The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-05-27
-In-
 .Nezv York
ny PAUL HARRISON

New York-In recent years there grew up around the gloomy old Metropolitan a whispered sr- perstition that grand opera in New York would die when the end came to Captain John Edgar. For more than a quarter Of century he had admitted the great and the near-great through the stage door of the world of musical make-believe. The very sight of his calm smile, his white mustache and his flowing hair seemed to lend confidence to those who en- tered. Prima donnas and ballet girls alike always kissed him for luck. The feeling grew that Ill fortune would come to all of them if Captain Edgar ever left his post. But the superstition didn't prove out. Recent benefits have assured sufficient backing for another sea- son of opera. And Captain John Edgar died the other day.
 The veteran doorman was S9 years old, but had celebrated only 22 birthdays because he was born on February 29. In his youth he had had a rich tenor voice, studied in Europe, and once sang in a chorus with Patti. He returned to America for series of concerts. but was bounded by bad luck. Fin ally he decided to be near music "even if I couldn't sing myself" so he went to work at the Met. Grave Decision
 All the elements of potent dra- ma are to be found in the Jew ish Court of Arbitration, special tribunal conducted on the lower east side to settle differences in- volving civil and Jewish law. A rabbi, an attorney and a business man are chosen to preside at each session, and before them passes a strange procession in which the old and new worlds ming)e.
 The other day a weeping widow appeared as plaintiff against one of the many Jewish burial socie- ties. At home, she said, lay her husband. dead. A rabbi was there, and the neighbors were there, and they had been about to start the funeral. Then she learned that \ the burial society had refused to llassign a cemetery plot; and this in spite of the fact that her husband had paid his dues regularly for many years.
 Was all this true, the court llsked one of the society's repre- lentatives. It was admitted the
 alter. But he also produced rec
 Cds to show that one burial al-
 nady had been accorded the de-
 eased! It seems the man had had aleg amputated several years ago,
 and that the leg had been formal
 k buried in the cemetery accord irg to orthodox Jewish custom.
 Ibw many funerals could he ex-
 pct for his money, anyway?
 The court decided that. under
 tfA circumstances, he could expect
 two. And the widow, with bless
 int on the al1-wise judges. hurried
 bask to her house of grief.
 Movie Folk lore
 Hollywood on Broadway: Norma
 Tamadge, making personal ap-
 perances hereabosts, had da cad-
 gel her codtract or accoudt of ad
 adtack of rose fever Jean
 Fu1arton, the stage ingenus who'll
 som make her screen debut, in-
 sisb on the "a" instead of an 'e'
 in Ter last name because it means
 she came from the lswlands and
 notthe highlands of scotland
 Bete Davis, here for a premiere,
 fiarad nightly when an admirer
 likeied her to Constance Bennett,
 whoh. by the way. she never has
 met It looked like movie
 nigh. at Central Park Casino the
 othe. evening: Richari Barthel- mess and his wife, Ruby Keeler l and Inax, Ilnndnn alI rnarl, a r-