The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-04-28
HOW "CHEAP sHowsn ARE PAID FoF

WHY VARIETY THEATRE CAN BIZ RUN 50
EcoNoAICALLY-THE SALARIES OF TEN
YEARS AGO AND OF THE PREsENT-WHAr
SPECIAL STARS GET WEEK.
In speaking of the greater economy
with which variety" theatre can be
run" compared with one of standard char
acter, and of the present salaries of special-
lists, the New York Times SAYS: In the first
place, the manager is never bored about new
pieces and authors royalties The performer
supplies his piece or sketches for the salary
Then the scenic aojuncts are not necessarily
expensive, because few variety performers
need more than an ordinary 4.interior,5 or
'exterior" set as the framework of his or
her picture. Wardrobe costs the manager
little, as most of the artists. being specialists
have their own gear. Machinists stage helm
and supernumeraries are also fewer a. the
Olympic or Comique, under the present re-
gime, than they are in any other kind of
theatre. The only expenses on the manage
ment of moment are the performers salaries,
the orchestra, general help around the
house, and advertising. Take, for ex-
ample. the Metropolitan Theatre, and
we find that the orchestra, at $40
q week for each piece, and $50 for the leader.
costs about s22O.a week. The help. includ,
ing scene-shifters, carpenters, painter, and
ushers, draw salaries amounting in the aQ-
gregate to $500. The performers salaries
are the heaviest part of the expenses. A
will probably be the best indication of the
increasing popularity and Importance of va
rieties. To begin, then, song and dance
men twelve years ago received from eight to
ten dollars a week; now they range as high
as seventy-five dollars a week. Comic
singers of every class did not receive more
than twenty dollars week at that Time and,
indeed, Tony Pastor, who was a very great
attraction during the war, thought he was
doing well when he received twenty-five
dollars week. Now, Miss Jennie Hughes
aud Nully Pieris get 500 week, and Annie
Adams two years ago, $50.
IRISH AND NEGRO DEIINEAToRs
Never got more than S25 in the good old
time of 80 and '63. Even the famous "Billy
O'NeiIl," esteemed the best Irish low come
dian m the business, only commanded SIS
week. This season Sam Hickey gets Sl25
negro comedian, $3.50. Add Ryman received
$40 q week four or five years ago now he gets
SIS, and all those great favorites of the local
politicians Dan Shelby, Hughey Dougherty,
Slccum. and other renowned stump speak
ers, said their smartest and wittiest things
for sd week. They would not "black up''
short of 500 now. Then there are Nefss
Seymour and Eph Horn, the veterans who
talk plantation dialect nightly for $S5
week; and the Mulligan Guards, Hart and
Harrigan, march across the stage for fifteen
or twenty minutes nightly for $50 a week.
hdStcI VI OIL 1Iicu
washerwoman's part for the moderate
sum OF SIPS a week, while Johnny
Wild, the East-siders' "pet," dashes
about the stage for something less than one
hundred and fifty dollars week. Yet he,
in 1860 was proud to earn g. so a week at
the ''Art Bnion," No. $50 Broadway. Lesv-
ing the delineators, we come to the utility
men. These never drew more than ten dol
lars a week in former days. Now they get
$50. Light comedians, too, who are really
good actors, get $50, and earn more money
and reputation than they could in more pre-
tentious establishments. The aerobats and
rrapezist draw very large salaries. For ex-
ample, Leona Dare and her husband get $50
week in New York. and 5000 outside of it;
the Jackley family, $3.50; Lulu. 81 900; Ala,
$50; the Wilson's, $50, and the Matthew's
family, $3.50. At least, the last named were
engaged in England three years ago by Mr..
Butler tor $50 week, and after they made
their appearance here he let them out to
other managers at $500, making by the
transaction over two hundred dollars q week
himself. The Berger family of beli-ringcrs
get about eight hundred dollars a week, and
other specialists receive all the way from
one hundred TO five hundred dollars weekly