Again, Foy

When President Andrew Johnson was facing impeachment charges after the Civil War, Eddie Foy started on his career as a professional entertainer, turning handsprings in Manhattan saloons and "passing the hat" for an outdoor fiddler. When French engineers ventured to dig the Panama Canal, Mr. Foy was shuffle-dancing and tumbling before miners in the mushroom towns of the Wild West. When Theodore Roosevelt called for Rough Riders, Eddie Foy was in bright lights, a symbol of spry clowning. By the time che Kaiser had started for Paris, "Eddie Foy and the Seven Little Foys" had be come a vaudeville institution. A few years after the Peace Con ference, the whole family retired, the Little Foys because they were emerging from their first childhood, Eddie because he was entering his second. By that time he had grown into a theatrical legend of fatherhood, of wierd vocal inflections, of furious stage gestures, of boisterous acting. He removed to New Rochelle, N. Y., remarried, settled down.

Now, at 71 years, Mr. Foy is returning to the vaudeville stage for a farewell tour. The Fallen Star is the vehicle that takes him through the Keith-Albee theatres. This one-act sketch by Tom Barry tells of the plight of a once idolized actor who, in old age, is reduced to the position of doorman. Enthusiastic, Mr. Foy's friends urge him to revive Rip Van Winkle, one of the plays in which Joseph Jefferson toured the country.