The Washington times., 1914-03-08
Notable Career of Actor Lies in
His Ability to Make EN- Act.
and Make EN- Act Better
Because He Is There.
Bares His Brow and Breast in
Vain for Lightning of Star
dom to Strike-It'S Always
"Next Year.
By GARDNER MACK.

With the vociferous gentlemen of the
National Conservation Association "x-
hausting their adjectives and wearing
out their typewriters in the preserva-
iion of such of our natural resources as
forests and skunks and Glaciers and
scenery and language and fish. is there
anyone left to riffordpinchot that mar
vel Of passing generation, the Leading
Man?
Won't some eloquent uplifter who is
al present not engaged in uplifting. VOL
unteer to grid himself in frock coat and
solemnitv TO present the rase 10 the
President and obtain an Executive Crder
setting aside, or making national res
ervation, or putting in the muser:n, the
surviving veteran of this fast disappear
ing species?
This is a very serious. matter. II de-
lnands instant attention. Bruce McRae
VIII be in Washington next week. Com
pared with Bruce McRae, America s
only leading man. the youth who stood
on the burning deck long after his
feIlcw-passengers had beat-or would
ycu say. had beaten?-it for the insurance
offices, was doing q stunt that wouldn't
'Sven get mention in a moving picture
program McRae can't shout for help
because he's in q very delicate position.
For many years has has carried a
fun assortment of ingenious devices CAL
CGiEted TO cause the lightning OF the
atrical stellardom to strike him. Every
morning his first thought is to see that
the points of his lightning rods are
carefully polished and in good working
order. Whenever he has heard of a
new book to be dramatiZed, play to be
produced. or a playwright looking for a
nero he has taken his stand in the open,
his breast barred to the storm. his noble
brow almost hidden by the wreaths of
adjective laurels to which almost every
woman star in the theatrical profession
ucntributed
But-doubly alas, triply alack!-there
has been nothing doing. McRae has
been too valuable. He has been too
good leading man. Every year man
ayers have threatened to star him.
BeIasco. the Frohmans-even the shrill,
nasaIStones of George Cohan have been
heard in the chorus of well-known pro-
dUcers who had a play next season"
or Bruce McRae. But nothing ever
CAME Of il. ,--
Here's the Real Trouble.
And the trouble lies In the matter of
vocational training There are. doubt
less a large number of most intelligent
people who believe that vocational
training is a brand-new thing. 1t isn't.
Bruce McRae can tell you that. He is
one of our original little vocational
tTainists. and he is bitterly opposed to
il. Leading men, as one perhaps might
gather from theatrical history. are a
very difficult species to find. The dodo
Is common compared with them. The
reason lies in the first word of the term.
Tie well-known fact that one can lead
a horse to water without the power to
make him drink goes double when
twisted to expose the eCcentricities of
women theatrical stars. who can be led
on the stage, but cannot be made to
act.
You see. Bruce McRae can make EN-
act. And he sprang upon the stage. fCu
panoplied. to make 'em act right Cf the
reel. without 2 whole lot of stage eApe-
renee to back him up. II fact. he
didn't have any stage experience 1T all
He was horse wrargler and COW
puncher. Not a stage horse wranglCr
or COW puncher, or an actor who went
into the business OF horse wranE!ing
and COW punching for the benefit Of fu-
ture press notices or TO lay the founda-
lions for jobs ia the moving pictures
hcRae was working At ii because il
waE the thing he knew how 10 do best.
and because IL was do that or starvn in
one or two out-of-the-H ay places where
there were 10 green lights or soft mu-
sic.
How 1t all Happened.
He IS an American actor because he
never acted anywhere else. but McRac
is really a Scotch.nan with an Irish
temperament. because his interest in a
scotch name is A sort Of at#rntre land
lUrdism that is more characteristic Of
the Irish than the Scotca.
His father was civil engineer in the
Hrtlsh military service. and GcRae
was born in India. if that detail is
worth anything. When ne was sixteen
ears old lac wanted to 20 IN the Stage
He was persuaded to go = New Tea
'and instead. He started in business as
learned all there was TO know of sheep
herd!ng. and then secured a loo as a
butcher for frozen meat concern IN
Australia-at least, he was in the butch
"ring department. He shipped before
the mast for two years as a sailor, went
into the Australian bush as a COW
nunche-, and then he'd q GOvcrnTent
Job US surveyor for two years. Going
hayk into the cattle business. he Was
7"nt TO Laramie. Wyo.. On a big ranch.
where he punched cattle another two
ears
Charles FT"hman was producing a tig
D.sy of Sa-dous. with r>lsie de Wolfe
SIS the star. and Forbes Robertson as
:eading man. when McRae cot his first
theatrical job. The play failed
That is the situat on in which McRae
,ourd himself in New York in the early
mnet,es. And then the vocational train
.nB came rapidly to its boiling point.
Tailor Made English.
Managers must have reac>nei that Z
nan who had successfully herded sheep:
- no had kept the festive female bovine
in proper condition for the Beef trust:
to had stood unflinching on the bloody
foo. Of q wholesale butchering estab-
lishInent: who had listened unlnoved to
the stormings of Eme-juicer captains
nd first mates on Australian and China
coast ships, and had finally mixed AS a
-,llcw wanderer with the hard- riding
Gulck-shoot ng, impulsive sons OF the
Western plains, who are members in
good standing 0. the cowboy union
such Il person would make an excellent
leading man. They gave him "A trial In
small part in ''Aristocracy' to be sure
that his English accent was the real