The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-11-18

Buster keaton-the present da! film comedian.
 And the other .boy-short
 chunky and heavy-set for his scan
 12 years-was Victor Hyde, tht
 Broadway musical revue director who came to Waterbury to stage and produce The Democrat Frolit ] on display for the last times to-
 day at the Fox-Polie Palace thea. ter here.
 "You know, I'll never forget thar
 incident" Hyde said the other
 night between sips of coffee and ar eggs, his favorite goodnight dish
 lieve me, but I still remember it How long ago? "Now don't ask me that" He chuckled good-natured- ly.
 Tt was funny though, wasn't 1t Can you imagine Buster Keator and me doing double act when we were just kids. And yet that's what we wanted to do. Sure, we were actually planning to runaway
 Buster was in his fathers act then, and he was used mostly to be thrown around. I was dancing in my fathers act, and we were playing on the bill together"
 Hyde slipped his coffee thought fully. He set his cup down and smiled broadly.
 Both Young Romeos
 "You might be interested in a little sequel to that plan of ours to run away" he said. "It was funny. There was a little girl about our age playing on the same bill, and Buster and I both fell in love with her. Before our en- gagement at the Orpheum was over, we had a fight over the girl"
 And who won?"
 'Well," Hyde chuckled again. "I was much bigger than Buster"
 It was the unfolding of this in- cident that led indirectly to Victor Hyde's modest story of his start in show bushes, his harsh and bitter struggle to reach the top, his work as @ revue producer. It led also to a series of stories of incidents equally as interesting and amusing as his account of his rendezvous behind the blue plush curtain at the Orpheum theater in Chicago with Buster Keaton.
 | Victor Hyde was born in Mos COW, Russia as Victor Haidabura. He was the son of Nicholas Haida- bura, and with the passing of years, became the oldest of a family of three sisters and two brothers.
 His first professional appearance on the stage was made when he reached the age of seven, and oc- cured at Cafkasia, Russia. His bit on the stage at that time consist ed of harmony singing and the performance of Russian character istic dances and he was acclaimed at an early age as a youthful marvel of the foreign theatrical world.
 Played Foreign Countries
 After travelling about Russia and other foreign countries performing with his father and mother in the theaters of the larger cities, the family settled in St. Petersburgh, and Victor became student at the Imperial Conservatory of Music and Ballet Studies there.
 At the age of II his family left Russia, went to Germany, and al- most immediately came to this country.
 "We came over on a steamship called the Arcadia" Hyde remem- bered. "It took us 21 days to cross, and we landed at Philadelphia 8 pretty sea-sick group"
 The Haidaburas had relatives living in Philadelphia, relatives who had accumulated some wealth in this country, and who were con- siderably adverse to having their relationship perform on the stage.
 Victor Hyde's wealthy uncle, Henry A. Dix, the multi-million- aire manufacturer at that time had a small plant at Millville. N. J., and he made arrangements to have the entire family go to work there.
 we worked in the factory for awhile," Victor said, ''but we couldn't stand 1t. used to sing and entertain for the fellows in the shop at lunch time. I'll never for get. But we couldn't work in a fac- tory. The call of the stage was too strong within us. It must be in our blood. Anyway we left and went to New York to work in the various theaters there that were playing at that time."
 Hyde's first appearance in New York was at Keith's Union Square theater, then regarded as the great est variety vaudeville theater in America. It was the New York Palace of to-day.
 Only Four Theaters
 At that time the Radio-Keith- Orpheum circuit was composed of four houses: New York, Provi- dence, Philadelphia and Boston. fHhA IIaA6 6ah 4A this time and they played the four money for a family act in those days.
 His family faced the struggles so commonplace among performers during the early days. It was not so easy then to soar to the top. It took years of hard, persistent ef- fort, and the Haidabura family's early days in this country were drought with many disheartening and discouraging experiences.
 Victor recalled one occasion when the family was in Philadel- phia. There was but $10 remaining out of the family savings, and there were no bookings in sight.
 Tt was a terrible situation," he said. We were too proud to call upon relatives for help, SO I was given s6 of the money and l went to Atlantic City to see if I could get any bookings for the family. I was just q kid then, and could speak but very little English.
 with our scrap of our foreign dates under my arm, I went to see Peter Mc9uire, who was then man. ager of the Atlantic City steel pier. He was big man-about c feet in height and with Q deep, booming voice.