Modern Screen (Dec 1948 - Oct 1949)

HE COULD HAVE BEEN A BUM (Continued from page 44) UNION SETTLEMENT Union Settlement, located at 237 East 104th Street in that section of Manhattan known as Spanish Harlem, has, since its founding in 1895, been an incalculable force for good in one of the poorest and most densely populated districts in America. A non-sectarian outfit run entirely by private donations, it gives health and family guidance and recreational facilities to some 55,000 New Yorkers in the area of 50 square blocks it serves. It arranges educational scholarships, operates two upstate summer camps, runs a play center for small children whose parents must leave them for work, holds dances, theatricals, basketball tournaments and so forth. "Union Settlement," says Burt, "gave me my first real purpose in life. Maybe if it had never existed I'd still have managed to get someplace in the world. But maybe that's not likely. The way things worked out, it was my major springboard. It's been a vast help to thousands of others." Whenever he's in New York, Burt goes to the Settlement and talks to the kids there. And on the annual list of financial contributors, his name is always high. skill in which Burt developed in the Union Settlement gym. Consider his mother. By the time she died when he was 16, she'd instilled principles in Burt that he'll never lose. "To her," says Burt, "wrong and right were as black and white — and she brought up her kids accordingly. She was always telling us, 'Anything you get in life without earning it isn't worth a thing.' " Other kids in the impoverished neighborhood where Burt grew up might filch apples with nary a qualm; never the Lancaster brood. That Burt was regarded as a comparatively model youth is proved by the fact that — if only for a month — he was an assistant Boy Scoutmaster. The pastor of Burt's church asked him to take over as assistant leader of the church Scout troop, even though Burt wasn't actually a Scout. This project went well enough for a time, although Burt thought woodcraft and knottying an awful waste of time. Besides, when it came time for their Saturday hike, the eager little men always had to go to his house and rout him out of bed. By mutual consent, Burt's tenure as a Boy Scout was ended. The Lancasters were regular churchgoers. The church they attended stood next door to the Union Settlement House. One of the church activities was a group called The Mimes and Masquers. Every year, the Lancaster boys, Jim, Bill and Burt, took part in the Christmas pantomime. Despite Burt's unfortunate debut, he continued throughout his youth to be active with The Mimes and Masquers. One of his most celebrated performances was given when he was 12, in a fantasy called Three Pills and a Bottle. Burt played a wheelchair-ridden invalid. At the time, Richard Boleslavski — who eventually became one of Hollywood's ace directors— was a leading light in New York's American Laboratory Theater. He saw Burt in Three Pills and was eager to have him enroll as a student with the ALT. Burt balked. "You know how kids are," he says. "I was afraid if I seemed to be taking dramatics seriously, my pals would think I was a sissy or something." In the summers, Burt and his brothers went to the Settlement's boys' campCamp Nathan Hale at Southfield, N. Y. Burt got to be a junior counselor and then a senior counselor. As a senior counselor, he was a pretty cocky guy. A group of five buddies decided they'd better take him down a peg. One night they seized him in his tent, carried him down to the lake, painted him green, and tossed him in. Burt was somewhat less imperious after that. When he was 16, the year his mother died, Union Settlement arranged a basketball scholarship for him at New York University. Burt decided that, besides being a basketball star, he'd also like to make the NYU gymnastics team. He failed to make the team, but the effort introduced him to the third great influence of his youth: Acrobatics. faraway places . . . "Acrobatics," says Burt, "is a terrific character builder. It teaches you concentration, helps you to overcome fear, gives you wonderful discipline." Burt's getting into this constructive activity happened this way: Every afternoon, to repay Union Settlement for his NYU scholarship, Burt coached the lads at the Settlement house in basketball. One day, a small, muscular gentleman in his forties named Charles (Curly) Brent came into the neighborhood. Born in New Zealand, the son of a well-to-do Englishman, he'd been kidnapped by native Maoris at the age of two. He lived in a native village until 14, then was restored to his parents by a missionary. Shortly thereafter, he ran away from home. When he was 18, he saw his first circus, joined it as a waterboy, and became an acrobat. This career took him all over the world.' Eventually, his hands were badly injured in an automobile accident and he could no longer trust them under the strains of regular horizontal bar work. He came to New York, got a job installing awnings, and then showed up at Union Settlement. He said he'd like to keep in shape by working out in the gym. Permission was granted. Burt and a close pal named Nick Cuccia (who later became Nick Cravat) were immediately interested in this colorful newcomer. Nick, up to this point, had concentrated on boxing; at 18, he'd had a score of professional fights. But now he was helping Burt work up a few horizontal bar tricks. Here, in Curly, was a guy who obviously could give all kinds of helpful hints. He agreed to coach them. It was a fateful arrangement. As the boys began to get pretty darned good, they also started thinking of professional careers as acrobats. Curly's tales of the glamorous life he had led — world travel, triumphs before crowned heads, vast monetary returns — fired their ambitions. Then, after laboring on the project on and off for a year and a half, the boys completed, with Curly's advice and help, YOUNG WIVES SO GRATEFUL for this extra' advantage in INTIMATE FEMININE HYGIENE Greaseless Suppository Assures Continuous Medication For Hours Here's a modern, higher type of intimate feminine cleanliness which gives you extra advantages. Zonitors are easier, daintier, more convenient to use, yet they're one of the most effective methods ever discovered. Zonitors are powerfully germicidal yet absolutely safe to delicate tissues. They are positively non-poisonous, non -irritating, nonsmarting. Easy To Carry If Away From Home Zonitors are greaseless, stainless, snow-white vaginal suppositories. They are not the type that quickly melt away. 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