Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-06-04
OUR ACTORS.
The Managers and Agents Of the No.
madlc Thesplans, and How
They Work.

New York Star.l
The dramatic season is over, and tn
returned actors and agents are crowd
ing Union Square and debating plan.
and prospects for next year. The pas
has been a disastrous term of expert
ence for the majority of travelling com.
panies, and such of them as start out
next season will sail pretty close to the
wind. These travelling mummers are
a little world by themselves. Unlike
the more fortunate members of the
profession who have established them.
selves in stock positions in metropoli-
tan theaters, these nomads are social
outcasts, living an unnatural life OF
haste, hustle, excitement AMI c%ontinu-
Gus movement. 1t is a perpetual Nav
day with them. They are always
changing their homes, and never find
ing one in which they can rest. Like
poor 10, they are kept continually
moving on, and the fate Of many Of
them in the end is almost as sad as
that of Dickens famous character.
The life has its charms, however,
although the emoluments are never
great aud always uncertain. The man
or woman who has once tasted of this
Bohemian existence can never be in
duced to resign it. There is a charm
in its restless movements a facinatiOn
in its varying fortunes beyond the
great magic of public recognition and
applause. Human nature once sub
Ijected to the chimeric influences of
such an atmosphere loses all its staid
characteristics, and receives, as by a
subtlealchemy, a weird and uneartly
quality. Therace Oftravelingactorsand
actresses are as different in their lives.
their tastes and their sentiments from
the ordinary %sedentary and ambling
world as could be any new race of
giants or pigmies (have it as you wilD
discovered only yesterday.
The forces that provide the country
through the fall and winter are vari-
ously composed of artistic materials
good, bad and Indifferent. Their ex-
p%erience is equally diversified, and
even sufficient talent in a party does
not insure them against suffering mis-
fortunes or that dread alternative,
p" walking home" Home in every
case, be it understood, means New
York; for this city is the starting
point of all travelling troupes and the
headquarters of all dramatic business.
Actors all come to the metropolis to
get engagements, and all travelling ex-
penses are counted from New York
out and back. When a star is going
out on the road he finds it necessary
to secure. first of all, a company Of
actors. This he does by applying to
an agent-Henry Wall, at No. 10
Union Square, or SimmOnds & Brown.
at No. S63 Broadway. BY paying
these agents a fee of $25 per annum,
the star is guaranteed their services
in furnishing actors for him through
the season, whenever a vacancy occurs
after they have organized the company
for him.
This part of the business settled
during the early summer, the star
inds it necessary to engage two very
important persons-a business mana
ger and an advance agent. On these
latter depends the fortune of his eu-
tire trip in the fall and winter, and it
behooves him to make his selection
with Judgment. AS his title implies,
it is the duty of the business Of the
company. He passes the hot summer
months in writing copy for posters and
liandbills, and in experimenting their
printing at the theatrical printing
Establishments, which are always
crowded and rushed with work dur
ing the warm days Of August. The
interim is filled in by the manager in
marking out a route over which the
company is to travel, and in making
the engagements with the various
theaters and halls in the towns which
are designated for a visit.
In making out this line of march
the manager must regard the distance
of the towns apart, the amount Of
railroad fares and the ability to make
connections in time to play as adver-
tised. For instance, If the object is to
play in Chicago on a certain date. the
manager calculates that IL will cost
ham at least SIS a head to transport
liis cOmpany of ten or fifteen people
there so he arranges that they NAV
work their way there. He plays them
a week at Philadelphia, another al
P~ittsburg, another at Cincinnati. In
dianapolis. st. Louis. and then TO
Chicago. making money IL he has
luck en- route, and making the railroad
fares out Of his profits.
To mark out a route that will be
profitable 70 the style of performance
he has in hand is the business mana
ger strong point, and 10 do so he de-
ponds entirely on his experience. He
has been through all the good dra-
matte towns and knows exactly what
will please the people Of the places he
proposes to visit. If the start is 10 be
made from New York about the LIST of
September, as usual, the rehearsal Of
the company are called for the last
fortnight in August, the stage of a
city theater being loaned for the pur-
pose. Then, a week or ten days be-
fore the earliest day decided on for a
performance, the business manager
summons his advance agent, puts in
his charge a bill-trHnk Ia large box
containing bills, pictorial and deseFip-
tlyel and starts him of ahead TO work
up the first stand. Throughout the
season the advance agent is always one
full week ahead of the company, with
which the business manager remains.
At the first stand the ADVANCE agent
reports at the theater at which the
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