Ladies and gentlemen, this is HODs
comrade
near and yet so far from
Dynamic Denton, Texas,
in physical proximity.
I'm at this moment, I'm just across
town from where you, ladies
and gentlemen, are having this
luncheon where I would dearly love
to be ordinarily.
But I have reason to go to Denton.
I have to come from California to
Hawaii, Vermont or
somewhere. But here I am in New York
at the same time.
And my regrets are very sincere.
And if I may be permitted, the
personal explanation I'm engaged
in at this moment in a hysterical
section of time that actors
go through every year or so, getting
a show ready for Broadway within the
week we're going to open and
a play called Seventy Girls Seven.
And at this moment, some
48 to 72 hours before we
have our first preview.
And no one is able to be anywhere
but in the theater.
A nice place to be, and
I can say this from some
honest experience would be dynamic.
Denton My association
will not of any great length,
as
is indelibly
etched in my mind,
not only because of the presence of
the town, but the sincere
friendliness of the people.
True, it was a professional
engagement just several
years ago, and I had this very small
part in the making of a record that
was intended to
an almost missionary zeal
offer to persons who might
not know the advantages
to living and working
in that city.
Since then, a great deal has
happened the way we have been.
I'm gratified to hear of a
moderately successful, perhaps more
than that, in attracting
business to that city.
My interest, as I say,
was commercial.
But ordinarily,
if we are lucky in my life,
in our set of life, we
can be personally identified
or our feelings and emotions can be
connected.
And I will very
candidly say, and an old actor is
not supposed to reveal his feelings
that much. We're not supposed to
lift the curtain that high that
I was mightily impressed
by the generosity and
friendliness of these people.
I wish them well, more
so now than perhaps I did.
I may have had some initial
reservations in such a commercial
aspect, but I'm not convinced
that that's a direct and honest in
their approach that no
one could go wrong in giving them
the time of day to listen to their
story.
I again expressed my regrets.
Not being able to be with you,
I wish I might be.
That seems to be impossible at this
time. So you have my congratulations
and my continued sincerest
and heartiest, best wishes to
the city of Danciu.
What I do is show.