Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-26
MODS ON THE STAGE.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO
CONSTITUTE THEM.
The s.super'' and the Chorus Girl Alike
Aspire to Place and the Cast
Fame and Disappointment.

This is the season of the year when the
young man who is in hard luck and has
passion for theatricals besieges the stage
door and applies for place on the list Of
t'supers," and the young girl with good
form and pretty face calls at the dramatic
agency to look for a place in the spectacu-
lar or operate chorus. The regular stock
super is study. AS general thing Dame
Nature has been unkind to him in many
ways. She has neglected to give to him
handsome face or manly form, and she has
bereft him of vocal and evolutionary adj
Yantages or the aptitude to rise above an
armor bearer.
A crowd of "supers" around a stage door
constitutes picturesque group in their
everyday attire, and they are none the
less picturesque when they don the stage
tinsel and the tin armor. Their cotton
feshings usually fit them like the skin on
dried prune, and their armor hangs about
them in curious shapes The property
togas of theatrical companies are made to
fit everybody, and it is impossible to have
them look good on the gaunt bony speci-
mems of mankind that usually enlist in the
supernumerary ranks.
Some of them have aspirations for his
trionic fame, and among the motley crowd
you will sometimes find a man of educa-
ton and refinement, who, through reverses
of fortune, has taken to this last resort to
earn an honest dollar and perchance some
day play speaking part. When Paul
Kauvar' was produced at the Standard
Theater, in New York, there was super
in the mob who came of wealthy English
family, and who never knew what it was
to soil his hands with labor until his dis
sipated habits caused his father to discon-
tinue his allowance, and he Joined the
mob for the paltry sum of so cents night.
In the audience herecognized chappies"
whom he had dined and fair ladies who
had accepted his gifts of flowers, invita-
tions to the opera and drives on the avenue
time and time again. They did not recog-
nize him, for he was thoroughly disguised
as an Anarchist in old clothes and red
shirt. His feelings ON these occasions can
better be imagined than described He
carefully avoided his old haunts, ard
shared the room of an old friend, who
kept his secret He was a useful, intelli-
gent super, and has since risen to an envi-
able position in the profession. He is, of
course, travelling under fictitious name,
and will undoubtedly climb higher, when
/ shall be glad to record his advancement
and relate the story of his debut. Among
those who apply for these minor positions
on the stage are young men in fairly good
circumstances who are ambitious to make
hoori, bo en- nd
become the legitimate rivals of Bar
rett, Booth or Keene. They do not,
as a rule, survive the first per-
Torrance, when they find that if
they have anything at all to do it is to
yell SAY, ay" or 1--WE do" or something
equally stirring and eloquent in response
to question addressed by the leading man
to the mob, the soldiers or the assembled
citizens as the case may be. And when
they find that they have to associate with
some pretty tough specimens of humanity
their ambition to shine Respondent would
be nipped in the bud, then wither and
soon decay.
The average young girl who leaves
sewing machine, counter or feather
foundry, to try her fortunes on the stage is
another interesting study. Dame Nature
has perhaps been more kind to her in be-
slowing upon her a well-molded limb,
tiny foot, slender waist and surrounding
it all with well-poised head and pretty
face. She has only to look in the glass to
see all these things, and she resolves to
turn them to some lucrative use. When
she applies TO the manager, he appreciates
her attractions, engages her services at a
salary far beyond what she could make by
toll and drugery for ten hours day.
Sometimes she rises to high place on the
opera burlesque stage or becomes clever
dancer in the spectacular line. Others
who are less fortunate in the possession of
attractive elements and have good voices,
manage to procure fleshings made SYM
metrical by a careful sprinkling of lambs
wool in the proper places, and the bald
headed auditors in the front rows are Just
as well pleased. They are not of the class
from which the generality of supers are
enlisted, and more educated and refined
girls can be found in the chorus than the
public would believe.
Speaking of made-up forms, / am re-
minded of what Bolossy Kiralfy told me
when he was selecting the chorus for
"Mathias Sandorf" He claims, and |
have no reason to doubt him, that he can
tell the size aud shape of woman's limb
by the careful scrutiny of her fingers. The
method he employs is simple, and in de-
tail is substantially as follows: The
knuckle Joint shows the size of the hir,
knee, and the first joint the height of the
instep; the tip of the nail shows the length
of the foot; the wrist, compared with the
l.l. g.I.x IL IL.
the waist and the amount of flesh on the
fatty part OF the thumb indicates the size
of the calf He says that he is seldom de-
ceived by this method, and is thus enabled
to select his chorus without the necessity
of donning heshings to test their eligibil-
ity. He says that he would prefer girls
for his chorus who have done hard work;
that is, il they have any shape or beauty
at ALL They are usually well developed
and muscular, and what flesh there is on
them is solid and firm. The, can stand
any amount of dancing, and do not tire
with long travelling. 1t is only within the
past few years that operatic and spectacu-
lar managers have taken to American
chorus girls. There was time when
they thought they could not get along
without the French and German girls, but
now they prefer the Americans to all
others They are more tractable, easier to
instruct and manage, and their beauty of
form and feature is conceded to be far
above those of any other nation.
Speaking Of the intelligence of some Of
the chorus girls, it might also be added
that many OF them are refined, and good
many of them would pass muster in the
upper circles. Many chorus girl has
social history that would make volume
in itself have now in mind two young
girls, both as charming creatures as society
can boast of, and as pretty as they are
charming. Both left good families to try
their luck upon the boards, and both have
been fairly successful One was the wife
of well-to-do publisher, who was so ieal-
Gus of his wife's beauty that he made life
burden to her, and finally left her with
a chubby baby to support. She was a
patient mother, and when the little one
died refused all her further support from
her father and joined Adonis Dixie's
chorus. She rose gradually, and now plays
, leading role in one of the big burlesque
companies.