Dave Butler — Fat Boy, (Ring Bearer) — Tight Pants — (1919) 🇺🇸

Unfortunately, the lovely red velvet trousers Dave Butler wore at that wedding, long ago, wouldn’t stretch. And so —

by Robert M. Yost, Jr.

As a London reporter would say in describing the capture of the Kaiser or the sinking of the grand fleet — “an untoward occurrence” marked or marred the solemnity of a stately wedding in San Francisco, twenty years ago.

It had been a very carefully planned affair with the ceremony that in those days placed San Francisco in the front ranks of the romantic cities of the world. It was a church wedding and one of San Francisco’s most beautiful girls was to be married to a man who now occupies a position as one of the country’s greatest theatrical producers.

Enter our hero —

Three years of age and very serious, two words described him fully from head to toe — fat boy.

Some Eastern relatives had sent him his first pair of pants from New York. They were composed of red velvet and had been purchased along the lines of the rather slender and spiritual three year olds of the metropolis. They arrived a few minutes before the wedding and our hero’s little dress was hurriedly changed and the red pants rushed on him. He had been placed in the doorway of the ante room.

His name was and is David Butler and on that warm beautiful day he had been named as the ring bearer.

There you have a situation upon which to base a great drama — fat boy, (ring bearer) — and tight pants! The wedding procession wandered down the aisle as most processions do after they get started. Everyone approached the altar.

That is, everyone but the ring bearer. He remained in the doorway just where he had been placed. It was his first public appearance. He realized that he was making a mess of it, but the day was warm and the red velvet snuggled closer and closer to this plump little three year old and he could not move a foot. Signals reached him, urging him to bring forth the ring but like the boy on the burning deck, whence all but him had fled, little David stood pat.

Finally his father marched back and lifting the ring bearer, bore him carefully down the aisle and deposited him where he could do the most good and the wedding resumed where it had left off.

Dave Butler is now twenty-four years old and is rapidly becoming a very interesting figure in motion pictures. Physically he is the biggest thing in pictures. He is built like a Broadway crossing cop and has the smile of a soubrette.

If it had been this David who met the well known heavyweight Goliath, there would have been no stone throwing episode to record. Goliath would have gotten a wollop on the nose.

Dave first appeared on the stage in boy parts. He was nine years old when he was featured with Bert Lytell and Louis Bennison and Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon in such plays as The Pit, Sherlock Holmes and others. Then he co-starred with his famous father, Fred J. Butler, in Shore Acres.

Then one morning, Dave’s voice broke and his salary stopped. He tried going to school — a military academy — and became one of the most active young giants of San Francisco. Then his father sent him to the University. When Dave found he had to study in addition to playing football, he quit, and much to his father’s disappointment applied for a job of acting at the Alcazar theater where his father was stage directing.

Two years at the Alcazar and then to the Morosco in Los Angeles where his father is stage director and Dave rapidly developed into a wonderful young character actor as well as a first class stage manager.

Finally David Wark Griffith [D. W. Griffith], after trying out eight men for the part of M’sieu Bebe in the production of “The Greatest Thing in Life,” found this other David, and young Butler became a motion picture success over night. He played in “The Girl Who Stayed at Home,” in “Upstairs and Down,” with Olive Thomas; with Mary McLaren [Mary MacLaren]; then was co-starred with ZaSu Pitts in “Better Times,” after which be returned to the Griffith lot to play opposite Dorothy Gish in a western picture. Butler is creating an unusual line of parts, all his own.

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Dave Butler is twenty-four years old physically the biggest thing in pictures.

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Above is shown a tense moment in the finals of the jacks tournament at the Griffith studio. All comers have been eliminated in the preliminaries. Lillian Gish was disposed of in the third round and now Dorothy and Dave Butler are battling desperately for the final honors, with Dave’s gun trying” to intimidate her. See the concluding episodes at the Hoozit theatre next week.

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Shirley Mason having tried a pair, is ‘phoning her dealer to deliver a box of Burson Fashioned Hose

Knit-to-fit without a Seam

What impressed her most was the elastic Narrow Hem Top that positively prevents garter runs.

You can appreciate what a relief it would be not to have any more garter ravels — and what a saving it would mean in giving longer life to the stockings.

Accept no substitute — see that you get the Narrow Hem Garter

Top — that’s what saves money by preventing the destructible runs. You’ll find this top more comfortable, too, because of the extra elasticity.

Booklet sent free

Made in Cotton, Lisle, Mercerized, and Silk twisted with Fibre

Sold at leading Stores Everywhere

Burson Knitting Co., 97 Park Street Rockford, Ill.

Collection: Photoplay Magazine, September 1919