My own story (1934)

MY OWN STORY occurred to me that perhaps Mother had exaggerated the Male Menace. Even Terry's treachery no longer seemed quite monumental. Here in the short space of twentyfour hours, two strange men had gone out of their way to befriend me. Well, maybe the German hadn't exactly gone out of his way, but he had certainly seen his duty when it was put before him. At any rate, the bugaboo was gone forever. My terror of men had vanished. From then on, I looked upon them almost indulgently and even a little protectingly. After "Little Robinson Crusoe" I played in "The Tar and the Tartar." Mine was the role of the Tartar. I loved it. Frankie Bailey was also a member of this company. Probably most of you readers are too young to know that Frankie was famed as the possessor of the most beautiful legs in the world. At seventy-two, her legs are still shapely. Hale and hearty, she lives in Hollywood, where she is not above displaying a well-turned ankle with the rest of the girls. I remember though, what a struggle we had to get Frankie into her first pair of tights. She thought them frightfully immodest! When the "Tartar" folded its wings on the road, I straggled into New York and landed a part as a brigand in "The Robber of the Rhine." This was a romantic comedy written by no less a person 74