The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-02

about 10 o'clock in the forenoon, while
the east-bound companies, which are
on their way to Boston, generally get
here about an hour later. The average
skip or distance between city and
city where company is booked is fifty
miles. 1t is one Of the most important
details in the management of a party
OF sixty people that it shall not be I'M
necessarily fatigued by hard travelling,
and that the one-night stands, which
are the hardest to play and are avoid
ed as much as possible, shall alternate
with longer engagements.
Upon arrival in this city, the troupe
generally separates, the principals tax
ing a carriage (Which the manager
does not pay for) to the best hotels,
while the minor members walk to one
Of the less expensive hotels.
To the ordinary man Or woman sit
ting in an orchestra chair, ignorant OF
the stage and its actors except as he
sees them across the foot lights, these
men and maids in their SNOWY cos
tunes, going through their little gam
bols and antics like trick ponies and
feigning an excess of gayety and ami
NAL spirits, might almost belong to an
other race of mortals, so at variance
with the lives, ambitions and achieve
ments of ordinary men and women 90
theirs seem. But in reality they are
.
opera singers. Theirs are the virtues
and the shortcomings of the people IN
the orchestra chairs, theirs the same
temperaments, characters, dispositions
Only in some ways the actor rolk nave
the ADVANTAGE because to be able even
to pose and prance brilliantly one must
possess a richness and hexlbility a
1 warmth and abandon both of body and
mind that is not given to every one.
'"remperament," the power of magnet
ism as displayed by the singer or actor
or speaker is called, and although
easy to feel and simple to identity, II
is not quite easy to define, But
Temperament the chorus girl must
have as we'll as the leading lady ana
gentleman" Neither is it manifest
that all the moral superiority rests
With the audience in a theatre. The
comic opera people behave IN private
life about like other people, and PROB,
ably no class of people could be placed
in their position who would BEHAVE
better than they do.
The chorus girl IN the average com
pany gets from SIS to $40 a week, out
( of which she has to pay from 81 to $40
hoard lodging and laundry. That
| leaves her at least $40 free, as her ira
Yelling expenses are paid. NOW, II
would be very difficult for these girls
I to make as much money as that IN any
other kind of work, or to make II as
easily. That is one reason why there
is never any dearth of girls for this
business-they just follow the line or
+ least resistance. Many OF those VINO
sing are graduates from or students IN
the conservatory Of music in the large
cities, who take UP with operate work
either for the practice or for the live
| lihood afforded by it. Simetimes one
of them like Lillian Russell energies
from the glittering nonentity Of the
chorus into the ranks of the prllna don
ma.
"Once a chorus girl, always a chorus
girl' is the rule. Most of the prima
donnas are trained musicians when
they commence their public career,
and begin in subordinate part 1t is true
but still above the class Of chorus
girls.
The longevity Of the chorus girl de-
ponds upon her mode Of life. Years
ago. she was commonly believed to, be
immortal, and jokes upon her collar
bones and her age We're fashionable.
That time is past. The chorus girl is
now always young and comedy, be-
cause she either dies or leaves the stage
before she has time to grow old and
because there are so many pretty
shapely candidates that no unprepos-
sessing person ever need be chosen.
A year is the average stage life Ct
the chorus girl after she has reached
her prime. She may not last as long
as that, and she may last little long
er. but she won't last much longer
As in other businesses, it all depends
on the kind of life she leads. The cho-
rus girl does very little hard work, but
for all that her existence is not all skit-
ties and beer. The late hours. the in
sufficient clothing, the constant travel,
g..se rHf r7I CF hot al IL
the designations which Turk about her
path, besetting her in proportion to her
professional success-these wear upon
her and age her as years of quiet home
life would not do. In every sizeable
city the chorus girl has her followers,
and champagne suppers after the
theatre and little hops in the hotel cor
ridors till o'clock in the morning do
not conduce to health or good looks.
And If all else failed, the nightly de-
luge with rouge and powder would
fade and wither q girl
Her beauty and her voice-these are
her stock in trade, and when ne voice
is gone and her loneliness is waning,
she dies to the stage and must begin
girl or chamber maid, or in one of the
hundred other occupations open to the
woman, without trade.
Consumption is the chorus girls
deadly foe.
A resident of Worcester who follows
the stage carefully recalls the case of
two remarkably pretty girls sisters,
who sang in Rice's production of
"1492'' when that extravaganza came
to Worcester six or seven years ago.
They were in their prime, and two
more charming young women, so far
as the eye of the beholder was con-
cerned, it would have been hard to find.
They were at the champagne supper
and hotel corridor-hop moment of their
lives, and when they were not dazzling
their admirers in the theatre they
seemed to spend their time dazzling
them elsewhere. They were successes,
and they had to pay the penalty, al
though at the time nothing seemed
farther off than sickness or pain or
th,-they were such joyous, radiant
captivating creatures.
The following year. when 'lt92' came
around again, the sisters were not in
it. One had died the week before. Bust
ness called the Worcester man to
Philadelphia a fortnight later. There
Was an actress funeral in Philadelphia
that day 1t was the funeral OF the sec
ond sister. But their falling out made
no difference to the world. Their places
in the ranks were instantly filled and
the brilliant spectacle swept on its way
across the continent. For there Is never
a dearth Of chorus girls.
COMBINATIONS