The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-08-20


 is possible for those who knew him only as phantom on the motion, picture screen, to make some estimate of him as a man. I doubt, however, if the charac- ter delineation which has been drawn will emphasize a trait which from my own knowledge of and experience with him was especially marked. It was his loyalty to those who were his friends in the days before he walked with kings"
 Irving and Charley!
 More often than not 1t hap. pens among people of the thea ter that the winning of success brings with 1t loss of memory where those are concerned who were intimates in obscurity. But 1t must be noted also that the great figures of the stage, men and women, were and are singularly free from such snob- bery. It is only those whose ce- lebrity has been quickly attained and who unconsciously recognize that celebrity as short lived who refuse to be reminded by the presence of old friends that things were not always as they are at the moment. An out standing case Is that of Sir Hem ry Irving and his valet, Charley. Years before fame touched with an immortal figure the person of John Henry Brodribb he was playing with poverty-strikcn company in Scotland. One Sat- urday night he had no money to pay for his laundry and 1t was only through the generosity of the barber who ran the dig gings" where he lived that he was enabled to experience a change of linen. It was decid- ed gamble for the barber at the time because the risk ot ever getting a return of the money expended was most hazardous. When the troupe left Edinburgh the laundry bill was still unpaid but Mr.. Brodribb informed his benefactor not only that the debt would be cancelled some day but also that the kindness would never be forgotten, Tn fact when the day came. as come 1t must, when Mr. Brod- ribb's genius was recognized by the world, he, Mir. Brodribb, would prove the sincerity of thankfulncss.
 The day did come. With its dawning, Mir. Brodribb, wilO had become Sir Henry Irving, brought to his side never to leave h the barber who had snlvagcd his wash. In fact so close was their friendship and so great the regard Irving cher. ishcd for Charley that 1t was in the lattcr's arms ne breathed his last.
 Examples like this are innu- merable and usually un. known. No one would get a big ger laugh out of being compared to Sir Henry Irving than Rogers. Yet in this characteristic of loy- alty to the friends of the past they were alike.
 
 Our Meeting
 cannot recall accurately when 1t was that, Rogers, and Lew Madden and I. first ap- pearcd on the same bill. It was so long ago that my memory Is little blurred. I am sure 1t was in some town in "the sticks" and that both our turns were considered of such unimpor- tance that on the billing we were down with "the, aies, wines, liquors, and cigars. Rogers was then doing a rope act and in 1t appeared a horse and q cow pouncher named Buck" Mc- Kee, a former Oklahoma law officer. Will did his lariat tricks without the running comment which afterwards brought him fame and money. Buck sat on the horse, and the dialogue consisted of "Whoa!" and "Git over!" Mckee was almost as un- communicative of the horse as he was on it. The longest con- versation I ever heard him in. dulge in was when someone who noted that he wore a six. gun in the act asked him If he has ever Oiled a man.
 "Waal," explained Mir. Nc.
 Kee after . long pause, T never killed Q man that !
 didn't give him the chance to
 kill me first"
 Anything For A Rise But if Rogers was, at that period of his career, silent on the stage he had plenty of con- versation at other times. Twice a day he would come into our dressing room and make criti- cism of our histrionic efforts, our dress, and our general use- lessness as entertainers of the paying public. But always with that good-natured grin which robbed anything he said of cru- city. There was an impish quail ity to his wit that preserved 1t from brutality and made its ap- peal so universal. The most un- speakable epithet that could be ~..k "A |. x,a~&ofx v.laVQF yVaa f0