At one time or another, I think we played all of the different circuits, Keith, Pantages, Orpheum, Western Vaudeville and probably every state in the Union.
I slept on a lot of trunks in old dressing rooms and benches in cold railroad stations. To save the cost of moving so many tons of baggage, we used trucks but most of us traveled by train and I was most happy when I could have an upper berth to myself! Then sometimes we traveled in the day coaches. During one of our trips, in a day coach, I embarrassed Mom terribly. Both my parents were phenomenal snorers but on this occasion it was my Mother that was keeping everyone awake. Then I overheard some strangers in the car make a snide reference to Mom. I promptly stood up and with great indignation said, “That’s MY Mother!”
At train stops, Pop always went for coffee and a piece of apple pie for Mom and then he would stop at the tobacco counter where the “punch cards” were. They were five to twenty-five cents a punch and he almost always won a prize, once he won a wristwatch.
Dolly says we were never allowed to play cards on trains, not even Old Maids, with anyone but our family. It was many years later, after Dolly was married that she really understood the reason for this rule. She and her husband were at a party and playing a card game. Dolly was winning and someone asked, “Dolly, do you know any card tricks?” The implication was obvious, and she said she never played cards socially again.
In the early years when we arrived in a new town, the first job for the kids was to go around the town putting up posters, carrying pots of paste and sticking them up on buildings and poles.
Some of those early theatres used candles for footlights with only one spotlight at the back of the house. When we did have the bulbs for footlights, they frequently popped if water hit them during the “Chinese Water Act.”
The Water Act was our big finale. To prepare for it a floor covering of waterproof canvas was laid over the stage, when not in use it was hoisted up like one of the curtains, allowing it to drain. Different props were set up, a large Buddha at the back of the stage, tables with a variety of pots on them and a small fountain. Everyone was dressed in Chinese costumes and wigs and carried bamboo poles. As Dante would touch each object or person on the head or finger, water would spout. He would hold a coconut shell over the fountain and then water would pour from the shell. The music played for this spectacle was, “In a Chinese Temple Garden.” It was quite a spectacle!
But an awful mess to clean up afterwards. So we didn’t always do it on matinees. It was also physically hard, especially for the girls because everyone (except Pop) had to wear cistern tanks strapped to their bodies and they were very heavy when filled with water.
We would be met on arrival in a new town by Felix Bley, our advance agent who was known to be very tight where money was concerned and it never failed – he would say, “I’ve made reservations at a hotel – just a block or two away, we can walk.” We would be loaded down with bags and would walk – and walk – and I would make matters worse by wanting my brothers to carry me!
On one occasion we were booked for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to work in a tent. A hurricane struck during the night and demolished the tent, we have pictures of the iron support poles, bent like hairpins. A lot of the show props were damaged but we were able to go on with the show the next night.
Ruth was our only casualty. She fell and sprained her ankle, and that meant that Dolly had to do the “Canvas Trunk.” It was not a canvas trunk at all but that was our name for it. Ruth would be put in a “straight jacket” with arms crossed over her chest and buckled behind her, put in the trunk kneeling down and the trunk, wooden with metal bindings, was securely padlocked and a circular curtain dropped [draped] around it. At the count of three, the curtain dropped to the floor and Ruth was sitting on the trunk. During the rehearsal, Dolly could not get out of the straight jacket fast enough. Instead, she just escaped from the trunk.
We had special nick-names for certain props so no outsiders would know what we were talking about. “Jimmie” was the name of the wire form used in “Asra,” the floating lady. One of the first things that had to be done when arriving at a new theatre was cut a hole in the center of the stage for “Arthur,” which was an elevator with special carpet covering it on the stage. No one knew we had a trap door.
It was in Butte, Montana, that they found the stage was directly over dirt and a small tunnel had to be made. So Dolly had to crawl to get to Arthur and was pushed up through the floor when she did the “Vampire” in the programs called “A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair.” Three poles were on a platform supporting a papier-mache bust. Pop would dress like an artist, take a pallet and paint the face, put a dress on it and turn it around to tie the sash. That is when Dolly came up. Add the wig and a bonnet, remove the poles, clap his hands and the doll came to life and danced a Dutch clog!
Sometimes we had a problem where the distance under the stage to the basement floor was so deep we had to build steps to reach Arthur. For those people who were made to disappear and then reappear at the back of the auditorium. and would then come running down the aisle, they had to make practice runs and be sure there weren’t any locked doors on the way. If it was an exceptionally long run, Pop had to stall a few seconds before calling for the house lights to be turned on. When it was Pop’s turn to do a switch, it was my job to guide him and clear the way. Ruth made a wrong turn once and found herself locked out of the theatre.
* * *
On one of our trips to California, my parents bought some property in Compton. There were a lot of oil wells in that area and they hung onto that property for many years and eventually built a triplex on it for rental income.
They fell in love with California, it was a beautiful state in those days, the climate was ideal and the people very warm and friendly.
We visited studies, met Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and visited “Pickfair.” There was never any doubt where my parents wanted to live when they retired.