How Were Actors Paid Under The Studio System?

I too am curious

R1 how cool that you replied to yourself.

They were contracted to the studio for a certain amount of money to do a certain amount of films.

For example, you would get signed to Warner Bros. in a 9 picture deal and paid $900k. Not per film.

I think (at MGM, anyway) they worked 40 weeks a year, and had 12 weeks off. Not consecutively. When making a movie they worked 6 days a week, and it was often a 12+ hour day (some big stars worked shorter hours). They were on a regular salary.

The usual 5 or 7 year contract gave the studio the option of dropping you every 6 months, but you didn't have the option of dropping them.

Some stars like Cary Grant freelanced.

I wish I got 12 weeks off.

Katharine Hepburn when she started in Hollywood at RKO negotiated a deal where her salary increased with every film.

Even adjusted for inflation, stars back then didn't make anything like the crazy money big stars make now -per film, not even per year.

In the old studio system a new actor who was young and unknown may get a weekly salary ranging from around $75.00 to $125.00, more if you were known from the stage. New youngsters put under contract had escalator clauses where their salary was raised every six months. The actor was contracted for the length of the contract, usually five or seven years. However the studio could drop you after six months, a year,18 months, etc., whenever your contract came up for renewal.

Keep in mind that a person could live on $75.00 in the ‘30s -‘50s and a salary of $500.00 or $1000.00 a week was a LOT of money for the time. Very big stars could make many thousands a week. But keep in mind you were only paid for weeks that you worked, either on a picture or doing publicity, rehearsals, etc. If you had the clout to pass on a film you were usually suspended — no salary for the six or eight weeks it took to shoot the film you had turned down, while you remained idle. However very big stars — Bette Davis, James Cagney, Judy Garland had dozens of potential properties under development for them at any given time, and they were allowed to pick their projects. If Bette Davis turned down “Mildred Pierce” (which she did) it was offered to Barbara Stanwyck (who had open-ended freelance deals with Paramount and Warner Bros. in the ‘40s) and if she turned it down (as she did) it went to someone else under contract (in that case Joan Crawford who had been newlysogned to the studio.)

Warner and MGM held to long-term contracts until the 50s. Smaller studios like Columbia and Universal usually did short-term deals--Columbia gradually built up a small stable of A-list long term contractees like William Holden, Glenn Ford & Rita Hayworth, as well as contracts for its more popular serial and 2-reel comedy performers. Universal had many changes in management and rarely had a lot of contract players until after MCA took control in the 50s. Independent producers like Selznick and Goldwyn had small numbers of contract players. Fox never had a large number of contract players and Paramount cutback after going bankrupt in the 30s.

Everything was cheaper in those days---contract players might start making $100-250/wk; "stars" made somewhere in the thousands for week. Owning a share of the gross instead of a large salary was a way to get around high marginal tax rates and was pioneered by James Stewart and his agent Lew Wasserman in the early 50s.

Contract players could be put on suspension w/o pay if they refused too many parts.

Barbra Stanwyck always did short-term deals. Cary Grant had non-exclusive contracts with RKO and Columbia and later freelanced more broadly.

Rita Hayworth started her own production company Beckworth in the 1940s which I believe was the first actor to do so. That's different to being made a film's producer like Bette Davis on A Stolen Life.

Lucille Ball would write and down say that she enjoyed being under contract because you could hone your craft both before the cameras filming a picture but also during the “down times” behind-the-scenes in between film projects, working with other actors, props, radio appearances, promotional tours, publicity events and photo sessions, studying craft, and so on—and if you weren’t working in between any of these activities and weren’t on suspension or anything related, you maintained the security of a regular steady incoming weekly contract salary.

In 1940 the average salary for a working person in the US was about $2000/yr.

I believe Mickey Rooney was earning $10,000/wk that year.

Big stars could live lavishy on their studio salaries before income from radio, advertising sponsorship and record deals if they also sang.

And the studio could loan you out for a substantial sum more than they were paying you, still pay you the contracted weekly amount, and pocket the difference.

Love these DL threads.

An actress willing to put out would profit from fringe benefits such as jewelry, clothes, and living expenses.

Many of the contract players who were being promoted as the next big thing, were given grand homes in which they were to entertain the press, throw lavish parties and give the impression that they were living the glamorous life out in Tinseltown. The lease and upkeep were usually taken out of their salary. But if they failed at the box office too many times or didn't comply with studio demands, they were booted off the premises and demoted to hotels like the Knickerbocker or some bungalow off Fountain. It really was a house of cards until you made enough money to afford a home of your own.

MGM had on the lot apartments as dressing rooms for the big stars.

Esther Williams said at one time her dressing room was next to Lana Turner and she could hear all Lana's sex noise.

A few were freelancers who were paid per film, most were paid a weekly salary.

Most actors you've heard of were paid very good money, but they weren't RICH-rich. And the studios would encourage them to live luxuriously, "for the publicity value", so that when contract negotiation time came around the actor would be too broke, or too far in debt, to hold out for a better deal.

Marilyn Monroe signed her first studio contract with Twentieth Century Fox in 1946, at $125 a week for six months. She would re-new the following year, with a $25 a week salary increase, but was canned by year's end. After a brief stint at Columbia, she would return to Fox in 1950 for a one-year contract at $500 a week, followed by a seven-year contract at $1,000 to $1,250 a week. By 1954, she was perhaps Fox's biggest star, yet she was undervalued and underpaid, with her contract little changed since 1950. So she walked. But by the next year, Fox caved into her demands and upped her salary to $100,000 per picture and gave her script, director, and cinematographer approval.

You had to give your yearly income on the 1940 US Census up to $5000, which I guess was considered ultra-rich, because from there it was just one category $5000+. I noticed that even an actor like Ward Bond was in the $5000+ category. So actors were up there with doctors and attorneys, etc.

20th Century-Fox, MGM, and David O. Selznick shared Gregory Peck's contract, in the 40s, an unusual arrangement.

I thought most doctors didn't make much money back then.

People didn't live very long back then so usually after graduating from med school you'd need to start planning your funeral.

[quote]Rita Hayworth started her own production company Beckworth in the 1940s which I believe was the first actor to do so.

A'hem.

[quote] An actress willing to put out would profit from fringe benefits such as jewelry, clothes, and living expenses.

And free abortions!

They paid me in brooches!

R24 is correct. United Artists was the first.

Contracts completely favored the studio. If you had a 7 year contract and never took off with the public or languished in bit parts, the studio could choose not to renew your contract at any time. If you did become popular, you would have to fight for your weekly increase or new contract. Of course they could loan you out to other studios for a fortune and you still got your same crappy rate. The best was when you turned down a picture, the studio suspended you, and then they added the suspension time onto your contract. After Warner Bros. did this to Olivia de Havilland, she sued and won. The courts considered it close to indentured servitude.

Sonja Hiene very very shrewd about her career . She arranged a secret deal with Zanuck to take less contract money up front in favor of percentage points. As her films were wildly popular during the 1930s, she became of one of Hollywoods richest stars.

Fred MacMurray, Bing Crosby and Jimmy Stewart were even smarter, buying up lots of prime Los Angeles real estate with their studio earnings.

Warner Bros in the '50s and '60s signed new talent to seven year contracts at $300 a week, and milked them for all they were worth. They put them in television programs, put them in movies, had them cut records, made them go on tour across the country, etc., and pocketed most of the money, save the $300+ a week and 1% royalty on recordings for the talent. Tab Hunter, Connie Stevens, Troy Donahue, Robert Conrad, etc. all went through the WB ringer, and it wasn't until they broke free from WB that they were able to leverage better deals with other studios.

Sonja HEINE!

"Oh, dear"-ing myself!

Interesting woman who has been completely forgotten: Wiki: Sonja Henie (8 April 1912 – 12 October 1969) was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic champion (1928, 1932, 1936) in women's singles, a ten-time World champion (1927–1936) and a six-time European champion (1931–1936). Henie has won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. She is one of only two skaters to defend a ladies' singles Olympic title, the other being Katarina Witt, and her six European titles has only been matched by Witt. In addition to her film career at Fox from 1936 to 1943, Henie formed a business arrangement with Arthur Wirtz, who produced her touring ice shows under the name of "Hollywood Ice Revue". Wirtz also acted as Henie's financial advisor. At the time, figure skating and ice shows were not yet an established form of entertainment in the United States. Henie's popularity as a film actress attracted many new fans and instituted skating shows as a popular new entertainment. Throughout the 1940s, Henie and Wirtz produced lavish musical ice skating extravaganzas at Rockefeller Center's Center Theatre attracting millions of ticket buyers.

At the height of her fame, Henie brought as much as $2 million per year from her shows and touring activities. She also had numerous lucrative endorsement contracts, and deals to market skates, clothing, jewelry, dolls, and other merchandise branded with her name. These activities made her one of the wealthiest self-made women in the world in her time.

Henie's connections with Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials made her the subject of controversy before, during, and after World War II. During her amateur skating career, she performed often in Germany and was a favorite of German audiences and of Hitler personally. As a wealthy celebrity, she moved in the same social circles as royalty and heads of state and made Hitler's acquaintance as a matter of course. Controversy appeared first when Henie greeted Hitler with a Nazi salute at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and after the Games she accepted an invitation to lunch with Hitler at his resort home in nearby Berchtesgaden, where Hitler presented Henie with an autographed photo with a lengthy inscription. She was strongly denounced in the Norwegian press for this.

In her revised 1954 biography, she states that no Norwegian judge was in the panel for the 1936 Olympics—as she was entitled to as a Norwegian. She therefore made the most of it and won her third Olympic medal. When she—as a gold medal winner—passed Hitler's tribune with silver medalist Cecilia Colledge and bronze medalist Vivi-Anne Hultén, neither she nor the others honored Hitler with the Nazi salute. The 1936 European Figure Skating Championships also took place in Berlin and neither Henie, Colledge, nor Megan Taylor paid obeisance to Hitler.

During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, German troops saw Hitler's autographed photo prominently displayed at the piano in the Henie family home in Landøya, Asker. As a result, none of Henie's properties in Norway were confiscated or damaged by the Germans.

[quote] how cool that you replied to yourself.

R2, R1 is not me.

Did the studios pay for their houses? I mean, didn’t they want their rising talent to look like they were worth something for articles and stuff? Wouldn’t they be living in broken down apartments on their meager wages?

Jack L Warner offered a 7 year contract to Flora Robson.

He wanted a genuine thespian to play the freaks in supporting roles. She did Queen Elizabeth and this other one. But she turned him down. And Gladys played them instead

R33, see R15.

R31 My parents knew a wealthy old lady when I was growing up in the 1970s. Her claim to fame was that her “husband made Sonja Henie’s ice skates.” She lived in Larchmont or Bronxville. The various skates still show up at auctions.

Sometimes a studio would loan a contract player money to buy a house. This kept them compliant until it was paid off.

A player with a hit film might also attempt to renegotiate their contract, or were sometimes given a bonus. It’s always a little confusing to me why contract players also had talent agents, but I guess they were helpful in situations like these.

[quote] It’s always a little confusing to me why contract players also had talent agents

Because artistic people are too dumb or proud or diffident people to talk about vulgar things like money.

What I mean is, agents try to get employment for you when you’re out of work - basically when the actor is going from job to job, employer to employer. But a contract player under the old studio system had a job with the same employer for potentially 7 years. So under most circumstances I don’t know what the talent agent was there for after the initial contract had been signed. Or what leverage an agent had - were they going to say, “If you make my client do this film she swears she will be deliberately bad in it”?

Wringer, not ringer.

Agents were important when it came time to renegotiate contracts. Garbo was very hardline with MGM before she resigned in the 1930s. She had wanted to go back to Sweden. She had Brooke Hayward as her agent.

After Crawford was included in the Box Office Poison article her contracts with MGM got smaller because they supposedly wanted her out.

Katharine Hepburn negotiated the sale of The Philadelphia Story to MGM with her in the leading role as her film comeback after leaving RKO. She had done the play on Broadway and had bought the film rights.

Stars in the studio system also made far more films per year so that they really earned their weekly salaries. Sometimes they would do 3 films a year.

Judy was contracted to make 2 films a year after she renegotiated in the 1940s but she wasn't living up to that clause since making just one film wiped her out.

MGM gave June Allyson a bicycle so she could go from one film set to another as she was sometimes making two films at the same time at her busiest.

Greta Garbo was signed at $400/week in 1925, but renegotiated in 1932 and got $250,000 per film + profit participation through her own production company (Canyon Production). She was by far MGM’s highest paid star at the time. In 1934, MGM released the salaries of their stars and Garbo was making $9,000/week, for $480,000/year even though she by that time was only making one film a year.

I had a moment with resigned @ r41. Read it as resigned (quit) instead of resigned. Fun with homonyms!

R42, not to take anything away from Ms. Hepburn, but I thought the Philadelphia Story script was purchased by Howard Hughes for Kate. They had been an item back in the day and I believe he made the buy for her, seeing how well it could work out for her.

She was a shrewd woman, much smarter at a young age than studio executives expected.

Those stars worked their tails off. I watched this collage of Rita dancing on youtube and you can almost tell when the director says "action" in some of the clips. Like flicking a switch on and she becomes kinetic and luminous. Judy was the same. Those scenes took so much energy and they did take after take.

I was a drama major who lived in LA for a few years and spoke to an actor friend recently about the benefits of the studio system: if one didn’t want to be a huge star, there were a few aspects that were probably OK! Classes, roles in various films, a steady paycheck, social events…

Of course, there were plenty of negatives, obviously.

This may or may not have already been mentioned. But during the studio system if a performer declined to do a role assigned to them they would usually be put on suspension. The old studio system was in some ways an indentured servant contract.

Capucine said she was under a 7 year contract to Columbia in the late 50s for $200 a week and that seemed fabulous to her. She received this salary whether she worked or not.

I imagine 10% of these salaries went to agents. Who paid for the glam clothes, etc?

[R11] Yes the singing stars made money off radio and records, but like being loaned out. The studio took a substantial cut of the star’s income from radio and recordings. In Judy’s case, she was completely exhausted from making movies during the day and doing radio and recordings at night, which were meant to also promote her latest film. MGM was in charge!

R33, the studios did not buy houses for actors. If they wanted publicuty photos of a newbie living the dream, they'd use a rented house or a movie set, or encourage the actor to live above their means.

Like I said, some studios liked their actors to throw away their money on lifestyle. It meant that in a contract dispute, the actor couldn't afford to do anything but cave.

Here's an interesting article on how the studio system was dismantled.

I wonder how much someone like Bess Flowers made, who was an extra probably working every day.

[quote]R41 Garbo was very hardline… She had Brooke Hayward as her agent.

When she went to the office with her father Leland on Bring Your Kids to Work Day.

Actually, I looked Bess Flowers up on the 1940 census. She listed herself as a secretary at the movie studios and made $3119 that year.

And $3119 in 1940 is equal to over $66K in today's money, so she was doing pretty well as a secretary/actress.

[quote] Owning a share of the gross instead of a large salary was a way to get around high marginal tax rates

I'd like to know how R8 anf R29 think that getting paid a percentage of film profits instead of a straight salary saves on taxes.

It doesn't. And it didn't back then either.

Now, setting up your own producion company and hiring yourself out as an actor is another story. That can save, especially under the Tax Code back then.

I was born too FUCKIN’ late.

My virtually [italic]bottomless[/italic] throat and inexhaustible bussy would’a drained those studios DRY!

R58: You were paid off over a long period of time and often it was done via corporate entity.

[quote]After Crawford was included in the Box Office Poison article her contracts with MGM got smaller because they supposedly wanted her out.

Viewers of "Mommie Dearest" would believe Mayer was eager to get rid of Joan, but he wasn't. MGM planned on re-signing Joan, but just for less money than they had been paying her before. I think they were surprised that she bought herself out of the last film she owed them for something like 80 grand, and went to Warner Bros. where indeed she was earning less than she was making at MGM.

A wise move, she milked practically another solid decade out of her career. Norma Shearer couldn't say the same, but she had less need for a weekly salary and had grown tired of the grind.

The downside of a contract was the tedium and frustration of being a somewhat small-time character actor at a big studio. I was reading something Sara Haden said about her MGM contract - playing Aunt Millie in the Andy Hardy pictures and other smallish parts, she got a very good salary for the time, but as an actress, sometimes felt herself going crazy, with a few lines and nothing interesting to do in most pictures. This made me notice her, more, and it's true, it must have been maddening at times to only say, "Good morning, Andy". She had some better roles later on on TV.

Did the studios ever provide housing or have dorms for young actors they'd signed but were not big yet.

Did the studios provide cover for a homosexual actor from the press?

Yes R64.

[quote]In addition to her film career at Fox from 1936 to 1943, Henie formed a business arrangement with Arthur Wirtz, who produced her touring ice shows under the name of "Hollywood Ice Revue".

Her 1940 Review included COSTUMES BY TRAVILLA. One of his first professional jobs.

[quote]MGM gave June Allyson a bicycle so she could go from one film set to another as she was sometimes making two films at the same time at her busiest.

Sometimes she'd cut through the backlot, making sure to take the cobblestone streets.

R63: No.

R64: Yes.

[quote] MGM gave June Allyson a bicycle…

She already was the town bicycle.

Reading the interview with Shirley Knight on her thread she said as a Warners contract player she was given her own little house on the lot. It had her your own little kitchenette and bed and bathroom. And that was good, because the studio had her working all the time. If not on a film she did a TV series guest appearance.

[quote]I imagine 10% of these salaries went to agents. Who paid for the glam clothes, etc?

If they had a photo shoot or went to a premiere, the studio lent them clothes, furs, etc. out of the wardrobe department, and sometimes altered them.

Shirley Knight reports that when she was nominated for an Academy Award for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs she was taken to the Warner Bros. wardrobe department. They said, “You know what? She’s the same size as Joan Fontaine. Let’s look at Joan’s clothes.” So they took me through all of Joan’s clothes, and they gave me this beautiful white satin gown to wear to the Oscars. There were no designers coming along and saying, “Wear my dress.”

United Artists was a studio, not a production company--right?

(In reference to Rita Hayworth's own production company above.)

UA was a production company established for stars to distribute their own films. I don't think they had their own studio space.

OK, thanks.

"There were no designers coming along and saying, “Wear my dress.”"

Fashion designers looked down on Hollywood until the 1950s, when Audrey Hepburn began modelling designer fashion on the big screen and wearing it off. Before that, fashion designers catered to people with *real* money, and not actresses on salary. No, they dismissed Hollywood "fashion" as tasteless and low-rent, and scorned Edith Head and Travilla as wannabes who were paid to impress the rubes in the movie theaters.

And yes, when actresses need to appear before the public looking grand, or even attend parties where industry people might be present, they borrowed freely from the studio wardrobe departments. It was a perk available to just about any female on salary.

[quote]Fred MacMurray, Bing Crosby and Jimmy Stewart were even smarter, buying up lots of prime Los Angeles real estate with their studio earnings.

While not as lucrative as real estate, Maureen O’Hara started her own business in 1948. She opened a dress shop in Tarzana called Maureen O’Hara’s Seasonal Clothes, which she ran with her stand-in, Sue Daly.

Not to be outdone, Lucille Ball slept with Louis B Mayer, Walter Brennan, James Stewart and Rudy Vallee on the first week she arrived in Hollywood. All of them suggested she consider being in movie industry which was taking off.

Something this thread has reminded me of is the kind of movie books that were available back in the days when nostalgia wasn't the mainstream thing it is now. As a small-town kid in the 70s, there were paperback reprints in Woolworths of books like Bob biography of David O. Selznick, or Mary Astor's autobiography. There was a hardcover I got as a gift from my mom called 50 Greatest Classic Motion Pictures by David Zinman, and I read Robert Osborne's first book about the Academy Awards (published in the 60s, I think) in the library. There was another book - can't think of the name - it may have been from the 80s - that had all kinds of trivia about the classic stars. What side businesses they had, how much some of them made, what cars they drove. What dress designers they worked with. A lot of these books were a blast and full of fun facts. I don't see a lot of them around nowadays.

*Bob Thomas's biography of David O. Selznick.

I guess what I was trying to say is, back then, Classic Hollywood (though it wasn't that long ago, then) was still mostly a mystery, to a kid in the 70s. Now its a cottage industry, in a way, and just so much more has been written and uncovered about it in the last 50 years, it's incredible.

True but LA was cheap back then r6. It didn't take much money to live like a king, it was still seen as a quaint backwater compared to NY.

R81. True. And not to suggest stars didn't make huge money, let's say in the Depression, compared to what the average citizen made (even though they were taxed at something like an 80 or 90 percent tax rate, at the time). It's just that today stars make really ridiculous amounts of money. in comparison, even adjusted for inflation. Similar to sports stars. And fans now have to pay much bigger money for tickets. A 25 cent movie ticket during the Depression equals less than $5.50 today. And sometimes tickets were as low as 10 cents. Sports tickets are of course, outrageously priced, now.

R80 there are so many more classic movies available now, and for free if you know where to look. But I do miss the days of chasing obscure, shitty quality VHS from sketchy dealers.

And movie theaters gave away glassware (Depression glass) as premiums.

That always struck me as funny. Why not give away food rather than plates when people had barely enough to eat though could still afford to go to the movies.

Can you imagine if you signed a contract for a set salary and your first, second, or third film was a massive success and you still had to do more films at the same shitty salary to fulfill your contract, before you could renegotiate?

Does anyone know how many films a star generally was signed on to do, or was it done by years, regardless if they made a film during that time or not? Then the studio could dump them.

Did any actor sign a contract and only end up making one film or no films at all?

Actors could be fired and often were, R87, the studio had no obligation to fulfill the entire contract. If an actor caught on they frequently did get raises, and if they didn't catch on they were quietly let go.

I read recently how actress Beverly Michaels signed a contract with Columbia Pictures and never made a film with them.

Clifton Webb was signed by MGM in the mid-1930s and was on salary for a year, but they couldn't fingure out what to do with him. He was a singer and dancer on Broadway and they thought maybe he could be their answer to Fred Astaire. Eventually they gave up, and he went back to the stage, until Laura at Fox in the mid-40s.

[quote]R87 Did any actor sign a contract and only end up making one film or no films at all?

Oh yes. But a lot of them are lost to time, as only the notable people are written about. Some went home. The pretty girls might stay and marry someone in the industry, or on the fringes of it. Usually performers just tried to get signed to a different studio.

Marilyn Monroe was initially under contract at 20th Century Fox for under a year, just doing a few bit parts. They let her go, but a year later resigned her after her short contract at another studio (where she just made one low budget film) lapsed.

But that’s an example of how actors simply shuffled along until they made a success. Or didn’t.

Wow. Fascinating.

We should bring back the studio system. Maybe that would actually create stars again.

I thought Marilyn was under contract to Columbia in her early days.

I recall Bette Davis saying she was loaned out to Columbia to do a film where she played a corpse who fell out of a closet.

Universal signed a lot of people like Bette Davis, James Stewart, Rosalind Russell, young Elizabeth Taylor, but apparently was not good at developing stars, because none of them found much success there. Bette later was successful at Warners, of course, and the other three at MGM.

R94, Marilyn signed a 6-month contract with Columbia Pictures in 1948, after her 6+6 month contract with 20th Century Fox expired and Fox decided not to renew. At Columbia, she did "Ladies of the Chorus" (with Adele Jergens as her mother!), which went nowhere, and she was dismissed. She re-signed with Fox in 1950, for one year at $500 a week. This time around, Fox was happy enough with her and signed her for another seven years.

Columbia gave her the Rita Hayworth hairstyle.

[quote]R94 I thought Marilyn was under contract to Columbia in her early days.

I think it was 20th Century Fox first, then Columbia Pictures, then Fox again.

When a studio loaned you out, what did the studio get in return? Would they allow the studio getting the star to put them up for awards? I’m thinking of the competitive nature of the studios. Would they want their competitor winning an Oscar with this star for their studio?

Are there any good books on the studio system?

Remember how Gable and Claudette Colbert were loaned to Columbia for It Happened One Night and they both won Oscars.

[quote]R100 When a studio loaned you out, what did the studio get in return?

Money. You could loan a star for, say, $250,000 but still pay the performer just the $40,000 they were entitled to for those weeks away under the terms of their home studio contract. The studio pocketed the difference.

For a thorough history of the M-G-M back lots, please read Steven Bingen’s, Stephen Sylvester’s, and Michael Troyan’s M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot published in 2011 by Santa Monica Press.

[quote]Did any actor sign a contract and only end up making one film or no films at all?

Shirley Temple signed a contract with MGM after her contract with Fox ended in 1941. There was a lot of publicity and great promise, but after one flop film "Kathleen" they dropped her realizing they didn't have another Mickey Rooney, or Judy Garland level talent on their hands.

Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell also got their most awarded early 1940s roles on loan outside their home studio, MGM. But I don’t think MGM minded if it meant more bums on seats for their own productions.

Jon Hall was kept idle by Samuel Goldwyn for years after his success in “The Hurricane”.

R102, but that same year, Warner Bros contract player, Bette Davis, failed to secure a nomination for "Of Human Bondage," which she did on loan to RKO. Moviegoers and Academy members were so outraged that the Academy permitted her as a "write-in" candidate, yet she still failed to win.

Davis, at the time, had grown tired of the glamorous nothing roles she kept getting at Warner Bros, so she begged, pleaded, and harrassed Jack Warner to loan her out to RKO to play this role of a lifetime. Davis believes her failure to nab a nomination was because a) RKO wouldn't push a non-contractee for a nomination, and b) Jack Warner wouldn't push for her in a movie made at a rival studio.

^^ Davis *believed*

Rita Hayworth was originally a Fox star under her real name , Rita Cansino. When Zanuck took over the semi-bankrupt studio in 1935, he dropped her contract. She was picked up by Columbia who renamed her and carefully groomed her over the next several years, In 1940, she finally attracted notice, after being lent to MGM for "Susan and God" and to Warners for "The Strawberry Blonde". in 1941, Zanuck borrowed her from Harry Cohn in a three-picture deal. Years later, Alice Faye recounted how everyone at Fox relished Zanuck's embarrassment at taking Rita back, albeit briefly.,

r105: A lot of Shirley's problems at MGM came from her mother, who rejected several A-level films (Including the Garland-Rooney "Babes on Broadway" ) where her daughter would be a featured supporting player instead of The Star. Had Gertrude Temple been more sensible, Shirley might have done OK at MGM.

[quote]A lot of Shirley's problems at MGM came from her mother, who rejected several A-level films (Including the Garland-Rooney "Babes on Broadway" )

I think that's why Mickey and Judy are in the photos, although there's also one from the same day where Clark Gable joins them.

I am a fan of Shirley's final two Fox films, both flops, "The Blue Bird" and the delightful "Young People" with Jack Oakie and Charlotte Greenwood. I find her movies very relaxing for some reason.

Were paychecks mailed to studio employees, or their agents/business managers? Or I seem to remember seeing people line up at windows on the lot to get them, in some old movie.

[quote] Are there any good books on the studio system?

I wish IMDB would publish the facts about salaries and contracts.

They only give us snippets despite them being one of the top money-making websites on the planet

R112 - there's that funny scene in A Star is Born when Judy Garland goes to collect her pay. She goes to B since she is Esther Blodgett and the desk man says Go to L because she is renamed Vicki Lester. But she thinks he has said Go to Hell. What? Now just a minute!

Temple also claimed in her book and on interview shows that Arthur Freed exposed himself to her, and she'd never seen a dick before and she laughed. And she and her mom left because they weren't going to have Shirley be part of that.

Of all the Freed stories out there, she's the only one with that kind of story, none of Freed's regular female movie stars tells an exposure story about him.

r115: Shirley's story about Freed is bullshit. You can see from Variety that MGM was trying very hard with Shirley: Virgina Weidler replaced her in at least three projects. : Besides "Babes on Broadway" ( I love Weidler, but Shirley would have been terrific) there was "Barnacle Bill" with Wallace Beery and "Born to Sing", a Garland-Rooney reject, resized into a peppy-B effort with Ray McDonald. But for Gertrude Temple, nothing at MGM was good enough. And Shirley wasn't about to blame her mother for anything.

r111: I love "Young People" too. An underrated charmer with a nice score by Harry Warren (his first film at Fox).

R110, Rita Hayworth constantly battled with Harry Cohn for better parts other than the usual love goddess stock types she was usually given, and she rarely saw a dime from all those lucrative loan-outs he was wheeling and dealing. She was put on suspension so many times for refusing to do assignments, but ultimately, she would acquiesce and come back to Columbia because "I had to finish that goddam contract, which was how Harry Cohn owned me!"

Cohn rather cruelly put Rita in "Pal Joey," alongside her love goddess replacement at Columbia, Kim Novak, and cast her as the "older woman" opposite Frank Sinatra, who was in reality 3 years older! The writing was in huge block letters on that wall.

My favorite number from "Young People".

Does this look like the end of the line? A flop? I saw this as a kid and the tune is a bit of an earworm, lol.

A sensible studio head would realize that loaning out actors to Oscar-bait projects would be a win-win, they'd both get the fee for the loan, and the value of their in-house asset would increase if the loaner movie was a big hit!

Jack Warner may have been an idiot, refusing to loan out Bette Davis to a part where she could make her mark, but it's more likely he just didn't take her seriously. Where was she then, C-list? Bottom of the B-list?

R109 Don't forget Montgomery got an Oscar nomination for Night Must Fall at MGM in 1937, which I think he fought to do.

A couple of years ago I heard a Lux Radio Theater broadcast where Cecil B. DeMille announced that Robert Montgomery would be a last-minute sub for Fredric March (who was ill) in A Star Is Born, on the broadcast with Janet Gaynor from abround 1938. Granted he probably didn't have much rehearsal, but he was so cold, and so unsuited to the role. But anyway, many stars could pick up extra money (around 5K) for doing the Lux show, which took around a week.

Yes lot of movies had radio versions done though shorter running times. Often the same stars did the radio version .

If contract actors wanted to earn extra money they did radio shows, and I recall that when Rudolf Valentino was in a contract dispute he took off to do a stage Tango tour.

But for the most part, movie actors only turned to theater after Hollywood had dropped them. Why should they do theater instead of movies if they didn't have to, it was more work for less money.

[quote]Jack Warner may have been an idiot, refusing to loan out Bette Davis to a part where she could make her mark, but it's more likely he just didn't take her seriously. Where was she then, C-list? Bottom of the B-list?

If he didn't take her seriously, he wouldn't have cared if he loaned her out. Warner Bros. actors worked non-stop so he probably had something lined up for her. Also the part was not known to be a star-making part until after she had played it. Not a lot of people understand this, now, but glamorous female Hollywood stars and leading ladies didn't do parts like Mildred, a slutty chick who ends up looking very ill with venereal disease - and it's a pretty big shock even now. Bette didn't want to be a glamorous star and was willing to play a role a lot of others wouldn't. And probably Warner said to her, What the hell do you want to do that for? After the studio had been building up her glamorous side.

Oh, and of course if movie actors ever wanted extra money, they did advertising.

Here's Doris Day advertising a fucking steamroller, and if anyone knows the story behind this ad I'd like to hear it!

Mildred on the floor:

R124 Seems like a humorous, lighthearted ad.

I wonder if RKO offered Of Human Bondage to Ginger Rogers?

R127, Yes, they were first going to do it as an Astaire-Rogers musical, actually. Bondage Time.

I think Katharine Hepburn said Constance Bennett was the big star at RKO when she started and that's who was going to do Morning Glory before Hepburn stole it.

Hepburn supposedly also stole The Little Minister from Margaret Sullavan (who she later admitted would have been better).

R119, Bette Davis at the time was being groomed as WB's answer to glamour puss Constance Bennett, something that the real Bette Davis was not. Jack Warner refused to loan her out for "Of Human Bondage" because he felt that role would ruin the glamour image they were trying to build. He finally relented because Bette would not let up. He thought, "Fine! Ruin your career!", threw her to RKO and refused to support her.

I just found these figures on Twitter—

Jerry Seinfeld: $1 Billion 🇺🇸 Tyler Perry: $1 Billion 🇺🇸 Dwayne Johnson: $800 million 🇮🇳 Shah Rukh Khan: $770 million 🇺🇸 Tom Cruise: $620 million 🇭🇰 Jackie Chan: $520 million 🇺🇸 George Clooney: $500 million 🇺🇸 Robert De Niro: $500 million

Robert Deniro ain't worth shit!

He's paying out so much alimony, palimony and child support he's barely able to keep up!

[quote] The usual 5 or 7 year contract gave the studio the option of dropping you every 6 months, but you didn't have the option of dropping them.

Sounds very similar to how daytime soaps were done. The shows could fire an actor every 13 weeks (some of the stars negotiated 26 weeks) but they'd be bound to a contract for 3 or 4 years.

[quote] Robert Deniro ain't worth shit!

So eloquent.

[quote]R122 If contract actors wanted to earn extra money they did radio shows

And they could also do product endorsements.

As to how loan outs additionally benefited studios, they could be used as a punishment for stars who wouldn’t stay in line. A performer could find themselves working for months on a low budget western for a lesser studio, very far away from their lux dressing room on the lot.

Loan outs could also be part of a package: MGM loaned Clark Gable to Selznick Pictures for “Gone With the Wind” in exchange for distribution rights (or something).

Speaking of Selznick, he would warn his signed actresses, “You put out, or you get loaned out!”

[quote]As to how loan outs additionally benefited studios, they could be used as a punishment for stars who wouldn’t stay in line.

That was the case with Clark Gable and "It Happened One Night," but it benefited him more than the studio.

Despite being a popular star in box office hits paired with MGM's top leading ladies--Garbo, Crawford, Shearer, Harlow, Loy--Gable was frequently cast as a tough guy cad who manages to woo the leading lady. He complained about being typecast and told Photoplay magazine, "I have never been consulted as to what part I would like to play. I am not paid to think." Miffed at this ingratitude and pissed that Gable was still fucking Crawford despite her engagement to Franchot Tone, Louis B. Mayer loaned Gable out to Columbia Pictures, which at the time was among the "Little Three" minor studios (Columbia, Universal, United Artists), for the low budget "It Happened One Night," which Mayer and everybody who read the script thought would be a stinker.

Studios would also loan out stars as a trade. We give you Jimmy Stewart if you give us Kim Novak, or whatever.

Certain roles really are suited to certain stars. Casting is everything.

Frank Capra originally wanted Robert Montgomery and Bette Davis for It Happened One Night.

[quote]Veronica Lake standing in front of the entrance to Paramount Pictures, 1971. Lake, who was visiting the lot to promote her autobiography, reportedly burst into tears upon her arrival. "I'm out of it now — well out of it. I knew back then I wasn't cut out for all the con that goes along with working here," said the actress.

R140, Robert Montgomery said the script was the worst thing he had ever read. Fredric March also turned it down. Myrna Loy, Miriam Hopkins, Margaret Sullavan, Connie Bennett, and Loretta Young all said no to playing the female lead. Claudette Colbert only agreed after she was promised double her usual salary and a quick shoot. Despite this, she was difficult throughout the shoot, and when it was all over, she told a friend, "I just finished the worst picture in the world."

Gable was not happy either, having been forced to do the picture. When he first met with director Frank Capra, he was drunk, cantankerous and resentful. He reported to the set for the first day of shoot and told Capra, "All right, let's get this over with!"

Even Columbia had little faith in their own picture, quickly releasing it with little fanfare. When it became a sleeper hit, they changed their tune and campaigned heavily for the Oscars, eventually sweeping with their Big Five wins. With his Oscar win, Gable was able to renegotiate a better contract with MGM.

Katharine Hepburn negotiated a clause in her RKO contract that allowed here to do one play on Broadway a year. This resulted in her doing the infamous The Lake which she paid to get out of.

Wiki: By the end of 1933, Hepburn was a respected film actress, but she yearned to prove herself on Broadway.[61] Jed Harris, one of the most successful theatre producers of the 1920s, was going through a career slump.[62] He asked Hepburn to appear in the play The Lake, which she agreed to do for a low salary.[63] Before she was given leave, RKO asked that she film Spitfire (1934). Hepburn's role in the movie was Trigger Hicks, an uneducated mountain girl. Though it did well at the box office, Spitfire is widely considered one of Hepburn's worst films, and she received poor reviews for the effort.[64] Hepburn kept a photo of herself as Hicks in her bedroom throughout her life to "[keep] me humble".[65]

The Lake previewed in Washington, D.C., where there was a large advance sale.[63] Harris' poor direction had eroded Hepburn's confidence, and she struggled with the performance.[66] Despite this, Harris moved the play to New York without further rehearsal. It opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on December 26, 1933, and Hepburn was roundly panned by the critics.[67] Dorothy Parker quipped, "She runs the gamut of emotions all the way from A to B."[68] Already tied to a ten-week contract, she had to endure the embarrassment of rapidly declining box office sales.[69] Harris decided to take the show to Chicago, saying to Hepburn, "My dear, the only interest I have in you is the money I can make out of you." Hepburn did not want to continue in a failing show, so she paid Harris $14,000, most of her life savings, to close the production instead.[70] She later referred to Harris as "hands-down the most diabolical person I have ever met",[62] and claimed this experience was important in teaching her to take responsibility for her career.

[quote] the usual 5 or 7 year contract

How come all these contracts were for an uneven number of years?

Columbia had a small stable of contract players and Harry Cohn preferred short -term contracts with stars, producers, and directors. Stanwyck, who never had a typical long-term contract, was one of the few stars who regularly worked on short-term contracts and, not surprisingly, made a few films with Columbia. Cary Grant had non-exclusive contracts with Columbia and RKO at the same time for awhile.

Columbia's business model set them up well for the 50s when their bigger competition was giving up their theaters and had trouble covering all their overhead. Columbia also went into television early, filming commercials and working with independent producers, as they di with films.

Found a clip with Hepburn's negotiations with RKO.

[quote] 20th Century-Fox, MGM, and David O. Selznick shared Gregory Peck's contract, in the 40s, an unusual arrangement.

I thought Selznick owned Peck and rented him out to Fox and Goldfisch.

I was recently reading about Alexis Smith's exit from her Warners contract. Unlike actors Ann Sheridan and John Garfield who were often on suspension for refusing parts, Smith rarely refused anything. However in the late 40s after having been at the studio for nearly 10 years she became rebellious. Smith deliberately sabotaged one audition for a part she didn't want in The Return of the Frontiersman. Then when Smith finally refused a part, which was a loan out to Universal, Warners released her from the contract. But she had to repay $40,000 which was a percentage of a payment made on a recent deal.

Grace Kelly turned down almost all the films MGM assigned her to while under contract. She just didn’t need the money and didn’t have extravagant tastes (or a family to support.) A journalist asked how she was going to manage while on suspension and she said, “Well, for the moment I suppose I’ll have to stop redecorating my New York apartment.”