©ourtesy of Corey@I’ll keep you posted

By the end of the 1930’s, screen actors Cary Grant and Randolph Scott were bonafide stars who were quickly on their way to becoming Hollywood royalty.  Their butler, Jim, may have been a star in his own right or in his own mind. In the 1920’s and 30’s, black maids, butlers, chauffeurs and the like had a certain respected status within Hollywood circles based on their own recognizance.  It’s said that while notable black stars might show up on a movie set or at the studio, they were still considered nobodies within the grand scheme of things. But when a white star’s domestic help arrived, there was a definite change in the atmosphere.  To begin with, they had to have personality plus in order to survive.  They had to smile, comfort and charm when they didn’t want to often with people they really didn’t like.  And if they really wanted to get ahead, they had to be shrewd!  They knew how and when to play their hand, with many parlaying careers as domestics into careers on the screen, at the studios and as businesspeople. 

There was much that was commonplace within the industry that could never be brought to the light for fear of ruined careers and the involvement of moral politicians and the church in studio moviemaking.  It was code among the servants exactly what (or what not) to reveal.  Ask Jean Harlow‘s maid, Blanche Williams, about the suicide of the star’s husband, Paul Bern or the black, gay Henry Peavey – the butler in the infamous 1920’s William Desmond Taylor scandal – about his employer’s mysterious death.  I wonder what Jim (above) could have told us about Grant and Scott – if anyone would have bothered to ask?

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