The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-24
FEW ACTORS ARE
 VERY VEAL THY Losses Frequently More Than
 Balance Their Gains HARDSHlps OF THE STAR
Failure of Plays Often Gives Serious Setbacks, and Majority Labor For Less Than $500 Per Week-Bern-
 hardt Pawns Jewels.
From the Washington Post.

l From the Washington Post.
 1 Fortunes of players rarely materialize
 when there is an actual test of their
 value Recent instances that have come to public notice were Fanny Davenport
 and Richard Mansfield, who had been l popular stars for years, and yet left es-
 tates far less than might have been ex- ] pected.
 That this is not a peculiarity of the
 American theater was snown at the death of Sir Henry Irving. who left little or no fortune. Ellen Terry, who had stood for
 so many years at his side as the head of
 the English theater. needed benefit only
 a few years ago, and Sarah Bernhardt, who must have received as much money in her long career as any other woman on the stage, is barely able to keep her jew
 els out of pawn for more than few
 months at a time. Her improvidence was
 shown by one of her American trips, when she took her diamonds out of pledge to come over here, and sent back by cable all her earnings even if she were in some small western town. The day after
 she landed in Paris she went to a broker and put her jewelry back in pawn. Her earnings went for years to the support of her son, and the theater in Paris that bears her name has not often been profit
 able for any length of time.
 Seasons Are Variable.
 ''The public does not know,' one of the
 managers told reporter, "how variable
 the seasons of the popular actors are in drawing powers. A popular star, man or woman, may have a play that hits the public taste, and the money comes in. That play may be strong enough to last two seasons, if the star is willing to play in the small towns. But it may happen that for several seasons there will be little or no profit. however the star may
 try to get another successor to the play
 that was so much liked. Look at one
 popular stage beauty. She began her ca
 reer as a star in a play by Clyde Fitch that proved a great success. She used it for two years.
 There is no doubt that she made lot of money out of it, and if it had been possible for her to get few more plays like that her fortune would have been ! made. Yet she has had an absolutely different experience, and I don't believe that she has made a penny since that first year. She has tried play after play. only to have them fail. and if 1t were possible to get at an exact idea of her profits and losses it would be found that Sne nau lObL money more rapldly during her unsuccessful years than sfe had ever
 made it. But the public thinks, of her
 merely as a star-sees the accounts of
 her great success without realizing that she is, in fact, making no money, but losing 1t when her play does not attract the public. Then when it becomes clear that she has not made @ fortune there is the usual surprise.
 Ten Years Earnings Lost.
 The extent to which an actor may
 lose through one unsuccessful production was shown more exactly by the experi-
 ence of Neil Burgess than anybody else.
 He had been playing The Widow Bedott' for years, making a steady, If not great, income every year. Then he struck The | County Fair which had real sensation 1 in the race scene that gave the victory | to Cold Molasses. That ran for a whole season at the Union Square theater to large audiences, and really made small fortune on the road for the actor. It was then that he got into his head the idea of a great spectacle which would contain a chariot racing scene that had