The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-11
Ml1lIlfs Eagle
ACTORS EARNINGS.

People Who Have Stepped In Season
from Nothing to Big Money.
Thestage, like every other calling known,
neeIas hard work to win success Mr.. Henry
Irving came TO this country In 1883, after
nearly TWENTY-FIVE years Of arduous work.
When the total receipts Of his iS4 perform
Rnces reached S4o3, $50 they might fairly be
quoted as a proof Of the need Of hard
work. This was equally true of the l56
performances Of Nine. Berahardt in 1887,
which brought in $500, 247. But when Mrs.
LanRtrv Appeared Ia New York in 1881.
without any stock IN trade but good fig
ure, the theatre in four weeks took in SCI
sos This was precisely three-fourths Of
what New York paid year earlier in four
weeks to see Nine. Bornhardt, at once the
first tragedienne and the best trained and
most experienced actress OF her day. In
two or three years Mrs. Langtry, having
added some ability as an actress to her
reputation as woman, played an engage
ment in this city at which her net receipts
were s., 900 a week, and her returns for her
year Of forty weeks were placed by no one
at less than 100000.
Mr.. Irying's years of ardUous labor
brought his average receipts up to s., 300 a
performance at his first visit. A pretty
young woman with genius, but without an
atom Of experience, training or emlnence,
has within two years averaged, with a
company Of small account, two-thirds Of
this at her second engagement in this city
The suit between Miss Margaret Mather
and her manager, Mr. Hill, showed that
she was able to begin at % with just half
the total receipts which all Mr.. IrYing's
1T.tr Mt FIRST i=ir
Miss Mather's first appearance in Chicago
brought 81 ,374, and thereafter the unwill-
ing MIR. Hill admitted the receipts never
went below s., 600" until the actress and
her manager guarded because the young
woman of q was not satisfied with the
profits of 2l9. 307 the second year of her ap-
pearance on the stage, and $l6,3O6 four
years later. 1t was a remark of Mr. Frank
Holl, who became over night the most sue
cessful portrait painter in England, that
he stepped in a season from nothing to
$780, 900 a year, but Mr. Holl killed himself
in his thirties earning this sum. No other
painter ever did the Ike or Is likely to do
it again, and Mr.. Hou painted years in OBJ
security There are half a score Of women
in the last ten years who have stepped in
season from nothing and obscurity to S20,-
oyO OF FOJ,yJJ o. y Ell AN Il ulOSJ SidlLl 1llB
advertising emlCence.
These young women are, it is true, the
rare exceptions among the 5000 persons
who in all sorts Of ways appear on the
stage, but people who earn $4,000 or $780,
900 year in any pursuit are not berries
that grow on every bash. The remark was
justly made two years ago that leading
man" who did not get over 500 q week
was not saying much nowadays about his
salary. There Is probably not q single star
actress Of the first rank whose leading man
does not get this, and Mrs. Langtry, if re-
port was true, paid twice this to Mr.
Charles Coughlan. Il would surprise com
Portable bank cashiers al over the country,
for whom 81 600 and -, 0G0 a year IS good
salary, to learn how many Of the actors
with leading parts in good companies earn
this sum The vast majority Of the 5000
actors AID actresses Ia this country are of
course satisfied with SIS and so week,
but the vast majority of people at most
lines have to put up with just the same
pay. a dramatic paper recently placed the
average wages on the stage, chorus and all,
at 500 person. IL does nOJ need a wide
with salaries to know that
this is above the average, taking the whole |
country through, in some Of the learned |
-Pnila4e!Bhia Press