‘Like Father, Like Son,’ Rules in Harris Family

David Harris (left), veteran Seattle Repertory Playhouse actor, “didn’t think much of the idea” when his son, Stanley (right) said he was going to be an actor.  Fathers always say that, but they’re pretty proud when their sons select fathers’ professions.  Anyway, Stanley has made good in Repertory Playhouse, try-outs, and here he is in getting a lesson in grease-paints from father.

 

When Stanley Harris, 16-year-old Roosevelt High School student, heard the Seattle Repertory Playhouse was casting boys in its next production he determined to try out.  But his father, David Harris, a member of the Playhouse group of actors for nearly six years, said “No!”

It was a fairly formidable “No!”

"There are enough actors in the Harris family already,” he told his son.  “I’m just doing what almost any other father would do – tell his son to keep out of the profession or business that the parent is in.”

That didn’t daunt young Harris, however.  He appeared at the Playhouse, tried out and was given a role in Little Ol’ Boy, which opens on the Playhouse stage next Thursday.  The Repertory Players said that Stanley Harris would make an excellent actor.

Little Ol’ Boy is a play built around events at a reform school and most of the players are youngsters. 

The elder Harris originally had a role in the play, but changes made dropped him from the cast.  He discovered his son’s entrance into the drama world, however.

“Well, I guess if he’s bound to try it there is nothing I can do about it.  All I can say is that I warned him,” Harris commented.

But the Repertory Players believe the father is pleased secretly, and that he will be among the heartiest applauders when the curtain rings down after the first performance of Little Ol’ Boy.

-Seattle Daily Times November 11, 1934