New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-09-24
Here's AL! He Made
Debut on Broadway
AS Stage Bartender


When Arthur Hopkins brought "Ths
Deluge" to the Plymouth Theater last
season and Robert E. O'Connor gave
what was truly realistic performance
Of Straton, the bartender, the report
spread that this fellow O'Connor had
been playing bartenders all his life.
1t seemed that confirmation was given
this report when the bartender of 1.-THE
Deluge" blossomed forth as Al, the
amabe bartender of 1.-THE Old Soak"
He could never have done it if he
hadn't made bartenders his specially,
it was argued.
Al himself set the runior at rest last
week. The role of the saloonkeeper in
the glittering basement retreat as pie
tured in "The Deluge" was his first
acquaintance with part OF that kind,
and that's saying great deal, inasmuch
as he had been associated with the
theater in one way or another since
he was old enough to start pulling the
CURTIN key joke on some new pack
stage employee.
Besides being his first bartender
part, the part Of ,Straton was Mr.
O'Connor's first Broadway part. He
finds a vast difference between Straton
and al. "Straton was q saloonkeeper,"
said the actor. "He had a veneer Of
Responsibility, he had acquired eer-
tain front for the cash registers sake
and because he had in the establish
ment the interest Of proprietor, but
with Al-well, it's different. Al is iust
country bartender, good fellow all
around. Straton had a lot Of mean
ness in him; he was as hard as nails
Mr.. Hopkins gave me plenty Of room
to build on both characters, and in
bartender as l thought knew him to
be-"
And Mr. O'Connor, let it be known,
has had occasion to rub elbows with
the bartending professionals was
born in Milwaukee. There and else
where he established acquaintance with
many of them and contracted numer-
GUS friendships, without necessarily, ne
pointed out, having to take a lease on
small round table or wear out his
coat sleeves leaning over the rim OF e
bar.
Robert E. O'Connor has been acting
for twenty years or so. Back in 1908
he was leading man with the Baldwin
Melville company, a company that put
out in that day really first class stock
organizations. In number of South
ern cities the Baldwin Melville COM
panies showed real class, and at that
time stock covered a far wider field
than it does just now.
During part of his service with the
Baldwin Melville people MIR. o'Connor
had as his leading woman Lucia Moore,
who has been appearing in rather ma
ture roles on Broadway for many years
and who number Of years ago was
second to none as stock favorite in
the South. The writer OF this account
saw just about every production staged
in certain Georgia city from 1907 TO
1914, and four distinct performances
stand out above all others. One of
these was rendered by this same Lucia
Moore while playing opposite O'Con-
nor in "The Bishops Carriage" and
the other was given by the Old Soak
himself-Harry Beresford. The Glenn
Hawley Of Broadway to-day was then
touring the South in q side splitting
farce called who's Your Friend 2" and
was just as good an actor then as now,
but Broadway hadn't been convinced.
! Mr.. OConnor appeared throughout
the West as the star of "The Travelling
Salesman" played stock engagements
here, there and everywhere, and finally
took the vaudeville plunge. He and
vaudeville took liking to each other
from the first, and they remained to-
gether for nine straight years. The
| legitimate, however, has first call in
ms affections. In various road and
STOCK engagements he played in virtu-
ally all Of the old dramatic standbys
OF the present century, and one of his
steady roles was that popular hero,
Tom Logan in Hal Reid's Snowaaky
me lo(rama. "Hnusnu uao~+,s