Her Last Assignment of the Year Will Be No Act

Actress Leslie Ryan will join the ranks of Angelenos working New Year’s Eve, but says she doesn’t mind because she will be doing what she loves best--entertaining.

“It’s not like work to me,” Ryan said. “I’m spreading joy.”

It doesn’t hurt that she will get $500 for the night’s work--four times her standard fee of $125. A “strolling concessionaire,” she’ll dress up as an old-fashioned cigarette girl (hawking candy cigars and cigarettes) for a party at the Braemar Country Club in Tarzana.

For Ryan, the assignment isn’t really an acting job. It’s mainly about being herself, with a little extra effervescence. “I try to be as improvisational as possible,” she said.

Ryan, with TV, film and commercial credits to her name, has gotten dolled up as everything from a medieval court jester to a Hawaiian dancer as a freelancer for L’Bon Bon Girls, a division of Bel Air-based Karla Ross Productions.

Company President Karla Ross said she recognized early on that competition for talent would be fierce this year, and signed performers early--in Ryan’s case, nine months ago.

Even so, Ross said she also had a number of regular performers bail out on her for New Year’s after getting higher offers elsewhere.

This being the New Year’s of the next millennium, many party-related businesses report that service workers of all types are in short supply. Entertainers, bartenders and caterers are among those multiplying their normal fees, viewing this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make lots of money.

But this can sometimes backfire, according to Ross. Today, just days before the new millennium, some entertainers will find themselves jobless on New Year’s Eve, having priced themselves out of the market. Some establishments have scrubbed new millennium plans because of the price gouging, said Ross. “People are a dime a dozen right now,” she said.

Ryan didn’t make that mistake. When Ross approached her, she didn’t have special new millennium plans and the offer was too attractive to refuse.

Working for L’ Bon Bon Girls is a steady supplement to Ryan’s income, which has varied dramatically--as high as $129,000 one year, down to $22,000 another.

The daughter of a Las Vegas musical conductor, Ryan began studying ballet and jazz dance at the age of 7. At 15, she received an offer to dance in an elaborate musical review in Reno.

It sounded exciting, but the high school student rejected it when she found out the show would be topless. “That wasn’t why I studied the craft,” Ryan said. Instead, Ryan finished school.

By 1980, Ryan was studying business and merchandising at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, and took dance classes on the side. She earned money as an aerobics instructor and part-time waitress.

But then, without any effort on her part, the fresh-faced Ryan got what amounted to her big break: A casting director was looking for dancers for a choreographed Sprite commercial and contacted Ryan’s dance teacher for prospects. One hundred young dancers competed for four parts. It was a grueling all-day audition. Ryan got the job.

Two weeks later, Ryan landed another commercial gig through the same casting director. Others followed. When her first year in show business ended, she’d booked 10 commercials.

Ryan began pursuing an acting career in earnest. She was the love interest in Rick Springfield’s music video for “Don’t Talk to Strangers.” There were appearances in TV shows, including “Highway to Heaven” and “T.J. Hooker.”

Her income zoomed from $15,000 to $100,000 annually within three years.

“I didn’t have enough business sense,” she said, recalling how she purchased a sports car, traveled, bought a home, indulged in art and assisted friends in financial need.

Today, Ryan’s career isn’t as lucrative as it once was, but she still works regularly. At 38, the still-youthful-appearing Ryan is making the transition from girl-next-door roles to young mother parts. Last year, she got a role as a mother in a straight-to-video tear-jerker. Recently, she landed a more mature role in a television commercial for Corning Ware, which will start airing in January.

Like many actors, Ryan’s professional life is filled with auditions, often one or two a day. In her down time, Ryan works at jobs like the strolling concessionaire. The jobs are primarily a fun way to supplement her income, but given the serendipitous course of her acting career, Ryan never rules out the possibility it might lead to another professional opportunity. “You never know,” she said.