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Wanted: Man Who Looks Like Lincoln
IT was in all the New York dailies, in bold type and framed in a heavy "box:" "Without beard, to appear in moving picture, 'The Copperhead,' with Lionel Barrymore. Apply today to Charles Maigne, director, Famous Players-Lasky Studio, 130 West S6th Street."
Charles Maigne made the provision "without beard" because the man who impersonated Lincoln would have first to appear in the 1845 episode of the picture and historical records snow that at that time Lincoln was clean-shaven. Had he been able to u^e a bearded Lincoln throughout, Mr. Maigne's problem would not have been so great.
Men, bearded and beardless, short and tall, from all parts of the east, and even from the Middle West, applied in person or by letter. Strangely enough most of them were lawyers, perfectly solvent — who were anxious to play the greatest lawyer. Ten of these were selected at a glance and given tryouts. Then — in walked a tall, clean-shaven man, a little awkward, his long arms and legs seeming to be in his way. Three of the lawyers pointed to him — "There's your man."
And given the long hair of the period, the stock-collar and the tail-coat, little other make-up was necessary — and "N. Schroell" was engaged to play the part.
Maigne received a surprise when, after the selection of Schroell, that aspirant for screen honors volunteered the information that he was glad the picture work would be for the daytime only, as, in that case, it would not interfere with his duties as a waiter at the Strand Roof Restaurant on Broadway!
Schroell's history is as unusual as his resemblance to the Great Emancipator. He has been in this country only ten years. Before his arrival he travelled over all of Europe and has worked in Paris, London, Holland and Germany. Although he has never had a drawing-lesson in his life, he has always worked steadily at sketching. That is why he is a waiter; he can pursue his true talents by day. As a child he spent hours making sketches of the scenes about his home, a tiny village in Luxembourg. The New York World once printed a cartoon of his, showing the German military machine grovelling in the dust of defeat before the victorious guns of the Allies. With it was pub'ished an editorial which declared that Schroell was, through his cartoons, attempting to speak for the 8,000 Luxembourgers in the Kanks of the Allies.
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Picture at tlie top of page sliows Schroell as the younger and beardless Lincoln, rehearsing a scene with director Charles Maigne, for "The Copperhead." Directly above — Schroell as a -waiter on the Strand Roof.