CBSRMT: Robert Dryden, actor on O.Henry

December 27, 1976

FEATURE

ROBERT DRYDEN, ACTOR, ON O.HENRY, WRITER

“Somehow, and I really don’t know how, I missed reading O. Henry,” says Robert Dryden who will star as the master short story writer for seven consecutive nights when the CBSRMT MP3, starting its fourth year on Monday, Jan. 10, presents seven adaptations of O. Henry stories.

“By playing the roles, I have become fascinated with the man,” say Dryden. “He was an artist with words, to be sure, and here and there you see flashes of great depth. He seems to have been a complex sort of person, enormously lonely, and sombre.

“He had an uncanny awareness of the human condition and an understanding of people. whom he treated with a combination of toughness and tenderness. But apparently he had a low image of himself, thus a gravitating toward people on the bottom of the pile.

“ He also had a marvelous ability to not use too many words, presenting his stories in a straightforward, simple manner. And he made his character and situations visual to me with a style of writing that is just great for radio.”

Dryden found in the seven stories O. Henry lines that provide insights to the author’s attitudes. Here are some examples:

“It is the realities of life that are interesting and dramatic, not the fancies of fiction.”

“My walk in life is the literary. I wander about in the night seeking idiosyncrasies on the earth and the truth in heaven.”

“All I know is when you keep them simple, you never have any trouble writing stories.”

“Too much explanation is like too much yeast in the bread or too much water in the bourbon.”

“All you writer fellows. Folks look up to you as some kinda brilliant, smart, great men. They should know you the way I know you.”

“To be human is to be troubled. As we grow older, we are troubled by the fact of our own mortality, by the knowledge that we must fall short of goal.”

“The city is soft and sweet and yieldin’ to the victors. But she’s cruel, indeed, to the vanquished. Heartless. You see it every day.”

“The only life is the straight one. I wouldn’t touch a dollar of another man’s money for a million.”

“You enjoy an apple more when you take small bites.”

“There’s all kindsa talk over to Washington, D.C., about protectin’ the workin’ man. Less hours. More safety for the machines. What’s it all mean?  You really wanna protect the workin’ man, make it illegal for him to bet on fillies.”

“A week don’t amount to too much after you’re dead -- but it does seem like a real, nice, long spell while you’re alive.”

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