FILM GLAMOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19762, 13 April 1926, Page 13

FILM GLAMOUR.

WOULD-BE KINEMA ARTISTS. FEW STAND A CHANCE. With the number of films being made in England at a low point, it is heartbreaking to realise the glamour which the kinema studio still has for countless men and women in Britain, says the film critic of the Daily Mail. The manager of one of the leading London agencies through which producers engage their artists states that 15,000 would-be kinema actors keep their names on his books, but only a bare 2000 of them stand a chance of even such casual employment as is provided byBritish studios. Among the pathetic crowd of applicants are white-haired grandparents of the middle classes, out-of-work theatrical people, the queerest assortment of ambitious youths with rouge hiding the hollows in their cheeks. This does not include the sternly discouraged men and women who drive up in motor cars, and typists and housemaids hoping for triumphs before the camera. From the rare applicants who stand a chance of employment because of their qualifications and experience are drawn the actors who do “ crowd work and occasionally are lucky enough to earn a guinea a day as “ supers ” in a ball room scene, providing their own evening dress. The hours are long and the work wearisome; and the super who can get 10 weeks’ work in the year is fortunate. Nor is it better for the small-part actors, for dozens of excellent artists in England are unable to get one months work in twelve. And'while a British star may earn from £25 a week upwards, such highly paid people are few*.