While in Berlin, Mom gave the family quite a shock. She returned to the hotel one afternoon, removed her hat and her hair was bobbed! She had always worn it in braids, so thick and long enough to sit on, she would wind the braids over her ears. It must have been a bother to care for but the family didn’t appreciate that and we upset her by showing our disappointment.
We played the La Scala Theatre in Berlin and after doing my part in the show each night (I began working on salary for ten dollars a week, when I was eight years old) I would be put in a taxicab and sent back to the Central Hotel.
There was a maid always instructed to keep an eye on me but I remember one night getting a very bad case of hiccups and when the maid didn’t answer my call, I went downstairs in the hotel and found the bar. The bartender sat me up at the bar and had me drink a glass of water while I held my breath. I was still there when my parents came back to the hotel! In my pajamas!
When we were in Hamburg, playing the Hanna Theatre, I had the measles. Mom who always doctored the whole family, went to a pharmacy, looking for a special herbal tea. The pharmacist finally understood what the problem was and said “Ah! Mozzels!”
I was confined to bed and the hotel maid, as usual, was asked to look after me while everyone was at the theatre. I must have had a high fever because I remember hallucinating and hiding under the bed.
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Dolly worked in an illusion called the “Triple Trunks.” She was made to disappear and then Dante would point to the trunk hanging from the ceiling of the theatre, shoot a gun, a drum roll and the trunk came sliding down a rope onto the stage. It was set on a platform in the center of the stage, unlocked and there was another trunk, lift that one out, unlock that and one more was lifted out. As this one opened, Dolly seemed to pop out! The reason for that was she had to be crammed down into the trunk to fit and finally she couldn’t do it anymore, so they did away with the smallest trunk and called it the “Hanging Trunks.” People used to think twins were used, until Dante asked for a handkerchief from the audience and would tie it onto Dolly’s wrist, then return it after she got out of the trunk.
Next we traveled to Spain. Madrid and Barcelona. There were some other acts on the bill with us there and one day everyone went on a picnic. They had some unusual bottles with very long spouts and you had to hold them at arm’s length aiming at your mouth to drink. Practice makes perfect, but no one realized how much I was practicing and the bottle contained wine!
In Barcelona a doctor came to the theatre to pierce Mom’s ears and everyone gathered around to watch but I fainted!
It was there that our ring-tailed monkey got into one of the pigeon cages and killed them. Bill, who loved to tease me, told me that he had pulled all of the monkey’s teeth! Not true of course. There came a time when I wished he had. In Paris we were watching a parade of elephants go by, I was holding the monkey and he bit me. I still have that scar.
Next stop Marseilles where we had a layover while Pop went to London in search of a chiropractor, for his back problem. Dolly volunteered to go with him and had a marvelous time. They stayed at the Savoy Hotel and Dolly saw five shows.
We were carrying enough props by now to give a five-hour show. But when we were in English-speaking countries we used much less, allowing for more patter.
Dante loved to talk to his audiences but if anyone came in late, he would stop what he was doing, walk to the footlights and wait for them to be seated and ask if they had decided to go slumming!
Imitation is the highest form of flattery and in later years when Victor Borge became a friend and saw the show, he emulated Dante.
Then onto Paris, where we stayed at another beautiful hotel. One afternoon Dolly went out, leaving her Russian Wolfhound, a young female named Lucy, shut in the bathroom. When she returned, every towel and bathmat was in shreds as well as the monogrammed robes.
I very much enjoyed the beautiful park by the Eiffel Tower, where there was a merry-go-round with gold rings to catch as you circled.
At this time we were sharing the bill, at the Empire Theatre with several other acts. One was “Minovitch and His Gang,” terrific harmonica players. Several of these young men asked Dolly to go flying with them on a sightseeing flight over Paris. Dolly went and was in big trouble with Pop. Only because he was worried that something could have happened to her but he showed it in being very angry with her.
Another act was an acrobatic dancer. Her stage setting was a display of many dolls. I enjoyed her act because by now I had quite a collection of dolls. At one time I had over four hundred.
There was a young Frenchman working for my father, as publicity agent and part-time interpreter. Andre claimed to be related to one of the wealthiest families in France. The Daimlers, no less! No one believed him, however he was a very likeable person. One day he gave me a very lovely and expensive doll. I was delighted of course. I was carrying the doll around that evening when I was confronted by the dancer who promptly accused me of stealing her doll. I was shocked and upset that anyone could think that I would do such a thing. My parents were very angry and Andre was forced to admit to what he had done, that he had stolen the doll.
While in Paris, Pop developed a severe pain in his side and a doctor wanted to remove his appendix. He also had a tender spot in his back so Mom located a chiropractor who came to our hotel. He had Pop lay across the bed and gave him an adjustment. He recovered quickly with renewed faith in chiropractics.
It was at the Empire Theatre in Paris that Dante performed the “Vanishing Horse” illusion. A horse is raised into the air in a crate. A pistol is fired, the crate falls empty to the floor and the horse has disappeared. Dante thought that for all the trouble it took to perform this mystery, it was not the outstanding illusion it should have been and he never did it again.
For years Dante defied anyone to prove that he used twins in his illusions.
Because he did not use twins. An illusion called “Broadcasting” was far ahead of its time but today would seem ridiculous. It had two cabinets, shaped like chairs on one long platform. A girl stepped into one, sat down and the doors were closed but you could still see the upper part of her body through a screen.
With the help of lighting effects (small lights all around the inside of the chairs) the girl faded from view, as the lights dimmed and appeared in the other chair. At this point she was asked to move her head and hands, which she did. The other chair was shown empty. Then the procedure was reversed and she stepped out of the chair.
Two girls were not used in “Broadcasting” because my brother Bill, in his early teens, made a very good double for the girl.
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We traveled on to Brussels, Antwerp and The Hague, where we did a lot of bicycling. Then Amsterdam, Neimegan, back to Hamburg, Elberfeld, Bonn and Aachen.
In Amsterdam, the fire department ruined all of our scenery while spraying it for fireproofing.
We were in Essen, Germany, for Christmas 1929 and we felt the poor conditions of the world’s economy. I particularly renember Thanksgiving that year. Not a holiday in Germany but one we observed wherever we were. Our lack of money was severe enough that when we went to a restaurant to eat, Mom and I had to share an order of scrambled eggs. Mom began reminiscing and told me about her childhood in Altoona. Her grandparents and many cousins. And the abundance of food, preserves, pies and different treats that were always in the smoke-house. Oddly enough, it took our minds off of the scrambled eggs!
During these lean times, Dolly was the barber, cutting Pop’s hair and the boys too.
Theatre business was so bad (we were working on a percentage basis) that when the curtain went up one night, there were only three people in the audience. Dante stepped forward to the footlights, thanked them for coming and asked them to get their money back at the box office and please come back another night, then rang down the curtain.