Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-08-23
Possible Famine in Chorus
Girls.
Managers Meeting With Considerable Difficulty
Filling Front Rows.

The crying need of the hour
among managers of big productions
is a clearinghouse for chorus girls
So exclaimed n Broadway stage di-
rector as he entered his office after
Il protracted rehearsal, during which
he had heard that three of his most
attractive young women had gone
over to the enemy, which, being in
terpreted, meant that they had bro
ken their contracts with him and
signed with his rival, block below.
For the past few seasons the de-
mand for chorus girls has grown
steadily heavier. but never have we
been threatened with such a famine
as this year. he went on. Not be-
cause the girls are becoming more
scarce, but because productions are
growing bigger and there are more
of them.
mo one knows this better than the
girls, and the way they ignore mana
gerial rights is enough to start gray
hairs by the million. We have a
girl in the second or third row
pretty well rehearsed and some other
manager offers her a place in the
front row ora line to speak, or her
name on the program, and we get
letter something like this:
Dear Mr.. Smith: L am sorry I
cannot remain with your company.
L have enjoyed the work very much,
but L find it impossible to remain. L
hope to work for you again some
time. Thanking you, etc.
Delightfully."- vague is it not? We
know where to find herewith rival
show. And that is where we need
the clearinghouse, to keep tab on
these irresponsible but unfortunately
essential butterflies.
Think of the number of chorus
girls playing or rehearsing on Broad
way today. ~ Chinese Honeymoon is
using eighty, The Defender sixty,
The Wild Rose fifty. Weber &
Fields are rehearsing sixty, Rogers
Brothers sixty, Jerome Sykes, in The
Billionaire,' as many more. The
Sleeping beauty and the Beast viii
absorb $50; so will Ben Hur.'
IF. c. Whitney needs sixty to sup
port Lulu CHASER, and 100 for When
Johnny Comes Marching Home Six
ty viii be needed for The Toreador,'
and the various 'Florodora' com
panies will employ about 800. Henry
w. Savage viii divide among his
Grand English Opera company, two
King Dodo companies, The Prince of
P1sen,' and The Sultan of SuIu' fully !
500 young women. And this is only
partial enumeration.
Managers or their agents scour
the Conservatives of the provinces
for recruits. They visit such cities
~
Paul, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Kan
sas City in search of chorus girls.
The girls thus secured have, as a
rule, good musical training, but no
stage presence, and after the stage
director has done his missionary
work with them for perhaps a year
they are brought to New York. They
Will pronounce Broadway good |
enough for them, and when the show
returns to Chicago or Boston they
calmly sign with some show booked |
for a long metropolitan run. And the |
manager then has to start out on a |
fresh hunt.
"A man who can bring out the best /
there is in chorus girls and keep the |
bunch in line can name his price to |
the manager.
1T costs from S12 to $500 to cos
tune a chorus girl today, and the
show girls are the most expensive
factor. And, by the way, when the
chorus girl reaches the show line
she feels that she is about the real
thing.
This generally involves a snug
apartment, her hanson or brougham,
Il few diamonds, and little or nothing
to do except during the perform
ances. y Broadway production has
only occasional rehearsals Ask this
same girl to be photographed in the
interests of the manager and she
phones down that she is i'll, can't
leave the house; and the next day
you hear that she won at the races.
But we have to stand for it. We
must have them. The public de-
mands them.
''The terror of every manager is
the chorus anarchist. She is smooth
as velvet, on the surface, and usually |
is one of the most proficient girls in
the bunch. She it is who, watching
an enthusiastic novice, will whisper
that she is foolish to waste so much
energy; it stamps her as new in the
business. Whereupon the novice
considers herself bound to become
bored to the correct degree, and the !
Iosest that much ginger and
vim.
1T is the chorus anarchist, too,
who makes things interesting for the
wardrobe mistress, when she starts
like this: My dear, 1 hate
to mention it. but / wouldn't be seen
in dress like yours. OF course,
you're the one who must wear it, but
If you could see - etc.
Considering the present stringen-
cy in the chorus girl matter and the
consequent independence of the
young women, it will be wonder if