FABULOUS SALARIES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5177, 12 September 1927, Page 3

FABULOUS SALARIES.

PAYMENTS TO PICTURE STARS. DRASTIC CUT DECIDED ON. The announcement that Famous Players has decided to effect a drastic cut on salaries, ranging from 10 to 25 per cent., lias created a sensation. It should have created no sensation at all. Such a reduction in the fantastic salaries paid in the film business is long overdue.. iOn the. otliei hand, the reason for fantastic salaries is entirely American. The truth is that the resources of the film business were grossly overestimated, and the values of individual artists were so fatally exaggerated that all money sense was lost.

All this ramp seems; to date from the time when Chaplin was guaranteed a million dollars for eight pictures. Nobody thought the film business could stand it, but it did. The originators of that contract made an enormous profit out of it. Immediately such profit was evident the film business went mad. It was not realised that Chaplin stood alone as a cinema star. It was supposed that £looo' a, week could, be paid with profit to almost any star. Harold Lloyd, generally regarded as the most successful Vinema star, has earned, for several years, not less than £BOOO a week. Chaplin is supposed to run second on the wages list, but his earnings are uncertain because of the length of time between his pictures. He was credited with earning during the release of “The Gold Rush” £6OOO a week.

Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Tom Mix are about level for third place with a mere £4ooo' a week.

All of these stars, with the exception of Toni Mix, who is the most consistent favourite in the film world, are independent, having their own producing companies, and reaping their rewards entirely on results. For several years Thomas Meighan, with £2400 a week, was the highest paid of the hired stars, but Lilian Gish, Rudolph Valentino, John Barrymore, and Marion Davis were understood to be very nearly in the same class.