Fourteenth Street Theater, I played an old man. Jacob Gosche, then manager of Theodore Thomas' orchestra, was present and professed to be struck by my performance. Cynics have intimated that the fact that I had money might have influenced Mr. Gosche's enthusiasm. I hope not. Gosche introduced himself and suggested that I turn professional. Only a small sum of money lay between me and this consummation, he indicated. Not yet of age, the money my father had left me was not yet mine to command, but with an indulgent mother that was no obstacle. She advanced the funds needed to finance the Criterion Comedy Company, with Gosche as manager and F. F. Mackay as director. We went on the road with a repertoire of three bills; "Our Boys", a reigning London success; "Caste"; and "Freaks", the latter an adaptation of Hausemann's "Tochters."
I was lost to the law, but "Choke" displayed an admirable stoicism.
Although Gosche had seen me as an old man in the amateur show, I was cast as a youth, an eccentric comedy role, in "Our Boys." In "Caste" I played variously, a swanky English officer, the juvenile lead and a light-comedy
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