BIG SALARIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1076, 13 September 1930, Page 26

BIG SALARIES

Ada Reeve Still Draws Big Money NOT ALL REDUCED j Distinction o£ receiving the highest salary ever paid in vaudeville in Austialia lies, probably, with Ada Reeve. Her draw at the Tivoli has soared up to at least £750 a week. | For Miss Reeve’s big earnings, it is ! necessary to go back to the Hugh D. | Mclntosh days—l9l2 to 1921, says an , Australian paper. “In her first engagement with me,” he relates, "she got £350 a week —all for her little sell’. The second time I i played her on terms. Her share frequently panned out at over £I,OOO a week. Out of this she had to pay her own , supporting artists. But the amount for herself would still be well over £SOO a week.” How do managers estimate an artist’s value? j Just to the extent he or she pleases lor attracts business to the theatre. Some may be dear—a bad bargain—at £ls or £25 a week. Others—in rare cases—cheap at £250 or £350 a week. Mr. Mclntosh could give an instance of an artist, justifiably commanding j £250 in London, and engaged by him Lat £175 for Australia, who merely—jin his own words—drove the people j out of the theatre. IN LATER YEARS Failures subsequent to the Mclntosh 'regime include Harry Green (£2OO a ! week). Today this artist is getting I £SOO a week with Paramount PicI tures, Ltd. The explanation is that the was unable to repeat here the j vaudeville success he had been in America. Fortunate big-money engagements i were Long Tack Sam (£3OO a week) and the Ingenues (£4OO a week). There were 10 in The former combination, and IS in the latter. Long Tack Sam drew up to £2,700 a .week, and the Ingenues the record for the 1922-23 period—£3,ooo a week. It will be observed that all these salaries fall far short of some of the j weekly payments made to Ada Reeve, i BACK TO SYDNEY | Consequently it is a vastly expen- ! sive artist that Sydney is again to see ' in Miss Reeve, with her return in \ “Pot Luck.” | With her will be Alfred Frith, who probably got his top-money with Wil-liamson-Tait, Ltd., in his last engagement (running well into three figures) j — due, to some extent, to the fact that j the Fullers were at the same time j | competing for his services. Two ; {-other members of the .company are j Hector St. Clair and Roy Rene (Mo). ! 1 Former has assuredly touched £SO a I week, and for years, it is safe to say, { ! Mo handled at least a similar amount i | from Fullers. CHANGES DUE TO TALKIES The talkies have put many artists j j out of work. i How about the salaries of those that! ! remain? | Certainly, a number have suffered ! reduction—in some cases to the ex- I { tent of half what they were previously | j getting. But there are two other classes— j { those under long contracts, and those l I whose services are considered vital ! by managers. For all such artists, payment has to be made—just as in j the past. i There is no ground for the belief that all artists have had to come down in their figures because of presentday conditions. I “Florodora” is to be revived in i Melbourne to follow “New Moon,” with { Marie Bremner as the lady of the j { flowery name once associated with ; | Carrie Moore. Allan AVilkie's production of the j new Australian play, “Governor ; Bligh,” ran for six weeks in Sydnev. A newspaper controversy helped its j popularity. Hugh Ward tells a good story about I his visit to "The Belle of New York” ' lately in Sydney. He had been to the I first performance of it years ago at the same theatre, aud, as he stood at the back of the circle, he observed to the usher: “Thirty-one years since it started. It’s had rather a good run, hasn’t it?” The usher was gruffly defiant: “We’s done plenty of other I things since!” he replied. Following are the members of the : Humphrey Bishop Company, who will begin a season in Auckland shortly: ■ Humphrey Bishop, Walter Kingslev. Elaine Maye, Frank Egan, Thelma Trott, Hilda Reaux, Ralph Hedley, Lea Desiree, Nick Morton, Maurice Barling, Billy Monte, Margaret Blackburn. • Gwen Weston. Doris Burt, Ilenis Shand. Harry West, and Fred Webber. The cast of “Little Accident” at the King’s Theatre, Melbourne, is one of the best that has ever appeared in comedy under the J. C. Williamson, : Ltd., management. It includes Jim Gerald, Mary Macgregor, Ethel Morrison, Noel Boyd, Henrietta Cavendish, Leslie Victor, Dulcie Cherry, Essie Jennings, Herbert Leigh, Reginald Newson, Nancy Low, Beth Mackey, Zara Gaden, Betty Ralland. Reginald Dane, Phyllis Clegg, John Fernside, Maidie Hope aud Dorothy Stanward. On his return to Australia from the United States Frederick Blackman. J.C.W. producer, said that those j concerned in the legitimate theatre! in New York were very optimistic in j regard to the future. Evidence of this) was furnished in the fact that for next 1 season no fewer than 60 new stage ’ attractions are planned. So far as the talkies are concerned, Mr. Blackman : found those engaged In this branch of entertainment greatly perturbed because of the difficulty of finding new material for the screen.