Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-23
ACTORS EARNINGS.
People Who Have Stepped in Season
from Nothing to Big Money.

People Who Have Stepped in Season
from Nothing to Big Money.
The stage, like every other calling known,
needs hard work to win success. Mr.. Henry
Irving came to this country in 1888, after
nearly twenty-five years of arduous work.
When the total receipts of his 1874 perform
ances reached s403, $3.50 they might fairly be
quoted as proof of the need of hard
work This was equally true of the 1855
performances of Nine. Bernhardt in 1887,
which brought in 1885, 47. But when Mrs.
Langtry appeared in New York in 1881,
without any stock in trade but good fig-
ure, the theatre in four weeks took in SOL
sos This was precisely three-fourths OF
what New York paid a year earlier in four
weeks to see Nine. Bernhardt, 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 $4,000 week, and her returns for her
year of forty weeks were placed by no one
at less than 100000.
Mr. Irving's years of arduous labor
brought his average receipts up to 50, 200 a
performance at his first visit. A pretty
young woman with genius, but without an
atom of experience, training or eminence
has within two years averaged, with
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 20 with just half
the total receipts which all Mr.. Irving's
reputation could draw at his first visit.
Miss Mather's first appearance in Chicago
brought $1,374, and thereafter the unwill-
ing Mr. Hill admitted the receipts "never
went below 81 ,O00," until the actress and
her manager quarreled because the young
woman of % was not satisfied with the
profits of $19,307 the second year of her ap-
pearance on the stage, and $1,000 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 season from nothing to
$4,000 year, but Mr.. Holl killed himself
in his thirties earning this sum. No other
painter ever did the like or is likely to do
1t again, and Mr.. Holl painted years in OBJ
scurity There are half score of women
in the last ten years who have stepped in a
season from nothing and obscurity to $780,
600 or $4,000 a year and a most gratifying
advertising eminence.
These young women are, it is true, the
rare exceptions among the $4,000 persons
who in all sorts of ways appear on the
stage, but people who earn $4,000 or $780,
600 year in any pursuit are not berries
that grow on every bush. The remark was
justly made two years ago that leading
man. who did not get over 5000 week
was not saying much nowadays about his
salary. There is probably not 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. 1t would surprise COM
Portable bank cashiers all over the country,
for whom 81 900 and $1,000 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 45, 900
actors and actresses in this country are of
course satisfied with SIS and $40 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. 1t does not need wide
acquaintance with salaries to know that
this is above the average, taking the whole
country through, in some of the learned
professions. Philadelphia Press.