The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-02-07
FRANCIS WILSON, 50
 TODAY, HEADS NEW ACTORS UNION.

Francis wilson, favorite of two lgenerations of theatregoers, will ceIe- | brate his sixtieth birthday today He is now the Samuel Gompers of the dramatic profession, having been the Header of the organization last month of the Actors, Equity Association, a
 union of rrominent Thespians. os which he is now the president. The object of MT. wilson's body is to ssgfve actors and actressesl the same protection enjoyed by authors. man lagers, musicians and stage mechan- fics-a result which can only be oi,- lained by co-operation. z Already Imore than a thousand actors and ac- dresses carry union cards. among thera Isuch stars as Henry Miller. who ; lvice- president: Bruce McRae, core depending secretary. George Arliss. iDigby Bell. John Cope. William ICourt1eIgh. Jefferson De Angelis. IRobert Edeson, wilton Lackaye, El- lsie Ferguson, Christie Macdonald, Janet Beecher and Ethel Barrymore President wilson-neaning Francis not W oodro declared that his req tron for organizing the union was that | only two classes of working people factors and washerw ut iterly without protective organization. However, he does not believe that ne will have to use union methods. such las the strike, in securing the desir- led reforms It is admitted that if l the society should have to adopt mili : tant methods, the mangling of lines EwouId afford great opportunity for line practice Of sabotage. Mir. Will ison is all for peace. and he thinks the managers and producers will adopt of the union are transportation to aud from New York, the limitation of ifree rehearsals, and of extra perfor- mances without pay, to prevent con l1ract abuses, and to secure an adjust ment of the cost Of women's costumes. Francis wilson was born in Phila- delphIa on Feb.7. 1854. and began to 6ance as soon as he could walk and to sing as son as he could talk. In his short pants'' days he showed a l'decided predilection for the stage. all though none of his ancestors, so far las known. had followed that profes- sion. He was a mere child when he
 made his first stage appearance in
 Philadelphia. and was still g boy when he organized a minstrel com pany. which played tn PhiIade1phia and afterward toured America with
 great success.
 Although he made more than a, hundred dollars week from the min streI company. MT. Wilson was not satisfied, and in 1877 he made his
 first appearance on the legitimate lstage as Cool in 4London Assurance.'' produced at the Chestnut street Thea ire in his native city, where he had previously been employed as general utility man. Tn the ts1egit," during those early years, he received only twenty dollars week, only a fifth cf what he had made as a minstrel. but he considered the eighty dollars a Wilson was an ardent devotee of fencing. and one year won the anna I teur fencing championship of the United States
 Some thirty years ago MT. Wilson made his debut in comic opera. play ing in s.Pinafore" in San Francisco After several years as comedian in
 musical comedy. he turned to legiti- mate comedy ten years ago, and has since appeared in many successes. He 1 is the author of @Joseph Jefferson: lRecolIections of a fellow player 'sThe
 Eugene Field I Knew .tRecollectiona
 of a Player" and several other works of a Biographical and autobiagraphi- I cal character.