FILM STARS’ SALARIES

Evening Star, Issue 18022, 17 July 1922, Page 1

FILM STARS’ SALARIES

FICTION AND FACT. Within (lie Inst year (according to a writer in the ‘New York Herald’) there has been 'a marked lowering of salaries throughout _ the motion picture ranks, amounting in some instances to more than 50 per cent. A sago of Hollywood thus summarised the present salary situation : “This is an El Dorado for a few, a grub stake for many, and 1 a- Dead Man's Gulch for many others. I know well-known actors andi actresses whose salaries appear to be fabulous, but who would' be better off if (hey hadl steady jobs at 100 dollars' a week. One of these is a lending woman who gets 500 dollars a week. That sounds like 25,000 dollars a year. The fact is that the moment a picture is finished l she gets nothing, and sometimes she is idle for months between pictures. The highestpaid players on continuous weekly salaries were Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and) Douglas Fairbanks, all of whom are now producing on their own account. The highest paid salaried actor in Hollywood at the present time, according to infonnation given me, is Mary Miles Minter.” The public has an impression that Charlie Chaplin is under a contract at “ a million a year.” The fact is that the First National Pictures agreed to pay him £200,000 for eight pictures, and it has taken him live years to make them. This makes his average return only £25,000 u picture and £40,000 a year. Out of this Chaplin pays the cost of production, averaging about £6,000 a, picture. At tills rate his net return a picture Ls £13,000, ■with income tax to be deducted 1 , lire dog that he used in filming ‘ A Dog’s Life ’ grew from puppyhood to maturity before the picture was done. Toward the end they hadi to take—that is, to place—the camera farther away in order to make the dog appear to be tho same size as when the production was commenced. What Mary Pickford mates its a great secret among herself, her mother (who is her business manager), and the Income Tax Bureau. It does not amount to one million dollars a year. Friends in Hollywood believe that recently she and her husband have each been netting about £IOO,OOO. After fifteen years on the legitimate and movie stage Miss Pickford is worth about £600,000. She is a wise investor. Fairbanks is not a great snvex’, or has not been up to this time. He spendis enormous sums on his productions. ‘The Three Musketeers’ cost not far from £150,000. Conrad Nagel, one of tho newer leading men of considerable experience on tho legitimate stage, has a salary of £l5O a week. This is above the leading man’s average, tho reason being that Nagel not only can act but looks like an aristocrat. Whilst there are contracts at £4OO a week, tho salaries of stock -players urider contract range as a, rule from £25 to £IOO a week. It takes an exceptional man or woman to rise above £IOO,