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42 IT TOOK NINE TAILORS
with faces so long their chins were on their wishbones; and at the Maison Menjou Father was going broke again.
When I learned that Ernie Carr and his act were scheduled to play Cleveland, I jumped the show and caught a train back to New York. I didn't have the courage to appear in my old home town acting in a third-rate vaudeville sketch.
The Maison Menjou folded shortly after I returned to New York. By this time a lot of people had told me that I would never get any place as an actor. Ernie Carr had been very explicit about it. Others were more kindly in their criticisms. Several movie directors had pointed out that my face was all wrong for a juvenile or a leading man, that I could only play young heavies or foreigners— and they were not the fellows who made the big money.
So I decided that the smart thing for me to do would be to help Father with the new place he was planning at Lynbrook, Long Island. We opened the Villa Menjou in the spring of 1915. Father had figured that motorists on their way to Long Beach would stop for luncheons and dinners. He was wrong. Most of them went by the Villa Menjou with throttles wide open, throwing large clouds of dust in the faces of the Menjous, pere et fits.
But one day a big Locomobile pulled up in front of our place and two people whom I recognized stepped out. They were Josie Collins, a well-known musical-comedy actress, and Billy Sheer, general manager of Equitable Pictures Corporation. A moment later we were ushering them to one of the best tables.
After Father had taken their orders, I stayed behind and found an opportunity to remark to Miss Collins that I had seen her recently in her latest show. As one artiste to another I wished to congratulate her on her charming performance.
"You are in show business ?" she inquired.
"Oh, yes," I assured her. "Temporarily at liberty. I perform in the cinema."
"What a wonderful type," she enthused. Then to Mr. Sheer, "Haven't you a part for him in your new movie?"