The Washington times., 1936-05-12

seven successive SedSOuSs
"Zi0gy" tDGS a great guy, and a
ure1t producer, but he didn't haze
a lot of use for comedians. He
considered them more or less a
necessary eDil, yet he had every
comedian OF any prominence TN his
Sho,Ds. Frequently he dug up pros
pectiue funny men and started
them ON their tDGy to fame.
I remember, I wanted to do my
golf act in one Of the "Follles.
I went to Ziegfeld, and outlined
the idea to him. He was enthui-
aStic.
"Its a great idea, Bill" he
said. 81 think it will be a hit.
There is only one little thing.
We have q beautiful yacht set.
A gorgeous yacht the most
magnificent yacht you have
ever seen-all full Of beautiful
girls. Now, If you will only
change your golf gag to q fish.
ing gag it will be a sensation.
y
I thought I had figured out
how to handle Ziegfeld, so I
agreed with him. He went ahead
with the plans for the yacht
with all the beautiful girls-and
I went ahead with my part OF
the act. He wanted to see it.,
but I'd never show it to him.
I told him everything was work
ing out perfectly. I would start
out with a fishing gag, and then
60 into the golf act. That salts
fled him.
When the final tryout came I
did my golf act, no more. Even
though it was on q yacht. The
act got over all right, but ziggy
was in tears. But he had to
give in. He finally compromised.
I could do the golf act, but he
would have at least one girl in
it. He would have one of his
beauties walk across the stage,
leading a Russian wolfhound.
I knew that would ruin my
part Of the show completely, but
I couldn't argue him out Of it.
To Ziggy, an act wasn't worth
putting on unless he had one OF
his girls in it.
y \
SO opening night / StCrted my
golf act. In the middle of it this
beautiful girl, gorgeously coSS
TUNED, Dulked Ccro S the stage,
leading this handsome Russian
Uolthound. / stopped. They
IDGlked from one aDing to the
other.
'My," I said, what beau
tiful camel"
That got a laugh, and the act
was a success.
I met Will Rogers, God rest
him, in the "Follies." But that
wasn't the first time we'd seen
each other. During one of my
vaudeville trips around the world
I'd appeared in Cape Town,
South Africa. At that time there
was a sort of a rodeo going on in
the stock yards. A bunch OF
cattle had arrived from South
America, and there were some
cowboys and vaqueros from the
Americas putting on a show.
7 attended, and saw young
fellow twirling a rope, and giving
demonstrations of American COW
punching methods. Being two
strangers far from home we got
acquainted. His name was WI!
Rogers. So Will and weren't
exactly strangers when we got in
the "FoLies" together.
In those days I had high
powered automobile Ever since I
had been able to afford one I'd
had the best car on the market.
/ don't drive any more, and l
give my chauffeur a lot Of eau
tiOus instructions, but, then, I
was a pretty good driver myself.
The "Follies" went down to
Washington for a performance,
and I drove down. Coming back
I offered to drive Rogers and a
couple of other people. We hit a
rock or had a blowout, or some.
thing. Anyway, the car went ca
reening into a ditch, turned over
and distributed the passengers
about the landscape.
I seemed to be intact, and SO
were the two other fellows, but
poor Will had a broken leg. We
hailed a passing car and hurried
him to a nearby hospital. AS soon
as he was taken care of I heaveo
a sigh of relief. started to take
off my hat, but the thing wouldn't
bulge. And suddenly discovered
that my head ached painfully.
I finally got the hat off and dis
covered I had bump on my head
about twice the size my head nor
mally was. And I didn't ever