The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-06
NJ EN, w O M E N
 A ND T HIN c s


 Dolly Dalrymple" recently had mighty attractive Illustrated story about Manager Douglass of the Jef- ferson theatre, and some of his old friends among the footlight celebri- ties.
 In the years he has been a man ager he has had time to know inti- mately some of the worlds great ac- tors and actresses, both tragedians and comedians, and I daresay spends many pleasant hours in remember ing their various traits. for it is well known that they belong to a profes- sion which is full of temperament.
 Now l have been many things in my day and have played many parts. but have never yet done any tf1ng in managerial way, although from my youth up I have had an un- usual time to study the men and women who amuse us both from the back and the front of the curtain, In my boyhood days back stage was wonder world to me, and supplied my fancies with as much material as any lad could wish for.
 l got to thinking along these lines as the men and women who make the cii cult showed up one by one at the fair. For several years past I have played Good Man Friday" to<"Bus- ter" Brown, the big-hearted bachelor or Robinson Crusoe of the Alabama State F'alr, and in that time I have got acquainted not only with many of the performers in the shows but met the producers.
 This year Johnny Jones. the proud papa, was the first of the old guard I got to shake hands with, and be- 1ieve me Johnny J. Jones, Jr., is some show kid, and unless he makes a ripple in the amusement world, he will not run true to-breedlng, for his mother, one of the famous and be- loved Hurd sisters, was born in circus wagon, and Johnny scarcely recalls the day when he wasn't a circus king
 Sam Levy, the bright pend of the Caruthers Amusement corporation, showed up four hours late on ac- CCunt al oI though his acts in front of the grandstand were all balled up and in a frenzy in mad effort to get their props" set up in time for the open Ing bill in the afternoon, Sam utterly refused to get excited, lose his temper and "ball' out all creation, but quiet- ly with a smile went to work to bring order out of chaos and put the programme across. Sam is a study in boise, and whenever I begin to get "het up" over some trifle I think of his serene Irish face and peace comes back to my troubled mind.
 The next one of the old gang I busted" into was my buddy" Ed Salter, the only and original million dollar press agent. who never knew what failure meant, as he had such a way with him that everybody was willing to give his shows what pub licity he wanted. This is why Johnny Jones is household word through out the country. Ed loves the chil- dren. One of the first things he asked me was about my boys. said they are fine, but I know lit tie fellow who for weeks has been waiting for Johnny Jones to come, and now he is sick in bed. Doc" he said, take him this book of passes with my compliments. and I'll bet it will do him more good and get him out of bed quicker than all the phy- sicians in Birmingham" And it did,
 You might think that the show business would harden the men who are in it, for it is hard life in many ways and tries the temper and lHc souiS oi HieH Wiln US TlSkS ot money and it's moral temptations; but take 1t from me I'll put the three friends named in this article up against any trio you can pick out from any bushes or the professions without any fear of them failing to show up as real men in the best sense of the word.