UNEMPLOYMENT AT HOLLYWOOD.
Visions of fame as a cinema star giving way to the hard realities of unemployment are indicated in a recent report of the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations of California. Last year, the director records, approximately 11,000 men and women registered in Los Angeles as movie " extras," but only 133 men and 87 women found work for more than two days a week during the year. The demand from the studios which, of course, varies considerably from time to time, amounted throughout the year to the equivalent of full-time employment for about 750 persons. Movie extras are registered at a Central Casting Corporation, to which the studios telephone orders such as this : " One hundred beautiful girls, Latin type ; fifty women over 60 years old, French types ; twelve English Tommies, in uniform, one French gendarme, one hundred American doughboys, in uniform. On location at 9.0 a.m." " Extras " are employed by the day, and their pay varies from $5.00 to $15.00 for eight hours' work, with more for overtime. The average daily wage last year was $8.94. The director of the Department of Industrial Relations hints that wider knowledge of the statistics of employment might induce many would-be movie stars to reconsider before challenging the hazards which beset the road to fame and fortune at Hollywood.
YOUR NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT.
New York, Wednesday, December 4th.
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