Evening star., 1945-08-05
Archie Turns
Serious After
Radio Chores
By Rosalind Shafer
HOLLYWOOD.

There's 10 use trying to make a
smooth subject out Of Ed Gardner
for you, because you wouldn't be-
lieve it. Not If you've listened to
him as Archie the mug, on Duffy S
Tavern"
Now that that's settled, I hope I
can give an uninhibited report.
Archie doesn't have that sense of
embarrassment about personal
things that often aff1icts lesser
souls.
First time met Gardner. over a
year ago, he was tending-no, pour
ing, at tea, and he did pour me a
cup of the stuff, though 1 am sure
at the time he didn't know exactly
what it was. 1t was a merry party
and Gardner received his guests in
house slippers and shirt sleeves
against a background Of solid sill
yer tea service, cocktail shakers and
lowering buffers. Ed still regards
all that as just chance to kid
somebody and have fun; conven-
lent, but not important to a guy
from Astoria who now gets $200, 900
year with more to come.
Just before Gardner started on
his present overseas tour, we had
lunch at one of those quiet restau-
rants where we had an occasional
chance to say something between
interruptions You never saw fel-
low with so many friends.
He Enjoys Sobriety.
I'm on the wagon" said he. "IU's
wonderful. I like to get up in the
morning. I feel swell. I play tennis.
I swim. I know a lot of nice re-
spectacle people. Last Sunday,
who's playing tennis at my place,
and swimming, but Nat Pendleton,
Gene Mako, Esther Williams and
Jinx Falkenburg."
This dereliction from the cup that
cheers came about in a typical
Gardner way, which is all or moth
ing at all. After snatching row of
cocktails before filling a guest spot
on the air one night, says Ed, he
walked straight into a blank in
time. He could remember nothing
afterward. Although he was told,
he says, that he did very we'll
Later, I got to thinking that if
I had stepped out of line some way
it could have destroyed everything
I've spent years building for my
self" he said. The way to quit is
to quit and I did, right then"
Gardner, like most comics a
philosopher, has plans for straight
ening out the sorry scheme of
things. He hates this machine age.
His friends know he hates fast driv-
ing. The complications of modern
life annoy him. When he went on
vacation he took along two volumes
of Thoreau, the woods and streams
philosopher, as light reading matter.
Ed likes farm people, Mexican
peasants, though he doesn't speak
of them that way, and Chinese.
They have something we need, he
says, in their simple philosophy Of
life.
He's Serious Also.
Ed has fun, as we'll as serious
thoughts; he likes to paint. He,
Hoagy Carmichael. Red Shelton,
King Vidor, Edgar Bergen and Bud
dy De sylvia formed a painting
group which, though lacking in con-
ventional technique, gave them all
a great deal of pleasure. Gardeners
collection of paintings is on unique
basis: Il let the other guys buy
Utrillos, Gauguins and Picassos,
he says. ''I like paintings my friends
do" His collection includes one by
Red Shelton and one by De Sylvia.
He offers his own artistic efforts
freely to friends.
Gardner's wife, Simone, is New
York French. He says they met at
the beach. The couple have one
son, Edward Hegeman Gardner, a
year old.
Gardner started his career at 10
as a salesman, became a play pro-
ducer, went into radio and was re-
sponsible for the famous Rudy
Vallee-John Barrymore air show. He
directed Burns and Allen, Bing
Crosby, AL Jolson and Fanny Brice
in radio. When "Duffys Tavern"
went on the air four years ago
Gardner couldn't find a good mug
to play Archie, so he turned actor
and did it himself
His film, "Duffy's Tavern" is his
debut before the cameras. .The