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The Seaforth News, 1961-04-27, Page 6Back In The brays Of Real Vaudeville In my old Washington there Were several theatres. The La - layette Square Opera Haase, later the Belasco Theatre, and now a VSO centre, faced the White Rouse catercornered across the square. Not far away, the National- Theatre with its iron porch' and steps running along E Street just off Pennsylvania Avenue was rebuilt after World War I and is still in use, The Old Columbia Theatre on F Street, now demolished, was Converted Into a movie house many years ago, but in those earlier days it had only "legiti- mate" plays and musical shows. My juvenile acquaintance with "the theatre" was largely limit- ed to such "educational" activi- ties as travel lectures by Elmen- dorf, usually given at the Nation- al, where we ranged the world and learned of far off places and customs under his expert guid- ance. Long before the days of color photography Elmendorf was known for his use of colored lantern slides which, I believe, he, himself, painted and which were an outstanding feature of his travelogues. However, in our eyes, the artistry of his slides was over- shadowed by the novelty of a few motion picture films which Neckline Divine PRINTED PATTERN 114/01.4 New neckline in trig u el A. Wrapped effect in front descends to a V -Back — highlighting the uperbly flattering cut of this .inner sheath. Sew it in 'festive Silk print, faille, linen. Printed Pattern 4501: Misses' Sizes 10, 12, 14, 16, 18. Size 16 takes 31 yards 39 -inch fabric. Send FORTY CENTS (stamps oannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern. Please print plainly SIZE, NAME, ADORES S, STYLE ISTUMBER. Send order to ANNE ADAMS, ox 1, 123 Eighteenth St., New oron to, Ont. ANNOUNCING t h e biggest fashion show of Spring -Summer, 961—pages, pages, pages of pat- eerns in our new Color Catalog— t out! Hurry, send 350 now! interspersed the slides at what were to us all too rare intervals. But the playhouse, of . most interest to childhcod in my old Washington was that bearing the intriguing name of "Chase's Polite Vaudeville." Located on Pennsylvania Avenue just be- low Fifteenth Street it covered the western 'end of a triangular block that is now given to open lawn between the mammoth. building of the Commerce De- partment and "The Avenue," Here a. new land of enchant- Ment opened to the youngsters who filled the house to overflow- ing at each Saturday matinee, Here we watched animal acts where dogs walked upright, or jumped through hoops of fire, or climbed ladders, always ginger- ly and hesitantly so that we wait- ed tense with uncertainty until the top rung was. scaled and the four footed performer had leapt into the arms of his trainer. . There were clowns, and' there were bicyclists riding sometimes on one wheel. And always there were acrobats and magicians. There were songs and jokes and slapstick, but I think none ever violated the name of "polite vau- deville." The famous magicians all came to Chase's,.Keller was the first I ever saw, and he was followed a few years later by Thurston. Al one Saturday matinee when such a program was given, the audience included Ethel Roose- velt, a young lady of tender years, together with her still tenderer brother Quentin. Their father, Theodore Roosevelt was then President and Quentin was one of our gang as a result of his attendance at Force, the public school in our neighborhood, writes Bromley Seeley in The Christian Science Monitor. This particular program in- cluded a stunt requiring the col- lection of a number of finger rings from the audience. Of course, a great point was made of the fact that one such was borrowed from the President's daughter who, I believe, was in a box next to the stage. This collected jewelry , was rammed down the barrel of a pistol which was then fired at a large box on the stage. Subsequent opening of the box disclosed all -the rings unharmed. All, that is, ex- cept the one belonging to Ethel Roosevelt. Search bordering on the frantic discovered no such piece of property, much to the chagrin of the magician. No trace of it could be found, so that finally he had to confess that something had gone badly awry and the ring was lost. Turning to the Roosevelt chil- dren, the performer expressed his deep concern and offered his most abject apologies. Would they accept the white rabbit in its stead? A loud and exultant "Yes" from Quentin drowned out any objections his sister might have had. Whereupon the rabbit was- wrapped in a large piece of paper and given into waiting, eager hands. However, opening of the package revealed not a squirming piece of live- stock, but a. large bunch of roses circled by a ribbon which also held intact the missing ring. To childhood's eyes it was magic — inexplicable and mys- terious. - PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! When schoolchildren of Col- umbia practised their Indian rain dance 'the skies were dear and blue. Later, when the dance was being performed for the benefit of fond parents and other visit- ors in the school's open-air thea- tre the heavens opened. Visitors and performers scuttled into the main building through torren- tial rain! MANY HAPPY RETURNS — Twin sisters, who may be the U.S, nation's second oldest, celebrated their 95th birthday recently in Conway, Tex. (A pair of twins, 97, live in Maine.) Approki- mately 200 relatives and. friends 'honored Mrs. Emma Snow, left, and Mrs Alice Smith. Both are widows, Mrs Snow ,has seven children, 1 i grandchildren, 24 great-granchildren and 16 great -great-grandchildren, Mrs. Smith has two daughters, 'Five grandchildren and eight great-grandohdldren. LOOK-ALIKES — One, is TV's Annie Forge; one is the winner of a national "Angel" look-alike contest,'.' "Angel" being the show starring the real Annie. Contest winner, Terry Sue Heide, is at left. She'll be seen in a filmed episode of the show sched- uled for showing May 17, . HItANICL An Pe FAR M P Clarke April 1. All Fools' Day. And it certainly was. We woke up that morning to find the ground white and wet, heavy snow still falling, To make mat- ters worse half an hour later the hydro went off all over this dis- trict, and stayed off -for over an hour. We had just finished breakfast so that part was all right. But it Wasn't long before we noticed the house getting un- comfortably cool. The only thing working. around here was the telephone — and I bet the hy- dro office wished— that it, too, was out of commission, I tried for half -an -hour toget through and couldn't. After all one does like to have a little idea how long the power is likely to be off. Eventually I phoned the po- lice and was assured the trouble was being looked after. What' . would we do without our local police? Naturally we can put up with blackout inconveniences for an hour or two. What really wor- ries us. is our dependence upon electricity in this modern age. Without it we are helpless. It is a state of affairs that doesn't seem right — and yet we accept it. But while we were worrying about problems that may never arise two of our friends had every reason to be concerned weatherwise. One man is flying home from Labrador; another family is setting out by car. to Florida for a vacation. Our pre- sent unsettled weather can make a lot of difference to them, far more so than to us old stay-at- homes. We just sit out the storms. Well, none of that is what I really meant to write about, Ac- tually a far more Cheery subject was in my mind because just be- fore Easter I spent a day in down -town Toronto — any first in about six months, And I'm telling you window-shopping be- fore Easter i's really a feast for the eyes, The window displays were beautiful. Lovely dresses, materials and furniture against a floral background of delicate pinks, blues, green and mauve. Window dressers must obviously be artists before they can be anything else, And we don't al- ways appreciate their efforts. Perhaps we just think of win- dow-dressing as part of their job — which of course it is. But no one could do such a marvellous job of window — dressing if it were not something a little more just a job. Every time I passed a particularly attractive window display I felt I would like to go in and compliment whoever was responsible for doing it. More than that I longed to buy a hat a gay, pretty thing with flowers and lets of colour! And did I?' Well, now, what would I do with such a piece of frivol- ity? The most I could do was look at the hats longingly and ohoose the one I'd buy if I could .turn back the clock about twen- ty-five years. I guess it must be true that hat -madness is some- thing from which a woman never really recovers. Whet I finally Managed to break awey from my orgy of ISSUE 16 — 1061 window -slopping I went to get my eyes tested .for new glasses, This time I am going to try tri- focals. I have had bi-focale for years and never really liked them — too much difference be- tween the 'two sights so that I generally change to '.reading glasses for close work. And of course you know what happens I never. know where the glasses are that I'm not wearing.. Maybe with tri-focals one pair will do for everything, Easter Sunday we had a family reunion at Daughter's. Bob and Joy picked us up en route so we all arrived together. It -was a happy occasion but not exactly a quiet one. Even Cedric, our littlest grandson,can keep up to the others when 'it comes to -making a noise. But then 'boys will be boys: As to that, girls are not far behind, judging by our neighbours' daughters. The weather this Easter week- end reminded me of the time we left the prairie to settle in On- tario. We .had had a very hard winter out West — that was in 1923 - and Partner had been telling me how different it would be "down East" — the grass might even be getting green. So what happened? A few days be- fore we left the West a chinook wind swept the prairies. The snow turned to slush and finally made great sloughs across the country. So we made our last trip across the prairie by team and wagon instead of sleights. We boarded our train for the East at Chaplin and the nearer we got to Ontario the worse the weather. We landed in Toronto April 1 in •a swirling snowstorm and all around us . the ground was' white. Green grass -there wasn't a sign of it—sant then or for several weeks afterwards. Now, when people say — "Isn't this awful weather for Easter?" we tell them it has been like this before and probably will be again. In most cases one man- ages to survive. Incidentally, our young friend who was fly- ing from Labrador didn't .make it. All the plans were grounded on account of fog. If it isn't one thing it is another. Maybe we shall appreciate good weather when we get it. And it will come in time — you'll see. While average weekly earn- ings in the Canadian manufac- turing industry have increased by over 21 per cent in the past, five years, average profit per dollar of sales dropped from 4.3 cents in 1955 to 3.6 cents in 1959. 'Now, now, Ur, Oilwslls, w man i:i nen ' old whe tan live this." Caroline Keeps The White House Hopp;ng Bouncy three-year-old Caro- line Kennedy may not have sat in on any Cabinet meetings as yet, but it's only beoeuse she, hasn't found the right door. She is likely to pop up almost'' anywhere in the White douse. Wandering into the communica- tions centre one day, she was asked what her father was do- ing, "Nothing," she is said to have replied. 'He's just sitting up- stairs with his ,shoes off — doing nothing," When the President reported ' to his office recently with a patch over his eye, he admitted it was Caroline who was respon- sible, He had stooped down to pick up a toy she had dropped and bumped his head on the corner of a tabie. When one of Caroline's ham- sters went AWOL, the whole household was alerted, Report- ers inquired daily of Press Secretary Pierre Salinger about the Laos crisis and the missing . hamster. The President eventually found it,- in his bathroom, He can only • be expected to solve one crisis ,at a time, While Mrs. Kennedy is re- ported averse to having her daughter in the public spotlight and tries to shield Caroline from news photographers here, there is no doubt the White House press office is well aware of the publicity value of 'this charm- ing and disarming three-year- old and naturally ready to make the most of it. 'The White House may not be an ideal home for a little girl, but it didn't take observant Caroline long to discover some of its advantages, She found that by lifting the telephone receiver,' she had only to ask for her grandfather in Palm Beach to be put through to him. He reports that on ene such occasion, after a long, chatty conversation, she thoughtfully called her father asking if he wanted "to speak to grandpa." Then, while the President was on one telephone, she picked up one .in another room and put through a call to a neighbor — a Palm-"93each neighbor, that is. Mr. slinger hastily explained to thhrpress that Caroline's tele phone' bill is paid by her dad, not by the taxpayers. An effort to work off some of her energy in a dancing class fell short of complete success. -Caroline went home with some- one else's tambourine, causing a near international incident As Caroline left, a wail went up inside. "Caroline took Diana's tambourine," the teacher was in- formed. It was•a tambourine with gay streamers attached and in her opinion the only thing of interest in the whole performance. The children do not dance, but learn to do rhythm exercises to music. Caroline was reported unim- pressed — except with the tam- bourine. As a rule she scampers around the White House in overalls,; "walling to work" with her fa- 'ther, strolling into the . press room, arid swinging on a swing that has just been set up. for Caroline and her playmates on the White House lawn, writes Josephine Ripley in the Chris- tian Science - Monitor. A recent report that the Presi- dent and First Lady were putting in tall shrubbery to shield their daughter at play from the curl- ous public brought indignant denials. "Preposterous," acid Mr. Sal., Inger. Caroline would haves echoed the ' sentiment of AO could have pronounced the word,. It was evident' from the first that Caroline would take no tbaclr resat on the New Frontier, $Iere father, holding forth seriously at a press conference in Wer$ Palm Beach following his elec- tion, was startled to hear report- ers burst into laughter. He turned to find his daugh- ter making her entrance before the television' cameras in her pyjamas, her feet. wobbling around in her mother's shoes. Her first White House party was the diplomatic reception where she made a. brief appear- ance in a dress site carefully ex- plained was her "very best:" She ignored the . world's top-- ranking operanking diplomats when she saw the red -clad Marine Band in the foyer, and finally retired to the top of the stairs where she watch- ed and listened and tapped cut the gay rhythms with hes` foot. The President appears to be bearing up well, with cats, dogs, hamsters, and a three-year-old underfoot,.but it isalready being said that his next "Profile in Courage" may entitled. "Life with Caroline," Gay, Cozy, Easy rsal.a vY kegc.. Family treasurer Take this easy -to -knit afghan on trips, to games, or use on wintry nights. Choose a Iively 4 -color scheme or scraps for this attractive afghan. Knitted shell medal- lions—join later. Pattern Itinitting directions. Send THIRTY-FIVE CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this. pattern to Laura. Wheeler Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St., Neer Toronto, Ont. Print plainly PATTERN RE NUMBERSS. , your NAME and AD- JUST OFF THE PRESS! Send now for our exciting, new 1961 Needlecraft Catalog. Over 125 designs to crochet, knit, "sew, embroider, quilt, weave — 'fash- ions, homefurnishings, toys, gifts, bazaar hits. Plus FREE—instruc- • tions for six smart veil caps. Hurry, send 25¢ now! VOINIPAWNV A STROLL IN THE GARDEN OF ROSES =-- President Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold. Macmillan stroll in the White House rose garden, prior to the first of a series of talks to coordinate diplomatic strategy on Laos and other cold•war issues. When Macmillan asked the President where his helicopter landed, Mr. Kennedy ,said "Right over there," as he pointed toward an area of the lawn just beyond the putting green.