Word: selznicks
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...more than 1,000 of the 3,000 studio employes had been dropped from the payroll. At RKO Radio the pruning halted at 250. In the United Artists group, only Producer Walter Wanger was working at top speed. Samuel Goldwyn was temporarily inactive, his corps of laborers laid off; Selznick International, geared to leisurely production, had a skeleton staff, the publicity department alone working at full blast. Other studios, already entrenched against the slump, functioned at what now passes for normal speed...
...Myron Selznick, Hollywood talent agent, put $6,000 on his own entry. The $50 parimutuel windows trailed long queues of cinema celebrities, the $5 windows were stampeded. Over $1,370,000 was bet in four hours. It was a holiday in Hollywood and most studio folk, from Clark Gable down to the lowliest stagehand, were among the 60,000 people celebrating Washington's Birthday with a day at the races...
...grownups (particularly that of May Robson as Aunt Polly), Author Mark Twain might have been well pleased. But more than once he would have harrumphed at the self-consciousness of the child actors. Hollywood usually looks to professional youngsters for parts like Tom Sawyer. But Producer David O. Selznick has no child stars on his own roster, and had no wish to borrow and boost one under contract to someone else. When he put Tom Sawyer on his schedule two years ago, he started a nationwide hunt that viewed 25,000 children before it ran to earth in St. Raymond...
Tommy's screen debut cost Producer Selznick $1,250,000. Of this, Tommy's share was $100 weekly. To his father, Michael Aloysius Kelly, Tommy's good fortune meant relief at last from the difficulties of supporting a family on a WPA salary; to Tommy it meant at first more excitement than he had ever dreamed of. His supporting cast was a group of typical Hollywood child players-Ann Gillis (Becky Thatcher), Jackie Moran (Huck), David Holt (Sid Sawyer), Marcia Mae Jones (Mary Sawyer), Mickey Rentschler (Joe Harper). Least professional of the lot Tommy's performance...
...same: the fan mail was already starting to come in. Wrote one: "I heard you on the radio last night and I am looking forward to seeing your picture very much. It was very nice of you to go all the way to Elmira to visit Mr. Selznick's grave...