Young Metzetti Now Known to the Film World as Richard Talmadge -- Startled Hampton with His Feats
Hampton Beach News-Guide, July 6, 1926
He stood poised on the end of a spring board. Suddenly a man jumped onto the up-tilted end of the springboard and the force tossed the youngster on the other end up into the air. He revolved like a pinwheel. One, two, three somersaults he turned and then landed on the shoulders of his brother who stood in the other corner of the stage, waiting to receive the hurtling form of the young daredevil. The catch itself was nothing short of miraculous, for had the time varied by a fraction of a second or had the flying youngster deviated from his set course by a small part of an inch, it would have been impossible to avert a bad accident.
The crowd which surrounded the open-air stage just south of the band stand in front of the Casino broke into great applause as it always did at the thrilling climax of this feature vaudeville act which was billed, one Carnival week not many years ago, as the Five Metzettis.
Today, the flying youngster, who thrilled Hampton audiences, is known as Richard Talmadge, the daredevil of the screen. Since his engagement at Hampton he has created for himself an international reputation and a large fortune. Moreover he has swapped a perfectly good German name for the name of one of the screens best known sister teams, for outside of the Gish girls, Norma and Constance Talmadge are the real sister stars of filmland. Metzetti recently wrote to a local friend and stated that he still has a warm spot in his heart for Hampton and hoped to be able to spend at least part of his vacation here in the near future.