We were on our way to the Philippines, Manila. Everyone was amused to see a picture of me on the front page of the local newspaper with the caption, “The most beautiful girl on the Waterfront!”
It was there that Mom received a cablegram – that Grandma had suffered a heart attack but was recovering. Since Al and Ruth were leaving after this engagement, Mom wanted to go with them and visit her mother. And I would go with her.
It was the first time in thirty years that my parents had been so widely separated (not only in miles) and for such a long time. This was a very difficult time for them. The past few months had been filled with anger and bitterness.
I still cannot understand why Al and Ruth could not continue in the show when they were married. Pop alienated all of his children. In time we were on friendly terms but that was only due to Mom’s influence. Years later when Pop had the ranch in Northridge, he told me his ambition was to build a house on each corner of the twenty acres, for his children!
When my parents parted, he asked Mom if she was coming back. She said it was up to him.
The last day in Manila, Mom, Al, Ruth and I sat in the audience and I guess we made the girls nervous because Myrie said, “Did we go like scalded cats!”
We sailed on the [SS] President Coolidge, stopping briefly at familiar ports although this was my first visit to Honolulu, finally arriving in San Francisco.
We took the train to Los Angeles and we celebrated Al’s Birthday, March 19th, by getting dressed in evening clothes and going to the “[Cafe] Trocadero” on Sunset Strip.
Meanwhile the show returned to Australia. Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney. Dante already had a European contract but wanted to time it for the winter so decided on a return to Australia.
Al and Ruth located Harvey and then rented a house in Taluca Lake [neighborhood of Los Angeles], a modest typical California bungalow. It was across from Bing Crosby’s home! Mom and I took a Greyhound bus to Pittsburgh. As we traveled east I soon discovered that women wearing pants was still a little unusual, I was getting a lot of strange stares! Grandma didn’t approve either.
Al took driving lessons, bought a used Chevy, and they drove to Pittsburgh to visit us while we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Farne.
It was a good opportunity for me to have my teeth straightened, which actually was only started. I had to continue with the adjustments by orthodontists in European cities for the next two years.
We enjoyed meeting many relatives and even drove to Altoona. We visited the church, the First United Brethren Church, where I was baptized.
We went next to New York to see Lee and Liss and their two boys. And then in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, we visited Pop’s sister Grace Bitner, her daughter Mildred and son-in-law Gordon Pearse.
Dolly visited Pop in Australia. One day in Melbourne she saw a beautiful antique silver tea service in a shop and he bought it for her. Even so, when they parted it was not on friendly terms.
Six months had passed and Pop had not asked Mom to return and then she received a letter from a friend, saying Pop was getting involved with another woman.
This was not surprising, many women had chased after him. In earlier days, when women would come backstage, insisting on seeing him, Dolly would call out “Pop – there’s someone to see you here.” That usually dampened their eagerness!
In spite of any flirtations or involvements, my parents loved each other. The proof of that was that they stayed together and shared so much.
No one in Dante’s life did so much for him and helped him every step of the way – except his wife. And he knew that.