Compiled by London Swaminathan
Date: 25 August 2016
Time uploaded in London: 17-07
Post No.3092
Pictures are taken from various sources; thanks for the pictures.
1.Autograph Sale!
Cornelian Otis Skinner (American author and actress) declares that as a child she was so ugly that her mother used to weep. “But I did have a genius for something even then”, she says.
I was good at trade and I made money from dad. He thought I was a good correspondent; I was; for every letter I wrote him, I received an answer. I cut the Cornelia from the address on the envelope containing his reply, and sold the Otis Skinner as my father’s autograph. Sometimes it brought a dime, sometimes a quarter”.
Xxx
2.Otto Kahn
Otto Kahn, the well-known financie , was one day driving through the East Side of New York when he saw a large sign reading,
“Samuel Kahn, cousin of Ottoman Kahn”
He immediately called up his lawyer, instructing him to have the sign changed, sparing no expense. A few days later Kahn drove by the place again. The offending sign had been changed. It read, Samuel Kahn, formerly cousin of Otto Kahn.
Xxxx
(3)Thousand Dollars a Week!
When the films were in their infancy, David Freedman claimed to have arranged a splendid contract for Francis X Bushman by a well-conceived stratagem. Bushman had been playing in Chicago at 250 dollars a week. Freedman brought him to New York and met him at grand central to take him across the Broadway to the office of Metro. Freedman carried a sack of 2000 pennies. He stewed these along behind him in a thin trickle as they walked.
First children and then curious adults began to follow. By the time they had crossed 42nd street to Broadway and entered the office of Metro, a vast throng was surging in their wake. Looking out the window, the executive of Metro was easily induced to sign Bushman at a thousand dollars a week.
Xxx
4.Boy and the Blacksmith
A boy, generally known about the village as being not too bright was annoying the busy blacksmith. Hoping to scare him away, the blacksmith finally held a red hot piece of iron under the boys nose.
“If you give me half a dollar I will lick it” , said the simple looking youngster.
The smith held out the coin. Without a word the boy took the coin and licked it, dropped it in his pocket, and whistling softly walked away.
— Subham–