{"product_id":"2940013740532","title":"Bethel Merriday","description":"That was the first time that anyone ever called her an actress--\u003cbr\u003eJune 1st, 1922, Bethel's sixth birthday.  There was no spotlight,\u003cbr\u003eno incidental music, and her only audience were her mother and a\u003cbr\u003esmall dog looking regretfully through the window of a boarding-\u003cbr\u003ehouse.  But she was sensational.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer mother and she were on their way to the A. \u0026amp; P. Store, and as\u003cbr\u003eusual Bethel had with the greatest violence been running in\u003cbr\u003ecircles.  She was slight and small and entirely feminine, but she\u003cbr\u003ewas the best runner in her neighbourhood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe stopped, then moved with a queer slow hitching.  In front of\u003cbr\u003ethem an old lady was scraping along, sunk forward from her\u003cbr\u003eshoulders as though she had given up all hope of ease and love.\u003cbr\u003eHer whole life seemed to be in her painfully sliding feet.  Bethel\u003cbr\u003etried to recreate that dejected walk, and she went at it so\u003cbr\u003eearnestly that the back of her neck ached with the weight of\u003cbr\u003esagging shoulders, and every step was a frightened effort.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer mother interrupted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Good gracious, don't copy folks that way, Bethel.  You'll hurt\u003cbr\u003etheir feelings.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe small, black-eyed child halted, in protest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Oh!  I'm not copying her.  I'm trying to be her.  I can be a lot\u003cbr\u003eof different people.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'My, aren't we grown-up!  I'm afraid that you like to show off,\u003cbr\u003edear--the way you always say your text so loud in Sunday school.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I love to say texts!  \"I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole\u003cbr\u003eheart.  I will show forth all thy marvellous works\".'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'It all sounds like maybe you're going to be an actress.  I guess\u003cbr\u003ethat wouldn't be a bad text for an actress.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Look how the poor old lady's heels are run down,' said Bethel, too\u003cbr\u003ebusy with her career for prophecies of glory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBethel was born in 1916, on the day after the Battle of Jutland.\u003cbr\u003eHer father, kneeling by the bed, had prayed, 'Dear Lord, please\u003cbr\u003emake this baby a child of peace and justice--yes, and happiness,\u003cbr\u003eLord'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFive months after the six-year-old Bethel gave her imitation of the\u003cbr\u003eold lady, the Black Shirts marched bravely into the maws of the\u003cbr\u003emovie cameras in Rome; and five months after that, Hitler bounded\u003cbr\u003eout of a Munich beer garden.  But perhaps it was as important that\u003cbr\u003eat this time John Barrymore was playing Hamlet and Pauline Lord\u003cbr\u003eAnna Christie and the Theatre Guild producing Back to Methuselah.\u003cbr\u003eThey were so much less stagy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHerbert Merriday, Bethel's father, was a dealer in furniture, to\u003cbr\u003ewhich, later, he was importantly to add electric refrigerators and\u003cbr\u003eradios.  They lived in Sladesbury, a city of 127,000, in central\u003cbr\u003eConnecticut, a fount of brassware, hardware, arms, precision\u003cbr\u003einstruments, clocks.  Here is the renowned establishment of\u003cbr\u003eLilydale \u0026amp; Duck, makers of machine-guns for killing policemen and\u003cbr\u003erevolvers for killing gangsters and the Duck Typewriter for\u003cbr\u003ejoyfully chronicling both brands of killing.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070205477104,"sku":"2940013740532","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013740532_p0.jpg?v=1763589621","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013740532","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}