Fourth Farewell

The first Gillette settled in Connecticut in 1636, begat a long line. His great-great-great-great grandson served out an unexpired term in the U. S. Senate in 1854-55, made one savage speech against slavery. Senator Gillette's son William went to Yale, turned actor. In Newark, N. J. last week William Gillette, now a ripe, round 80, smeared on greasepaint for his fourth farewell appearance. The play was Austin Strong's Three Wise Fools, first produced in 1918.

As the crusty old banker who upsets the stiff routine of his and his cronies' lives to befriend his nephew's pretty sweetheart (Mary Rogers, pretty 18-year-old daughter of the late Will Rogers), the Dean of the U. S. stage remembered most of his lines, showed surprising agility for his years, spoke with the same strident voice which had rung through such theatrical milestones as Held by the Enemy (1886), Secret Service (1896), Sherlock Holmes (1899), The Admirable Crichton (1903), Diplomacy (1914). Apparently content to remain for the rest of his days on his Connecticut estate with his 17 cats and miniature railway, Oldster Gillette was asked to speak last year upon the occasion of the centenary of Mark Twain. The applause and public acclaim evidently got in the old man's blood, set him to pining for the stage again. From Newark he will go to Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, possibly Manhattan.

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