CASTING DIRECTORS

From the 1880s until well into the 1950s, the offices of theatrical producers abounded in the City of New York.  The theatre was a thriving coast-to-coast business, but its unofficial headquarters was in Gotham--New York City, home of Broadway.

One would usually find a number of actors sitting on benches or chairs just inside the entrance to any one of these producers' offices.  The producer would often have several shows and plays in New York and on tour, sometimes with two or more companies of each.  If an actor or performer left any of these companies for whatever reason, the producer's employees would have to quickly find a replacement.  Thus, if any of the actors sitting in the front--especially anyone whose work was known to someone in the office--were at all right for the part in question, they would likely find themselves supplied with a script and headed to the company in question.  Things theatrical in those days happened fast.

The producer might have half a dozen employees.  The producer himself would be occupied, for the most part, in overseeing new productions.  Casting and finding necessary replacements for the companies of older shows still playing (sometimes in New York but usually on tour) was therefore left to the employees.  As time went by, the need for one person to be in charge of casting for these various companies became increasingly obvious.  And so was born the casting director, a competent employee the producer would put in this position, often with a raise in salary.

 As the number of companies and productions grew less and less, many producers folded their offices.  The casting director would then move out and establish his or her own office--doing casting on a free lance basis.  This was the origin of the modern casting director.
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MOST LEGITIMATE GRIPE IN LEGITIMATE THEATRE, 1919

Those who write about the 1919 Actors' Strike often cite the lack of rehearsal pay and the absence of any minimum salaries as the crucial issues.  They were not.  Neither were they remedied once the strike ended in the actors' favor.  (Both were instituted in the 1930s, and the first minimum salary was a big fifteen dollars a week.)  Equity, in that strike, was fighting for recognition as the actors' union.  Indeed, if any issue or issues were addressed by that strike, it was the lack of any pay for extra (i.e. more than eight) performances per week.

Many are aware that shows and plays gave an extra performance if there was a holiday.  (If, for example, a legal holiday occurred on Monday, a matinee performance would be given on that day, boosting the total of performances for the week from eight to nine.)  Less well known is that, while Sunday performances were not allowed in the eastern part of the United States, they were allowed in the middle and far west.  If a show played Chicago, Sunday night performances would be given with no additional money paid the cast.  Sunday night performances were likewise allowed (and were likewise given) in the western states and the Pacific Coast--without any additional money paid.

In other words, actors who were paid on the basis of eight performances a week were paid the same money for nine performances a week in the western half of the country.  Remember this was when most of the performances a play or show (and, of course, an actor or performer) gave were given on tour.  In other words, it often was for something like one-third of all performances of a given show or play.

This was rectified.  Actors' Equity Association did a lot of good things.  There was, however, more opposition to it, in the early to mid-1920s, than is usually supposed.

Stay tuned.
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