The New Movie Magazine, April 1930 (more here)
Last part of the story about Homer Croy visiting Brats.
The story about having been a lawyer was, for whatever reason, something Babe used to tell, although by the time John McCabe interviewed him in 1954 he’d modified the tale a bit and said he had wanted to be a lawyer and “studied for a bit at the University of Georgia” but gave it up. That’s not true either, say those who have gone through the records. Besides, he was working as a projectionist when he was eighteen and acting in movies four years later. The story goes that watching movies at work made him think that he could be as good or bad as some of the actors he saw on the big screen, so he decided to try his luck at acting.
The accounts of Babe’s singing on stage vary and are vague at best. He did have a good voice, so who knows. He definitely went to Jacksonville and worked for Lubin, which is the important thing. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought that mentioning his golfing mattered the most. 🙂