This book is for actors in all phases of the entertainment industry.

Their problems are my business.

I must keep in step with scientific advancement in lighting, acoustics, sound systems, cameras and film.

I must keep an eagle eye on changes of "style" in acting—as demanded by the public.

I must continually try to keep myself aware of where jobs for actors are most plentiful. Then—I must help the actor to learn the know-how to get, and hold, these jobs.

The relationship between the actor and the audience has reached a very high level of intimacy. Each part of the entertainment industry has certain rigid requirements of its own to establish this.

In the legitimate theater, audiences can hear and see better than ever before, creating a sense of closeness. On the forty million television screens in America, they can choose their own distance to create intimacy. And on motion-picture screens the close-up brings the relationship between actor and audience to its highest peak.

I have lived and worked for many years with people whose livelihoods depend upon the result of their appearance on film. Within recent years, film production has become such a major part of the industry that there are more jobs available as film actors than in any other branch of the entertainment world.

Therefore, many actors who are building—or starting—a career are vitally concerned with the part of their business in which they can work most frequently—and get the most experience.

At this writing, there is an estimated income of one and two-tenths billion dollars paid to see motion pictures, against one hundred and twenty-five million dollars paid in admissions to other segments of show business—including legitimate theater, opera, symphony, night-club, circus and carnival performances. This is about ten to one.
This figure does not include the thousands of feet of film made for television and television commercials, paid for by commercial sponsors. Nor does it include the hundreds of pilot films made yearly, which are never shown, but which mean jobs, experience and money to many actors.

Two of the recent developments most important to the film actor are enlarged screens and electronic advancement in sound systems.

On a CinemaScope screen, a half-inch lift of an eyebrow can mean an elevation of ten feet. Imagine a close-up of an actor, with a pair of "wild" eyebrows whipping across the end of a theater; or a chronic blinker; or an actor who has no control over the muscles of his face.

In all phases of the entertainment industry, the demands of the audience are great.

It has had a lot of practice in putting actors under a "microscope," through the mediums of the spotlight and the close-up. It can look intimately into the actor's eyes, watch each subtle movement of his face, and believe or disbelieve him.

The audience is well trained in listening.

It instinctively knows that there is something more to voice than just what it "hears." Each member of the audience knows that there is another quality in a voice that causes him to "feel" —lets him feel satisfied or makes him feel irritated; causes him to "like" or "dislike" an actor.

These are only two of the areas in which an actor can develop an added "plus" that gives impact and excitement to his personality.

The actor who recognizes and accepts the concrete, scientific principles and laws that govern his art can use them to observe reality and translate—through his VOICE, BODY, and MIND—his observations. He can apply these translations to words written by someone else, under direction conceived by someone else, and under conditions supplied by someone else.

There is a Mexican proverb that says: "Though we are all made of clay, a jug is not a vase." True; but the actor has to try.

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