WAITER WITH A SOUL

Southland Times, Issue 21092, 26 May 1930, Page 11

WAITER WITH A SOUL

PLAYWRIGHT AND ACTOR. MIXING COCKTAILS AT NIGHT. Igino Fiorentini, aged 28, is a London wine waiter by night, but by day he is a playwright and an actor in British films. Guests like to be served by “Gino,” as he is known at the Berkeley Hotel, and his cocktails are famous; yet little do the guests know of “Gino’’ the actor, writes a Sunday Express representative. He was doing duty' as a waiter when the writer saw him. Two beautiful women were sipping cocktails, and “Gino” was standing near by ready to answer their beckoning. A moment later he managed to slip from the room. “I longed to tell those two ladies that I am an artist, that I, Igino Fiorentini, have great hopes... <but to-night I am just a waiter. I must be silent.” “Gino” spread his hands in despair, and then plunged into an excited description of his work as an actor in a night club talkie now being made at Shepherd's Bush. “It is too funny,” “Gino” said, his handsome face lighting up in a smile. “My great chance of acting in a love scene has not come yet. I am teaching other people how to love in a talkie in which Italian is spoken! “Picture me! There is a handsome young Englishman, but oh! a little cold ini love, and I have to teach him! He has to say in Italian, “My passionate love for you has made me blind.’ ” “Gino” then declaimed the words with the fire and gesture of Valentino. The wait-er-actor’s eyes sparkled. “If only the Englishman would do it that way.” _ .- - “Gino” went on to speak of his life as a waiter. “I must not speak to the hotel guests of my great yearning,” he sighed. “I must simply be polite and smile when they smile, and be sad when they are sad, so you see I am an actor all the time.” “Gino” has written a play called “Two Mothers,” a drama with Fascism as its background.