Although Dante was making all of our lives pretty miserable in those days, it was Lee that bore the brunt of his ill temper. In Buenos Aires, Lee reached his limit. I think it was then that he learned that Liss was pregnant. After a very terrible quarrel, Lee was fired. He was given a third class ticket back to the United States.
Considering that he arrived back without any money, no experience or schooling and in the middle of a depression, he did well for himself. A friend that Mom contacted, helped him to get a job as a doorman at an apartment building, he went to night school and saved up enough money to send for Liss and the baby. They were married on Ellis Island. Then Leon became a policeman in New York.
Lee and Liss were very devoted to each other and had two sons and a daughter. Lee also began writing short stories for a detective magazine.
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In regard to schooling, Pop believed that since he had not gone beyond the fourth grade, schooling was not that important and we would learn more from experience, My brothers and sister did manage to attend school for a few months at different times when they were in Chicago.
But Pop used to say that, “Travel should be compulsory for students and politicians and that would eliminate the narrow viewpoints so many people had of other countries.”
There was a tutor that traveled with the show (Doc Brown) for a while when we were in vaudeville. He never tutored me and I was twelve before my schooling began. Mom did “home school” me but with everything else she had to do, my capabilities were that of a first grader. I think my Grandmother must have had some influence in my getting a tutor because of the letters I wrote to her.
So Pop hired an Englishman, Reginald Drake, to tutor me. Of course he had to qualify as a “jack of all trades” and help in other areas of the show. He was with us for two years and I only wish I could thank him for the vistas he opened up for me. Reading has ever since been a great pleasure for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it at the time and was probably a tiresome pupil.
Reg was only with us for two years. Pop fired him when we were in Australia, not for being an incompetent tutor but because he missed his cue when he was a plant during the show!!
When he left, Reg gave me a book of Oscar Wilde’s “A House of Pomegranates” with the inscription, “We have forged together at ‘school’ a key that will open to you the treasure house of literature, and I hope you will not neglect to use it.” So ended my formal education.
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Again we returned to Cordoba, Rosario, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and Las Palmas. While in South America, Pop bought Mom a beautiful brooch with ninety-five diamonds and sapphires.
This time as we were preparing to enter the harbour of Rio, on the S.S. Alcantra, our wonderful Collie, Laddie, had a tragic accident. Laddie was a well traveled member of our family, he was ten years old and had been with us all of his life. Very intelligent and obedient. In Buenos Aires, one afternoon, Bill went into a department store and told Laddie to wait outside by the door. Bill left the store by another door, completely forgetting Laddie. He returned several hours later and Laddie was still waiting for him.
During the voyage onboard ship, the large hatches are boarded over and covered with canvas. We were accustomed to sitting on top of them and so was Laddie. They were high enough that he could not see over the sides. When entering harbours, the hatches would be uncovered. Laddie intended to jump on top of the hatch but he fell many feet down into the hold, breaking his back. He died soon after and was buried at sea.
We had lost another longtime member of our company when we were in Spain. Sally, the Rhesus monkey, had her big moment in the show when she worked in the “Animal Tails.” The audience was shown a platform an inch thick and about thirty-six inches square. On top of that was a large book, about the same size as the platform and it was all resting on three foot high legs. No draperies to hide anything, it was all wheeled around, the book lifted and opened and shown to be empty. It was closed – Sim Sala Bim – and opened and out came ducks, geese, sometimes a baby goat or lamb, and then Sally. She ushered all the animals off stage!
The best part of the whole illusion was what the audience never saw. When loading the animals into the “Book,” Sally would stand near by watching the whole procedure and then when it came her turn, without any help, she would climb up into the compartment, push and shove the squawking animals out of her way then reach out, pull up her chain and then pull the door shut!!
Sally was a friendly monkey and liked all the male members of the company but she didn’t like being handled by women. Consequently we were all very shocked to hear from Thurston, that he was being sued for some outrageous sum of money by a family claiming that a “large Ape” had jumped the fence surrounding his Long Island estate and attacked a young boy, who ever since, had been suffering from seizures.
Since Sally was the only monkey that had ever been on his property, Thurston wanted her sent back to him. But just a short time before Sally had died from pneumonia. Pop offered to send her remains to America but before this could be arranged, Thurston went into court and, we were later told, created such a scene, that he lost his own case.
It was in 1931 that Dante purchased the Kellar-Thurston title and the show. This terminated his contract. Howard Thurston died in 1935.