Thurston Hall — Catching “Thirsty” Off His Guard (1919) 🇺🇸

Next time Thurston Hall will dress when his wife tells him to.

by Jane McNaughton Baxter

The other afternoon I was a punishment that fitted the crime; at least, Thurston Hall’s delightful little wife said I was. You see, Hall knew that I was to interview him and had been declaring ever since breakfast that he was going to get out of his beloved old clothes and dress up. And his wife reminded him frequently during the day that life is short and time is fleeting; but he only said “Uh-huh” and went on puttering ‘round.

So when I arrived at three-thirty-five Mrs. Hall opened the door herself and said with a funny little air of grim determination: “Come out to the back yard; Mr. Hall’s expecting you.” And there lay the admirable “Thirsty,” to whom I used to write mash notes when he was on the stage in Wildfire with Lillian Russell, flat on his back under his automobile, remarking to a grimy mechanic, “Gosh! Gears nearly stripped and I never knew it!” and “Say, I’ll bet she’d run on hair oil!”

But you should have seen his face when he knew I was there. He gave his wife one look of anguish, then came to be introduced. But he wouldn’t talk about the days when he played Ben Hur and Marc Antony on the stage; just said he’d recently done The Weaker Vessel and The Unpainted Woman with Mary MacLaren, and The Exquisite Thief and The Chatterbox with Priscilla Dean. Then he rushed away to dress and ten minutes later he was managing the samovar on the porch like an expert.

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Collection: Picture Play Magazine, August 1919