A Study in Respeetabilities and Rosy Reputations In the smaller towns of America, the residents speak. in " hushed, tones of the wickedness. of Hollywood, haute of the. motion picture people, But in the quiet, ultra-aspectable homes of Hollywood you may hoax of the surpassing wicked: ness of Shanghai, the port of miseing men:
"The searcher after wickedness probably will be disappointed. as Much in the one city. asin. the other. "Tf such a thing is possible, Hollywood is even more respectable than Shanghai. After all, the night cafes of Shanghai do employ, young. women to dance with 1 male guests. In Hollywood, this custom would shock the motion picture people s0 greatly that they. would not be able to "register" properly for weeks. And in Shanghai respectable young women walla along the street or ride in their, rieshas or motor ears openly smok= ing cigarettes. But in Hollywood—dull bourgeois Hollywood—the respectable young women never smoke Glgarettes except behind cloved Sombre Society.
Hollywood is a city almost as cosmopolitan ax Shanghai, Persons of every nationality foregather there to engage in the serious me dustry of manufacturing motion pictures. One might suppose that such people would lend an air of gaiety, of join do vive. But such fs not the ease. Hollywood is clothed in sombre soberness. The residents feel that life is real, life is earnest, Yhat each of them "has a mission to fulfil, Even the highest salaried picture stars—enrning from $500 to $35,000 gold a week—are not tempted into the ways of -licentiousness. They put their money into Galle fornia real estate. Mary Pickford and. Douglas Fairbanks own hu Greds of acres and many office buildings and hotels, Dozens" of actors and actresses build apart ment houses to contain the thous ands of middle-aged, respectable people who come from all parts of the United States and other cou) tries of the world to live in peace In their cozy homes, set far back in tropical gardens," the motion pletisre people live their simple life. They have private gymnasiums and swimming pools, which enable them to keep physically fit. Two three nights a week they enter tain a few friends at dinn Occasionally they attend the theatre ally a motion picture theatre, When important pictures are given, world premiers," they turn out in large numbers; The respectable cabarets are all closed by midnight in Hollywood, according to the municipal law. Usually the patrons have gone home before, the closing our,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.