The Big Business of moviemaking can no longer afford to pamper its temperamental stars. This simple fact of Hollywood economics was made abundantly clear last week to Tenor Mario Lanza, Who rode to movie stardom on the success of the musical, The Great Caruso.
Lanza’s new picture was to be The Student Prince. At his studio’s urging, Tenor Lanza whittled down his overstuffed, 2201b. hulk to a romantic, semi-princely 178 Ibs. But on shooting day, Mario did not feel like working.
His sulky mood continued for the next fortnight, with off & on suspensions and promises to report. Meanwhile, the cast and crew of The Student Prince stood by —at a reported cost to the studio of $20,000 a day. Finally, with Lanza apparently still not feeling up to his work and still making no reasonable explanation, M-G-M announced that it had canceled production of the Prince, and would sue Lanza for breach of contract and over $700,000 in costs.
In fine print was another pretty severe penalty: the studio suspension automatically cancelled Tenor Lanza’s Coca-Cola-sponsored radio show, and the sponsor announced that the Lanza contract, which runs out the end of September, would not be renewed.
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