Douglas Fairbanks
At a young age loved the stage and spotlight. In his young adolescent years, he was a prankster in the classroom who wanted to be seen in the spotlight looking for all the attention to be on him. To manage this his teacher indirectly introduced him to the young works of Shakespeare and from that day he was hooked on the art of theater aspiring to be a playwright (Vance,14).
In his early years of high school, he joined the theater club where he performed and wrote his plays which got the attention of the well-known actor-manager, Fredrick Warde. Seeing the potential of Fairbanks, Warde invited him to join his company of actors traveling and spreading the joy of art throughout the United States but according to Vance, he never his sought-out home New York City, NY until, 1901, many years later (Vance, 16)”.
His arrival in New York City, during the “golden” time of the stars landed him a job on the Broadway debut show, “Her Lord and Master” in February of 1902 (Vance 16). With Fairbanks's first job booked and done, he continued to book other gigs too adding to his portfolio. In 1905, Fairbanks starred in a comedy, “Fantana” adding a new twist to his tools of being in the spotlight. He was described as having a “world of personality” something that left crowds remembering his name (Vance,17).
In other plays, Fairbanks would commit hard to the roles of characters emphasizing physical comedy as one of his strong suits. For example, In “Clothes” of 1907 he entered the stage by walking on his hands something he trained himself to do in his spare time. Fairbanks took the effort and committed himself to his gifts of entertaining the audience, versatility of talents, and overall being the public persona vaudeville needed.
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