Some questions about how people thought of actors and actresses in the past...?

I have heard or read or whatever that in the beginning of the 20th Century and earlier, actors and actresses were seen as little more than prostitutes. But didn't wealthy society people go to the theater back then? So was it all right to go see plays, just not all right to be in them? And was it always like that, like in Shakespeare's time, or was it just the Victorians who were so uptight? And are there any books or documentaries on this particular subject?