Jealousy is bad for the soul. Your clergyman probably would tell you so. Dear Abby would say the same thing.
Jealousy is also very human. Therefore, let`s talk salaries.
Several years ago, a paperback called ”Reel Facts: The Movie Book of Records” published a list of movie star`s salaries. The trade publication
”The Hollywood Reporter” condensed the list and ran it in its recent 54th anniversary issue. Some of the statistics are not that envy-provoking to the average citizen, however.
It has long been known, for example, that Vivien Leigh received only $17,000 for the arduous Scarlett O`Hara role in ”Gone With the Wind.” The role made her career, and $17,000 covered more ground in 1939 than it does today. One also must take into consideration that managers and agents had to be paid out of any star`s salary. (It may have irritated Leigh ever-so-slightly to know that for playing Rhett Butler, Clark Gable was rewarded with $4,500 a week plus a $50,000 bonus.)
Kim Novak`s case represents the inequities of ironclad contracts. Incredible as it seems today, the beautiful but not-overly-talented Novak was a major star of the 1950s.
You wouldn`t know it from her salary. She was under contract to Columbia Pictures, a studio not known for its generosity in the good old days. In 1955, when she was getting started, she was earning $75 a week. When she had several hits to her name, the studio raised her to $100 a week. When United Artists wanted to borrow her for ”The Man With the Golden Arm,” they had to pay Columbia $100,000, although Kim still was earning only $100 a week at the time.
Elizabeth Taylor was luckier. In 1952, she was earning $5,000 a week. She has said several times that she didn`t want to do ”Cleopatra” and therefore made extravagant salary demands of 20th Century-Fox, thinking the studio would laugh in her face.
Instead the studio met her demands, and Liz got her chance to costar with Richard Burton.
Queen Elizabeth`s ”Cleopatra” contract called for a straight $125,000 for 16 weeks` work. However, the film went into a lengthy overtime shoot, and Liz was paid $50,000 for every week of overtime. She also got 10 percent of the film`s gross (which is much more generous than getting a percentage of the profits).
Through it all, she had a $3,000-a-week expense account.
Percentages help enormously. Bette Davis` career was skidding when she lucked out with ”Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” She agreed to $25,000 for ”Baby Jane,” but it`s rumored that her percentage of the substantial profits put her over $1 million for the film.
Dustin Hoffman received a straight salary of $3 million for the hit
”Tootsie.” However, reports on his percentage deals for ”Tootsie” have listed his eventual take at over $15 million. Earlier in his career, he had been paid $17,000 for ”The Graduate,” $250,000 for ”Midnight Cowboy” and $425,000 for the almost-forgotten ”John and Mary.”
It`s interesting that while Hoffman was paid $250,000 for ”Midnight Cowboy,” costar Jon Voight, then an unknown, was paid $17,000 for the same picture–the exact amount Hoffman had been paid when he did ”The Graduate”
as an unknown.
Actually, $17,000 seems to be a lucky number. Vivien Leigh got it for
”Gone With the Wind.” Dustin Hoffman got it for ”The Graduate.” Jon Voight got it for ”Midnight Cowboy.” Frank Sinatra, hitting the comeback trail, got it for ”From Here to Eternity.”
Sean Connery also got $17,000 for ”Dr. No.” However, when subjecting himself to the rigors of playing James Bond one final time in ”Never Say Never Again,” he asked for–and got–$4 million.
”The Godfather” made several reputations and remade Marlon Brando`s. In 1957, he had earned $300,000 plus a percentage for ”Sayonara.” In 1972, he agreed to $250,000 plus a percentage for ”The Godfather.”
The movie, to put it mildly, was a success. Recent reports have placed his take at more than $2 million. The film`s blockbuster status raised Brando`s asking price, once and for all, to more than $1 million a picture.
That, as the saying goes, is show biz.
