the entire issue Actresses have been victimized by threatened publication of faked photographs —composites in which their heads have been cunningly attached to the figures of nudes Speaking of photographs an order from the Hays office requests players to employ the coolest discretion in autographing pictures for friends no matter who those friends happen to Actresses are be d people who used to consider it merely an act of impersonal courtesy to inscribe a picture for some property man ot hairdresser: “With love and devotion Marianne Zilch ” But a few such pictures were stolen or otherwise fell into the wjong hantfslnd turned up as exhibits'm suits for alienation of affections And speaking ol autographs it may come as a rude shock to some amateur collectors to learn that the signatures they cherish are probably not in the regular fists of the celebrities who wrote them All actors and actresses have special scrawls for autographs which are quite unlike their ordh This became expedient when nary signatures swindlers took cognizance of the autograph craze and began stalking the stars with innocent-lookin- g notebooks into which had been folded checks promissory notes bills of sale agree-mentto buy worthless stocks and real estate and other equally embarrassing documents warm-hearte- |