Cinema: Casting & Misconduct

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In 1925, Tsar Will Hays asked the Russell Sage Foundation to investigate Hollywood casting agencies. The investigation showed that: the agencies charged commissions as high as 60%; there were so many of them that aspirants for cinema jobs had a hard time keeping in touch with all; applicants were often cheated, mistreated, or subjected to improper offers. In 1926, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc. started the Central Casting Corp. to interview applicants for jobs three days a week, assign welfare workers to minor applicants, charge no commissions. For general manager the corporation chose an unassuming young man named David Allen who had been running an agency of his own.

Last month, a Los Angeles Grand Jury indicted David Allen and an obscure cinemactress named Gloria Marsh for immorality. Last week the testimony of an extra whose name was not revealed was made public. The extra charged that Allen & Miss Marsh had entered a beauty shop where she was employed and registered her for work; that Allen had later offered her a job if she would "submit to him," that Allen had asked her to invite extra girls to her apartment for parties; that misconduct was usually the price of securing work.

Said David Allen, who resigned the day he was accused: "In my position I am always a target for heartless aspiring men and women seeking to entrap me or frame me. . . . This is the first time in 20 years they have progressed so far as to have me formally accused."