The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 97

7' i V( i 1 'V 1 --si- -y 4 The doomed Earl Williams in His Girl Friday proud father of quintuplets in Reunion ul Change of pace: A pensive French artist Sailor Axel Larson in The Long Voyage Home If you want to see the real John Qualen, turn to page 12 ht? fnthpr rf thft Dionne ouintis lives Uifrp happily in a modest white house in Westwood. California, with his wife and THAT MAN'AGM You've seen him in the movies oflen. Bui who is he? What does he really look like? Meet John Qualen, the man who played one pari so well it nearly ruined him their three daughters. I might clarify this astonishing statement by saying that millions of people who have seen the three films starring the quintuplets think, in their subconscious minds, that he is the father. His name is John Qualen.

You may also recall him as the unforgettable Muley in The Grapes of Wrath, as the tortured little Earl Williams, sentenced to feath, in His Girl Friday; you may have aown him, recently, as the father of Knute Rockne; as the sailor Axel Larson in The Long Voyage Home; or as the mousy bookkeeper in Angels Over Broadway. But Mr. Qualen is so well remembered for his part in the Dionne pictures that when he appears on the screen there are always some in the audience who nudge each other and say: "Look there's that man again. The father of the quints." Which brings up an interesting fact, proved time and again: There are a number of character actors in Hollywood, of which Mr. Qualen is a perfect example, who seem so completely the persons they are portraying that it simply doesn't occur to the audience to consider them in the light of performers.

With attention centered on the stars, these others are dismissed, unthinkingly, almost subconsciously, as part and parcel of the background, even as people who just happened to be there when they were making the picture. This is a good thing, for the vital feeling of authenticity that every good movie must fiave depends a great deal on the ability of these character players and even bit players to be so convincing that they actually do not seem to be actors at all. Thus by the time Mr. Qualen had appeared as Asa Wyatt, the somewhat stunned papa in all three of the pictures featuring the Dionne sisters, it seemed reasonable to accept him, in a passive sort of way, as the famous dad himself, hovering around the picture to be sure that all was well with his kids. In fact, one of the disturbing memories in Mr.

Qualen 's life is the reaction of the real father to his performance. Here's the story about that: spot he was in, Qualen promptly volunteered to jump into the breach; and to substantiate his claim to experience and competency, he fished the gold medal out of his pocket. The boss shook the lad's hand solemnly and told him to get in there and pitch. Qualen mounted the platform with firm tread, and so far as I can discover (I have talked only to Qualen on this) he was a wonderful success. One thing is sure: it resulted in his organizing a show of his own soon after this, and this show culminated in The Qualen Concert Company, of which he showed me an advertising folder, illustrated.

There were photographs of several attractive lady players, and standing beside each lady was her particular leading man, dressed to suit the role. Something about these leading men struck me as familiar probably an expression about the eyes common to all of them; suddenly I realized they all were Qualen. The fortunes of The Qualen Concert Company ebbed and flowed, mostly ebbed. But during its existence Mr. Qualen did accomplish something of great value he learned to play the flute.

Well come to the flute in a while. Out of the Frying Pan Following the collapse of the enterprise, Mr. Qualen entered upon the career of a salesman of aluminum cooking ware at Kansas City, and made good at it; but eventually the incongruity between an aluminum frying pan and a gold medal for oratory struck him forcibly and he quit his job, put the medal into his pants pocket again and went to New York to be an actor, once and for all. It is painful to have to report that he had the very devil of a time. After many weeks of fruitless effort he even lost confidence in the precious medal and was about to try out the housewives in the' Bronx in the matter of a new aluminum frying pan.

But before consigning himself to (Continued on page 12 Mr. Dionne makes a modest and quiet living in Callander, Ontario, in part by autographing photographs of himself for visitors, at a nominal fee. Imagine his dismay when visitor after visitor began to regard him as an impostor: The father of the quints, they declared, didn't look like that. When pressed to give some idea of what they expected, they began to describe John Qualen in detail. He Really Looks Normal Now.

then, in private life Mr. Qualen, while not exactly the Robert Taylor type, is a normally good-looking male; but with the touches of make-up that Hollywood thought he needed as the father of quintuplets, it must be admitted that he looked like ah to be brief about it, an odd sort of duck. The genuine Mr. Dionne, on the other hand, is rather larger as a whole and has less nose, in proportion, than appeared to be the case with Mr. Qualen.

It came to Mr. Qualen 's ears, from several directions, that Mr. Dionne did not think well of the impersonation. In fact, Mr. Dionne was exceedingly critical.

Forthwith Mr. Qualen wrote him a long letter, explaining the exigencies of the motion-picture business, inviting correspondence and enclosing funds for an autographed photograph. The idea about the correspondence fell fiat, but after a suitable diplomatic interval the picture was forthcoming, person ally inscribed to Mr. Qualen. He is proud of it.

Mr. Qualen also is proud of a gold medal he won in an oratory contest held at Northwestern University. This came to him when he was in his teens and it got him into a number of things, including Chautauqua, the theater and motion pictures. It was won in the finals of a high-school contest, following Qualen 's graduation at Elgin, Illinois, at which period in his life he went in heavily for oratory, no doubt drawing inspiration from his pastor-father's sermons (the elder Qualen is still preaching today, in his native Norwegian tongue). He still has the medal or thinks he has.

He hunted all over the house for it the day I was there, and had a few words with his wife about it, wondering where the devil she always kept tucking it away. Anyway, the young man put the medal into his pocket after winning it and carried it faithfully, feeling it was bound to come in handy in the end. He was right. He got a job with a Chautauqua company not long after that, holding down the position of stake driver for the tent, until one memorable night in Ripon, Wisconsin, when the man scheduled to give the principal lecture failed to show up. Qualen, having finished pounding his stakes for the evening, was hanging around the entrance watching the customers arrive.

He noticed that the manager was agitated and asked why. When the manager explained the.