Actorviews (1923)

88 Actorviews ing permanent in Mr. Collier’s disrelish of an interview with me. We sat at a table that had a marine exposure, in the cafe of the Edgewater Beach Hotel. We ordered two strong cups of black coffee — large ones — and we synchronized our watches. They lacked twenty-five minutes of the hour of six. What he said during the next sixty seconds does not matter. He could breathe and lie freely then ; and I daresay he did ; I hope he did. It was on the dot of 5:36 when William Collier, notoriously the world’s coolest comedian, said: “Shoot.” “Did you tell your wife and child?” I shot. “Yes.” “Did they advise you?” “My wife said, ‘Be careful what you say.’ I told her I couldn’t be, I had to tell the truth. Buster said, ‘Are you worrying about what you’re going to answer?’ I said, ‘No; I’m worrying about what he’s going to ask.’ “Mr. Collier, did you read Van Loan’s actor story in a recent Saturday Evening Post, ‘The Great and Only Leslie’?” “No; but I know Charlie Van Loan; he’s the best ” “I know; you needn’t perjure yourself in favor of Van. But in this very superior yarn of his there’s a famous hero of the movies who once barnstormed in a very humble capacity with a road star of the onenight stand-up. This ham star was Leslie’s idea of what an actor should be; and Leslie was the ham’s idea of what an actor should not be.” I outlined the story for Collier, bringing up at the