The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-15
STAGE CLOTHEs FURNIsHED.

and the other Paris theaters furnish their
people with stage clothes. AS a matter Of
fact actors of the Coincide Odeon. etc.
needn't buy collar button shoestring;
everything needed for their toilet, from
socks to tie, is furnished and in the very
best quality, too whether the play be mod
ern or laid in distant centuries. The clothes
used on the stage are taken in hand by the
theaters' officers after the performance,
but the actor is permitted TO keep the
laundry at his own house. As the regula-
tons give him two dozen shirts and an
equal supply of underwear of all sorts, he
need never bother about buying linens or
goods of that kind, particularly as his man
ager is careful to follow the fashions in
respect to furnishings.
AT the end of each month the actor sends
his bundle of soiled clothes to the theater
laundry, which returns it in due time prop
erly cleaned and got up, an arrangement
offering considerable opportunities for
petty frauds. The INSCRIPTIONS man may
slip In his wife's or his childrens clothes
and then square the laundress for trifie,
while she does 20 or so francs of work at
the expense of the theater, which pays by
the number, but not by the character or
size of garments. The case of Mile. Reich
emberg shows how the trick is done,
though, of course 1 don't want to say that
she had a hand in the business. AT any
rate, the managers have now combined TO
stop it. and to do so will hereafter examine
every bundle when II comes from the laun-
dry, that is unless the actresses protest
against exposing their lingerie to COM
mercial male eyes is eventually needed.
Worse still, the managers will not be salts
fled with this peremptory examination,
but, as stated, insist upon the abolition OF
the free laundry privilege altogether, say
ing that 1t involves unnecessary expense
which the players ought to take upon their
own shoulders, the same as other profess
SIGNALS.
THE COST OF FREE LAUNDRY.
If dollars and cents mean anything, the
ladies and gentlemen Of the Coincide Fran
caise must be paragons of neatness, for
their aggregate laundry bills amount to
from $1,000 to s1,25O per month, while the
budget of so small playhouse as the
Chatelet affords as many francs for the
same laudable purpose. In the Gate and
Porte Saint Martin the management pro-
vides and washes the actors linen and un-
derwear, but not the actresses. The Odeon,
on the other hand is as liberal as the Com
edie.
AS a general thing, nonsubsidized man.
ayers treat their actresses less generously
than they do the actors. The Gymnase and
Vaudeville have lately adopted the Gates
plan with respect to lingerie, soiled and
otherwise and their managers are, like
wise flint hearted enough to ask the ladies
to provide themselves with street costumes
on their own hook-of course only with
such as they need for private use. For the
stage, street costumes are furnished as be-
fore The director of the Varieties con-
tinues to pay the laundry bills of both la
dies and gentlemen attached to his estab-
lishment who permit him to examine their
bundles. 1t is said that he spends six full
hours every month gazing at the latest
creations in the lingerie line. The same pre-
cautionary measures are observed at the
Palais Royal.
While subsidized houses like the Coincide,
Opera Comique, Odeon, etc, are most lib
eral with their actresses, they provide only
such portions of ladies' lingerie as were in
use among females when the free laundry
privilege was first enacted. Stars and
chorus alike receive petticoats, shirts and
stockings, but other necessary things they
must buy themselves, because the ladies
of the seventeenth and eighteenth century
knew them not. The management also buys
shoes and slippers for the actresses, which
| accounts for the elegant footwear seen on
| the Partisan stage. The Grand Opera, for
! instance buys six thousand pairs Of Slip
| pers year and 1 myself have seen twenty
| two pairs standing side by side on the
| shelves of a coryphee's wardrobe. That
was year or two ago. Since then an order
has been issued providing that new shoes
| shall be delivered only upon the return of
an old pair. These latter the management
sells to the smaller houses, thereby taking
away a perquisite royal actresses and
dancers possessed for time immemorial
FALSE HAIR SUPPLIED.
! The Paris theaters use 10000 pounds OF
| false hair annually. mostly delivered free
to consumers" by obliging directors. OF
this, $4,000 pounds are said to be of French
origin, the other half comes from Scandi-
navia, Hungary. Italy, China and Japan.
While great stars like Reajne, Agnes Sorel.
Nine SECOND Weber Jane Hading and
Bernhard demand hair costing 1000 francs
| per pound, the smaller lights do with lesser
qualities and the chorus is glad to get
wigs and chignons at 20 francs a pound.
The cheap hair comes from the extreme
East and is sometimes almost coarse as
horse hair. The most expensive false hair
worn by any actors is the elder Coquelins
white wig, made OF the silver locks of
gentleman of ninety. Artihcially beached
white hair is not in demand by stars.
| The French republic is probably the
owner of the biggest theatrical wardrobe
| in the world, as the Grand Opera and the
| Odeon are obliged 10 turn over to the state
every costume used once or oftener. The
value of this collection may be judged from
| a few items: The Odeon's Hamlet costume
cost 500 francs, as twelve embroderers
worked three months over il: a minor cos
tune, used in the Huguenots, cost 800
| francs A single grand opera usually re-
/ quires up to six hundred costumes. includ-
/ ing changes.
Some time ago President Loubet was pc
/ titioned by some goody-goodies to use his
! influence 10 the effect that the ballet girls
/ frocks be heightened one two inches. He
/ promised 10 look into the matter-and was
| forthwith informed that the girls skirts
require no less than from fifteen 10 sixteen
/ yards OF tarlatan each. short as they are
IF two inches were added, the state would
have TO buy 10000 yards per annum. in
stead OF 1900 yards" said the director
and where is the money TO come from?
! The baldheads in Parliament will certainly