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THE "SILENT" REACHES ITS ZENITH 385
would be to underestimate the trained memories of these experts. They actually manage to carry the identities and descriptions of four thousand registered people in their minds. Not only do they know if "Joe Doakes," waiting on the line, is the type, but in most cases they can tell you offhand his hat size.
The second signal is, "Try later," which indicates that a job may break. The third is, "No work," which is all too frequent and all too clear. The other responses are "Men only," if, for example, the sole requirement that day is for a Civil War battle scene, or "Women only," if the location is a beauty parlor or a girls' college. The fifth is, "Call Station M," and this means that the studio has requested that particular extra, but he must now call back to a special station in order to have his hiring confirmed.
The wage scales for extras have varied and, in the course of time, greatly increased. In conformity with increased living costs, the latest daily wage scale I noted was as follows:
Atmosphere people "Stand-ins"
$ 9.45 13.90
Ordinary extras
15.56
Dress extras
22.23
Once again, it appears, the "soup-and-fish" has come into its own!
There is one service that Central Casting renders actors higher in the scheme of things than extras; it is the Call Bureau. This department keeps a record, for ready consultation by prospective employers, of all players, whether under contract or not, whether currently working or not. In this way any actor, or at least his personal agent, can be located by any producer who may wish to offer him a part— or, if he is under contract or is working at the time, the Call Bureau furnishes this information. This is a boon to players and producers alike, and an actor need never miss a job because the producer does not know where to find him. Established in 1929, the Call Bureau is an example of inter-studio co-operation that would not have been dreamed of in the anarchic, warring-clan period when I first entered the industry.
The extra's livelihood is still precarious. In a recent year the total number of registrants was 3,853. These earned $1,031,784 for that year. A little long division will show that the average annual income for the extras was about $267.78. Few earned more than $1,000.
Problems still remain, and I suppose they will as long as the human race inhabits the earth. I am satisfied that the industry has done every conceivable thing to protect the extra and to make his lot in life more agreeable, but the economic law that motion picture leaders call the "cockeyed equation"— too many people for too few jobs— is still in full force.