“STARS” SALARIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 October 1931, Page 7

“STARS” SALARIES

: PARIS MANAGERS’ ACTION : PARIS, September 7 ' By virtue of an agreement between Parisian theatre managers and the rep'resentafives of actors and actresses no theatrical “star” in future will be able to claim a fixed salary of more than £4 per performance. in taking this step Pains is following the example of Berlin. There, the theatre managers resolved to abolish fanciful salaries and agreed that no actor or actress,* however eminent, should receive more than £l5O a month. During the Paris negotiations the managers pointed out that in these days when the cinema is so dangerous a competitor, theatres cannot afford to guarantee inflated salaries, especially as they never know whether a certain programme will result in profit or in loss. It has often happened that a “star” has drawn so high a salary in a piece of only mediocre success that there has been little or nothing left for tho promoters after the payment of expenses. Under the new arrangement the stars will receive at most £4 for each performance, but will also be given a share of the profits. They will, in fact, be paid on results, and should they fail to draw good houses the promoters’ losses will be limited to a reasonable sum.

At the present time there are only, it is stated, about fifty actors and actresses in Paris who can claim more than £4 a day. About twenty of them have been able to demand £8 a day or more. But all have agreed to accept the £4 basis. Recently a spectacle which many managers had judged too expensive was staged in Paris on the understanding that no member of the company should receive a fixed salary, but be content with a percentage of the profits. The piece went so well that the artists concerned gained about three times as much as they would have received on the ordinary salary basis.