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became Stewart Rome and so on. When he came back from the war Ryott went straight to Broadwest and we took action against him and lost.
I do not wish to quarrel with the verdict although it was suggested that I was trying to do the actor out of his living. That, of course, was a gross exaggeration. What I was trying to do was to prevent the actor, unintentionally and perhaps against his will, being used as a pawn in a game which might lead to the destruction of the industry which was providing that living. My suggested method may have been quite wrong but I am convinced that if the something that I was striving for could have been brought about by another and perhaps more equitable method, the industry would today be far more healthy than it is and the actors collectively much better off. For see what happens now. Mr. A is an actor: Mr. B is, say, an electrician. Both do some particularly good work and hope, as we all should, that they will get better pay because of it. Mr. A is in the limelight, or rather the electric light thrown upon him, literally by Mr. B, and he catches the eye of the public — Mr. B does not. A gets his rise, but a rival firm comes along and offers him double. That is doubled again when another firm steals him, and in a very little while he is getting a thousand pounds a week — Mr. B is still getting ten. Then someone says B is quite right, he ought to have at least twenty, yes, and all his colleagues' wages should be doubled too ; never mind what they would be getting in another trade — they are in the film industry. It does not take much prescience to see what is happening; has indeed, happened already. Wages and salaries have risen so greatly, so far in excess of the natural rise due to money depreciation, that it has become an uneconomic proposition to produce picture-plays. America is in like case, but the market there is four times as large as ours and they may be able to win through.
It seems that here there must be something in the nature of a complete revolution to put the industry on its feet. It would be better to have all wages and the like reduced to half than have them cut out altogether but that, I expect, would be politically impossible. Perhaps the whole system must collapse to the ground, and then there may be a chance to begin all over again on sounder lines. I am certain that, given the right conditions, good films — as good as any we have had — could be produced at a fraction of their present cost.
It is not only the amount of the wages but the very large
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