The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1912-02-19
Julia Mdrdock Recalls Early Days
Of George Fuler Golden',s Struggles

There came through the mail to a
Washington theatrical musician on
Saturday afternoon the following let
ter:
Our Dear Friend:
Your letter to Papa was received
some time ago, and he has wanted
so much to answer II, but he has
been so Ill, and / am answering
II for him. He says as soon as he
is better he will write you and
tell you how much he appreciates
your letter. Papa has been very
sick. but he says to tell you and
all his friends that he will fight II
out: He is too Ill to hold the pen.
or he would have written himself.
Thanking you again, | am
OLIVE FULLER GOLDEN.
Before that letter had been deliver
cd, the voice that had dictated 1t
had been stilled forever, and George
Fuller Golden had answered the last
Great Call. Out in Los Angeles, the
big hearted, kindly man who has
charmed thousands by his whimsical
wit had passed away leaving his
wife, The Gold Lady" and his little
daughters, as we'll as thousands of
friends all over the world to mourn
his loss.
1t was my pleasure and privilege
some years ago to interview George
Fuller Golden. monologist and found
er of the theatrical association Of
White Rats for a Western news
paper He told me then the story of
his life, a story of the early struggles,
of a little Michigan boy, whose youth
was spent among boot5lacks and
newsboys. George Fuller Golden, as n
child lived in a community that was
composed of artisans from every
country. 1t was likewise a Mecca
for crooks of every caliber, refugees,
thousand or more of them in a little
boom town of 10000 Inhabitants. He
traternized with them, sang and
danced in the free and easy music
age of fourteen he knew every trick
and lure of the neither world. But
as he said on the occasion of my in
tsrview being a natural born fool,
he never became a knave."
He was a natural mimic, and could
initiate any dialect-the Swede, who
worked on the sawmllls; the English,
Scotch, WEIGH, and Irish boilermakers:
the French Canadians, who cut down
the trees, and drove the logs down the
river in the springtime. His mother
died when he was four years old, and
he struggled up through boyhood as
best he could. At fourteen, as he him
self admitted, he knew everything that
a wild boy delights in, and nothing
that he should have known.
He Ran Away
And Joined a Show.
With this stock in trade, at this age,
he ran away and Joined a show, fol-
lowing the county fairs and before nc
was twenty had gained considerable
regulations on the stage Then he began
to write songs and little sketches, but
up until then he had never read a book
never seen a great play, nor heard an
opera. He had never even heard a
sermon, yet he became ambitious and
began to read books. His chums said
he had grown mad, and as proof Of
his mental state they pointed to the
fact that he even read Shakespeare!
1t was then that this self-raised boy
entered into a new world, a world full
of wonderful men and women, and
scenes and thoughts that had been
strange and unknown to him. All his
life had been wasted. He looked about
him and into his own heart, and asst
cd himself the questions: VINO was he?
What was he? Why was he? These
are the questions one asks when the
heart is awakened.
From being the rough, uncouth va
riety actor he had become an idealist,
Il dreamer, a worshiper of truth and
beauty. He went to work to make a
real actor of himself taking for his
inspiration for all time, Shakespeare's
Midsummer Nights Dream" Mapping
out a career OF future greatness he
gave himself up to study.
Then the Little Gold Lady" the
Queen Titania Of his dreams, came into
his life, and he worked all the harder
TO make something of himself Then
followed success along many lines and
prosperous trips abroad. ac-
by the Gold Lady," and
afterward came the little girl who is |
the author of his last good-by to his !
Washington friend, then another, and |