We went next to Brisbane. Our engagement, as usual, was successful but we had only been working a few days when, one night after the show, we were all in our respective dressing rooms, removing make-up and getting changed. It was not unusual for people to call goodnight as they left but this night Bill went to each dressing room and stopped to talk. He stayed a little longer with Al and Ruth because they confided to him that they had been married in Melbourne. This was not known to anyone else.
So Bill told them of his plans. He wanted to marry Miki and stay on in Melbourne, when we returned there. He left, telling Dolly that he would stop by her apartment, which she was sharing with Myrie, Fina and Doll Knight. Doll was the wife of Felix Knight, our advance agent, and he had already returned to Sydney. Bill came by the girls’ apartment and when he was about to leave, Doll said she wanted a spin on his motorcycle. Dolly loaned her a heavy fur coat, it was July but in Australia that is wintertime.
Bill and Doll left and it was just a matter of minutes when Bill, not being familiar with the roads, failed to see a turn and went straight into a telephone pole. He was killed instantly. Because Doll was wearing the fur coat, she was somewhat protected, she suffered a broken arm and fractured jaw.
In the early hours of the morning the police came to our hotel and told Mom. She then had to break the news to Pop.
He had to be sedated and was taken to a hospital. And so it was that we felt we had to stay together while Bill’s body was put on a train and returned to Melbourne, since we all knew now that he had wanted to stay there.
When I said before that we were warmly received in Australia, it was nothing compared to the warmth and sympathy we now received. Hundreds of people met the train and went to Bill’s funeral and graveside. Newspaper headlines and front-page articles carried the story. Such wonderful kindness from total strangers.
There was one exception. An impostor had been traveling around Australia, using the name “Dante.” After Bill’s death, this man wore a black armband. Pop went to court and had him restrained. He was not allowed to work while we were in Australia. But he continued after we left and was still calling himself “Dante the Great” and wearing a mustache and goatee. In 1969 – this is the last time I heard of him – he claimed to be eighty-three years old and still going strong. But he was not well received in the major cities but working in sideshows in the bush.
We returned to Sydney. Pop was drinking heavily and blaming himself for buying the motorcycle. He had a big fight with Harvey, who was missing Bill every bit as much as anyone else because he and Bill were close friends, they grew up together. So Harvey was fired and sent back to America. He went to California and that is where Al and Ruth found him when they returned.
We sailed now for New Zealand, Wellington and Christchurch, and from there Pop flew in a very rickety airplane over the Tasman Sea to Auckland. The plane looked like it was put together with spit and tissue paper but it was good for publicity.
It was in Auckland that Dolly’s life would take a new direction. She met an Englishman, Harold Haines, a very charming and likeable person. We all [not including Pop of course] liked him very much and so enjoyed a trip we took to Rotorua, in his company, to see the Maori and the hot springs. It is possible to catch trout in a cold pool and fling it into a nearby hot pool and cook it! We met Rangi, a famous Maori lady who had been greeting and guiding tourists for many years.
I remember the sea voyage back to Australia, on the [TSS] Monawoi, as being very rough and that Dolly cried the whole way! Ruth said she cried on the way over about Norman and on the way back about Harold.
So we returned to Melbourne, then Adelaide and Kalgoorlie. I have never understood why we were booked into Kalgoorlie. It can best be described as a mining town in the nineteenth century. The dryness, dust and heat (115 degrees), it was now December, were unbearable and after ten days, Dante cancelled the rest of the engagement and we left for Perth.
We were puzzled about the hotel we were staying at in Kalgoorlie. There were peep holes in the doors!
We opened in Perth just before Christmas and I remember waking very early on “Boxing Day” (the day after Christmas) and listening on the radio to the chimes of Big Ben coming from London.
About this same time Dante was leaving a pub, he had a friend with him who later corroborated his story. A man followed them into the street and suddenly struck Dante in the face. He was knocked down and his jaw was broken in two places. The peculiar part of this story is that countless times we had seen Dante provoke people to anger, in bars or restaurants, and then managed to leave unscathed. We also knew that if it ever came to a fight he was quite capable of defending himself. In this instance, we were later told that he had not antagonized his attacker and was taken completely off guard.
We had to lay off for four months while Pop’s jaw healed. It was wired together and I’m sure he must have been very uncomfortable because he did his best to make life miserable for Mom as well.
He sued his assailant and won, being awarded enough damages to pay for the time and income lost.
The company enjoyed the leisure when not working on refurbishing “props.” There wasn’t much to do in Perth, one movie house and the movies only changed once a week.Twice a week we all went to the wrestling matches, an ice cream parlor and the rest of the time did a lot of swimming.
Dolly made up her mind to marry Harold and when she told Pop that she was returning to Auckland he said, “Just like that, huh?” and then a big fight. But for once someone else came out the winner.
We all saw her board a plane and go off to a very different life. She and Harold had three children, two daughters and a son, but we did not see her again or her family until they came to America in 1945, when the war ended. Harold was in the Royal Air Force.