The public is never wrong (1953)

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The Public Is Never Wrong between father and son. He had not kept a photograph of his father and of course did not remember him. A little while later Hackett invited me to dinner at his hotel. To my amazement, a large number of peoplebetween fifty and a hundred— were milling about in a banquet hall waiting to sit down. I soon noticed that the guests did not appear to be acquainted with one another, and were as mystified as myself about the purpose of the occasion. A moment or two after we had taken our dinner places, a great wave of happiness swept over the room. On each plate was a check. Everyone present, it turned out, was a creditor of Hackett's, some of them going back a long way. I had advanced him some money beyond his salary. The checks were drawn to the amount of indebtedness with 6 per cent interest added. It was as gala an occasion as one would ever care to see. Hackett's new-found riches finished him with the movies, and, for that matter, ordinary stage roles. He had always wanted to be a Shakespearean actor. Now he was able to indulge himself, and he did, playing mostly abroad until his death in 1926. Recently while thinking about Hackett I looked him up in an old Who's Who. He had worked diligently on the forms which the editors sent to him, with the result that his biography ran a whole column of fine print, one of the longest in the book. It reported, among other honors, that twice he was a guest at Buckingham Palace and that he was the first player ever received at New York's City Hall and given freedom of the city.