Even in a film filled with notable cameos, John Gilbert's appearance in Davies's vehicle Show People is striking. He first appears driving onto the MGM lot before an astonished Peggy Pepper, and is then seated at what an intertitle calls “the stars’ table” in the studio commissary. In a pan around the table, the shot takes in performers like Renée Adorée, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart, Rod La Rocque, Mae Murray, Norma Talmadge, and even gossip columnist Louella Parsons. Certain stars avoid the camera, while others offer it an oblique glance; Gilbert, however, gazes at it directly and even encourages his former wife, actress Leatrice Joy, to do the same. Utterly relaxed before the camera and with his fellow performers, Gilbert strikes the eye as a star among stars in this self-reflexive picture. The historical context, however, introduces an element of poignancy to the scene, capturing as it does MGM on the cusp of the talkies. Though it did not feature dialogue, Show People nonetheless utilized synchronized sound in a gesture to the cinematic vogue; a gesture that renders this lunch at the studio a kind of Last Supper for silent stars.

Where the previous chapter concluded with Gilbert at the height of his success and professional relationship with Thalberg, this chapter begins with the star on the threshold of disaster. Following the poor audience response to his sound debut in His Glorious Night (dir. Barrymore, 1929)—famously spoofed in Singin’ in the Rain (dir. Donen and Kelly, 1952)—Gilbert faced a crisis that not even Thalberg, “That Perfect Boss” (Leslie 1926: 56), could resolve. He tried: Thalberg personally produced Way for a Sailor (dir. Wood, 1930), in which Gilbert played a merchant marine; following its failure, Thalberg asked Samuel Marx to find a gangster “yarn” for Gilbert, and the result was the equally unsuccessful Gentlemen's Fate (dir. LeRoy, 1931) (Marx 1975: 148).