“CROWD” PLAYERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 March 1939, Page 5

“CROWD” PLAYERS

. ■ CENTRAL CASTING AGENCY. Every “crowd” player in British films wilt benefit by the establishment of a central casting agency for extras after ten years’ agitation, says P. L. Man? nock, writing in the “Daily Herald.” No more will one thousand men and women seeking guinea-a-day work tramp daily up the stairs of a dozen London agents’ offices.

By agreement between all the leading agents and' with the support of practically every British studio United Casting Offices has been established in Green Street, Leicester Square.

Five per cent commission, instead of 10 per cent, as hitherto, will be char ; ged. “Much time and money will be saved by centralisation, as Hollwood has long ago found out,” said Mr Eric L. Smith, a director of the company.

“Over eight thousand ‘crowd’ people are on' agents’ booKS, though I doubt if more than one hundred make a regular living today of more than £4 a week. We can now get a professional crowd of one thousand at a few hours’ notice; and there is no ‘type’ we cannot supply, or any nationality. "We expect to stamp out most of the abuses and ‘rackets’ of casting. The genuine ‘pro’ will be protected from having his precarious living fallen by such people, and also by the screen-struck amateurs, society folk earning pin money, friends of the film trade, and others who crash into studios.”

Another practice which it will stop is “selling calls” —an artist getting more than one job through different agents for the same day, and extracting a few shillings from others willing to impersonate him. This defeats the careful casting by producers. The existing agents of repute will continue to handle all players receiyp ing more than two guineas a day, bm the new scheme will probably eliminate some of the shadier agents, mostly quite unqualified, who have been known to extort more than the statutory 10 per cent. Mr John Payne, head of Bramlins Agency, who has been twenty-six years in films, and formerly acted in variety with Charlie Chaplin, is chairman of the new company.