Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-15
THE STAGE.

3 so i
/. Before Ghe EOOtIIghts and Lseh6n,
the Scenes-The Wages of Actor
and Actresses-Paddinga and Paint
: ing.
4 Hiss Olive Logan has written a book
= and a ponderous one it is-not in quality
but in quantity. Six hundred and lively,
printed pages lie between the covers.
Bot, fortunately, it is not heavy reading.
1t is all about that realm of fascination
the stage.
THE WAGES CT ACTORS.
Among the topics specially dwelt upon
are: Training for the stage; the severity
of the work; rehearsals; the memory of
actors; stage rules and their strict enforce
ment; how to make up the face; etiquette
among actors; their salaries; the property
man; scene painters; ballet girls and
blondes; juggiers and gymhasts. Besides
these and a hundred other such subjects,
Miss Logan has something to say about
menageries and wild beasts, how these
latter are caught and how they are tanned,
and the dangers that beset the daring
tanners. As some of our readers may
be interested to know how the sal
aries OF actors compare with those
OF persons in other vacations, we
give Miss Logan's estimate. She states
that it is not easy to get at the precise
figures, since not only is the rude question
never asked in the profession, "What do
you get weekYn but it is a point of Ell
quette among actors to remain in ignO-
rance of the pay of their fellow actors.
Miss Logan says: ''The salary of lead
ing actor or actress ranges from $40 to
$50 week. But know one leading ac
tress in New York who gets 800 week,
and two who get S75 each. These, how
| ever, are peculiar cases, all three being
actresses specially attractive for youth,
beauty and talent. Walking gentleman
or lady will get from $40 to $35 week;
old man or old woman from $25 to $40,
while other players of lower grade of
talent than these viii get all the way
down from $25 to SO week. | should
say there would be no lower salary than
| $40 week in theater for any one who
| appears on the stage, even for members of
| the ballet or 'supes, though it is true that
| sometimes extra men are engaged from the
street for some special purpose, who re-
ceiye no more than s. or 81 week. The
| pay of stars is very different matter
Usually these ladies and gentlemen play
for q share in the receipts at the door;
and when they DO this, of course their
pay is regulated almost wholly by their
drawing power. Sometimes, however,
the most celebrated actors and actresses
in the land have engaged themselves for a
fixed salary per week or per night. In
the case of very popular players this sum
is sometimes almost fabulously large The
largest salary that has ever been paid to
star in this country is that which was
paid to Joseph Jefferson, at Booths The
atre, in August and September, 1869,
namely $500 per night. Even at this
price he proved an immensely profitable
star, drawing an average of 81, 200 every
night throughout the season"
PADDING AND PAINTING.
Concerning the delicate questions of
padding the legs and painting the face,
Miss Logan enters into some curious de-
tails. ''The woman, she says, ''or the
man either, who cannot exhibit shapely
figure on the stage, has certainly not
learned the way to the shop of the pad
| maker There are quite a number of
these professors of symmetry in this
country, but they are most numerous in
Philadelphia. They advertise quite
freely in the theatrical journals, and no
one need be in ignorance of their where
abouts. They do not boldly advertise the
unpleasant word padding, of course
the popular term for padding, is sym
metrical goods Much need not here be |
said on the DOdus Operdndj of the pad
maker. The science lies in weaving leg
gings or tights in such a way that they
shall increase the thickness of the calf,
the thigh, etc, and woven, putting silk |
or cotton in the place where flesh is want |
ed, and thus concealing leanness or de-
fOrmity. Thus tragedian with lower
limbs like pipe-stenlS can pull on his
tights and stand before an admiring audi
cnce with the sturdy legs of an athlete.
''To make up the face is one of the
subtlcst arts of the actor Who that has
witnessed the acting of RistOri in Queen
Elizabeth but will remember how from act
to act she yisibly grew older before our
eyes Not only by voice, and manner,
and gait, was this change effected, but her
face, bright and joyous at the beginning
of the play, became gradually wrinkled,
pale and caTeWOTn; her hair grew grayer
and grayer, until at last, as she lay On the
couch representing the dying Queen, she
seemed reduced to a skeleton and livid as
a corpse. This was brought about solely
by her perfect knowledge of how to make
up the face.
81 was behind the scene of the French
Theatre in New York one night when
Ristori was playing Elizabeth, and when
l came to look closely at her face it
seemed a meaningless mass of white and
black marks with deep dashes of red
under the eyes but at one step off the
effect was wonderful Ii is easier TO make
up the face to look old than to look
young nevertheless a careful mingling of
pink for the cheek, white for the fore
head, black for the brows, and carmine
for the lips, will go a great way toward
making an old and homely woman look
like young and handsome one.
MEMORY OF ACTORS.
Some remarkable instances of the men, |
DRY of actors are given. For instance, a
year or two since Mr.. j. w. Wallack,
Jr., it is stated, went in at a theatre in
Washington entirely perfect in the part
of Bob Briefly in the ''Ticket-of-Leave-
Man," having committed the part in
thirty minutes;.:and Edwin Booth, when a
boy, got through Richard III, in the i'll
ness of his father, without having studied |
it. MISS Logan also states that her own
father once took the long and difficult
tragic TOlc Of Black Ralph on remarka-
bly, brief notice. The part was placed in
his hands at six o'clock, and at half past |
seven the curtain rang up. In the inter-
val Mr. Logan had not only studied his
part, but dressed and made up his face.
He played the part TO the end without
mistakes, although at one point he was
so disconnected at seeing a book of the
play in the hands of one of the aTl-
dience that he sent around to request the
person to lay it aside. Such powers of
committing parts, however, are very rare,
and, as a rule, those who commit easily
forget quickly.