Olive Carey(1896-1988)

For her work in Trader Horn (1931), for which she spent several weeks in primitive, dangerous and unhealthy conditions in East Africa, Carey was paid the grand sum of $300 by MGM, making her very angry. Upon returning to the US she, along with the rest of the cast, was promptly fired by MGM, which had decided to shelve the picture. However, several weeks later the studio decided to try to save the film, and called back the original cast, all of whom were under contract to MGM--except Olive Carey. Told that she would be needed for five days and would be paid the standard $300 fee, Carey demanded a salary of $1000 a day. MGM eventually gave in, as they needed her to match the footage that had previously been shot in Africa, and paid what she asked. She told a friend that she would have normally done the reshoot for the regular contract fee, except that she saw a chance to get back at studio head Louis B. Mayer for "dumping me in the middle of Africa, paying me nothing, then bringing me back home and firing me." This feat won her the reputation of being one of the few people in Hollywood to beat Mayer at his own game.