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The job of the “special” was to produce picture stories or features on a film during the production: major essays on the stars for cover stories (Cooper back to nature  in South Seas waters, Fred Astaire creating a dance number, Marylin Monroe’s relationship whit her backstage guru Paula Strasberg) or stories on the stars preparing for a particular challenge (Bette Davis or Marlon Brando learning to be hoofers, Natalie Wood becoming a fencer, Joan Crowford mastering jujitsu), or tiny vignettes for one page fillers (known as “floaters” in journalistic slang.