Hollywood is truly the modern Bagdad of magic fortunes.
Beggars of yesterday are princes today.
It's the land of Get-Rich-Quick Youth. Nowhere on earth at any time was youth so richly rewarded.
A few years ago Mary Pickford earned seventy-five a week. Now she is a multi-millionaire. And still a girl. There has been a phenomenal rise in salaries during the past year, hence a new financial rating.
Players may be divided into three financial classes:
Stars who produce independently and sell their pictures to distributing companies.
Stars employed by producing companies under contract at a stipulated salary.
And, third, players who freelance, working from company, to company at whatever salaries they can get.
The leading independents- those who make their own pictures- are Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, Mary Pickford, Constance Talmadge and Charles Ray.
Chaplin, Fairbanks and Mary Pickford have their own distributing organization, selling their pictures directly to the theaters.
Lloyd, Ray and the Talmadges sell their product to distributing companies, receiving a certain amount stipulated by contract plus a percentage of the profits earned by the pictures.
When Charlie Chaplin made his famous million-dollar contract in 1917 with First National, many people were under the impression that he received a cold million for simply acting in pictures for a year. In reality, Chaplin produced the pictures at his own expense. Thus, out of the million, he paid his supporting players camera, men, studio employees and all. the overhead of his studio. It was the largest contract ever made up to that time- and the most profitable for the distributing company. Chaplin's pictures earned tremendous profits over the million paid him.
Harold Lloyd during the past year received a million and a quarter from Pathe for his pictures. He has probably cleared a quarter of a million or more for himself.
In 1919 Norma Talmadge made eight pictures for First National for which she received $1,280,000, or $160,000 for each picture. Her profit was probably between a quarter and a half million. The next year she agreed to deliver twelve pictures at $350,000 each and a percentage of the net profit. The cost of these pictures has been estimated at $200,000. Thus Norma earns well over two million on the contract.
The rise in her earning power is indicative of her increase in popularity.
Constance Talmadge received $110,000 each for her pictures in 1919, and in 1920 made twelve pictures at $300,000 each. Like Norma, she paid the cost of production.
Anita Stewart made eight pictures which brought $720,000 under her contract with First National, recently expired. Anita now is under contract with Cosmopolitan at a fixed salary.
When Katherine MacDonald finished her contract with First National she was receiving about $50,000 as her salary for each picture.
Of the stars who are employed on a purely salary basis at the present time, Mabel Normand is probably the highest paid. She receives $70,000 from Mack Sennett for each picture in which she appears.
Of the stars working under contract at weekly salaries, Thomas Meighan, Dorothy Dalton and Alice Brady are the highest paid, each receiving $5,000 a week.
The fact that Miss Dalton and Miss Brady receive far more than such favorites as Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson appears unaccountable until you learn that they are nearing the end of contracts which were made several years ago. The contracts called for an increase of salary every year.
Finding Miss Brady's services too expensive for the screen, under this contract, the Famous Players Company has placed her in a stage play, "Zander the Great," on Broadway.
The same company holds a long term contract with Elsie Fergison which calls for $10,000 a week when she works. The final pictures have not been made under this contract because the star's salary makes the cost of production too great for profit.
Gloria Swanson at the present time is receiving $3,500 a week. At the termination of her contract, she will be receiving $5,000.
Pola Negri's weekly salary accord to publicity stories is $5,000, but intimate report places it at $2,000, which is five hundred less than Agnes Ayres is reputed to get.
Jack Holt is rated at $2,000 a week and Leatrice Joy will arrive in the $2,000 class as a Paramount star under a new contract, it is said.
Ernest Torrence's work in The Covered Wagon practically doubled his salary. His contract, just made with Lasky calls for $1,500.
Richard Barthelmess' contract with the Inspiration pictures, releasing through First National, calls for a salary and a percentage of profits. Since all of his pictures, with the possible exception of The Seventh Day, have been money makers, Barthelmess is now in the heavy financial class.
Lillian Gish's contract with Inspiration is similar to that of Barthelmess. She receives a salary and a share in the profits. The White Sister, which she recently completed in Italy, is her first production under this arrangement.
When William Farnum ended his contract with Fox he was receiving $10,000 every week he worked. Thomas Mix is now the highest-salaried star on the Fox lot, with William Russell ranking close, at $2,000 per working week.
Metro recently made three star contracts of consequence.
Jackie Coogan was paid $500,000 in advance on his services for three years.
Viola Dana, one of the most consistent of all program stars, was signed on a contract that calls for $1,500 or thereabouts, every week in the year.
And Ramon Novarro was presented with a contract which will yield him three quarters of a million within the next three years- and before he is twenty-six! Novarro has been receiving less than five hundred in Ingram productions. His popularity has so increased with each appearance in these pictures that he now has to spend practically a third of his salary on fan mail- for postage and photographs requested.
Malcolm McGregor, another Ingram "find," was placed under contract at a low figure following his first screen appearance, which was in The Prisoner of Zenda. He has been loaned to other companies to play leading roles at a salary ranging from $500 to $750 a week. When this is done the company pays him his regular salary and fifty per cent of the amount received above that.
Although Alice Terry has been offered star contracts with salary of several thousand a week, she prefers to remain in the all-star productions made by her husband, Rex Ingram, at a salary less than a thousand.
Goldwyn has been busily signing players at fancy figures. Conrad Nagel is down on the payroll for $1,500, and Lew Cody is signed up for a year at $1,000.
Following her success in "The Christian," Mae Busch was placed on a Goldwyn contract at a salary which is said to start at $650. Only a year ago Miss Busch faced bankruptcy after weeks of idleness.
So great is production activity at the present time in Hollywood that the players of note who are not tied by contracts can virtually name their own salaries.
Among the free lances most in demand several receive higher salaries than the stars they support.
Conway Tearle is probably the most expensive leading man. He gently requests $2,500 a week- and gets it.
James Kirkwood was so eager to prove his ability on the stage last year that he threw up $1,500 a week in pictures to play the leading role in Channing Pollock's play "The Fool," on Broadway, at $500. Having won his laurels, he now returns to pictures at $2,000 per seven days.
The most sought after players in Hollywood this year are the villainous Beerys, Noah and Wallace, who receive $1,500 a week. Wally recently played in three pictures simultaneously, thus tripling his salary.
The highest salaried character man is Lon Chaney, who is getting $2,200 a week.
There are a number of men in the $1,500-a-week class of free lances. Notable among them are: David Powell, Wyndham Standing, Hobart Bosworth, Milton Sills and Lewis Stone.
H.B. Warner has been tempted back to the screen at $1,500 a week to play the leading role opposite Gloria Swanson in "Zaza."
The popular Moore brothers, Matt, Tom and Owen, will each do a neat week's work for $1,000. So, too, will John Bowers.
Among the leading men whose salaries range from $500 a week to $1,000 are: Kenneth Harlan, Gaston Glass, Harrison Ford, Lloyd Hughes, James Rennie, Monte Blue, Johnny Walker, Frank Mayo, George Walsh and Cullen Landis.
Landis' contract with Goldwyn at $350 expired not long ago and the lad stepped out immediately to the tune of $600.
Barbara La Marr is the lady champion of free lancers. Only a couple of years ago Barbara found it difficult to make fifty a week. Now her salary quotation is $2,500, forced up by sharp bidding among producers since her appearance in The Prisoner of Zenda at a few hundred.
Another lady who can scarcely keep her engagements straight, and who always finds them overlapping, is Anna Q. Nilsson. It would seem that no all-star production is complete without her. Producers consider it a privilege to have her at $1,500 a week.
Florence Vidor is also in demand at $1,500.
Marguerite de la Motte's salary has advanced from $750 to $1,250 within the year.
Only a few years ago Irene Rich worked as an extra for Mary Pickford at ten dollars a day. Now Mary is paying her $1,000 a week to play the queen in "The Street Singer."
Colleen Moore has been an exceedingly active leading lady without a contract. Now First National has signed her to star at a salary which starts in the vicinity of $1,500.
Six months ago Patsy Ruth Miller was receiving $200. Her latest offer, from Universal, was $1,250.
Many a player of great popularity is chafing under an old contract which provides for a relatively small salary. Claire Windsor, for example, made a long-term contract with Goldwyn when the industry was under a cloud of depression. Thus she receives but $350 a week. Lois Wilson, Nita Naldi, Lila Lee, Bebe Daniels and other favorites are also tied to contracts at relatively small salaries.
But who knows how long the sun will shine so brilliantly?
It's a good time right now for a player to lay in a contract against the rainy day.
