Cinema: Back to Normal

In Hollywood’s restaurants the tips were at again; the Great Panic seemed to be over. The simple reason: box-office busi-less all over the U.S. was bad.

It sounded like the dizziest Hollywood logic, but it was a fact. Box-office grosses, despite a slight recent recovery, had not gone back to the wartime highs. Pictures had moved so fast through the nation’s theaters that Hollywood’s huge stockpile vas almost exhausted. The big sound stages were suddenly put furiously to work to supply the theaters’ demands.

Last week 36 films were in production, compared with 23 in the last week in January. Employment of extras was 15% greater than it was last year at the same time. Applications for California unemployment relief were down by 300 at the Hollywood branch office.

A fashionable Hollywood psychiatrist diagnosed the general mental state of his patients: “In their subconscious minds it all looked like disaster . . . Now they see it will be all right.” Some of the psychiatrist’s patients may have been holding out on him. The bestsellers at a leading Hollywood bookstore were still Peace of Mind, A Guide to Confident Living, and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.