The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-11-11
Even When He Wears Thirteen Collar and His Shoe
Is Number Three He Still Stands Good Chance,
Says the Dimnutive Star of Every Good Eddie
BY DOLLY DALRYMPLE

story the moment you get OH
| the train?' I asked young Mr.. Burford
Hampden, the dimunitive star" of the
! clever musical comedy, Very Good Ed
die" yesterday short time after he
reached Birmingham.
| While was waiting for him to answer
| took d mental inventory of this young
| ster for he's just big enough for a good
| sized watch charm and you have an in
! sane desire TO take him on your lap
| and "cuddle him up and sort of pet
| him because he's much too young and
| quite too small to be away from his
| mother all by himself; he's the cunning
est sort of a young fellow, let me tell
YOU and after he condescends to speak
and that great big deep basso profundo
voice of his answers you, why-well-er-
-er you take back all that stuff and
nonsense you'd been thinking about pet
ting" him and budding him up" and
you realize that in spite of the fact that
he wears a 10 collar and his shoe is
number g. he's very much of a man.
Those who have seen young Burford
Hampden in a boys part and all the
theatre fans remember him here few
years ago in the leading role in THE
Blue Bird imagine that he is sort
Of Peter Pan, still in his teens; and he is
a Peter Pan in some respects; he has
never really grown up, but what dyer
think? He's % years old; honest-to-
goodness he is, and no, he isn't married,
but he's been engaged and-no again, L
may as well tell you that the mustache
he wears as Eddie isn't his own, but
one that comes in box and is pasted on
at every performance.
Young Mr.. Hampden is a dandy young
chap; he's as bright as a dollar and one
of the most talented young actors on the
stage today; and he's never done any
thing but serious parts before in all his
young life; true they've always been boy
parts; he's played black boys and white
boys, and yellow boys, and Irish boys,
and Jew boys, and boy boys, of all ma
tionalities and creeds, and they just
wouldn't let him grow up''-no, not to
save his life, but now as Eddie" why
he's every inch a man-even if it's a very
tiny little wee-ny bit of a man.
I've rambled on SO that I've never even
reported Mr.. Hampden's answer to my
query about being interviewed so now
I'll tell you what he said
In the very incest way, although he
looked like a sleepy child who had been
walked up suddenly from a sound sleep
he said:
NO, don't mind it a bit; truth is L
don't know just what to say but that
doesn't matter for don't interview ladies
always say what they think an inter
XieW-pn Onqht instead of what
we really say?"
"Oh, naughty, naughty" ] cried in
defense, please DON'T
We'll, any way, I'll say that one in
terviewer in this country put one over
me soon after I arrived here Mr.. Hamp-
den said. Il had only recently arrived
from England; 1 was imported for the
role in The Blue Bird that played for
so long. The company opened in Boston
and the day we arrived there Mr.. Earl
Derr Biggars-you know the man who
wrote The Seven Keys to Baldpate,'
came to interview me; l was as green
as a gourd and didn't know what to,
talk about, and so after Laundering
around promiscuously on many different
subjects, we landed on baseball; he
asked me how ! liked the game and
knowing nothing whatever about it, l of
course, proceeded to express an opinion;
sorts of breaks, and they were published
just as 1 expressed them; since then I've
been very, very careful"
But you needn't be afraid of a mere
T said "unless she happens to
be very big one-like-well, let us say
Georgiana, your stage wife
isn't it funny how everybody thinks
a small man must marry a great. huge
Amazon looking woman?" Mr.. Hamp-
den asked in return. But they don't al
ways do So Now, when I was engaged
(here he grew tenderly reminiscent, and
it seemed to me that his big. boyish
gray eyes held a misty sort Of shadow-y
regret concerning the long lost fiancee
and was dying to ask why it didn't
happen and all that; but 1 didn't, ''the
girl l intended to marry was not as tall
as / am. I don't believe I'd marry a
great, big woman"
DO you believe a man who wears
l3 collar and whose shoe is No. ever
gets real good chance in the world:"
inquired