New-York tribune., 1920-06-27

grand opera parts to boot I have been
successful, if success is to be meas
ured by always having a job--and a
Job good enough to lay by little for
the good old rainy day; and yet never
day goes by that I do not find my
self thanking the fates that made i.
possible for me once to have been a
professional baseball player. AS a
matter of fact, even though cannot
explain it, it seems to me that my
work as catcher fitted me for my
career as light tenor quite as much,
for instance, as any of my technical
studies under teachers of harmony.
II do not lay claim to originating
the idea, but it is my firm conviction
that everything an artist does-in the
way either of occupation, recreation,
dissipation, what not-transmutes it,
self in some manner either into a
stepping stone or an obstacle to higher
levels of achievement. Personally l
am old fashioned enough to believe
that clean living and high thinking are
ment of the greatest artistic rewards,
but that they constitute absolutely es-
sential factors in the makeup Of the
artist. There's an awful lot of non
sense in the popular mind apropos the
so-called artistic temperament and the
moral license claimed for genius of all
kinds. Indeed, many excellent and
otherwise intelligent persons have
come to believe that in order to be
first class artist one must be a black
guard regarding some one or all of
firm in that belief l suppose it would
come as distinct snock to be told
that seasons playing with baseball
nine will knock the artistic tempera-
ment out of the most 'cussed' genius
that ever wore shoe leather"
1t was while a student in the Uni
versity of Missouri, where he was pre-
pairing for career in medicine, that
Burckly first became interested in base.
ball. He was initiated into the pro-
fessional game on the famous Kerry
among its graduates such we'll known
players as Mike Donlis, Tip O'Neil,
'Artie' Latham and Charlie Comisky,
now the millionaire owner of the Chi
cago White Socks. 1t was from the
example of men such as these and
host of other famous professional
players that the good-looking tenor of
"Irene" has evolved his theory Of a
cure for artistic "cussedness."
And anybody who has enjoyed or
suffered an experience of twelve years
Ou tu0 uuUSlCdl COACuy duO OPCAdCN
stage is bound to know mighty lot
about the latter malady, according to
the best authorities, including Burckly
himself, who has sung leading roles in
support of most of the temperamental
prima donnas of the period. Under the
management of Charles Dillingham; he
appeared for three years with FRITZ
Scheff in "Madamoiselle Modiste." He
also supported Kitty Gordon in "Pretty
Mrs. Smith" and Christie Macdonald
in "The Spring Maid" He had sea-
son with Trixie Friganza in Canary
Cottage" and warbled love songs to
succession of leading ladies in ::'The
Chocolate Soldier" "The Only Girl"
and half dozen other tuneful pro-
ductions. To which must be added a
long and Christening experience with
the various prima donnas of the Lom
bardi Grand Opera Company.
AS the proof of the pudding is in
the eating, so the soundness of
theory is determinable only by the fact
whether or not it will work. And
Burckly's does. He had never had Inc
slightest difference of opinion with
either manager or star in all his twelve
years experience; he has never
"given" or been "given notice" His
artistic career has been one long, sweet
song and he attributes it all to the
discipline inculcated during his years
on the baseball diamond.