FILM STARS' SALARIES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4453, 14 August 1922, Page 3

FILM STARS' SALARIES.

RETRENCHMENT. Within the last year (according to a writer in the New York Herald) there has been a marked lowering of salaries throughout the motion pic-< ture ranks, amounting in some instances to more than 50 per cent. A sage of Hollywood thus summarised the present salary situation : “This is an El Dorado for a few, a grub stake for many, and a Dead Man’s Gulch for many others. I kpow well-known actors and actresses whose salaries appeal to be fabulous, but who would be better off if they had a steady job at 100 dollars a week. One of these is a leading woman who gets 500 dollars a week. That sounds like 25,000 dollars a year. The fact is that the moment a picture is finished she gets nothing, and sometimes she is idle for months between pictures. The highest-priced players on continuous weekly salaries are Mary Pickford. Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks, all of whom are now producing on their own account. The highest paid salaried actor in Hollywood at the present time, according to information given me, is Mary Miles Minter.”

The public has an impression that Charlie Chaplin is under a contract at "a million a year.” Thie fact is that the First National Pictures agreed to pay him £200,009 for eight pictures, and it has taken him five years to make them. This makes his average returp only £25,000' a picture, and £40,000 a year. Out of this Chaplin pays the cost of production, averaging about £6OOO a picture. At this rate his net return a picture is £19,000, with income tax tp be deductedThe dbg that he used in filming "A Dog’s Life” grew from puppyhood to maturity before the picture was done. Towards the end they had to take, that is tp place, the camera farther away in order to make the dog appear to be the same size as when the production was commenced. What Mary Pickford makes is a great secret among herself, .her mother, who is her business manager, and the Income Tax Bureau. It. does not amount to one million dollars a year. Friends in Hollywood believe that recently she .and her husband have each been netting about £109,000. After 15 years on top legitimate and movie stage Miss Pickford is worth about £600,000. She is a wise investor. Fairbanks is not a great saver, or has not been up to this time. He spends enormous •sums on his productions. “The Three Mnskateers” cost not far from £150,000. Conrad Nagel, one of the newer leading men of considerable -experience on the legitimate stage, has a salary of £l5O a week. This is above the lending man’s average, the reason being that Nagel not only can act, but also looks like an aristocrat. Whilst there are contracts at £4OO i week, the salaries pf stock players unde: contract range as a rule from £25 to £lOO a week. It takes an exceptional man or woman to rise above £lOO.