The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-03-08
Unique and Touching Experience
Of Robert l. Scott.
DEATH OF ORIGINAL Ole
Gus Heege Was a Characteristic
Successes and Failures Came-A
Bow Under Gloomy Conditions.

uIdlecL comedian Is deao. mat line |
Of play will disappear from the Ameri- |
can stage now. The only man who |
would take the place of Heege is an
chored in Hawaii. The Honolulu citi- |
zen who would get good backing to go
out as a comedy star again is Bob
Scott, night clerk at the Hawaiian
hotel
Heege was only thirty-six when he
died He had made half a dozen fair
sized fortunes with his play building
and acting, but was not a saving
man. He was the son of a Lutheran
clergyman at Cleveland, O., and was
cursed with the one fault of yielulng
to drink. Heege was a bright, in
tellectual, studious chap. He took to
the stage on leaving college and while
with company in the Northwest con-
ceived the notion of Swedish dialect
pieces. The Northwest is full Of
Swedes and Norwegians and to AM
orleans they are odd with their broken
English and slow, innocent ways.
Heege wrote successfully and produced
himself "Ole Olson,' "Yon Yonson" and
GA Yenuine Yentleman." The history
of the handling of each by Heege was
the same. He sold to managing firms,
then in time left the companies. His
last theatrical venture was with
piece he called crush City," in which
the Swedish character was prominent
but not central This was a money
maker, too, but Heege went to pieces
with it.
E. H. Macoy, who was the manager
of both the first and second ''Ole Oh
son" companies told the writer the
stories of Heege and Scott at a social
gathering one night in a lively town
in the Rocky Mountains. Bob" Scott
! was then wearing diamonds big as
snowballs, but was, with all his pros
perity modest and unassuming as to-
day In the original company Scott
was Dr. Single, the character taken
by Chas H Ramsey when the piece
was given by Mr.. Scott here in the
Drill Shed theater with home talent.
Mr. Scott was Gus Heege's under
study and was excepting to be called on
any moment to take the part. cat
z o'clock one evening" said Macoy,
"there was a 500 house in sight at
Havlin's theater in Chicago. | was
against giving the show that evening
on account of Scott. He was there
for duty, but it made me cry to look
at him, for only a couple of hours
| before he had come from the funeral
of his child. Bob was quiet, but he
was hurt deep. I was arguing the
case with the manager of the house
when a messenger came rushing in
with the announcement that Gus
Heege had walked out of a third story
window and had been bruised to death.
Another messenger followed moment
later with the correction that Heege
was not dead, but was seriously in
| jured and would have been killed but
for the fact that he was well primed
with liquor. He was sent to hospital
and was on his back for weeks. In
fact he was never the same man ply
sically again. [ thought this situa-
ton of the company meant dismissal
of the audience, certainly, but the
house manager insisted and [ never
had a harder thing to in my life than
to go to Scott and ask him to play
OLE He said he would do it and we
had a barber come to make his face
clean, for Bob was then known as
the 'whiskered comedian In the
meantime Heege's child, who was In
the cast, had arrived from the hotel
and though crying Internationally was
ready to go on.
mo announcement was made and
| the play went about as usual. Scott
| had lots of applause, but he did not
seen to mind or notice it. He had put
all his will power into the task Of act
ing, perhaps hardly thinking that he
was making the difficult presentation
| for the first time. He made only one
| slip and he covered that up. This
was where ole climbs the rope to
rescue the heroine from the mill.
SCOTS strength simply gave out and
he dropped back from the hawser. He
threw the heavy rope end and his body
against the door at the same time and
made the climax strong as ever. Ev-
erything was pretty we'll all right after
| the nrSt nlSnC. wien TIE SIOiy NOut
round that Scott had the part his old
friends on the paper gave him consid-
cradle space. We did a big business
and went up to Minneapolis with fair
prospects, but with not a little nerv-
BUSINESS. Heege had played there only
a few months before and on anything
Swedish Minneapolis was particular
and critical. Scott suited them to a
dot-carried them by storm and night
after night for two weeks the house
was sold out before the curtain went
up"
At the time Macoy gave this account
Heege was out with lyon Yonson,
into which he had put log jam scene
that was a realistic and exciting af-
fair. but "Ole" continued to do good
business everywhere. Scott was the
star for two years and had an interest
in the profits the second year. He was
having a vacation in San Francisco