We sailed next for Australia, on the S.S. Takliwa. Christmas came while we were onboard ship. It was not a very large ship but a most pleasant voyage. Our time spent on sea travel always seemed like a vacation. Pop and I played many games of checkers and sometimes I could beat him!
We crossed the equator many times and always enjoyed the visits from “Father Neptune” and the baptising of those who had not crossed before and dressing up for the parties.
The captain, “Skipper Bert,” made our voyage especially pleasant and even had the cook make a special Birthday cake for me. He had only large candles but he whittled them down to the proper size. The year was 1932.
On the way we stopped over in India, Bombay and Calcutta, where Dante hoped to find someone doing the “Indian Rope Trick.” He even offered a large sum of money to anyone that could perform or demonstrate how it was done. The nearest thing we saw to a Hindu Fakir were the men on street corners with their baskets of snakes and mongooses.
When Dante was asked in an interview if he had ever seen “The Indian Rope Trick,” he replied, “It’s the hardiest trick in the world, it lives forever and nobody ever saw it. I’ve talked with many people in India who are supposed to have seen it but I find that it is always their grandfather, second cousin or a fellow they heard about through a friend who actually saw this marvel. Somebody thought up that one to keep the tradition alive.”
We left Bombay on the S.S. Mongolia, sailing for Sydney.
We were booked into the Criterion Theatre, in Sydney, for one month and stayed three. The whole Australian tour lasted a year and three months, in five cities, and was done only on a verbal agreement, never a contract signed. That was a good example of Dante’s confidence in his ability, to travel from South Africa to Australia with only one month booked and that without a written contract!
In Sydney Pop hired two more girls, sisters Myrie and Fina Dewar. They didn’t have any show business experience but a lot of enthusiasm and willingness to learn and certainly an itch to travel! They had a shop, Myrie was a tailor and Fina was a milliner so that was a plus for us.
I had grown too big to do “Sawing a Woman in Half.” In Durban, Mom had taken me into Pop’s dressing room to show him my legs. My shins were scraped and covered in bruises from cramming myself into the table. So the first thing Myrie was asked to do was get into the table. She took one look and said, “I can’t fit in there!” I should mention that I was five feet six by then and Myrie about five one. Pop said, “Show her, Mary!”
We were warmly received and felt very much at home in Australia. The Dante daughters caused quite a commotion in the news and on the streets. We had seen pictures of Marlene Dietrich wearing a man’s tailored suit, so we went to a tailor and had suits made for ourselves! We were the first women to dress in pants or be seen wearing them in Melbourne. This was pretty daring for us since we had always tried to keep a low profile and not appear “theatrical”!
In Melbourne, Bill met a young woman named Miki Miller who was working as a showgirl in a revue. And Dolly was getting a lot of attention from Sir Macpherson Robertson’s son Norman.
It was publicized that I collected dolls and some very nice person in the audience one day sent me a tiny gold doll in a basket, “Moses in the Bulrushes.”
I had my first date with a young man, named Douglas Whiteside, he was fifteen and I was fourteen. He invited me to afternoon tea after a matinee. After reading his letter Mom gave her permission. He took me to a very nice tea parlor. We weren’t there very long before I was very embarrassed to see my Mother and sister at another table!Chaperoning me! We corresponded for several years, he was planning to be a doctor.