or artist's manager is always on the ground and in touch with
the best managements and things theatrical daily. But no such
representative worth while will bother with you until you have made
good.

The best artist managers or agents know in advance what is being
planned for the coming theatrical season. They are in close contact
with the very high-ups in the theatrical world, men whose contracts
you hope to sign on the dotted line soon. A good agent may save you
several years' time in advancing to a stellar position. He knows the
value of publicity, which often is half the battle in getting yourself
before the public. You must have publicity, whether or not you secure
a representative to attend to it for you. Interesting newsy stories
about you, with effective art studies of yourself in costume
accompanying them, are gladly accepted by many newspapers and
magazines. The rotogravure sections of Sunday papers contain many
pictures of theatrical folks. A beautiful picture will usually carry a
story, and you are wise to get a few good ones rather than many cheap
prints. Every first-class theatre has its own press agent, and every
production of any size its own press representative. Both are glad to
cooperate with you if you have real ability, and help you with the
preparation of your stories and photographs and getting them into the
daily newspaper. There are also many publicity concerns who make it a
business to keep your name and picture in the public eye at a moderate
charge. But you must be able to _make good_ first. Neither publicity
nor anything else will avail to establish a permanent name for you
unless you are prepared to deliver the goods. Duds and dumb ones never
make a big noise in the world. There is no star name awaiting the
inferior person in this profession. All the front-page publicity in
christendom won't do the trick if you haven't back of you real talent
and something the public is clamoring for. And you cannot hope to fool
the wary producer by any false representation or exaggerated claims.

You are not wasting your time while on the way to the bigger things.
Seven years may seem a long time to wait, but you are not starving on
the way, and you are really not "waiting" at all. You start with a
reasonable salary that advances from year to year and engagement to
engagement, as you deserve it. You must build all the way on solid
rock, then the structure that you finally rear, because of its firm
foundat