The Washington times., 1933-09-25


The ranch was owned by Gov
ernor Carey, of Wyoming, the
original for Judge Henry in
Owen Wister'S "Virginian." In
my anxiety to impress the cow
puncherS I wore high-heeled
boots all summer long and they
wore holes in the sides of my
ShinS. The scars are still there,
q tribute to my perseverance.
I played in the tryout of "Hell
Bent for Heaven" at Asbury
Park. Coming home on the
train to New York, a young man
slouched behind me and spent
an hour telling me what was
wrong with my acting. I was so
impressed with his eloquence
and his reasoning-so impressed
that I told him that I would
like to have him produce a play
I was then writing with James
Gleason. He couldn't raise the
money to do it, and it went to
the Shuberts. When Johnny
Weaver and 1 wrote Love EN-
and Leave EN-" I persuaded
Weaver that my voluble train
companion was the man to do
It. The eloquent one was Jed
Harris.
My first love scene as an
actor found me making pas
siOnate proposals to Alice Brady
in "Zander, The Great" 1t was,
as I said, my first love scene.
Previously I had been cast in
what were termed comedy roles,
and l was scared witlesS at the
proposal. In my fright I played
the scene so timidly that was
laviShly praised by the critics
for underplaying a role that
might easily be Overplayed.
Fresh from Prof. Bakers class
at Harvard and giving myself
six months to get job as an
actor in New York. On the last
day I crept up the stairs of the
office of William Harris, Sr.,
and got into THE Misleading
Lady" just at the expiration of
my own deadline. The leading
man in that company later be-
came a somebody in pictures
Lewis Stone, That was back in
1913 and I played a drunken
college boy.
I was so elated at my ap-
parent success on the stage that
I got married Immediately. In
the next two years I earned
just 5000, and my wife had to
go to work in her brothers law
office so that the two of us
could live.
Reciting eloquent pieces in a
bad-fitting dress suit between
numbers rendered by the Glee
Club at the University of
Rochester. So enamored by the
platform that I wrote a play
called Perfectly Harmless" in
which I dramatized the geology
professor for whom I had great
liking. I played the part of the
doddering old man with many
misgivings, but he later con-
graduated me, saying that the
play was great boost for
geology, a science which, in
Rochester, was falling into dis.
repute.
Sailing up the Nile in Africa
with NeySa McMein and Alice
Duer Miller and feeling little
puny and futile on observing
evidences of civilization thou
sands of years older than ours
scattered along the banks.
While playing with Lynn Fon-
tame on the road in "Dulcy,"
an understudy in the play came
to me and said that she had
written a comedy about a
Southern flirt. Would I read it
and help her with it? With her
I rewrote it and we submitted
it to Guthrie McClintic and
other managers. They didn't
like it. so I washed my hands of
it. My co-author-she was Ann
Preston Bridges-called me up
three months later and said
she had thought of a new plot
for the piece which would make
a tragedy of it. The new plot
was good and we rewrote the
play in three weeks. It was sub
mitted to Richard Herndon, but
turned down because his star,
Claiborne Foster, was afraid it
was too dreary. Three years
elapsed before it was dedicated
on Broadway as Helen Hayes
greatest hit, "Coquette."
Playing the father of triplets
with Jeanne Eagles in dad
dies" at the Belasco back in
1918, and getting my first no.
tion of what right direction
could do for plays as opposed to
the sloppy direction I had pre-
.viously observed. Belasco must
have loved actors more than
any other producer of our time.
The lunches served at rehearsal
took on the appearance of a
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