The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-05-19
By GILBERT SWAN. NEA Cervice Writer

 They whispered. in more supersti- tious days, that his mother could i cast spells and reveal the hidden secrets of the soul.
 And David Belasco, who became known to the world as David Belas- ico, was his mothers child.
 His birthplace had the perfect Belasco touch.
 The setting was basement in old s San Francisco; the San Francisco of { the bonanza days. Gold that had come so easily to many was being tossed carelessly about by the ban anza kings. Those who had found it lived in palaces and established the landmarks of a metropolis. Those who rushed in to get any part of the golden reflection, lived in base sments.
 Abraham Humphrey velasco. fath- CT of David. lived in a basement! A basement loaned to him by a samaritan who sympathized with his penAiless plight. i. He had come from London, lured by the fabulous tales of California. tAsPortuguese Jew, his ancestors had been routed by the Moors and had settled in England. There Velasco lpere had become one of the great clowns of Europe. "The greatest yharieduin of London' they had call ed him. The glamorous tales of < Americas new west turned 8 fine harlequin into a petty merchant of { San Francisco. Abraham had mar- sried a glamorous gypsy girl, who was travelling the English country sides forecasting fates.
 A dingy celler. lighted by thrifty prisms of sun-and child born eight hours after the mother had been carried ashore from ship by doctor who had waded out to get her.. ag 5AE
 In a long lifetime devoted to the magic and wizardy of stage mani. pulation, David Belasco conceived no more touching setting.
 z Outside his downstairs doorway, melodrama saturated the air. Rest lessness was in the blood. From Sacramento porthward, the call Of ,; high advenJRe sounded. No child born within the time, given nos madic and picturesque ancestry could escape the virus of It's fever. ' Even as this youngster romped m the streets, another west was being born: that next frontier that had Tonopah, Goldfield and other Neva- ! daN towns for it's capital.
 Schools were, for the most part primitive. But thanks to the Cath ollie padres who. had been a historic element, there were numDer oI priests prepared to play mentor to < the mind and soul alike. David was entrusted to- the school or 2 2 certain Father Maguire, after 2 brief course with an Irishman, Fat rick Burr by name.
 The Boy Daredevil.
 But school was, at least for him, a dull spot in world of adventure. The youthful David was inclined to tuck dime novels beneath his pillow. rather than school books. And caught at this, he used the boots worn at the time as a hiding place for his lyrid library.
 Telling of this one day, couple of wears ago, over his ancient desk above his Belasco theater in Forty Fourth street, the white-haired dean of the theater smiled reminiscently and commented: s4s a
 But that didn't - last long. l ran away with a small circus not long afterward. I was barely l0 years old when I was doing a sem sational bareback trick. | invent. ed 1t myself. The act consisted ol Jumping through a hoop of hre.. was billed on country barns as the boy daredevil. And today. my boy, would give half the treasures have collected to possess one Of the posters that showed me In that role" , Wrote Thriller at IA.
 In other words. tinsel had come to sparkle for him much more al- lurlngiy than gold. And his school ing in blood and thunder tales grew into boyish thrills, such as Jim Black" written at the age of l4' but never produced. It was sub E titled "The Regulators Revenge"
 It was just after Laugh Clown Laugh" came to Broadway that the old man" told me tale by way of explainipg why he was forever al. tached why he was forever attached tached to the Eternal Pagliacci. clown who billed himself as "Ledo inc Jester" His name was Kingsley The itinerant tent show went to ! South America and young David developed tropical malady. He could not go on with his act. Sc ina show went on without him. But Ledo. attached to the lad and with no money to help him. stayed be- hind too.
 "And begged in the streets so that I might have food and medi- caI help did his clown stunts m the sidewalk until my father came and got me and took me home again {. Poor Ledo, he died of the same fever later,' so went his story.
 co grew to be Q high priest Of sen. timent and the sentimental. Ills first appearances upon the stage had been at the age Of five. He was literally carried on by Julia peilfi, appearing in .pixarro. He casns