Evening star., 1943-04-11
NEW YORK

fought and undergraduates had only
the burden of picking vocations, a
handful Of talented unknowns from
Princeton and Harvard Matched
fabulous futures in a ramshackle
summer theater at West Falmouth,
Cape Cod, Mass.
three or four unknown girls of the
University Players of 1928 are prac-
tically household words in 1943
Look at the list:
Myron Mccormick, Kent Smith,
Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Mar
garet Sullivan, Mildred Natwick,
Barbara O'Neil, Joshua Logan,
Charles Leatherbee, John Swope,
John Morris. Ross Alexander and
Bertaigne Windust.
There were no pretensions to sig
nificance or Importance in their be-
ginning. They were simply young
actors who wanted to act.
Kent Smith, in New York for the
premiere of his new picture "Hitler's
Children" was reminiscing about the
Falmouth days with Myron McCor-
mick the other day:
"Our first play, The Devil in the
Cheese, was so remarkable it was
almost unplayable" He recalled,
there was forest of props-or
should have been-and the grid
system 0ighting arrangements)
didn't work"
But they were resilient geniuses.
Rehearsals took place on the beach
In bathing suits. The boys lived in
one cottage, the girls in another, and
the wardrobe mistress chaperoned.
There was night club in connection
with the theater and that was their
other visible means of support.
John Morris, who later left the
stage and became deputy police COM
missioner of New York City, was
cook. After they built their own
theater Gin II days, they lived in it
one fall-not by preference. but be-
cause none of them had a dime.
Matinee for a Patron.
Mccormick remembered that they
gave one matinee week because
we had patron who didn't go out
nights. We filled up the theater
with kids from the orphanage in the
neighborhood and gave a perform
snce that lasted twice as long as
normal because the patron was deaf
and we had to stall on the stage
while his companion repeated the
lines to him."
Everybody was young, deadly in
earnest about his work, careless of
personal comfort, and itchy with
ambition. So the whole group pulled
up stakes for winter of stock in
Baltimore. They took the top floor
OF the Herman Hotel to live and got
credit at Schellhases Restaurant
Oh. L. Mencken's hangout) for
meals.
That winter they produced a num-
Der OF fine plays and one marriage.
Margaret Sullivan or Peggy as they
all called her, and Henry Fonda
were the principals in the latter
drama and to this day everybody
gets laugh out Of the afternoon of
the nuptials.
Mccormick recalls that the cere-
mony was performed at noon on the
day before Christmas, 1882, in the
dining room of the Herman and no.
body cared if the actors were little
unsteady ION account of the wedding
punch) in their parts at the matinee
Of THE Ghost Train" that after
noon because by that time all Bal
timore took an interest in the
match.
Mccormick and Kent Smith
laughed too, when they remembered
that Henry bought a Stutz bearcat
sports model for SIS and he and Peg
started on wedding trip to WASH
ington but were back a half-hour
later, the stutz permanently stalled
four blocks away"
The same company today prob
ably could run forever in anything
but In the spring of 1882 they
quietly dismantled their props and
one by one drifted into New York.
Unemployment Allergy.
The hardest job any Of them ever
worked at was being out of work.
so 1t was strenuous summer.
Charles Leatherbee was the only one
who could afford to pay rent so
visiting" him at the Belvedere Ho-
tel were Jimmie Stewart, Josh Lo-
gan, Fonda. Mccormick and Ber-
taigne Windust. This domestic
scheme was shattered when Leath-
erbee married Logan's sister.
Instead of establishing themselves
In Greenwich Village, the classic
refuge of those in pecuniary distress,
they took two broken-down rooms in
West SiXty-fourth street where rents
were low because the mortality rate
was high-Legs Diamond was shot
In the building next door and his
allies twisted through that thorough
fare with nerve racking persistency.
Anyway, their talents placed them
with other talented unknowns-
Burgess Meredith, Jose Ferrer (who
has been playing the lead of Lets
Face IT,, Hal Adamson. who wrote
Time on My Hands; Benny Good
man. 1t was before any one of them
came to the boiling point.
Everybody owed money and every
body borrowed money from every
body else. They drank beer for fun
and milk to stay healthy. Once
when the milk got too far ahead of
them at the apartment they invited
everybody they knew to milk toast
party and their friends were such
that they were very glad to get it.
Kent Smith was the first one to
get job and Fonda the last. Stew
art and Mccormick landed in
Garry Nation" and the next season
they were the chauffeur and bellboy,
respectively, in Goodbye Again."
Such were their fragile beginnings.
If even one of such group had hit
the mark, it would have been note
A