According to his own account, he was a smart but not overpowering fighter, winning twenty-three of twenty-five semiprofessional bouts. A broken nose prompted him to reconsider boxing as a career, and he left Los Angeles to join his father in New York.
With his father playing a lead role in Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, Huston tried his acting talents in two off-Broadway productions and had some small roles in films. He saw no future for himself in the acting profession and became a cavalry officer in the Mexican army. For two years he served in Mexico as a member of the army's ceremonial horse guard. After returning to the United States and appearing in the guard's public performance at Madison Square Gardens, young Huston resigned his commission as a lieutenant.
While in Mexico, Huston wrote a play entitled Frankie and Johnny, based on the familiar ballads known by that title. The relatively easy sale of the manuscript convinced Huston that writing was a viable career. H. L. Mencken, then editor of American Mercury, bought two Huston stories, "Fool" and "Figures of Fighting Men" ,which appeared in 1929 and 1931.
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