Background Actors Share Their Stories

From Darla P:

I once answered an ad in the Times that read, "Thousand Extras Needed for Major Motion Pictures!" Sounded fun and exciting.

To make a long story short, I was so naive at 22, I ended up as a receptionist for two con artists answering phone calls and greeting the victims that came into the Hollywood office thinking they were going to be in a real movie. All they had to do was pay $30 for an initial fee. I totally believed they were producers. I worked for them almost three months and never saw a movie set once. It was during the 1972 writer's strike, so you can imagine the people who came in.

(Then one day some detectives arrived.) I didn't even know what a "bunko" squad was, but after the detectives explained their knowledge of the scheme to me, they told me to go home and not come back. (I was just starting to catch on that something was shaky after one of the guys got beat up, but I needed my last week of pay for rent.) That weekend the two ringleader guys were on the news being led out with handcuffs.

It's funny now, but when I think how close I came to being jailed for fraud, it makes my hair stand up. I learned a lot about Hollywood and myself that year. Anyway, thanks for writing a serious book on the subject.

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