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in and benefiting from a single performance.

While the benefit performance was intended to supplement the actor's income, they were also used by theater companies as an excuse to pay actors a lower salary. The benefit system soon became a strong indicator of an actor's popularity. In some cases, if the ticket sales were low enough, the actor would lose money from the performance.

In the 1860s, the practice of benefit performances began to wane as the theater industry began to change its employment practices. Instead of offering

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