The New York herald., 1922-07-24
FRANK MACKAY, 90,
/ HITS WORLDS FADS
Veteran Actor Sees More
Danger in Socialism
Than Flapper.
IlDEFENDs THE STAGE
Calls for Tolerance From
Clergy Critics, Who Give
Il Him Only Pain.
HOLDS PROHIBITION BAD
Declares 18th Amendment Is
Responsible for Growing
\ Disregard for Law.
HOLDS PROHIBITION BAD

NJ Ineater ana DaVld 6eldSco ana Otner
celebrities gathered to tell the old
gentleman they hoped they would be
as useful to humanity at 80 as he is.
I Friday morning at s o'clock Mr..
\ Mackay was at his desk at 145 West
Forty-fifth street making light of a
job that would have made many a
bright young man misanthropic. He
cleaned up little OF his routine work
as executive chairman of the Actors
Fund of America. Then he dictated a
few letters to, publishers. For an hour
or so he corrected proofs of an article
ION the early American theater.
During the afternoon he gave per-
sonal instruction to several youthful
stage aspirants. Then he knocked off
for an hour to talk to THE New York
HERALD reporter, who had come to find
Tout what the Oldest actor in the
United States thinks about the exist
ing higglety-pigglety state of affairs.
I'm an old man." said he to the re-
porter. ''and experience has made it pos
nan nature But I have not learned
why any one should be even mildly sur
iprised that should be working to-day.
Just why shouldn't I?
Feels 90, Too.
< "Also I'd like to depart from tradi-
I ton to say feel ninety years old That
(. does not mean that / feel Ill or weak
mentally or physically. 1t means / do
not think I'm a 'three-ycar-old.'
Son, II you are perfectly honest with
yourself you know your personal opin-
lens supply little fuel to the 1922 ma
chine. Mine supply no more. What we
see may be interesting; but / wonder
whether IT is important?
II should say that one step in the
right direction would be to get rid OF
about 30 per cent. of the ridiculous fads
we affect. I'd like to sum it up by say
ing work Is the cure-all, and the sooner
we get to II the better.
FIapper No Menace.
"I do not refer to the flapper or bob
( bed hair or short skirts or women In
L l;nickerbockers or women in politics or
any such phenomena as fads. With the
exception of women in politics all those
things are but passing incidents. The
\ fiapper Of to-day is no more Of a menace
I than the happer of 1850 and 1860. And
plenty Of ouR own excellent grand
mothers and mothers were fiappers In
their teens
mo, I refer to the political and eco.
nomic .fads. Don't put me down as a
political reactionary. because I'm not
Neither am I possessed of Socialistic
tendencies. never read line of 4<ar
Marx. I've been too darned busy. Bu
II seems to me that there Is a greater
disregard for law to-day than there
was when I was your age.
Without denouncing or applaudinf
the Eighteenth Amendments intent. II
like to say that in my opinion it is re
sponsible for much Of the growing dis
/, regard for law Thousands refuse t
obey II, Thousands find 1t a relativel,
simple matter to evade and flout th'
Volstead law, and other laws tina
may for a moment or longer be incon
venient are ignored.
There are times when I'm tolerabl.
4 certain that our American civilization
has progressed. There are times whei
I'm not so sure about it. We hear
certain type of clergymen and refor1ne
rail at Darwinism. the flapper. the mod
i ern stage (which. by the way. give
me a piercing pain now and them an,
this modern Turkish bath school o
literature. It doesn't appear to m
these pure gentlemen have progresse,
beyond the point occupied In 1859 b,
Prof. John Filbert, head OF the Norma
College In New Britain. Conn.
In Bad with shakespeare.
ct was taking course under Prof
Filbert, having in mind career as al
l elocution teacher AS part of my clas
4 L. I lx.1 a. 1<..f
" my first piece was Shakespearean. Prof
| F'ilbert afterward said:
n 'Mackay, I'm sorry l did not know
4 In advance what you intended deliver
ing. We permit no Shakespeare in thi
college,
! My first foray into the drama &
( New York was with the Murdock ORA
/. matte Society. which held forth nea
Tony Pastors. With me were Maggi
Mitchell, George Boniface. Sr.: Harr
Weaver and others. Our manager
name was Onion. but he changed tina
to Barnes. We went to Newark. Their
was no theater. SO we played In a hal
over the livery stable. I suggested [
the manager that he might revert I
Onion.
Life was simple. To-day we're q
complicated we lie and loaf TO gai
what we consider the pleasant things
VIC Tt nflib III N udStOdn age. In
office boy lies about his grandmothe
10 have the afternoon at the Pol
Grounds. The mechanic wins SIS o
a horse race or baseball game an
thinks he's too rich to work next day
We seem 10 forget that strenuous phys
cal pleasure exhausts where strenuou
Y 4 mental exercise builds up. Not. min
YOU. ;hat ] do not believe in physics
development
Played Heavy with Forrest.
IL For example. 7 was playing In stoc
I'm Boston with Forrest and was keer
ing In shape in a nearby gymnasium
A We were playing Lear and Forres
instructed me to carry him to the rigf
first entrance at stated point
"'And mind YOU he roared. don
drop me. They dropped me In Buffal
( and damn near killed me-
II picked UP Forrest with great cas-
and deposited him at the designate
spot.
My God, sir he roared. that's wha
N / call good heavy work
Now and then / go TO the movies an
indulge in retrospection. try to- thin
lS@of Forrest. Booth, Irving. Terry. Davef