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Show By JOHN BAUER General Manager, Valley Music Hall ' It is generally known that England's most re-i re-i nowned actor, David Gar-l Gar-l rick, and the compiler of ; the first English dictionary, Dr. Samuel Johnson, came from the some town, Lichfield. Lich-field. It is less well known. 1 that they resolved to try ! their fortunes ill the great j city of London at one and j the same time. ' In 1737 they reached the J metropolis of their dreams i in a most piteable condi-' condi-' tion. One, it is said, arrived ! with a single shirt and a pair of breeches; the other I with two pairs of stockings, without tops or feet. They took out lodgings in an obscure ob-scure corner of London where they lived for some time. Garrick was the first to gain popular recognition. He burst forth in theatrical splendor, and won a reputation repu-tation that has not dimmed in the 200 years since he made his London debut in 1741, at Goodman's Fields Theatre as Richard III. Poor Sam Johnson, at this time, was condemned to make the most of his one shirt, having to lie in bed while it was being laundered. At the time his mother died he was forced to write "Rasselas" to raise sufficient funds to bury her. Many years after, when both men were at the pinnacle pin-nacle of their fame, John-Bon, John-Bon, at a dinner party, teased Garrick on their early poverty and reminded hi of the meanness of the garret they had occupied occu-pied when they first arrived in London. Garrick was embarrassed and denied the assertion. "Come, come," said the famed Lexicographer, "Don't forget old friends, Davy; thou knowest that we lived in a garret for many months, and that I reached London with three pence in my pocket, whilst thou, Davy, had'st only three half-pence in thine." Garrick and Johnson were life-long friends. In 1747 Johnson wrote the prologue pro-logue for the opening of the Drury Lane Theatre under Garrick's management manage-ment and in his second year as manager Garrick produced pro-duced Johnson's "Mahomet and Irene." In January 1779 when Garrick died, Johnson offered to write his biography, an offer for reasons unknown not accepted ac-cepted by Mrs. Garrick. Postscript: A gentleman asking a friend, who had seen Garrick perform his first, and his last role, if he thought him as good an actor when he took his leave of the stage of "Old Drury," as when he first played at Goodman's Fields, he gave for an answer the following: "I saw him rising, in the East, "In all his energetic glows; "I saw him setting in the West, "In greater splendour than he rose." |