Next to movie acting, Harry "Freckles" Spear likes newspaper work best.
The 8-year-old actor has been in the movies ever since he used to appear as "Ginger," dressed in a derby and diapers in the old "Big Boy" comedies, but his first experience as a newspaper man was on Thursday (the 26th), when he took charge of the Midwest Free Press office for more than an hour.
There the "Our Gang" star punched a typewriter in the editorial room, set up a few slugs in a composing room linotype machine, did a little work on the makeup table, helped out in the press room - but, as he is now a newspaper man, he can tell his experiences for himself.
Likes Linotypes
"First I came in and they took some pictures of me," he said, "then I printed some on one of those big machines. I sure had a lot of fun doing that. Then Mr. Irish took me over and showed me around and then he took me over and I printed a little more. After that I went to the pressroom and took some papers off the slide. That was a lot of fun. Then I came upstairs again and got kicked out." Another experience most newspaper men have had.
"I think this is the best newspaper I have ever seen," he said. "I have been in some in Chicago, but they never showed me all around like this. I like it fine, and I like these silver things," here he displayed some linotype slugs he had set with his name and address, "most of all. I'm going to take them home and show them to the gang."
So interested was he in the machinery of the composing room that his mother had to enlist the aid of employees to get the boy to stop running around the place and tinkering with all the apparatus he could lay his hands on.
Surprised by Flashlight
This youthful veteran of the cameras and Klieg lights saw something new in the line of photography in the office. The silent, smokeless photoflash aluminum foil bulbs used in photographing him here aroused his interest, and he was not happy until he could break open a few of them to see what made them work. "In California they have flashlights but they made a big boom and lots of smoke," he said.
Freckles made friends with many newsboys his own age at the office, and typed out his name and address, which is 1018 North Gardner street, Hollywood, Cal., for them in case they want to write for his picture. He learned that one of the boys, Clarence Koepping, Jr., had a "two-wheel" bike and made arrangements to borrow it for a ride after today's show.
The youthful actor came to the newspaper office in the famous costume he wore at the A-Muse-U theater. Over a green undershirt he wore a ragged red plaid shirt. A pair of frayed suspenders, strengthened by a nail, supported a mass of gray tatters that must have been meant for trousers. On his head was a thoroughly demolished brown derby, one of his most prized possessions.
Prizes Battered Derby
"He likes that derby," said his mother, Mrs. Harry Spear, "that's one of the things he will fight for. Once in Chicago some big boys tried to steal it and he fought them all. He's very careful about those pants, too. He never sits in dirt when he has them on, although he doesn't care about good trousers."
Freckles is finding Muscatine a very enjoyable town. His greatest passion at present is boating, and he was jubilant over the prospect of taking a six-mile motorboat trip on the river today.
At his appearance at the A-Muse-U this afternoon, he took tickets at the door. His last appearance will be tonight. He plans to end the present personal tour in June, when he will return to the studios in Culver City, Cal.