Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-09
Continued from page 2


institution and pastime that has come under
my fun-reportorial eve. Whenever / see
something that looks as though it might be
funny if the right angle on it is obtained, |
immediately index it in my card catalogue.
Subsequently, when various funny aspects
of, say, apartment house life or the grab-a-
sandwich-and- git kind of restaurant hit me,
jet them down under the respective heads.
Gradually in this way | accumulate most of
the humorous things connected with each
of the listed items, and when this is done |
am ready to put the piece of "big goods be-
fore the public for sale.
ABOUT year ago went to a barber shop
on Broadway with Sam Bernard, who
was taking his little son out for haircut.
Sam and | sat back and began talking.
Suddenly | noticed man in the end chair
souirning like an eel looked closely, and
saw that the barber was giving him the hot
towel treatment. Sam saw the episode too
and turned to me- ats manslaughterl' he
said "Only in the barber shop" said |. The
next season put the barber shop hot towel
situation on the stage, and the audience
howled at it. 1t was one of the best money
makers ever had Nothing is so funny as
some kinds of tragedy.
When | was planning to put on The Girl
Behind the Counter number OF years ago,
I was at a loss for piece of "big goods" to
use in the last act. My card catalogue con-
tanned nothing that seemed to hit the mark.
Then one day happened to be sitting IN the
dining room of the old Baltimore Hotel IN
Kansas City. 1t was very early, not quite
six o'clock The diners had not come in
vet, and the walters were being put through
FL 6r,11
walters were very awkward, and the head
waiter had his hands full with them.
watched the drill while waiting for the food
had ordered, and noticeda couple OF WATERS
in far corner of the room-oldtlmers, evil
dently-who had been graduated from the
drill and were convulsed with mirth over the
discontinue of their five fellow walters in
the awkward squad.
"If it's as funny as all that to the walters
themselves, it ought to find a ready laughing
sale with the public beyond the dining
roon,' reasoned. And | got hold OF halt
a dozen weird specimens of waiter types,
made them up to look like the Kansas City
walters, and put them into "The Girl Behind
the Counter The feature sold big.
In a shoe store, while trying on pair OF
antics of other try-ons who had sore feet
| put the scene on the stage. 1t too went
like laughing wildfire. Most people had
gone through the "trying experience them
selves and could realize the humor in it.
With the other "big goods, have always
followed the same method of discovery and
procedure. | have never invented big
humorous situation. You cannot invent
such things. They must come naturally
from experience and observation. The only
kind of humor that brings in the money is
the humor founded on fact. In trying out
my humor-my goods-I always watch the
audience closely. The moment see several
persons reading, or even g1ancing at, their
programs, | realize that something is wrong
If see dozen persons looking at their pro-
grams instead of the stage change the
situation around the next night, and keep on
changing it and editing it until a survey of
the programs out in front discloses no read
ers. Then | know that my goods" are
ready for the big markets.
FUNDAMENTALLY humor remains al
: ways the same. The salesman must con-
Germ himself mainly with the displaying of
the old humor in new ways. 1t always re-
mains the case of the necktie and the shirt
What snail change there has been in the
humor business in recent years is directed
toward realism. Just as there has come
about demand for realism in drama, SO has
there resulted an analogous demand for
realism in humor. By realism in humor,
refer IN S,1ch eDicodec a. the shoe store and