Hughie the First

In Amy Wallace’s otherwise fine article about Al Pacino (“The Place He Likes to Be,” June 27), there was some misinformation.

The role of Erie in Eugene O’Neill’s “Hughie” was first performed in English not by Jason Robards but by Burgess Meredith in the 1963 Bath Theatre Festival production, reprised that same year in London. The night clerk was played by Jack MacGowran, who spoke his occasional lines as written, unlike the Robards and Ben Gazzara productions, where the clerk remained mute. There were a variety of problems, which Meredith detailed for my 1987 biography of MacGowran, “The Beckett Actor.”

Wallace and Pacino seem to think Jerry Lewis made a picture called “The Bellhop.” It was actually called “The Bellboy.”

Pacino says he didn’t handle celebrity particularly well, presumably referring to the ‘70s. I can attest to the fact that things have changed. When I saw “Hughie” in New York, Pacino walked out the front door of the theater and shook hands and scribbled on programs and kissed female fans on the cheek for a good 10 or 15 minutes, apparently a nightly ritual. The guy’s a class act.

JORDAN R. YOUNG

Orange