With Dolly leaving, we would need another girl and when Pop learned that Bill had wanted to marry Miki, he decided to send for her. When I think about this it is very strange. If Bill had not died, I know Pop would have done his best to break up the relationship between Bill and Miki.
So Miki joined our company and was with us until Pop retired. She changed her name to Moi-Yo later on.
Miki was very theatrical looking, being a showgirl, which was quite a contrast to the rest of us. We were always taught to dress and conduct ourselves in a conservative way. Always wearing hats and gloves! We powdered our noses and wore lipstick. This went back to the days in vaudeville when anyone in “show business” was looked down on and Mom and Pop didn’t want their family to get a bad reputation.
I’ll always remember the first time I saw Miki without her makeup, on the ship on the way to the Orient. She had washed her long hair, which was a lovely chestnut and without the make-up, I thought she looked beautiful.
Plans were made to return to the Orient. Several Australians had joined our company and when we left the country, the government required a forty pound cash deposit for each of these people, to protect them from being stranded in foreign lands.
The Dante show was advertised as a family show. “The Cleanest Show On Earth, two and a half hours without a blush.” And that must have had a lot to do with our success.
If it has not been apparent by now, I will point out that it was expected that in every theatre booking our engagement would be prolonged, or if that were not possible, we would make a return commitment. Of course the major attraction was Dante himself. The technique of magic varies and depends entirely on the skill of the artist. Dante had an indefinable something, a charisma and could “entertain with a shoestring, where others would require lions and elephants” or the magic of television. Dante said that, “Magicians were born, not made.”