Carl Rollyson Quote

On an outdoor set, he watched a donkey braying at all the wrong moments, angering the sound technicians, who could not get the animal to perform on cue. (Walter loved to tell this story, and of course it got better every time he told it.) I can bray, said Brennan, buttonholing the director. So he brayed, and both the director and the donkey were delighted. How much? Walter asked the director. Ten bucks, came the reply. Not enough, the actor responded. But that was the pay scale, the director said. Then I don’t bray, Walter rejoined. Tell you what, the desperate director offered, you bray for the ten-spot, and tomorrow come around and I’ll give you a bit part. You can collect twenty-five on that. So it was that Walter Brennan brayed himself into motion pictures. Or as he liked to put it, I got into pictures by making a jackass of myself. True story? True enough, I suspect, because it was often said of Walter that he knew the value of a dollar and knew how to make himself useful. He also saved money by having his one pair of pants pressed every day by a friendly wardrobe man. Ruth liked to reminisce about washing Walter’s one shirt, putting it out on the line to dry, and then getting up at 4:00 am to iron it.