The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-11-08

not So 4O44S ago d SIILaLI SLOup u
sledders lay covered with snow. The
sled had made a good trip downward.
but had overturned at the proper
time, and the gay young cutters were
rolling over to get their footing for
another trip up the slope.
The first one to rise and slap the
white powder from his coat sleeves
and hair emitted little yelp and
danced a Gertrude Hoffman, step into
the bargain.
ooh, boy!" he shouted, this is fun.
] haven't had so much snow down
my back for ten years. Come on!
Let's do it again!"
That's Harold Lloyd.
OF course, there has been a great
deal Of press agent bunk written and
published concerning the splendid
ness Of this great comedians char
acter. The writer Of this little piece
about him, however, does not desire
to create for Harold Lloyd any more
beautiful background than he de-
serves. But for once it must be adj
mitted that most of the nice things
that have been said about him are
true. He is, as matter of fact, just
about the most levelheaded, unspoiled
actor of our time. And now that he
has settled down into married life Ivy
taking as his own forever and day
the demure Mildred Davis, his lead
ing woman in the films, it will not
do any harm to tell a little bit about
him, where he got the idea that he
would be an actor, how he lives, what
he lives for and what he is.
The Disappointed Children.
The incident above, when he
shouted like a schoolboy at the over
turning of a sled on Long Island, is
typical Of him. He had come to New
York from the studio on the west
coast and found himself hustled and
hustled here and there from morning
until night by his managers and
representatives on Broadway. SO he
accepted an invitation to go out to
Long Island and spend day with a
friend. That friend was the writer.
And It is safe to say that Harold
Lloyd had more real enjoyment that
evening shedding down the hill than
he had in the entire three weeks OF
theater parties and interviews in
New York.
A half hour after he had finished
his shedding party on the night in
question he was sitting in the living
room, and he had been told that sew
eral of the little children of the
neighborhood had been invited to
come in and meet him. He was en-
barrassed at the thought and said,
fidgeting:
saw, now, they won't like meeting
me personally. What do you want to
disappoint them for?"
And few minutes later when the
little ones came in, wide eyed, hair
combed precisely and curls hanging
down, all freshly twisted, and stood
about and looked upon him, most of
them with doubt in their eyes, the
comedian who has made millions
laugh. after trying Intellectually to
engage them in conversation, turned
to his hostess and said, with little
catch in his voice:
at don't know whenever I was so
sorry. These Riddles don't know me.
l,,,E 4 rx-cl3 11od
glasses to put on. Have you got any
horn trimmed glasses and a little
white powder I could use?"
But there were no horn trimmed
\ glasses, so he turned back to the
children and said:
"Kiddies, I'm Harold Lloyd, all
right. know you don't think so, but
/ am. And I'm awfully glad to know
each one OF YOU"
And then, seeing they still were
not satisfied, he got down on the
floor on his hands and knees and
made all kinds of twists and turns
and dances and worked his face into
various shapes just to try to get
them to realize that he really was
the hero they had hoped to see.
The spirit of youth is still fresh in
him, and he is not in the least
ashamed to tell how when he was
kid in Nebraska he used to sell pop
corn to passengers on trains that
passed through his town, and how
his mother popped it for him, and
how he also sold newspapers in Den
yer, and how he got his first
chance to act on a stage by begging
a stock actor to let him do some
thing-"any old thing, just so it's
acting"
Harold Lloyd was born between
twenty-eight and twenty-nine years
ago in the now famous city OF
Burchard, Neb. When he had
reached the age of one his parents
moved to Humboldt, Neb., and Harold
decided he might as well go along.
Two years later he and the folks
made Denver their stopping ground.
Tt was about this time, he says, that
he thinks he began to feel the his
trionic urge. He used to make a
stage of his bed He would line up
all the hats, male and female, which
he could find in the house and then
act before them with great ado. He
,I1o I,1o,o,, 20 show on,.+afYo clio Of