Screen Actors

Transcript (Download)

The story about some people, many of us, feel we know intimately.

We shared their sorrows and happiness, felt their emotions of love and hate, and lived with them in the world of make -believe.

So this feeling of kinship is only natural.

Yet actually we do not know them at all.

And that's the purpose of our story, which is about the real life of the people of our town.

Now our town is pretty much like lots of other towns in the USA.

It has big homes and little homes, supermarkets and super drug stores, and tiny sweet shops where the kids like to congregate after school.

It has service stations and cocktail lounges and bowling alleys and schools and churches and of course, traffic jams.

Most of our people live in San Fernando Valley or one of the most booming housing developments.

Or an apartment in Metropolitan Los Angeles or Beverly Hills.

Some live in Bel Air or Santa Monica and Malibu by the blue Pacific.

But to the world, the whole area is called Hollywood.

Some of our new citizens find homes at the Hollywood Studio Club, which is under the supervision of the National Board of the YWCA.

Here they share rooms with the other studio workers.

Any girl in any part of the entertainment field is eligible to live at this club.

This room was donated by Mary Stickford, along with the DeMills and other pioneers of the industry.

It must correct the present film.

Others who lived in this room at one time or another were Maureen O'Sullivan, Linda Darnell, and Donna Reeves.

These young girls have joined the ranks of the most cosmopolitan group of people in the world.

But those in show business were not always blessed with a place that they could call home.

For many centuries, the actor had to earn his living by traveling over the face of the globe at a bar or a minstrel.

He was always a wanderer.

The early days in this country saw him traveling in carnival and minstrel shows.

He was a stagecoach, later on by train.

With rail transportation came the stock company, Roseville, and the well -known One Night Stand.

Living out of jeep cages and trucks, from hotel to hotel, the railroad timetable was as important to the actor as his wardrobe or his makeup.

But with the coming of motion pictures, the life of the actor changed overnight.

As the great production centers were built, a permanent home was given to the acting profession.

Here, for the first time in history, the actor was able to live and to work in one place.

The curtain fell on 2 ,000 years of wandering.

Now let's see what happens when 8 ,000 traveling actors settle and take root in one small area and form a community.

At present, they are raising some 4 ,500 children who get just as dirty, whose shoes wear out just as fast, who play just as hard, and who get into just as much mischief as children anywhere in the world.

As the actor became rooted in one community, he took on interests other than his profession.

This actor has long turned his hobby of miniature planes into a thriving business, and during the war, his expert knowledge was highly valued by the government.

This large and successful orange row is actively operated by one of our most widely respected actors of character roles.

This young lady spends many of her working days as a businesswoman, so on the screen her role is strictly black.

One of the romantic screen stars is an active rancher who really sticks to the job.

This screen player balances her life between acting and in managing a shop for small children.

Symphony orchestras throughout the nation play the compositions of this veteran star, who not only writes music between fixture assignments, but is a competent maker of fine ethics.

Western stars not only chase the bad guys and strum their bandos, but this one in private life is an enthusiastic breeder of horses and cattle.

This character actor, here engaged in playing the part of a butcher, is also one of the directors of a large bank.

The gentleman here, who plays many roles on the screen, is also successful as head man of an automobile agency.

This well -padded comedian is also the honorary mayor of Van Nuys, California.

An action star of wide popularity on the screen, this man is in addition a farm expert on certain crops, and is a special assistant to the United States Secretary of Agriculture.

While as every sports fan knows, these celebrated radio and movie stars are deadly serious when it comes to running their baseball club.

This actor is often filmed as a guy who is fast with the game.

But his private occupations include that of a leader in the activity before it, and he is the top tact 85 of San Fernando Valley Carpenter Avenue School.

Today's actor comes from many sources, some from colleges where it is possible to plan a career of acting.

Some of our citizens began practicing for their careers when most youngsters are entering kindergarten.

The Screen Actors Guild is our town's council.

It is our union representing 8 ,000 actors.

At our executive board meetings you'll find a cross section of all our citizens.

In our guild directory, everyone is listed from A through Z.

Stars and unknowns.

Some of the names on the list are world famous.

But most are comparatively unknown to the public.

Many of them are called stuntmen, but they are really technicians like those who wreck cars.

Yes, our town is unusual in many ways.

For in it you will find the men who portray the roughest, toughest galoops this side of the Pecos.

The well -dressed men and women who fill royal ballrooms.

Those who play the part of the section man and dancing girl.

The robber, the robber, the man who plays the robber.

Despite their varied activities, the people in our town are attached to their homes.

Maybe it's because so many of them lived out of suitcases before settling down in Hollywood.

You're out to find an actor who used to have one pop of geranium on a fire escape off Times Square, now spending hours in his garden.

Yes, these are some of the citizens of our community.

And believe it or not, nearly all of them go to the movies regularly, for show people love show business.

People you've seen many times on the street, and who beneath the tinsel of the make -up and the glitter, are very grateful that modern science has made it possible for them to take root in a bit of American soil, the soil they like to call our town.

Identifier

F.2012-03-0010

Date Of Production

1950

Abstract

This short film provides behind-the-scenes looks at the day-to-day lives of Hollywood actors and includes cameo appearances by many film stars.

Description

The film's voice-over explains that prior to the invention of motion pictures and the construction of proximately located production companies, actors were required to continuously travel by stagecoach or rail to appear in front of audiences across the country. With the establishment of Hollywood, actors could settle in one shared space along with their families to continue with their professions, and simultaneously further various hobbies and interests besides acting.

Run Time

0:08:42

Format

16mm

Extent

300 feet

Color

B&W

Sound

Optical

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Print

Genre

Documentary
Educational

Form

Newsreels

Subject

Entertainers
Motion picture industry

Related Collections

SERIES II: Collected Films

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ California ➜ Hollywood

North America ➜ United States ➜ California ➜ Los Angeles

Distributor

MGM

Main Credits

Elias, Hal (is director)

Leenhouts, Grant (is producer)

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (is production company)

Additional Credits

Hull, Frank (is editor)

Participants And Performers

Nesbitt, John (is narrator)

Ames, Leon (is participant)

Autry, Gene, 1907-1998 (is participant)

Arnold, Edward (is participant)

Barrymore, Lionel (is participant)

Crisp, Donald (is participant)

Bennett, Joan (is participant)

Crosby, Bing (is participant)

Darnell, Linda (is participant)

Denny, Reginald (is participant)

Devine, Andy (is participant)

Duryea, Dan (is participant)

Ford, Glenn (is participant)

Gable, Clark (is participant)

Gardner, Ava (is participant)

Garson, Greer (is participant)

Hope, Bob (is participant)

Kelly, Gene (is participant)

McCrea, Joel (is participant)

O'Sullivan, Maureen (is participant)

Patrick, Gail (is participant)

Pidgeon, Walter (is participant)

Reed, Donna (is participant)

Revere, Anne (is participant)

Taylor, Robert (is participant)

Williams, Esther (is participant)

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