What Kind of a Fellow Is — Brady? (1917) 🇺🇸
Being a glance at the real human side of the big men of the picture game — caught in action!
by William A. Johnston
For the benefit of those who may wish to interview Mr. Brady we cheerfully contribute a time-saving recipe.
(1) Don’t bother his secretary. She’s looking for him just as hard as you are.
(2) You may find him at
(a) The studio, mostly;
(b) The Hotel Astor, frequently;
(c) The Playhouse, occasionally;
(d) Offices of the National Association, now and then;
(e) His office, seldom;
(f) with Mark Klaw — never!
(3) Don’t telephone the above places separately, otherwise you’ll hear; “Mr. Brady just stepped out.” Call them all at once. If you go to the Hotel Astor get a hotel detective.
(4) The surest way is to shoot the subject in transit.
After a hunt, starting the latter part of October, we finally got Mr. Brady on the ‘phone at the Peerless Studios, Fort Lee.
“Is this you, Mr. Brady?”
“You bet your life!”
“What’s the noise about, Mr. Brady. Sounds like the studio was falling down.”
“That’s nothing,” said Mr. Brady, cheerfully, “I just fired a director. Want to hear some more? Wait a minute!”
Over the ‘phone came the sound of splintering glass and crackling wood.
“What was that, Mr. Brady?”
“The leading man,” said Mr. Brady gayly.
“Well, what will you do now?”
“Do now? What’s easy: I’ll direct the picture myself; play the lead too if necessary. And believe me, I’m good.”
“Well, Mr. Brady, I have before me a book called The Fighting Man, by Henry Irving Dodge. It’s about you.”
“It is,” said Mr. Brady.
“Then you are a fighter?”
“Ask the director who just went out.”
“Well, Mr. Brady, it is said that you bet occasionally. Is this correct?”
“No,” said Mr. Brady. “I bet every day. You can’t win if you haven’t got a bet on the table.”
“Which do you like best, fighting or betting?”
“Both,” said Mr. Brady.
“How about speechmaking?”
“Oh, well,” said Mr. Brady.
“Along those lines, Mr. Brady, may I ask you a personal question?” “You can ask anything,” said Mr. Brady, “as long as it makes good reading.”
“Well, Mr. Brady, do you recall the speech you made at Chicago two summers ago before the. Exhibitors’ League — when you got them all stirred up and on their feet yelling?”
“Sure.”
“And some were so moved by emotion that they wanted to print it, free of any charge, for general circulation?”
“Sure.”
“Well, Mr. Brady, I cheered too. But I read over the speech afterward and there was nothing in it.”
“Well,” answered Mr. Brady. As I say, I’m a speaker. Goodbye!”
—
Things said about Mr. Brady [William A. Brady] by men who know him.
- James J. Corbett. “Well,” said Jim, smilingly, “he helped make me. I guess that’s pretty good, isn’t it?”
- James Jefferies. “Me too. But, say, he’s an all around fellow. He pulled off one of my fights and managed Robert Mantell in Shakespearean drama — both shows on one night — and he won out on each!”
- Arnold Rothstein, Broadwayite. “He’s the nerviest man in New York. Election night, when Hughes was elected, he still wanted to bet on Wilson. Asked me to write my own ticket. ‘Twenty-five to one,’ said I. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll take a thousand.’ And the next morning he said, ‘All right, Arnold, now I’ll take your check for twenty-five thousand. What do you know?”
- Klaw & Erlanger: —— (deleted by the censor).
- Leander Richardson, publicity man, who has stood for and by Mr. Brady for five years: “He’s a many-sided man.”
— Next Week — Wm. A. Fox
Illustration by: Harry Palmer (Harry Samuel Palmer) (1882–1955)
Collection: Motion Picture News, December 1917