THE STROLLING PLAYERS’ LIFE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1610, 7 January 1903, Page 29

THE STROLLING PLAYERS’ LIFE.

The following about actors and actresses is taken from the New York “Sun”:it is estimated tiiat there are 30,000 actors and vaudeville performers in France. Of *ffese perhaps thirty are stars of the fi t 1 magnitude, higiuy paid. Some seventy otters earn from boodoi to 3000dol a month. As lor tile other 2i),900 some surprising figures have just been published in Paris to show the depth or their penury and misery. The pay of minor actors is said to range, as a rule, from SOciol to SOciol and 40uol a month; tiie majority c* actors employed regularly in minor parts receive in Paris 40ciol per month. Owing to the difficulty of getting along on such, salaries it is. common toy them to marry women who carry on a rss munerative business of sonie kind. The wife in such a household often gains four or five tunes as much as the man. but the husband is able to be useful in pushing the wares dealt in by his wife. Marriages of actors and actresses are rare, because the associations and traditions of the theatre do not encourage such, unions. In some respects ttie vaudeville artistes are better off than the actors, although their pay is less, averaging in the case of the great mass of little known performers scarcely more than 30dol a month. Having more freedom in the matter of hours of work, they are often able to obtain engagements in two places of amusement simultaneously. Others eke out a livelihood by giving lessons, working as canvassers, or pushing a mechanical trade. But even at the best it will be seen how hard life is for these obscure artistes. Yet the case of the actresses is harder than that of the actors. For the women who fill the minor parts the salaries are said to range from 14clol a month to 3l)dol a month, and with such sums they are supposed to pay their living expenses and supply certain costumes. Tho women vaudeville artistes are paid on a still lower scale. In some of the concert gardens they earn only 80 cents or Idol a day. As evidence of the misery in which they live, it is stated that o-Ten their hands are so roughened by hard work, which they are compelled to do to increase their professional earnings, that the directors of even the cheap places at which they appear will not permit them on the stage without gloves, which imposes an additional expense upon them. Even the minor actors and actresses at the Comedie Francaise are not exempt from hardships. The societaires of the theatre enjoy high earnings, but the pensionnaires, as their inferiors are called, receive as a rule 480dol to 700dol a year, and as the standard of living which they are obliged to observe is. much higher than in the case of other actors, they are not much better off in the end. In the provincial towns the standard of pay is slightly higher than in Paris, but on the other hand engagements are more precarious and the seasons are shorter. A curious state of things is reported to exist in the music halls of provincial towns. The proprietors of these places expect their artistes to lodge and board with them, and to spend what money they have left at the cafe. The result is that at the end -of tho month the artistes have nothing coming to them. On the other hand, the artistes are sure of their board and lodging. Such are the miseries of their ordinary existence that many of these artistes consider themselves lucky to obtain and keep employment on these terms—pockets constantly empty, but stomachs constantly filled.