ATTACK ON PICTURE PRODUCERS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 88, 8 January 1935, Page 9

ATTACK ON PICTURE PRODUCERS

Actors’ Committee Report SALARIES COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EXECUTIVES By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. (Received January 7, 5.5 p.m.) Hollywood, January 6. The committee of motion picture actors, including Robert Montgomery and Ralph Morgan, appointed to draft a code of fair practices for inclusion in the N.R.A. motion pictures code, issued a statement to-day castigating producers for the “low wages” paid players and the “lowest of all ethics” by which members of the profession had been “tricked, hamstrung and lied to.”

Claiming actors received only 13.4 per cent, of the'industry's income, the report declared that of regular players, not including extras, 71 per cent, received between 1000 and 5000 dollars in 1933,12 per cent, earned up to 10,000 dollars, 13 up to 50,000 dollars, and only 63, or four per cent., were above that figure. It was pointed out that all salaries were automatically cut 10 per cent, by agents’ fees, and that wardrobe, and other essential expense put many players on a bare living wage. This was contrasted with a dozen or more executives named with salaries ranging from 100.000 to 500.000 dollars annually. The report added that actors suffered through the failure of their films but not the producers.