New-York tribune., 1920-03-07
BY Ishbel M. Ross

We would be quite willing to break
Ror ankle once every six months II
xcm Aeighan would sign . contract to
visit as every time 1t happened.
We were contemplating the blank
nsss Of . hospital wall and bemoaning
eur sorry fate when the door few open
lthat's how he does it) and Mr..
Meighau came In.
II wish were really the Miracle
Man." said he, buryins ~ In flowers:
walk. But since I can't"--
He pounced impetuously upon our
bottle Of Scotch barley sugar sticks
and lit = cigarette--nonchalant re-
gnrdless Of hospital rules. Our nurse
put her head @round the door threat
eningly, but when she learned it was
Tommie Meighan who was making all
khe commotion she smiled indulgently
and said he could get away with thun-
der. He would, anyway.
All the preliminaries disposed OF,
our chief trouble lay in getting him
eornered long enough to ply him with
questions. He Is the liveliest six feet
Of male We ever tried to interview. In
pictures he is q reposeful, If domineer-
ang, sort Of person. In fact, he is an
overgrown boy with wistful serious
hsss that ts tempered with whimsical
CLEANS Of humor. And he has the
spends much Of his time out Of doors.
"Well, I'm used to all sorts Of inter
y1sws," said Mr.. Meighan. "but this
bedside arrangement 10 a new one on
me. once had q crowd of friends
come to interview me when l had the
fu, but they all wore gas masks and
looked 50 hideous that had 'em turned
out. I'm always ashamed afterward Of
what say In Interviews anyway. And,
Tor heavens sake. don't ask me how
started In pictures"
Later, just to be contrary and satisfy
our own curiosity, we did. and he told
No II was summer and he had spent all
his winter cash, so-well. you know
the rest. He is the screen sensation Of
the year In "The Miracle Man," and it
10 he who battles 80 admirably in
y Male and Female" and later becomes
the Lord Of Creation on desert ISL
and. Incidentally. In his four years Of
screen work he has done six pictures
with Billie Burke. six with Pauline
Frederick, three with Norma Talmadge.
one with Mary Pickford, one with Elsie
Ferguson, one with Marguerite Clark
and goodness knows how many more.
"I'm afraid you were foreordained to
be q cave man." we told Mr.. Meighan
~ We watched our chocolates vanishing
et an alarming rate.
His eyes opened innocently and he
stopped q chocolate half way.
I'm q child. And only like parts that
are simple-so simple that they are
true to life." he added profoundly.
"'The Admirable Crichton' and my
part in The Miracle Man were easy
80 play because they were honest-to-
God people. The hardest thing in pic
lures 10 to do an unnatural part. You
may be sure that If scene has an
cir Of unreality 1t has been hard for
the actor to 60 through with 1t. If
hs has any dramatic sense at all he
!: keenly alive to the salsity Of situa-
fion. was really quite afraid of the
bvtler part In Male and Female not
having much Of a limo on the psy-
ehology Of butler. I'm afraid
! laughed at myself ss handed trays.
I'm ever SO much better as 9 stevedore,
you know. / like TO choose my own
parts. and oh, for the picture that
gives you q chance to get out in the
Wildsl I can't stand being shut in.
] like the whole big, wide world to
foam over"
Tom Meighan gave q deep-chssted
laugh, spread his broad shoulders and
cxooeeo MS tong, restless legs. We ro-
&nembered him in some Of his dignified
POLES and were glad to know that he
had the soul of a Peter Pan in spite
Of the ponderous bearing of Crchton.
And he doesn't believe in men chang
ing their wivesl
"YouM like my next picture" he told
Hs, authoritatively. "It's Why Change
Your Wife, Good, sound philosophy,
you know. I've only had one wife and
Y have no desire to change her. have
1t In my contract that when l 60 'on