Try Elsewhere

An actor's disappointments and heartaches can be stated in cold statistics. In its current issue, the Broadway trade magazine Equity surveys the fortunes of 6,235 Actors' Equity members for the year ending June 1, 1951. Of these, 1,124 got no theater work at all. Those who found stage jobs averaged about ten weeks with pay, made $790 for the year. In an average week, 82.3% of the union's hopefuls were just hoping. Twenty-four stars made $50,000 or better, but only one actor in eight beat the $5,000 mark.

How does the average Equity member manage to exist? Actress Shirley Peterson, 25, came to Manhattan from Terre Haute, Ind. in 1945, toured the South for six weeks last fall with a stock company. When she got back to Manhattan, she started ushering in Carnegie Hall. Recently she picked up a $150-a-week job doing a TV commercial, but this little windfall will vanish after 13 weeks.

Actor Joe Dooley, 27, came to Broadway from Omaha by way of the U.S. Air Force. Last year he toured for three months with Margaret Webster's Shakespearean company, did four weeks in summer stock, picked up three bit parts in Manhattan's City Center productions. An understudy now in the Broadway production of Shaw's Saint Joan, Joe helps cover his Greenwich Village apartment rent by selling ties at Brooks Brothers.

Equity advises: "Anyone primarily concerned with earning a living by his profession should try elsewhere than the theater."

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