THE GLAMOUR LIE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE GLAMOUR LIE.

"Extras" Lead Hard Lives.

SRAGEDY OF THE UNWANTED THOUSANDS.

T"?s not possible, save in a few and exceptional instances, to make a reguiar living from 'extra' work. Fewer than 120 of the 12,410 registered with us earned as much as 29 dollars a week last year." Central Casting Corporation, the bureau that employs all "atmosphere'' players for major studios, sent a letter to eacli registered, "extra"' containing this information. A year ago Central embarked upon a campaign to try to turn the liojies of "extras"' from picture work to some surer, though less romantic, means of livelihood. For the most part the attempt was abortive. There are 12,41ti registered extras: there are 11,500 "bit"' players who, it they cannot get work in minor parts ill support of the ;>IS stars and featured players under contract to the major lots, will accept "extra"' work; in addition to these 23.91(5 people who have made the cinema their career, there are uncounted thousands who are listed at Central for mob. "atmosphere"' and racial work. Probably .'>•"> .000 men an<l women sit in their homes waiting for the telephone to ring, waiting for the magie call of romance and glamour. Marble Palaces Are Plaster. Hollywood has been pictured a< a colourful place where wealth is limitless. every home has a patio, a swimming pool and two or three Filipino house boys, where the world grovels at the feet of the players. This, at least, is the picture the average aspirant to him fame paints of life on the so-called (iold toast. The facts do not bear it out. Hollywood is a town of heartbreak*, of struggling poverty, of brave "fourflushing."' of hope and disappointment. Glamour is the commodity in which the screen traffics, but. just as the marble palaces of the silver sheet are made of chicken wire and plaster, so •re the apparently luxurious lives of the rank and tile resolved to a bare existence.

lii 1!I34 one man of all the thousands of "extras"' earned 2800 dollars. He had invested about 2000 dollars in a ■wardrobe and spent TOO dollars during the year for upkeep and replacements. Last year four "extras'' earned 2400 dollars each. 11.5 earned 1500 dollars. 363 earned 900 dollars, and 1100 earned 400 dollars. Thus the cold, bleak figures of Central Canting show that out of the 12.416 men, women and children only 1583 exceeded 40 dollars a month. Xine months ago Central closed its registration books, but still they come. 25 to 75 persons applying daily for listing.

Under the X.R.A. the studios adopted a code of wages and requirements for the drees people. This lias been continued. The following clothes requirements are specified:—ls-dollar "extras," men: Complete full dress, tuxedo, cutaway and riding habit. Topcoat, silk fcat, muffler, cane, gloves and other accessories, all "acceptably modern." Women: Complete evening gowns, dinner gowns, formal afternoon attire, street clothes. 2Co shawls or mufflers allowed, and the wardrobe must contain fur coats or wraps, and all modern.

Ten-dollar "extras."' men: Smart clothes, light and dark business suits and overcoats, bathing suits, robes, clipper*, lounging pyjamas and house robes, Palm Beach suits and flannels, all up to date. Women: Light and dark etreet clothes and coats, sport clothes, bathing and lounging attire. 7.">0-dollar "extras," men and women: Ordinary wardrobe worn by average people, including sports clothes and bathing costumes. Five-doliar "extras," any miscellaneous people. Three Classes of "Extras." Ten-dollar character "extras," men: Ministers, small-town judges, period clothes, detectives, gangsters. Koman guards, eccentric people, waiters, butlers, social types and professional dancers for musicals. Women: Spinsters, small-town teachers, period clothes, police matrons, landladies, hag beggars, waitresses, social types and professional dancers for musical shows. There are three classes of persons who work as "extras"—the ambitious ones who believe that they will be '"discovered" if they can be seen (although the chance of this is about 1 in 10,000), the elderly stage and screen players who can't do anything else and believe that the industry should make concessions to them, and a substantial number of persons of all ages to whom "extra" work appeals as an easy, although haphazard, way of making a living without labour.

The first class take care of themselves. Ambition is subdued in time by missed meals, by being thrown out of apartments for non-payment of rent. The third class really offer no problem to the industry, for they would not lend themselves to any solution should it be found.

Hie acute problem, and the one with which the industry is seriously concerned, is that of the veteran troupers. Of these there are two classes, elderly vaudevillians and performers from the legitimate stage, who, driven from their old employment by the condition of the theatre or by age, have turned to "extra' work, and, s.?cond., screen veterans—many former stars, featured players and prominent directors, who are registered at the Call Bureau, where only those with screen credit may apply. There are many tricks to acting, particularly on the screen. These skilled people know them. Put in a group surrounding a star, they invariably do little pieces of business that detract attention from the featured person in a scene. They can't help it; it's second nature with them. Often their activities go unnoticed on the set but loom up on the screen, and the scene either is spoiled or must be made over. For that reason directors are brutal about avoiding them.

Hollywood's Surplus 20.000. If all "extra"' casting could be confined to 1000 persons, their average earnings would be 1350 dollars annually, which is a trifle under 26 dollars a week. As it is, there are more than 20,000 surplus persons in Hollywood whom the studios probably will never be able to absorb. They must find other employment, although 90 per cent are incapable of doing other work, or they will become public charges. Unless tliey have had screen credit they are ineligible for help from the Motion Picture Relief Fund. Fully half of the registrations at Central are from people who have passed tlieir meridian. Their future is deplorable. Hollywood likes to sell itself to the world as a glamorous place. This continual publicity naturally attracts the t>elieving from the crossroads and from the big cities. They go to the movies and they see "extras" on the same sets with stars, actually rubbing elbows with the (iables and the Colberts. Such a condition is three times as good as Heaven and, in addi- ' tion. they say, "extras" get paid for hobnobbing with the great. What they don't know or don't realise is that to

lie on the same screen with the Hepburns and tlie Marches "extras" must suffer deprivation and heartache. They provide the glamour which Hollywood turns on and off like a faucet when it is needed.