Mark Hanna (1) the 19-year-old upper mid "engaged elaborate quarters" at Waterbury's Hotel Elton (2) so that he could woo 28-year-old ingenue Edna Bruns (3) who was playing a season at the nearby Jacques Theatre (4).
"Principal Taft wrote to the young man's mother, who promptly ordered her son's immediate homecoming. When this failed to produce effect, she telegraphed. The telegraph proving equally ineffective as the mails, she came in person. Then young Hanna was borne away, his mother announcing that he would not return for his senior year at Taft unless Miss Bruns should be safely out of the city."
Mother's wayward son did not return to Taft as a 20-year-old senior, but proceeded directly to Yale where he eloped with a different girl entirely. Actress Bruns married actor Francis Wilson, twenty-five years her senior and the first president of Actor's Equity.
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August, 2024