The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-02-05
H. B. Warner, Actor, Started
Out to Become a Physician
Narrowly Missed Being Medico, but Switched to the
Family Profession and Is Thankful for the
Hospital Training.

II. B. Warner isn't an actor. He adj
mits it himself. fatty contradcting
highly favorable criticisms on his stage
artistry. At heart he is really doctor.
dissecting bodies rather than souls as
a player. Probably that accounts for
the fact that he prefers to tinker around
and produce a play to operate on 1T
rather than appear in it. In this way
he acted as consulting physician at the
birth OF Danger" his latest vehicle.
And in his dressing room at the Thirty
ninth Street Theater the other day he
explained how he set out to cure human
ills rather than delineate them.
when / was n youngster," he said,
"I was intended to be physician, quite
with my own consent. i studied at vari-
Gus hospitals in Chicago, attending the
worst kind of clinics enthusiastically.
They used to put funny robe on you
and tell you to sit there and not make
any noise quite as If you were child.
But of course i had a persuasion l
might be an actor too. because my sister
and my father were in the profession
and all my fathers folks had been on
the stage as far back as anybody could
want to go.
Then found at home | had no point
of appeal for my medical conversations.
NV father and sister could always talk
about their theatrical work and l was
always an interested listener, but l
couldn't get any sympathetic audience
for the surgical matters / was all
wrapped up in. So finally / said to
nv father: Here. this Will never do.
I'm going ON the stage in order to have
something 10 talk about
stu Keen About Medicine
"And 1 went.
I'm still very keen about medicine,
reading pathological pamphlets and so
on for extraordinary cases. and think
sometimes that / miscued and might
have been n star at bonesetting And or
course 1 always have to be on hand to
rosuscitate somebody from drowning.
though any fathead can do that. 1t
would hardly do for summer to pass
without my revivlng some one.
zone summer / was UP at Bass Rocks,
Mass. sitting on the beach at a quarter
OF ten in the morning. which is very
peculiar, though you may not think so.
The odd thing about it Is that / am
never on the beach at that hour, but
usually getting UP a good honest per-
spration in my garden. Al mar past
ten / go 10 the beach for a SWIM then
go after golf balls In the afternoon.
but It so happened. fortunately
enough. that the day was languid and
was lolling on the beach. though i
hate loiling. Beside sat n friend. lazy
tripehound who is always on the beach
that's his vocation. Near us was a
group of clucking nursemaids not look
ing after their children, which is their
usual way OF attending to business.
Leaning back negligently, the tripe-
hound said TO me:
wouldn't you. now, think that was
a head bobblng in the water about zoo
yards out? Wouldn't you, huhT
looked at small round object.
"'Why,' ] told him, II YOU weren't a
fool you'd know that was a head sure
enough
IL wasn't really certain of It myself
But lust then one OF the nursemaids
missed n kid and screamed, and that
made me sure. BY the time I reached
the youngster in the water / was all on,
of breath and nearly went down myself
II the tripehound hadn't come pounding
up just then to lend a hand he might
have had TO save me.
when | placed the little girl on the