theatre's publicity. Pick up today's newspaper, and look at the stage
announcements. "Mary Pickford in--" you don't care what the play is
when you see the star's name. The star carries the play, in such a
case. "Rose-Marie, with Mary Ellis and William Kent." You are glad to
go and see the featured pair, but in this case the play is given the
star position, it having registered success, the profits from this
musical play having been as high as $18,000.00 per week during its run
in one New York theatre.
Now the point of all this, that has to do with the stage dancer, is,
"How did Marilyn Miller get a name that entitled her to this
conspicuous exploitation, and how can I go about it to become equally
well-known and famous, myself?"
You are wise to ask this question seriously early in your stage
career, and if you have or develop the quality that makes for stardom
you can read this chapter with confidence that it is an accurate and
correct account of how many a stage celebrity has progressed from an
unknown and unheralded place in the theatrical world, to one where
Broadway producing managers have solicited the privilege of elevating
her or his name over the doors of their playhouses.
Bear in mind that your name is to you what a trademark is to a
manufacturer. And, to continue the analogy, you cannot establish a
name in a day or two, any more than the manufacturer can make his
trademarked goods universally known in a short period.
You are starting out now with the laudable ambition to make a name for
yourself, and have still to seek your first engagement. You know your
dances, are continuing your practice, and have confidence in your
ability to make good.
Don't hurry to get yourself before any producing manager until you
have had a little experience in some hideaway place, like at a church
or charity benefit performance, some local entertainment, or club
affair, anything of this nature, that will enable you to try yourself
out before a small or friendly audience, test your ability to overcome
stage fright, and get hold of yourself before a crowd. Having done
this away from Broadway and gained assurance, then an appearance in
some regular theatre, preferably at some benefit performance, usually
given Sundays, should come next, where the dancer is sure to be seen
by someone who has the authority and position to offer an engagement.
Any sort of an engagement with a reputable management is a good
beginning and should be accepted without expectation of a fancy
salary, an opportunity being what one always needs in order to prove
one's ability.
If you do not succeed in creating a demand for your services at
appearances like this, do not become discouraged; make up your mind to
keep on trying until you do attract the attention of the right
manager. Always be willing to make any sacrifice as far as
remuneration is concerned for an opportunity to appear to advantage,
and be everlastingly grateful to whoever gives you your first
opportunity, or foothold which enables you to establish yourself.
Send a brief letter to the offices of various managers announcing your
forthcoming appearance. Enclose a good full-length photograph,
preferably in stage costume, the best you can afford, i.e., taken by
the best photographer you can get. Some of these managers or their
representatives will be there and see your performance. Be sure you
are "making good" before you try to interest any of the big managers.
It is better for you to be seen by the manager before an audience than
in an empty theatre.
Be satisfied to make a small beginning for the experience, provided
you get a chance to do your best dance. This will help you establish
yourself, but it is going to take a long time to prove your ability.
Travel, and make territory for yourself. Go in a vaudeville act, if
offered such an engagement. Keep on "small time" for a year, if
necessary, and get your name known in a certain territory for a
pleasing entertainer. Get on with some act, big or little, as a solo
dancer, at a reasonable salary, and expect the first two weeks to be
at half salary, as is usual. Do not demand a large salary until
managers are clamoring for your services--make it an inducement for
someone to employ you in the beginning.
When you start on a road tour your first inquiry of your company
manager will be for a "copy of the route." You want to know where
you are going, what towns your itinerary takes you to, so that friends
can be advised in advance of your location day by day, and letters and
communications reach you with certainty.
[Illustration: ONE SCENE FROM NED WAYBURN'S "DEMI-TASSE REVUE."]
To the trouper, a town is a "stand." A week's showing in a place is
spoken of as a "week stand"; the first and last half of the week is
each a "three-day stand," or "four-day stand," or the "first" or
"last-half." Then there is a "two-day stand" and a "one-night stand,"
which are self-explanatory. A "run" is a greater period than a "week
stand," and you hear of a "two-week run," an "eight-week run," "six
months run," and "one year run," etc.
There is a solid season, a theatrical year of forty weeks, of travel,
experience and development, beginning about Labor Day and ending about
Decoration Day, and a summer season beginning about the first Monday
in June and ending about the last Saturday in August. Your work and
progress is being watched unknown to you at every performance. The
manager back home finally knows all about your work through "reports"
which are kept in the main booking office and to which he and all
other managers on his particular circuit have access.
Now you are ready to try for something bigger and better, ready for
"big time" vaudeville, perhaps in your own act; if not that, then in
someone else's act. Your second year's advancement is based on the
weekly report that has been sent to headquarters regarding your
reception by the public and the way in which your act has got over.
Big time may mean Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and any or all the
larger cities on the various "circuits." It may include the
Keith-Albee Palace Theatre in New York, the Mecca of all vaudeville
artists. It is at the Palace that you know you and your act are seen
by every revue, musical comedy, or dramatic manager, casting director
whose business it is to pick and engage artists.
There is no school like vaudeville for the dancer, singer, actor or
actress in any line of musical work. Most of the brightest stars in
the theatrical firmament have graduated from vaudeville into greater
things, and many of them return to the vaudeville stage for a flier
now and then. It is there that you come in contact with different wise
audiences in different cities and learn how to handle them. You watch
your fellows in their various acts, note the bills as they change
every week, or usually twice weekly, and your audience with them. You
are in two, three or four shows a day in your short time, and learning
how to get over better at every show. The vaudeville audience knows
what's what. You can't fool them. You've got to do your best for them
all the time--and you will, or you will not remain in vaudeville,
where you have to "make good" every performance. It is an invaluable
experience, your first stage years, and you will gather lasting
benefit from your active vaudeville appearances. You must not complain
of the number of shows you are required to give daily--the more you
give the more practice you get before a paid audience, and remember
you are gaining experience while being paid for it.
You may follow a season of this with a road show over your former
territory another year, and you will find your old friends in the
audience ready to boost you. You are on the right road to the "making
of a name," which after all is what you are after. For although they
will not remember your name yet, if you really pleased them they will
remember your offering; about your third trip around they will learn
your name and never forget it--provided you "make good." If you fail,
the audience will forget you; but _not_ the manager. Once you fail in
his opinion, he will never forget or forgive it. He will never give
anyone who fails a second chance. That is "show business."
Your fourth year should find you in a New York production in some good
company. For New York is always the objective point, since the best
and most opportunities are always there. There follows naturally a
year on the road in the same company, as the show abandons New York
for a tour of the larger cities. Always make the road trip in order to
create territory for yourself, to establish a following, to make a
still bigger name and demand for you, which means a larger salary
eventually. You are sufficiently established now, after five
successful years, to be able to expect another New York engagement,
under the same management in all likelihood but with a new vehicle.
This New York engagement and another year on tour with the same play
puts you seven years along the way to a name in the big lights, and
your name has been growing day by day, until it is now known in good
territory, and consequently, through wise exploitation--publicity--it
has become a magnet and attracts patronage.
When the time comes that your name is to go up in front of the
theatre, choose to be featured at first rather than starred. If
anything must fail, let it be the show, and not you. Don't risk
failing to "draw business" to the box office.
There will come a time somewhere along in your progress to fame when
you will need a business manager or an agent versed in all matters of
a theatrical nature, favorably known to all the large producing
managers, and able to advance your fortunes materially by protecting
and looking after your interests. He is entitled to receive ten
percent of your earnings from whatever source, and the services he can
render you are well worth it.
Nearly every successful actor and actress has a manager. Stage
celebrities have not the time, let alone the experience and ability,
to promote their own business interests, watch for opportunities to
secure the choice engagements, and attend to the very necessary
publicity and negotiations for contracts for the future. The reputable
agent or artist's manager is always on the ground and in touch with
the best managements and things theatrical daily. But no such
representative worth while will bother with you until you have made
good.
The best artist managers or agents know in advance what is being
planned for the coming theatrical season. They are in close contact
with the very high-ups in the theatrical world, men whose contracts
you hope to sign on the dotted line soon. A good agent may save you
several years' time in advancing to a stellar position. He knows the
value of publicity, which often is half the battle in getting yourself
before the public. You must have publicity, whether or not you secure
a representative to attend to it for you. Interesting newsy stories
about you, with effective art studies of yourself in costume
accompanying them, are gladly accepted by many newspapers and
magazines. The rotogravure sections of Sunday papers contain many
pictures of theatrical folks. A beautiful picture will usually carry a
story, and you are wise to get a few good ones rather than many cheap
prints. Every first-class theatre has its own press agent, and every
production of any size its own press representative. Both are glad to
cooperate with you if you have real ability, and help you with the
preparation of your stories and photographs and getting them into the
daily newspaper. There are also many publicity concerns who make it a
business to keep your name and picture in the public eye at a moderate
charge. But you must be able to _make good_ first. Neither publicity
nor anything else will avail to establish a permanent name for you
unless you are prepared to deliver the goods. Duds and dumb ones never
make a big noise in the world. There is no star name awaiting the
inferior person in this profession. All the front-page publicity in
christendom won't do the trick if you haven't back of you real talent
and something the public is clamoring for. And you cannot hope to fool
the wary producer by any false representation or exaggerated claims.
You are not wasting your time while on the way to the bigger things.
Seven years may seem a long time to wait, but you are not starving on
the way, and you are really not "waiting" at all. You start with a
reasonable salary that advances from year to year and engagement to
engagement, as you deserve it. You must build all the way on solid
rock, then the structure that you finally rear, because of its firm
foundation will endure forever.
Build up a public interest in yourself if you expect any producing
manager to pay you what you are worth. Perhaps he will never pay you
what you think you are worth, but if you bring money into the house he
knows he must pay you well in his own interest. And believe me, he
knows whether you are an asset or a liability to his show. You have
simply got to prove to the box office that you are producing--not
stage money--but the real stuff.
There is such a thing in stage lingo as an "overnight hit." Someone
suddenly "stops the show" in a town; that is, gets an unusual number
of recalls. But wait a while before you decide that you are ready to
star on the strength of that. Your next audience or the audience in
the next town may not be so enthusiastic over your act. An "overnight
hit" is seldom continued beyond the single performance. It is
pleasant while it lasts, but it doesn't last long. You must perform
consistently and "make a hit" at every performance, with every
audience.
Be patient, you who would star and see your name go up in the bright
lights on the Great White Way. Do not get discouraged. You will meet
with obstacles on the route to fame undoubtedly, as others have done,
and, like the others who have finally arrived, you must overcome them
one at a time as they appear, by sheer force of willpower,
determination, pluck or whatever you desire to call it. If you are a
weakling and lack strength of character do not ever take up a stage
career, for you will get many a bump; so be prepared to stand it. For
only those who are determined to succeed will ever reach the top,
where there is plenty of room always.
[Illustration: NW]
[Illustration: MARILYN]
[Illustration: RITA HOWARD]
FORMS OF STAGE CONTRACTS
[Illustration]
I offer no apology for posting the inexperienced ones about to enter
upon a stage career as to how best to make the start.
The signing of a mutual contract, entering into a legal engagement on
the part of manager and dancer to perform certain duties and pay
certain salaries for a stated period of time, is of sufficient
importance to have serious consideration.
I want my pupils to know in advance just what a proper stage contract
looks like, how it reads, and what they will be called upon to sign as
"party of the second part" when the hoped for time comes that their
dances are to have public presentation on the professional stage.
To this end, I reproduce here the wording of various forms of approved
contracts now in general use by American Theatrical managers, and
commend their reading to all who are interested in the intimate side
of stage affairs.
The theatrical law requires that a chorus girl or boy be paid not less
than $30.00 per week in New York City and $35.00 outside of New York,
besides their transportation. This is the lowest salary. All first
class managers pay choristers not less than $40.00 per week in New
York and $50.00 on the road. The salary always includes
transportation, but _not_ living expenses, which you are required to
pay.
Some chorus girls receive as much as $75.00 or $100.00 weekly,
depending upon what they can do, their appearance, personality, etc.
About the smallest salary ever offered a solo dancer with a vaudeville
act would be $50.00 in New York and $60.00 on tour, while the majority
of solo dancers without name or reputation would receive $75.00,
$85.00 or $100.00 per week, to start, provided they really can do a
real dance in a professional manner and "put it over" with some
personality. One who receives $100.00 per week in New York should
receive $125.00 on tour. After one's salary reaches $125.00 per week
it can be increased on a sliding scale to $150.00 and $175.00 on tour,
then $200.00 in New York and $250.00 on tour. From $250.00 to $300.00.
After reaching $300.00 it generally jumps to $400.00, from $400.00 to
$500.00, after that to $750.00, then $1000.00 to $1250.00, thence to
$1500.00 a week, and then to ten percent of the gross receipts,
usually a star's contract, though contracts and terms vary. A salary
is fixed for one theatrical year and usually increased each year as
indicated, but is never increased at all unless there is a demand for
your services by reason of the fact that you have made a "hit" and
registered genuine success.
[Illustration: CINDERELLA
Your Name]
* * * * *
[Transcriber's Note: In the following contract forms, the original has
rows of dots representing the blanks to be filled in. In this e-book,
each set of dots has been replaced with a long dash (----).]
FORM--IND: E.M. NO. 3
THIS CONTRACT MUST NOT BE ISSUED TO THE CHORUS
EQUITY MINIMUM CONTRACT
Standard Form issued by the
_Actors' Equity Association_
(Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor)
45 West 47th Street, New York City
LOS ANGELES OFFICE 6412 Hollywood Blvd.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE Theodore Hale, 369 Pine St.
CHICAGO OFFICE 1032 Capitol Bldg.
KANSAS CITY OFFICE Gayety Theatre Bldg.
_To be used by "Independent" New York Managers and others playing same
class of attractions._
AGREEMENT made this ---- day of ----, 19--, between ---- ("MANAGER")
and ---- (hereinafter called "ACTOR").
_Regulations and Rules Over Leaf_
Regulations covering rehearsals, notice of termination before and
during rehearsals, lost rehearsals, individual termination, closing of
play and season, clothes, number of performances, lost performances,
transportation, lay-off, method of giving notice and other matters are
set forth in the "Regulations" on the reverse side of this page and in
"Rules Governing Minimum Standard Contract," on the pages following,
and except as hereinafter provided, are a part hereof.
_Agreement of Employment_
1. The Manager engages the Actor to render service in part of
---- (Here insert name of part; also if Actor is required to
understudy.) in the play now called ---- (Here insert present title of
play) and the Actor hereby accepts such employment upon the terms
herein set forth.
_Opening Date_
2. The date of the first public performance shall be the ---- day of
----, 19--, or not later than fourteen days thereafter.
Employment hereunder shall begin on the date of the beginning of
rehearsals, and shall continue until terminated by notice given as
herein provided and not otherwise.
_Compensation_
3. The Manager agrees to pay the Actor the sum of ---- Dollars ($----)
each week on Saturday thereof, from and after the date named in
Paragraph 2, and until this agreement is duly terminated.
_Duties of the Actor_
4. The Actor agrees to be prompt at rehearsals, to pay strict regard
to makeup and dress, to perform his services in a competent and
painstaking manner, to abide by all reasonable rules and regulations
of the Manager, and, except as otherwise herein provided, to render
services exclusively to the Manager from the date of beginning of
rehearsals, and shall not render services to any other person, firm or
corporation without the consent of the Manager.
5. The Manager agrees that he has notice that the Actor herein is a
member of the Actors' Equity Association and as such member is bound
to conform to its lawful rules and regulations, and that it is a
lawful rule and regulation of said Association that, as far as the
Manager herein is concerned, the Actor is to work only in companies
operated by the Manager herein when all members of said company or
companies are members of the Actors' Equity Association in good
standing and continue to be such during the entire term of employment
hereunder. And the Manager agrees that the Actor shall not be required
to work hereunder in violation of said rule or other lawful rule of
said Association, and further agrees to the full extent to which said
agreement is lawful that all actors in the company in which the Actor
herein is employed, shall be and shall continue throughout the term
hereof to be members in good standing of the Actors' Equity
Association, except as provided in paragraph 37 of the Rules.
Should the Manager employ any non-member of the Actors' Equity
Association, or any member not fully paid up or not in good standing,
or one who fails to continue himself in good standing, or should the
Manager breach any covenant herein made, the Actor may (the Actors'
Equity Association consenting) not only terminate this agreement
forthwith, but the Manager also agrees to pay the Actor all sums due
to the date of termination, plus his return fare and plus, as
liquidated damages, no present basis for calculation existing, a sum
equal to two weeks' salary.
_Arbitration_
6. In event that any dispute shall arise between the parties as to any
matter or thing covered by this agreement, or as to the meaning of any
part thereof, then said dispute or claim shall be arbitrated. The
Manager shall choose one arbitrator and the Actors' Equity Association
the second. ---- shall be the third. These three shall constitute the
Board and the decision of a majority of the arbitrators shall be the
decision of all and shall be binding upon both parties and shall be
final. The Board shall hear the parties and within seven (7) days
shall decide the dispute or claim. The Board shall determine by whom
and in what proportion the cost of arbitration shall be paid, and the
parties hereby constitute said Board their agents and agree that its
decision shall constitute an agreement between them, having the same
binding force as if agreed to by the parties themselves. Further, that
they and each of them will, if required, sign such individual
arbitration agreement as to make said arbitration comply with a legal
arbitration under the laws of the State of New York, and the rules of
the Supreme Court thereof, and that judgment upon the award may be
entered in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. The oath of the
members of the Board of Arbitration shall not be necessary unless
specifically requested by one of the parties.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF we have signed this agreement on the day and year
first above written.
---- MANAGER
---- ACTOR
REGULATIONS
(To be printed on Independent Standard Minimum Contract)
_Rehearsals_
A. (1) The Actor, if required, shall give four weeks' rehearsal
without pay (in case of musical comedy, revue or spectacular
production, five weeks), and obligates himself to be ready to rehearse
four (or five) weeks before the date mentioned in Paragraph 2 on face
of contract hereof; if further rehearsals are required then for each
additional week or part thereof the Manager shall pay the Actor full
compensation, as provided in Paragraph 3 on face of contract hereof on
Saturday night of each week.
(2) It is agreed that rehearsals shall be continuous from the date of
the first rehearsal to the date of the first public performance of the
play, as stated in Paragraph 2 on the face hereof.
_Notice of Termination Before Rehearsal_
B. This contract may before the beginning of rehearsals be terminated
as follows:
(1) If the contract be signed and entered into prior to two months
before the specific date mentioned in Paragraph 2 on face hereof;
By the Manager giving to the Actor written notice and paying him two
weeks' salary.
If, however, previously to giving such written notice and making such
payment, the Manager shall have given to the Actor written notice that
the play will not be produced or that the Actor will not be called for
rehearsals, and the Actor thereafter secures a new engagement under
which payments to him are to begin not later than the date specified
in Paragraph 2 on the face hereof, then and in that event, instead of
said two weeks' salary, the only sum, if any, which the Manager need
pay the Actor, shall be the amount, if any, by which said two weeks'
salary exceeds two weeks' salary of the Actor under said new
engagement.
(2) If the contract be signed and entered into within two months of
the specific date mentioned in Paragraph 2 on the face hereof and the
play is not placed in rehearsal or is abandoned, the Manager shall pay
the Actor a sum equal to one week's salary.
_Notice of Termination During Rehearsal_