Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-08-23

How the chorus girls would regard
managerial clearinghouse is quite
different story Most of those APP
preached on the subject dismissed it
with shrug of the shoulder as an
impossible proposition.
Some went further and declared
that the managers had no one but
themselves to thank for existing CON
ditions. Each was ready to outwit
his competitors in order to secure
desirable and presentable young wo-
men wherewith to dress his stage.
Here is the chorus girls side of the
matter as given by young woman
who went east from Cincinnati with
out any idea of going on the stage,
but for the purpose of having her
voice cultivated, and who decided six
months ago to pay for her musical
education by entering a metropoli-
tan chorus. She is, therefore, able
to discuss the question untrammeled
by the prejudices of the average pro-
fessional.
''The chorus girl of 19O2-O3 is the
natural result of evolution she
said ''She is just what the stage
director has been trying to make her
for the past few years, one of the
big features of his show, pleasing to
the senses, chic, a magnet that will
fill the So seats every night.
Time was when a girl could stay
in the chorus until she was 60, if her
voice held out. Now a girl who en-
ters the ranks at Is with the expecta-
ton of never rising beyond the cho-
rus knows that she is good for per-
haps five or six years. With her
freshness goes her adaptability to
the needs of the stage director.
Voice is no longer the gift above
all others needed for this business.
The girl with the fine voice but
homely features and angular figure
goes into the back row, if she gets
in at all, but out front you'll find
the girl who has little or no voice.
but skill in handling her beruffled
skirts.
Beauty will cover a multitude of
other defects, but when a girl gets
on the front line she knows that the
manager has put her in the beauty
class. And, moreover, she knows
that if she wants to stay there she
must not gaze haughtiIy at the man
down front who casts a languishing
smile in her direction.
SIN the early days of comic opera
no chorus girl ever had her picture in
the papers, sEEodaK-.1he press agent
asks her to pose for anything, from
fashions to how to darn baby's socks
Then when she has topped it off as
the favOrite model in beauty series
H.. II.
is getting the swelled head.
Chorus girls do not draw fancy
salaries. In the regular season the |
average salary is SIS, while the show
girls draw SIS. This may sound |
large, but out of this come living ex-
penses, which 10 New York are high, |
and very few girls on the metropoli- |
tan stage live with their parents.
Most of them come from other cit |
les. They must keep up appearances. |
Well-made frocks, no matter how |
simple in material, are essential, for |
the managerial eye scans frocks when |
the ear fails to catch pure tones. The |
girl who wants to rise can push her
self by way of her dressmaker better
than by any other route that L know |
of. She also buys her own stage shoes.
''And why should we wish to leave |
New York? Why should we yearn /
for one-night stands and bad hotels,
long jumps, and irregular hours,
when here on Broadway we have ev-
cry. advantage and no Iiiscomforts? |
Here are the best teachers in sing
ing and dancing, and here are the |
great managers who may detect la
tent power in some simple chorus
maid and who have the cash to push |
her toward stardom.
There are all sorts of chorus girls. |
girls who really expect to rise, and |
who take stars like Marie Cahin, Ed
ma May and Lillian Russell as their |
beacon of hope. All those women |
sang in the chorus.
''Then there are girls who have |
their living to earn and prefer to |
sing and dance their way to bread |
and butter And last there are girls |
who see in the stage an easy way to |
what they consider -the right sort of |
They know the fascina-
ton the stage eXerts over some men,
young men.
these girls, as a rule, make the |
greatest mistake of all. 1 have never |
seen marriage of this sort turn out |
happily. As a rule the mans par
ents absolutely refuse to give the
girl hearing, the slightest chance
of showing whether she is worthy of |
the chaps love.
They settle the matter by with
drawing his allowance, and, whether
you believe this or not, the man sell |
dom fails to give up the girl rather
than the allowance. All this twaddIe |
about the girls missing her hot birds |
and cold bottles reads well, but in |
reality the man is just at that age
when life is summed up in rounding
up the theatres and cafes night after
night.
ssAffer all. he figures If ont. there