The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-12-28

With Hollywood's list of extras ruthlessly slashetl under the MIRA codes, n further barrier rises against ''crashing the movies" It's clothes. In this third of four stories by Dan Thomas, he tells of this problem, and in the fourth he will tell just what a girl is up against if she goes to
 Hollywood today seeking film fame.
 By DAN THOMAS
 (NEA Service Stan Correspondent)
 Hollywood.-The little girl who made the famous remark, ("My face is my fortune, sir" she said) would have a tough time in the movie capital today.
 For pretty face is very small fortune indeed in Hollywood today it won't even get day by-day work as an extra. Without the clothes to set it off, a pretty face is a dead loss.
 The aristocrats of the extra list are the dress eXtras"-the men and the women who appear in dress clothes. When you see Norma Shearer or Connie Bennett circling a ballroom floor, the fig ures that fit by in the anonymity of the background are extras, and they're wearing their own clothes.
 That's why the present drastic paring-down of the extra lists from 17,500 to something over 5000 involves special attention to dress extras" They set. $15 a day, as compared with $5' or $10 for those extras who do not have the clothes to appear in ''society" pictures. Sometimes they get $25 if they have a few lines to speak.
 Clothes Cost Plenty
 Only 223 girls and 257 men will appear on the final list of dress extras out of more than 1,500 who are undergoing the judging based on general personal appearance, quality of clothes, and ability to wear them.
 A girl who stays on the Central Casting Bureaus list of dress extras" must have from $2,000 to $2.500 invested in clothes. The men get off slightly easier, their average wardrobe costing around $500.
 Add the cleaning and pressing costs. and it is clear that girl needs more, much more, than a pretty face to land a job as a dress extra"
 Listen to Ruth Magden, Holly woods perfect extra girl:" T have been working in pie lures for nearly seven years, and never yet has there been a time when I could see more than a week ahead" she says. Some weeks I work four or five days. and then I may not get a single call the whole next week.
 Needs Extensive Wardrobe
 Recently I've been working three days a week. As long as that continues. I can get along all right. But never have any extra money. ~
 'tNcarly half of all earn must be spent on clothes which I must have if I expect to work even half of the time. My wardrobe for evening wear consists of six for nal gowns and three wraps to match. four dinner dresses, and two wraps to 20 with thar7 formal afternoon dresses and a halI dozen 5, f.s
 ally, have tho shoes. ste, ,i.' hats. gloves, and purses for all these. I also have two coats. one of them of fur, suitable for street wear.
 II know that sounds like debutante's wardrobe, but I have to have them to maintain my status as a dress extra And I never wear gown more than four times before I either have 1t dyed or altered in some way"
 Add Hair Dressing Cost
 Ruth is luckier than most. She lives with her dressmaker, keep ing the cost of handling her wardrobe at a minimum.
 Another of the best and most widely employed extra girls told