Many Former Hollywood Stars Find Rough Sledding After Dissipation of Fortunes
By RICK DU BROW
UPI Hollywood Writer
Hollywood (LTD In a mo
dest little home near here,
old - time movie star Francis
X. Bushman, who once had
28 servants, smiled wanly and
said: "I made six million dol
lars in five years. I spent it
as fast as it came in."
A few miles away, in a
three-room apartment, pickle
faced comedian Stan Laurel
scratched his head thought
fully and remarked: "I guess
if I had splashed the money
less in the old days, I'd be
living in more than just an
apartment now."
And in the kitchen of his
home in the San Fernando
Valley, comedian Bud Abbott,
who says he' is broke as a
result of high living and back
taxes, said ruefully: "They
should call this town Folly
wood." It was Abbott's announce
ment of his hard times last
May that reminded filmland
anew that not all Hollywood
stories have happy endings
at least, not in real life.
Many Fortunes Gone
Fortunes have slipped
through the fingers of many
film luminaries among
them, Buster Keaton, Jackie
Coogan, Mack Sennett, John
ny Weissmuller and the late
Bela Lugosi and Maurice
Costello.
But perhaps no one went
through a fortune more ex
travagantly - and with more
relish than Bushman, who,
at 76, still bears the rugged
good looks that made him
Hollywood's first "great lover."
At the height of my ca
reer," he said, "I had a dozen
secretaries and lived on a 288-
acre estate. My home cost a
quarter of a million a year
to keep up. I had 28 servants
and drove a $20,000 Marmon
car painted lavender with
'Francis X. Bushman en
scribed in gold on the out
side." His servants' uniforms
were lavender. He smoked
monogrammed lavendar cig
arettes, and he flashed an
amethyst ring as big as a golf
ball.
"I collected amethysts as a
hobby," he said.
Reign Ends
Then, in 1918, his reign
ended overnight. His adoring
female fans found out he was
married and dropped him j
cold. The white-thatched act
or has performed throughout
the years but never attained
the eminence he once had.
"I'm not bitter," he said. "I
learned a long time ago how
to have fun. I had fun when
I had millions, and I have fun
now. If I had the big money
again, I'd spent it faster than
the first time."
Laurel never accumulated
the fortune that Bushman did.
Yet he admits he should have
saved more money from the
comedies he made with the
late Oliver Hardy.
"Well, I'm human," said
the . 69-year-old comedian. "I
had domestic troubles. I had
three wives but was married
six times. Each one wanted
to give it another go. There
were lawyers to pay as well
as wives, and then four years
ago I suffered a paralytic
stroke.
"Fortunately, I had enough
good sense to put a little an
nuity away, so I didn't have
to work after Oliver died.
But the problem is the de
valuating dollar. The money
you put away years ago just
isn't worth what it was then.
I have a tight budget, and it
keeps getting tighter. I have
to watch my pennies.
Has No Regrets
"Of course, in the old days,
we didn't get anywhere near
the money the stars get nowa
days. You wouldn't dare ask
for a percentage of a picture.
They'd throw you out. But I
had fun, and I have no re
grets." Abbot said he never thought
he'd need an annuity to fall
back on. Then the government
disallowed $500,000 in tax
deductions, and he found him
self broke.
I know I visited the gam
bling tables at Las Vegas," he
said, "but it seemed like there
was so much to use. There
were always parties at my
house, and there were $100
bills for friends who heeded
it. Now there are no friends
because there are no parties
or $100 bills."
Abbott's long-time partner,
Lou Costello, is dead. And
Abbot, 63, now is trying to
work out an act with Eddie
Foy Jr.
Mack Sennett, 79, who in
vented the bathing beauty,
the Keystone Kops and the
pie-in-the-face school of act
ing, now lives in a - small
apartment looking out on a
service station on Hollywood
blvd., the street his movies
helped to build.
Owned Property
"Once I owned huge
amounts of property in Los
Angeles county," he said, "but
I had nobody to help me
carry the continuing taxes -and
there was a time when
you couldn't get anybody to
buy land here, or rent it, to
make it pay."
"Then there was the stock
market. John D. Rockefeller
once said a wise thing. He
said, 'Buy the best stocks you
can get hold of and just sit
on them. Live on them
Don't gamble." That's what a
lot of people here forgot.'
One of the great comebacks
in filmland has been made by
dead - pan comedian Buster
Keaton, 63, who once was on
top, then hit the skids and
took to drink
"The bottom dropped out of
me for a while, from about
1935 to 1940," he said. "I- was
Price 10c
Medford
54th Year
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Pages 1-4
MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1959
2nd SECTION
working as a writer, but I had
a disagreement with Louis B.
Mayer at MGM, and he fired
me. I had domestic trouble,
and I did over-drink, which
didn't help."
Now Keaton has a large in
come from TV commercials
and acting parts, and he got
$50,000 for allowing the mov
ies to make his life story.
Sued Daughter
"The trouble with most
actors," said Keaton, who
lives on a lV-acre farm near
here, "is that once they get
famous, they never dream
things will change. So they
don't invest in annuities or
other insurance. At least, not
many of the old-timers."
No one went more complete
ly broke than Maurice Cos
tello, who lived to the hilt
with the fortune he made as
DRAWING CARD, Senator Hiram L. Fong (left), (R), Hawaii, wins six-year term
while his colleague, Senator Oren Long (right), had to be content with four-year term
in U. S. Senate. Earlier Fong won toss of coin, became senior senator. Center is Sen
ate Secretary Felton M. Johnson, who conducted preference gambles.
Steel Stocks Said To Merit
Place in Any Good Portfolio
By ELMER C. WALZER
UPI Financial Editor
New York (DPD Steel is
such big business that if one
wanted to enter it in compe
tition with present companies,
he'd have to raise at least $2
billion and possibly as much
as $5 billion in capital.
Even the big steel compan
ies can't raise big money like
that - and they are organized.
They have to finance expans
ion through reinvestment of
earnings and from deprecia
tion that's inadequate to re
place obsolete plants.
This situation is brought
out by Edmund A. Mennis, a
steel - specialist, director of
research and an economist for
the Wellington Management
Fund.
He has analyzed the steel
industry and his research is
published in the current An
alysts Journal.
. Mennis' finds the steel com
panies have brought up earn
ings, smoothed out cyclical
fluctuations, established regu
lar dividends, and produced
capital gains for investors in
many instances better than
the glamorous growth stocks.
He believes the constant in
crease in steel prices may not
continue, and that significant
further growth of the econ
omy will be very difficult to
achieve.
Little Capital Gains Potential
"Steel equities merit a place
in any well-balanced port
folio," he holds, "but the
capital-gains potentials of the
past decade, based on an up
ward revaluation ,of the in
dustry by the investing pub
lic, is largely completed."
Mennis holds that the steel
industry is definitely compe
titive with respect to quality,
service, and availability of
steel and also with respect to
price. .
"Prices do not have to
fluctuate day - to - day to be
competitive," he says. "In
fact, - such fluctuations are
characteristic of few prices in
our economy today."
He explains that demand
for steel is inelastic and that
price reductions would have
little effect on demand.
"The effect of wide fluctu
ations in steel might lead to
many business failures in a
high capital cost industry and
result in uneconomic use of
resources and perhaps inade
quate capacity over the long
term," he says.
He notes that substitutes
for steel are limited in scope,
but there are other factors
holding down prices, includ
ing" pressure of steel custo
mers, threats of government
investigation and interven
tion, and import threats
"Steel imports may not be
any immediate threat to the
industry in this country,'
Mennis says, "but potentially.
could be a serious threat so
long as the relative labor cost
disparities- between European
production and U.S. produc
tion continue."
Foreign Plants Competitive
European and Japanese
steel plants have been built
up to the point where they
are fully competitive with
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ours in term of quality. But
the free world outside of the
U.S. is plagued by raw ma
terial problems.
Major steel imports into
the U.S. include barbed wire,
nails, pipe and tubing. "These
products, says Mennis. ' are
not all considered high-profit
items, and, as yet, imports do
not seem to be a serious com
petitive threat to domestic
steel producers. As a fore
shadowing of .future develop
ments, however, they are sig
nificant." Also, he notes exports of
steel are a relatively small
part of the total steel ship
ments. In 1957 they were 5.2
million, tons or 6.5 per cent
of steel shipments. In 1958
they fell to 2.7 million tons,
or 4.5 per cent of shipments.
The steel , industry has as
its customers thousands of
manufacturers whose pro
ducts are sold to consumers.
The steel makers worry more
about loss of manufactured
steel products to foreign com
petition than about the loss
of some fabricated steel.
Intelligence
Can Be Created
Washington (Science Serv
ice) - Intelligence actually
may be increased by using
new ideas of perpetual psy
chology, according to a Flor
ida educational expert.
Although it has been
thought that the intellectual
capacity a person is born with
can be changed very little by
environment and experience,
Dr. Arthur W. Combs, profes
sor of education and psychol
ogy at the University of Flor
ida . at - Gainesville, contends
that rather than being limit
ed, intelligence is a "func
tion" that can be increased by
helping a person to broaden
and deepen his perceptions.
In "Learning More About
Learning," a newly, released
publication of the National
Education Association here,
Dr. Combs explains that be
cause an individual's percep
tions cannot be affected di
rectly, new ways of teaching
must be devised that will em
phasize the student' skinner
development rather than out-
Small Worlds
Around Us
By Lynn M. Watkins,
Brown Eggs Are Not
Richer Than While
There are still many folks
who stoutly maintain that
brown eggs are richer in food
elements and are more nutri-
Magnetic Poles
Will Be Moved
Little Northward
Washington (Science Serv
ice) - The earth's two mag
netic poles will be moved a
little northward on a new
map to be published early
next year by the U.S. Navy's
Hydrographic Office here.
Since the old isogonic map
was published in 1955, the
North Magnetic Pole, north of
the Canadian mainland, ap
parently has moved about 100
miles due north across Vis
count Melville Sound from
Prince Wales Island to a
point just off the southwest
tip of Bathurst Island.
The South Magnetic 1 Pole
will be shown near Adelie
Coast, Wilkes Land, in Ant
arctica. Its new position will
be about 100 miles north and
west of the 1955 location.
Better Instrumentation
Although some movement
of the poles themselves is be
lieved to have occurred, the
apparent movement may be a
result of better instrumenta
tion for measurement, said J.
H. Nelson, chief of the U.S
Coast and Geodetic Survey's
geomagnetism branch.
Coast and Geodetic Survey
gathers the data for these
periodic Navy maps. The
Survey compiles 125,000 ob
servations, obtained in part
through exchanges with other
countries, on degrees of com
pass-needle variation in point
ing to true north. The isogonic
map thus enables its user A.o
determine true north based
on his compass reading any
where in the world.
Officially the 1960 North
Magnetic Pole will be shown
at 74.9 degrees north latitude
and 101.0 west longitude; the
South Magnetic Pole will be
at 67.1 degrees south latitude
and 142.7 degrees east longitude.
With 17,000 carloads, Yaki
ma, Wash., boasts the third
largest cold storage capacity
in the nation-second only to
Chicago and New York.
side coercion. This will help
him to find important person
al meaning in whatever ma
terial is to be learned.
To factors generally ac
cepted as determining intelli
gence, such as the physical
endowment, age and exper
ience of an individual, Dr.
Combs adds four new ones:
Need, values, self - concept,
and threat. He theorizes that
a person will perceive what
he needs, values and feels ap
propriate to himself, while a
sense of threat actually will
hinder his perception.
tious than white eggs. There
actualy are entire sections of
our country where house
wives steadfastly refuse to
buy white eggs for this sup
posed reason.
They argue that "brown
is a richer color than white,"
and therefore an egg with a
dark colored shell is -just
naturally "richer" than an
egg with a white, pasty col
ored shell. This is just as
ridiculous as the young moth
er who asked her milkman
for calf's -milk because she
thought cow's milk was too
strong for her child.
Whether the egg 'is white,
brown, spotted, or techni
colored make's not the slight
est difference in the richness
or healthfulness of the egg.
The color of the shell depends
on the species of chicken that
laid it, and the amount of
pigment in the shell.
First Food ,
Eggs were probably the
first food that primitive man
ever ate. He ate them raw,
even up until, and perhaps
after, he discovered fire. Of
course, he was eating wild
birds' eggs. . Later he domes
ticated the chicken from the
early jungle fowl and made
the hen work for him. The
ancient-Chinese ate eggs a
couple of thousand years ago,
and they still are their favor
ite food.
They even like their eggs
ripened with age, or 'even in
an advanced stage of incuba
tion. Naturally the Chinese
placed considerable signifi
cance on the fact that eggs
could generate life, so the egg
was looked upon as the "sym
bol of creation." Early Chris
tion peoples believed the egg
was symbolic of the resurrec
tion as well as the promise of
renewed life.
Superstitions ,
Many superstitions were
built about these objects that
hatched into living beings. It
was though that eggs eaten
on Easter Sunday would bring
good luck to the diner
throughout the entire year.
Others believed that a person
afflicted with stomach trou
ble could be cured by eating
an egg "that was laid on a
Friday."
The ancient Greeks likened
the universe to the egg. The
shell represented the earth,
the white represented water
and the yolk stood for firer-all
the necessary elements for
the continuance of life.
Although eggs have been
a staple food for mankind
since the very beginning, the
complete mystery of the egg,
whether it's white or brown,
has never been understood or
explained.
Even the scientists of today
is but little further .ahead
than the schoolboy in one of
the lower grades who listened
to his teacher finish her ex
planation of an egg with the
question, "Isn't it wonderful
how the little bird gets out
of its shell?" The small boy
pondered the problem a min
ute, then said, "What gets
me is how it got in there in
the first place."
(Released by The Register
and Tribune Syndicate, 1959)
"Dimples," one of the screen's He died less than a year later.
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great early lovers. As an old
man, he sued his famous
daughter, Dolores (ex-wife of
John Barrymore), for support
and eventually got some, bit
parts before he died in 1950
at the age of 74:
Costello once said:
"I'm as poor as a church
mouse, and I guess that's life.
But it's better to be a has
been than a never-was, and I
guess the world knew' 1 was
there."
Johnny Weissmuller, who
became famous as "Tarzan,"
had a financial problem when
movie roles stopped coming
and his ex-wife sued for more
alimony and . child support.
But he- is working to pull out
of his troubles.
"I have some TV residuals
from the 'Jungle Jim' series
and some royalties from the
swimming pool company that
uses my name," he said. "But
this doesn't go very far. That
pool business doesn't come
close to the one that Esther
Williams has. But we. keep
each other honest."
Went for Narcotics
Bela Lugosi, the movies
"Dracula," saw most of his
fortune dissipated for nar
cotics. In 1955,. at the age
of 72, he was committed to a
hospital at his own request
as an addict.' I
"I've been using narcotics
for 20 years," he told physic
ians. "I don't have a dime
left, but I am anxious to re
habilitate myself."
Several months later, he
was released from the hos
pital and took a fifth wife.
Jackie Coogan, famous as
"The Kid" in early films, is
one of the few actors who
made it back financially
but most of his income is from
business investments, not per
forming. . 5
Center of Suit
Coogan, 48, was the center
of a sensational suit in. 1938
when he sued his mother and
stepfather and learned his
fortune had evaporated. Betty
Grable, then his wife, had to
support him. But since World
War II, he has made another
fortune selling surplus air
planes and buying a hotel
and apartment houses.
"Anybody worry about me?
Don't be silly."
There are, of course, movie
stars who made big money
and handled it wisely. These
include Mary Pickford, Shir
ley Temple, Charlie Chaplin,
Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Ging
er Rogers and Clark Gable.
For them, and others who
knew how to handle their
dollars, the sweet smell, of
success is not likely to turn
sour.
Intellectual Work
No Curb To Life
Chicago (Science Service
Professors do not die any
earlier than streetcar conduc
tors, a Swedish researcher re
ports here.
Following a study of some
2,000 case histories. Prof. E.
Ask-Upmark of Uppsala says
that the intellectual strain to
which professors are exposed
does not increase the risk of
brain tumors or cerebral
hemorrhage. Causes of death
were not different from those
reported for persons in less
intellectual work.
Actually, the "intellectuals"
had a longer life-span, Prof.
Ask-Upmark says in the Jour
nal of the American Medical
Association. Swedish profes
sors with an average lifetime
of 68 years and American pro
fessors with an average of 67
years lived longer than the
streetcar conductors (61
years) or the typographers
(58 years).
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