Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-02
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE.

H rical manager, recently a visitor
~ to this city, echoes a warning,
often heard nowadays, against young
women going on the stage. My corre-
spondent has been connected with the
theater for nineteen years. Challeng-
ing Miss Nethersole's championship of
the shop girl as the poorest paid of
modern workers, he tells some hard
truths regarding young actresses
which are worth repeating:
How many young girls on the stage
get only SIS a week, out of which they
have to dress for both street and stage,
pay hotel bills and for sleeper berths,
meals on trains, etc! None of these
things has the shop girl to look after.
Take the long summers when so many
of the theaters are closed. On Broad
way alone one cannot count the actors
going up and down looking for work.
If they do get summer work they are
almost afraid to take it, fearing they
may not be back in time and so miss
winter work And even If they get
work, what of the long time they have
to rehearse-often seven or eight
weeks-and all this time they get no
salary. How many companies go out
and last only two or three weeks, leav-
ing back salaries unpaid? And then
if one falls sick the stage can't wait,
place is filed Think what is the feel
ing if some dear one is dying and you
cannot 60 but must play your part
with a smiling face while your heart
Is breaking"
There is much more of the same
tenor, and written with transparent
sincerity of purpose.
1t is we'll to hear these things, and
it were Wen if many a young girl,
70
took them soberly to heart before MAX
ing her choice. Coming from a man
ager who has also acted and who pro-
fesses to understand the situation from
both viewpoints, these statements
carry the weight of double authority
1t is we'll sometimes to think of the
players who give of their minds and
souls for our amusement, not alone
as artists but as fellow humans strug-
Cling for a livelihood, who mask the
trouble and the care that gnaw at the
heart with smile and a CHEEKY word.
Practically speaking, just how swiftly
the big salaries paid to actors melt
away for dress and make up and a
thousand inescapable incidentals, very
few of us know. And these are at
the top of the profession, commercially
speaking. What of the others2 Do
we think of their straits and their si-
lent heroisms as we see them parade
lin gilt and spangles, beneath the spot
lights, in brave chorus array? Or are
they to us SO many supernumeraries,
hired in bulk, to live some way it does
not concern us how? Shall we shed
tears over the sorrows of mimic he
roes and heroines beyond the footlights
and have no thought or deed of SYM
pathy for the real ones, too proud
sometimes to let us know by word or
glance that any but sham tragedy
clutches at their hearts?
In the many efforts at practical
amelioration which have made the
dawn of the twentieth century hope
full one the Stage has been too little
thought Of Here and there, as in the
Three Arts club of New York city,
there has been stretched out help
ing hand. When will the managers
themselves, who know of these condi-
tions and often do far more than the
outer world dreams of to better them,
face this problem and make shift to
solve. it? The battle for a minimum
wage scale will be one of the great
struggles of this century. Why may
not the commercial masters of the
stage, quick to respond to appeals for
charity, seize this opportunity and give
but meager justice to those who toll,
that they may have wealth and fame
and power?
"The Cort JESTER" the latest mana
geriaI bulletin, comes, as it's foreword
delicately admits, with it's grip
stuffed with the lozenge kisses of the
daintiest osculatory maiden which
(sic) has ever wandered down the the
atrical pike the kissing girl as she
lives and breathes in an operetta of
that name, by STANCE, Bryan and Won
Tilzer, now current at the new Cort
theater, in Chicago. 1t comes to the
desk of every dramatic and Sunday
editor in the United States, at fitting
intervals, to tighten the load of his
Iabors-and sweeten them. 1t merely
asks the cooperation of their scissors
and pasting paraphernalia. 1t recog-
nizes that the bunk laden servitors in
the cause of music and drama are lit
erallv flooded in the 'gush that goeth
not from a news and critical stand
noint. and in contradistinction to the
dream of the average press agent, it
takes oath to establish itself as a
hanpy and welcome recourse to the
man whose space is worthy of the best
IT'S news will be legitimate; its gos-
sin breezy and without Baron Muen-
chausen features, and its ludicrous ex-
. ,ldations will be Of the kind that will
conilre the smile that won't come off.
IT is published by the Cort Theater
company and edited by James S.
Hutton"