Actorviews (1923)

308 Actorviews of temperament; meaning by “Dolph” Mr. Adolph Klauber, manager, husband (Jane’s), and one time distinguished dramatic critic of the New York Times. Then she retraces: “We were poor, Dolph and I, when we were married. And I was taking a hard-earned present of cakes and pastries to Mr. Belasco, who dearly loves ’em and whom I dearly love. And when Dolph sat flat on the whole purchase, scrambling it beyond salvage, I lifted up the first item to hand and threw it at him. It was a torn and bleeding cherry tart and he got it, literally, in the neck. “But you should have heard Dolphy tell it,” she goes on, generously. “I heard him one night, at the American Dramatists’, when they honored me with a dinner. I never was so puffed out in my life; I’d never heard such adulation — even the telegrams from the absent. One of these telegrams said, ‘I never think of Miss Cowl without thinking of the phrase, “How far that little candle throws its beams !” ' “Dolph’s speech followed that. He said he didn’t know how far I could throw a beam, but he did know how far and accurately I could throw a cherry pie, and he told the story, unsparingly. “Jane,” says I, brightly, “is Dolph the only critic you ever pasted with a pie?” “I regret to inform you that he is,” says my perfect hostess, signaling the entire dinner party to rise.