Back in 1938, an exasperated theater owner named Harry Brandt coined the term “box office poison’’ for a trade journal jeremiad about a group of Hollywood stars “whose dramatical [sic] ability is unquestioned, but whose box office draw is nil.’’ Among the names he dropped: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn...
Back in 1938, an exasperated theater owner named Harry Brandt coined the term “box office poison’’ for a trade journal jeremiad about a group of Hollywood stars “whose dramatical [sic] ability is unquestioned, but whose box office draw is nil.’’ Among the names he dropped: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn...