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A story, no doubt apocryphal, for Mercer himself denies it, has him sporting a monacle in those Village days.

Though merely clear glass, it was a distinctive trade mark for an aspiring actor who hoped to imprint himself upon the memories of producers.

One day in a bar, so the legend goes, someone put a beer stein with too much force on the monacle and broke it.

The innocent malfeasant, filled with that supreme sense of honor found in bars, insisted upon replacing the destroyed monacle -- and did, over the protests of the former owner -- with a square monacle.

Mercer is supposed to have refused it with, `` Anyone who wears a square monacle must be affected ''!!