Ed Grey, "the Tall Story Teller," went from a small country town on to the stage. It was ten years before he ever came back to play the home town. When he did the whole town turned out _en ma.s.se_; the Grey family ditto; after the show the family was seated around the dining-room table, talking it over. Mother sat beside her big boy, proud and happy.
The others were discussing the show.
"That Mister Brown was awful good."
"Oh, but I liked that Blink & Blunk the best."
"That Miss Smith was awful sweet."
But not a word did any one have to say about "Eddie." Finally he burst out--
"Well, how was _I_?"
There was an ominous pause, and then Mother, reaching over and patting his knee lovingly, said,
"Now, don"t you care, Eddie, as long as you get your money."
Cliff Gordon"s father doesn"t believe it _yet_. Cliff was playing in New York and stopping at home.
"Vere you go next veek, Morris?" asked Father.
"Orpheum, Brooklyn," replied Cliff.
"How mooch vages do you get dere?"
"Three fifty."
"Tree huntret unt fifty tollars?"
"Uh huh."
Father nodded his head, sighed deeply, thought a minute, then--
"Then vere do you go?"
"Alhambra, New York."
"How mooch?"
"Three fifty."
"Then vere?"
"Keith"s, Philadelphia."
"How mooch you get ofer dere?"
"Just the same; three fifty."
Father sighed again, thought deeply for a few minutes, then, with another sigh, said, half to himself,
"Dey can"t _all_ be crazy."
Tim McMahon (McMahon & Chapelle) had a mother who did not believe theaters were proper and Tim had a hard time getting her to come to see him at all. But finally she came to see her "Timmite" act. It was a big show, ten acts, and Tim was on number nine. After the show was over Tim went around in front of the house to meet her; she came out so indignant she could hardly speak.
"Why, what"s the matter? Wasn"t I good?" asked Tim.
"Yis, sor, you was; you was as good as iny of them; you was _better_ than any of thim; and they had no right to let thim other eight acts on foreninst ye: _You ought to have come on first, Timmie._"
The first time Josephine Sabel"s father and mother saw her on the stage she was in the chorus of a comic opera company and was wearing tights.
Mother ran out of the theater and Father tried to climb up over the footlights to get at Josephine and got _put_ out.
Charlie Case had been on the stage for years before he ever got a chance to play his home town; then he came in with a minstrel show; he had a special lithograph, showing him standing beside an Incubator, which was hatching out new jokes every minute.
The house was crowded and Charlie was even more nervous than usual.
Everybody else in the show got big receptions; Charlie walked out to absolute silence. He talked five minutes to just as absolute silence; then, discouraged, he stopped to take a breath; the instant he stopped the house was in a pandemonium; they really thought he was great, but hadn"t wanted to interrupt him. After that he would tell a joke and then wait; he was a knockout.
Later he was talking it over at home:
"Why, that awful silence had me rattled," he said; "I couldn"t even remember my act; I left out a lot of it."
"Yes," said his father; "we noticed you forgot to bring on your Incubator."
UNION LABOR
A Song and Dance Team (recently graduated from a Salt Lake City picture house) got eight weeks booking on the Cort Circuit out through the Northwest. The first show told the story. They were bad: awfully bad.
But they had an ironclad, pay-or-play contract and as the management couldn"t fire them, it was determined to freeze them out. The manager started in giving them two, three and four hundred mile jumps every week, hoping that they would quit. But no matter how long or crooked he made the jumps they always showed up bright and smiling every Monday morning.
Finally they came to their last stand: and it happened that the manager, who had booked them originally, was there and saw them again. He could hardly believe his eyes, for, owing to the fact that they had been doing from six to sixteen shows a day for the past eight weeks, they now had a pretty good act. As they were getting about as near nothing a week as anybody could get and not owe money to the manager, he wanted to keep them along. He was fearful the memories of those jumps he had been giving them would queer the deal, but he determined to see what a little pleasant talk would do; so he went to them and said,
"Now, boys, you have got that act into pretty good shape; and if you like I can give you some more time. And," he hastened to add, "you won"t get any more of those big jumps either. I was awful sorry about those big fares you have had to pay."
"Oh, that"s all right," replied one of the boys; "we belong to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and always ride on the engine free anyway."