"The Scouts of the Plains" was an Indian drama, of course; and there were between forty and fifty "supers" dressed as Indians.

Wild Bill was continually playing tricks upon the members of the company, and it was his especial delight to torment the "supers."

Quite frequently in our sham Indian battles he would run up to the "Indians" (the supers), and putting his pistol close to their legs, would fire at them and burn them with the powder, instead of shooting over their heads.

The poor "supers" often complained to me about this, and threatened not to go on the stage and be killed again if that man Wild Bill did not stop shooting and burning their legs.

The play proceeded finely until the Indian fight in the second act, when Bill amused himself by his old trick of singeing the legs of the "supers.

" After the curtain dropped, the "supers" complained to me about it.

Bill's conduct made me angry, and I told him that he must either stop shooting the "supers," or leave the company.

An extra large number of supers were engaged.

No stage manager ever handled his supers better; and here, be it remembered, there were uncountable thousands of supers, and for a stage the twisting, medieval convolutions of a strange city.

No stage manager ever handled his supers better; and here, be it remembered, there were uncountable thousands of supers, and for a stage the twisting, medieval convolutions of a strange city.

The supers in the drama, whose business it was to whisper to each other and to the players, consisted of solicitors, solicitors' clerks, and experts; their combined emoluments worked out at the rate of a hundred and fifty pounds a day.

The story of Benoni, with its continuation Rosa, is in like vein; a tenderly humorous portrayal of love below stairs, the principal characters being chosen from the class who appear as supers in Pan; subjects or retainers of the all-powerful Trader Mack.

As scene followed scene, there entered a confidante, then a hero, then a crowd of supers.

R83798, 27Sep51, Nellie Maude Guedalla (W) Supers and supermen.

R83798, 27Sep51, Nellie Maude Guedalla (W) Supers and supermen.

In these days I am afraid they would not only put such material on to the leading lady, but on to the supers too!

The march past the window of the apparently unending armythat good old trick which sends the supers flying round the back-cloth to cross the stage again and againcreated a superb effect.

But act your parts like men, and tho' you all great sinners are, You're sure to act like men wherever Irving's dinners are!" J.H. Allen (our prompter): "Whatever be the play, I must have a hand in it, For won't I teach the supers how to stalk and stand in it?

[Footnote 1: Once when Allen was rehearsing the supers in the Church Scene in "Much Ado about Nothing," we overheard him show the sense in Shakespeare like this: "This 'Ero let me tell you is a perfect lady, a nice, innercent young thing, and when the feller she's engaged to calls 'er an 'approved wanton,' you naturally claps yer 'ands to yer swords.

" Seven or eight times the supers clapped their "'ands to their swords" without giving Allen satisfaction.

"Love, "MELBA" I think that time it was the solemn procession of mourners following the dead body of Elaine who were chewing gum; but we always had to be prepared for it among our American "supers," whether they were angels or devils or courtiers!

To obtain access through the stage-door to the back of the theatre was one thinga franc to the doorkeeper had done the trickto mingle with the scene-shifters, to talk with the supers, to take off my hat with every form of deep respect to the principals had been equally simple.