The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber in hours, and indeed even in minutes. Hemingway biographer Carlos Baker claims that Macomber loses his fear as the buffalo charges, and the loss of fear ushers Macomber into manhood, which Margot instantly kills. Baker believes Wilson symbolizes the man free of woman (because he refuses to allow Margot to dominate him) or of fear; the man Macomber wishes to be. Wilson understands, as he blasts the lion dead, that Margot is a woman who needs to be dominated. Jeffrey Meyers considers Margot Macomber to be the villain of the story. She characterises "a predatory (rather than a passive) female
Bart Macomber his greatest role as an actor." After Illinois' 1916 win over Minnesota, one book indicates that Macomber "left school for the Orpheum vaudeville circuit." A March 1917 advertisement for the Orpheum vaudeville show appearing in Madison, Wisconsin promoted appearances by Kenneth Loane, Hoyt's Minstrels, and "Bart Macomber, The Famous Halfback in SONGS & STORIES." Macomber also went on to play professional football with the Youngstown Patricians in 1917. In 1917, he played halfback for a Youngstown team that included multiple college all-stars, including Tommy Hughitt of Michigan, Tom Gormley of Georgetown, and Freeman Fitzgerald, Bill Kelleher, Gil Ward and Stan