The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-27
From the New York Press.

 AN HAT becomes of all the actors kIV and actresses? It may not be
 w such an obvious mystery as what becomes of all the pins, but it is quite as deep and far more interesting when one gets fairly launched on the in- vestigation. The majority of the players who dct the stages of the country through a season disappear when spring rolls around and are never heard of again.
 I was led to this knowledge somewhat accidentally. Like many others, it never occurred to me that there was any re- markabe change in the personnel of. the stage every season. I knew the stars and lots of other players with well known names were with us until old age claimed it's own, and I assumed, unconsciously, that the rank and sfe stuck to the stage as well until they became so decrepit 1t was no longer possible to act, but sev eral weeks ago, as a result of an argu- ment, I started to search through the files Of programmes in the public library of a town near New York for the name of a player with certain company. Not finding it among those which had played the town the season before I secured the file foc the year previous and wasn't ten minutes in noting that most of the names on the programmes were new-that is, they were not those of the players for the season I had just investigated.
 My attention was called to the change in players by the cast of the one particu- lar play I looked over carefully. There were fourteen people In the company, the play was under the same manage ment both seasons, yet there was only one actor in the company the second season who had been with 1t the first. Possibly the management might have desired a change of personnel or 1t might be the other thirteen had become iden- tifed with other organizations. Either theory was a reasonable answer as to what had become of the thirteen players. In the first case only an interview with the manager would have settled it, in the second the file of programme for the following season would be reason- ably sure to reveal the names of some of the players. I determined to see if I could trace any of them.
 It was a "week-stand" city l was in at the time and there were four the atres, apart from those devoted to vaude- vile or burlesque shows According to the files, 1S4 companies had played these houses the first season and 136 the sec ond. Including only those who played speaking parts there were 1946 players in the first seasons companies and 01S in those of the second; yet of the first 1946 there were only 1S7 whose names appeared on the programmes of the fol- lowing year.
 This was singular thought. True, they might have gone to other parts of the country, but that theory would scarcely account for 175s players who had dropped from view More than a thousand actors and actresses wouldn't cling to other parts of the country two years in sue cesslon, but my search of the programmes for this year gave me another surprise. Eighty-nine companies had been at the towns four theatres up to the first week of February and 12ll people had played parts in the shows given Of this 1211 the names of the players were all different with the exception of 219. Among this 219
 
 both of the previous seasons, forty-three who had played the year before and two only whose names had appeared the first, but not the second season. What had become of them all? Here were 5175 peo- pie who had played on the stage with various companies during a period of three seasons. Only IA had appeared dur ing the three years, forty-three had played two seasons in succession and two had played one season, then disappeared for year and reappeared the third, while s775 budding stars had fiickered for seq son and then vanished from view, and I suppose of the 121l for this year fully 1000 will not be heard of next season. There Is hardly any other theory that would account for those who had disar- peared but that they have left the stage or else cannot secure engagements.
 In New York, where there is naturally more stability to- the stage than else where. because practically all of the play CTS have been tried for years before they secure the coveted chance to appear hare.