IF JOAN WAS INDEED tense and preoccupied during most of 1931, as she seemed to Doug and some colleagues, she certainly had reasons. For one thing, her agent encountered difficulties in finalizing her contract renewal, and for some time she feared that she might be dropped from Metro’s roster. The parties finally came to terms, and Joan signed for three thousand dollars a week, with raises scheduled so that, by 1936, she would receive three times that amount—which made her one of the
