ACTRESSES ON TOUR

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 October 1933, Page 8

ACTRESSES ON TOUR

NO LODGING AVAILABLE. Girl members of touring theatrical companies on the south coast ot England, were lately being forced to sleep on beaches because they could not find hotel accommodation owing to record numbers of visitors. When they were able to find lodgings it sometimes meant sharing a room with two or three strangers. A girl who had been touring with a popular play stated that her story was typical of hundreds of others. She said: “The trouble is that even when there is a room to spare the landlady will not let it for two or three days, and take the risk of losing a two weeks’ let. Also they know that even if we could afford it we know . too much about ‘digs’ to pay fancy prices, and they find it more profitable to take holiday-makers. “At one resort three of us spent more than six hours walking from door to door. There were whole streets with ‘rooms to let’ signs in the windows. In every case it was the same story. As soon as they heard we wore from the theatre we were told to try Mrs So-and-so lower down. In the end we gave it up and slept on the beach.

“At another place I was told I could share a room with three other girls. In another town I had to share a room with a. woman and her young baby, and although I was dead tired alter a matinee and evening performance, I had to act as nurse most of the night.” Another actress stated that quite often they were forced to pay 10s for a night’s lodging. A chorus girl or small part actress usually gets £3 a week, and when an agent’s commission and the cost of grease-paint, etc., is deducted she is left with little more than £2 10s. to last the week.