The Fox talent scout saw Archie Leach’s screen test and was distinctly unimpressed. Wrote on the sheet of paper:
“Bowlegged. Neck is too thick.”
This is right up there with the notes written on Fred Astaire’s first screen test: “Bald. Can’t act. Can dance a little.”
After retiring, hall-of-fame second baseman Rogers Hornsby was a scout for a while. He was famous for his slighting reviews of every talent, even the promising ones. (Since he once batted .424 for a season, he had some cause for his curmudgeon-ness!) As the story goes, about the best report he ever turned in read as follows: “Looks like a ball player.” The ballplayer in question was Mickey Mantle.