Stammered His Way to Success

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 14 (Supplement)

Stammered His Way to Success

A man who has converted a natural disability into a money-making idea has begun work at Teddington, London, on his first British picture, "Fair Exchange." Ho is itosco Ates, American comedian of the films and music-halls. He is a stammerer. He stammered all through his boyhood. Perhaps that is why his parents thought lie ought to learn the violin. Ho became a proficient fiddler in Boston. Then he cured himself of stammering and went on the music-halls. Ho had no great success until ono day he forgot his lines and in his embarrassment, lapsed into his old complaint. Tho audience thought he was marvellous. So he made stammering the foundation

of his act. He has now stammered through 50 pictures, including " The Champ," " Cinmarron," " The Big House," and " Politics." Thousands of stammerers, heard his story and wrote to him for advice. They still write to hitn at the rate of 200 letters a day. He has cured many of them. His treatment is based on the old psychological principle, that if you can laugh at a thing it can have no terrors for you. So, whenever he can, he makes the sufferers see how funny it-is to stammer and thereby cures them of their complaint. In his new picture he has the part of a tongue-tied and bone-headed American who is sent to Oxford by'his, rich father.