The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 23, 1944, Page 9

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE— JUNEAU, ALASKA SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1944 | homes witn the palm leaves in| . Talented Beauties So Scarce Broadway's Mike Todd lfflmoilgzlyl g i ol " Turns to Mlddle West in Search fOr ChOI"US Girls | _ CHRISTMAS IREEi:‘p'fi‘"““"‘g‘:xg"o‘jk'fxxizs’l‘:":‘?r:‘:"p‘:‘ their thunder god. Winifred stopped them from sacrificing a young boy |to appease Thor's “anger,” then| Christmas trees are as old as|with his gpeat sword felled the oak | Christmas itself, if the story which| with one stroke. In its place there | has come down to us from the first|syqdenly appeared a young fir with By LUCIA PERRIGO Central Press Correspondent CHICAGO—A zoot suit-ets idea of Ziegfeld, Mike Todd, currently Py Broadway’s most startling show- Yuletide is true. man, hit the heart of the corn belt the other day to toss for a loss a time-honored theatrical theory. + To the tall country corn country Rebel Todd turned to harvest tal- ent for new Broadway shows. | Just to prove that the best stems are not on the main stem, Mike held auditions for two days within the staid confines of Chicago's Black- | | & star twinkling on its top branch.| | The legend relates that after the| “Here. sald the Christian knight, ", |“is the living tree. This shall be Three Wise Men and the shepherds | 1> | | the sign of your new worship. Carry Is sing | g | i had SBORLS SRS SR o8 & | this fir tree into your home and “Peace on Earth” and “Good Will| o {to Men” had worshipped Mary's| WOrship it fh’re > _ babe, trees began coming to Beth-| Some historians say the Christ- | lehem to worship the Holy Chiid; | T8 t:;;‘;n°‘l‘:c‘“‘;;’(‘)‘pk_‘"br’l‘)5“$ » trees ‘ vorld ght fir e Crom &IL RIS o 1. N trees to their homes and decorated TO WISH YOU THE BST OF BRRRRREERRRI IR RRERRIRIFIRR storie theater. N Some eight hundred perspiring hopefuls herded onto the bare stage First came the native palms from h o s 3 ) . r ?) 2/ % r around Bethlehem, then came the ;.xe(nf Wwith paper roses, apples and \* \ maples, oaks, birches, and hem-| "A"" RS s LY I L) locks. At last there crept in a tiny| America’s first Christmas tree| J to display their assets—vocal and physical—while Mike bemoaned to a crowd of reporters on hand: “All the pretty girls must be hid- ing somewhere. I can't find 'em on Broadway. Next thing you know I'll be raidin’ defense plants.” + The raid, which he sees strictly as a last resort, is for the purpose of two tune-types he will open this fall, “Up in Central Park,” a musi- cal by, Sigmund Romberg, and {ir tree from the frozen north. It 1“;" :" :p = Waaster, Ohio, in| was so small and modest that none 1543 bY August Imgard, a German | paid any attention to it until sud-| TMIgTant. The first lighted tree ) .J denly 2 /in a church was at a Cleveland y a star dropped from the skics.Lumemn Ahiseo 1848, | end twinkled on a bough of the | little tree, then another and an- T e J |other, until the fir tree was spang- ol glvmg_ o gl{ts to the poor at led with celestial lights. zchrlsunns time originated with the | belief that the Christ Child some- | i Decoration Idea Old | times came to the door as a beggar. | Many more stories are told about T e, the Christmas tree. The idea of| When a crocodile fills its mouth decorating trees for festivals is very |With food the pressure against the B And joys and contentment that will » - “The Emerald Queen,” a hitherto brighten each day of t'l{\e New Year just unproduced operetta from the . ’cld going back to the Egyptian top of the mouth releases tears % trunk of Victor Herbert, in which yue yecr_A group of Chicago girls show Mike Todd two of their reasons for having Broadway hopes. pharaohs, whose people dressed their from its lachrymal glands. the Todd, the self-styled ex-saloon ] e - e EbL keeper, will star Jeanette MacDon-| Fourteen alleged hoofers did so. Bazaar cover stamped them. [trembling smile of a painfully ama- AR R R R R R AR R AR AR AR AR RN RRRRRES ald. Mike also was casting for a|Scanning this collection, Mike| After each applicant had done teurish showgirl who prompted T R R R R R R AR SRR RN RO R TR RRARRRARRARRR Chicago company for “Star and quipped aloud: her turn, Mike indicated thumbs up | Mike to call out: Garter”; so like a juggler the little| “Two sets of twinses. Must be an |or thumbs down to a young girl| *“How tall are you?” n man had an extremely busy day. epidemic of twinses.” with a pencil and paper, kneeling | She quavered: “Almost six feet The hub-bub began a couple of| Two of the “twinses” were|in the aisle beside his third row |without heels.” v days previous to_the ryouts when |straight off a campus with their |seat. When all applicants for any| To whith Todd retorted: Windy City papers carried stories |demure black dresses and black |given group retired to the wings,| “How tall with regular guys?” I of the forthcoming trial runs for |velvet hows in their hair. They |the bearer of good tidings \\'uuhlj A few of the dancers made the Mid-West talent. No one had ever [didn't know a time-step from |go onto the stage and notify the | grade, but not the Broadway grade. ™ heard of a Broadway Mohammed | Diaghileff. | chosen few to appear later on for |Mike signed them to go overseas | going to a Mid-West mountain for| Next to them a wary lass with |a second tryout. {with USO shows for which he is ohead. 8 We should like to take this means, too, of expressing our thanks to each of you for your patronage in the past. You have been generous and we are grateful. show people. Here was news. beautiful legs and a bored look said| There Curious as a yokel at a peep- [sure she’d had experience—the Rio show, & resounding majority of the [Cubana and Abe Marcus’ shows. press and photographers showed up | The next said she'd never danced | muffing their big chance, questions of “Where do they conie L to get a glimpse at “inside an audi- | professionally. Just with her boy| You got it in the quavering note [from?” by saying, “Out of the tion,” to discover what made some |friend. So it went. of a chorus hoy singing a song|cracks in the walls.” talent tick louder than others. To each Mike asked: from a Todd hit hoping his choice E Hopefuls in Huddle “Any experience?” and tagged |would prejudice the producer. Arriving at 1:30 p. m a reporter |0 & “Thank you” following the in-| You could even get it in the So Many Hopes The boys of the press and Mike kept it light. The banter was good. saw the Hopefuls huddled—one sus- |formation. Then he ordered the boy - pected for warmth and mutual en- couragement—in the main section on the first floor surrounded by edges of empty seats. The gray stage was uncomfort- ably naked except for a step lad- der, two scenery flats pressing their | faces to the wall, and a single, un- | compromising light suspended from | the ceiling like an instrument of the | third degree, such as hangs over | the head of a criminal in cops-and- | robbers flicker. The hopefuls alternated between stifling silence and nervous giggles. } Over-anxious, over-painted, over- optimistic, they waited. Some admitted they’'d just read ! about the auditions in the paper and thought they might as well try out. ‘What could they lose? Wasn't Lana Turner discovered simply sucking on the straw of a straw- berry soda? Others said their dra- matic coaches had notified them of the auditions, One houz late, Todd arrived strid- ing down the aisle, a good looking little guy in brown tweed with a faint red plaid ziving it snap. Mike wore a cigar. He always wears a cigar clamned between his teeth. It’s as much a part of the Todd costume as Churchill's cele- brated stogie. He shoved his brown felt hat on the back of his dark head, beamed as brightly as his red, white and blue tie at the assembled fourth ostaters, shook hands all around and called out: | “Dancers line up on the stage.” YULETIDE This is Christmas. The laughter of millions of children of a hundred banging at the lone piano in the pit to: “Give 'em a pick up.” “Dum did ee um dum,” the pian- ist thumped and then swung into a popular tune as the girls, one at a time, did what passed for & time step followed by a twirl, Nervousness, that naked stage, street clothes, all combined to make only the truly talented sur- vive what bordered on showman- ship suicide. You had to be good to get by. But as Mike explained by way of compensation: “My girls make good, they make mink coats and everything.” Next on the roster were the showgirls, those damsels who reach for the six-foot side of life. What paraded across the stage to the strains of “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” was about as glamorous as a gingham curtain until sudden- ly, from the rear of the house dashed an avalanche of pulchritude, the ringleader describing the group as “a package deal.” Showgirls of obvious attraction, poise and sophistication, Mike greeted them like long lost sisters. They'd worked for him before and they were a cinch for a repeat en- gagement. “Set up there, girls, and SMILE like you're getting 500 bucks a week,” he exultantly commanded. They did, and the audience sat back and sighed appreciation. They walked around with their arms held far out from their lithe bodies. Their steps were syncro- mesh. The hauteur of a Harper's MIKE TODD—the “new Ziegfeld"? The laughs were often. But under- ! neath was an undercurrent ef hu- man hopes and disappointments like the one midget who kept tag- ging onto Mike's coat-tails begging for the part of a copy boy in one of tke shows. And the kinky-haired, bespectacled boy with a stocping stance and unwieldly accordian who might be good on radio but scarce- 1y the type to wangle $6.60 from a Broadway playgoer. Then there were the chorus men, only two tenors out of 18 potential Sinatras who tried to sing ballads and boogie and hlues while photog- raphers in the rear of the stage or- dered showgirls to cross their legs, lift their chins, look happy. During all this draft confusion, the ever~ polite Mike kept calling for: “A little professional courtesy, PULL-IEEZ!” His applicants thereafter got a little, but only a little, as the lens boys clickted off large slices of cheesceake for the daily papers. Next came the women singers, some reasonable facsimiles = of grandmothers. The hopeless were weeded out by Mike telling the line- up that he was looking for types rather than voices, You'd have sworn there wasn't an inferiority complex in the crowd. As we tip-toed up the aisle leav- ing the parade of pathetic and hu- morous a backward glance showed a rotund baritone waving his arms like a trainman flagging the 8:40 and bellowing, “I Love Life.” A Broadway show was being born, but you never would have guessed it. | g y tension there. Youjone of the directors. Of the striles g could feel if. You got it in the fal- |ingly inadequate applicants, Mike { tering rhythm of movie dancers|laughingly answered reporters’ { i | | % E} eance, and general good will over +he land. This is Christmas—IN AMERICA. e ———— - Shoes replace stockings at the fireplace in France, Spain, and Hol- land at Christmas—or they did be- . FLORENCE SHOP | i oo NN NNNNNNoVoNo ) PHO Jodrd ALASKA AIRLINES ""Serving the Top of the World" / All Afound the Town-- | All Around the World--! ~— racial heritages mingles with the|fore World War No. IT. bells that summon the devout to AR EBeT ie st - Sk worship in freedom at altars of | A fox rids 1tself of fleas by hold- their choice. Christmas tree, lights | ing a piece of wood in its mouth as hlaze bravely through unshuttered |it submerges in water; the fox re- windows. Motor cars move to friend- | leases the wood when the fleas take iy ly places. There is food in abund- |refuge on it. 8 AL VI e oy B e 37 e BIE R TRCNLEL G DR P A e S e S W B 6 = " =to the men and women of our community who have served democracy so well in as- 'mmink their_tartime r i}pfisibilitit?'m__tl)_e_.’point:bj Sacrifice! This Christmas brings as ! you means of expressing our thanks, We trust the coming year will be one of utmost success for . { and yours. f OURVVCh}islm’is Greetings this year go—riolronly.ld—o—\]ri good friends hercirat home, bu!‘: lo“vnllldth?million:’of "American men n;d w:men”\vht;'will c.elcbralc the holid:;" fl? distantv‘}and HAnd .'w'i‘ti?:u: Christ;};;ér{iééétfing;hg'o oy o STt {our prayers for a complete Victory "."‘"): -I{“_i['g,l’_"'j"l PARSONS ELECTRIC €O. FLOWERLAND DAISY and FLOYD FAGERSON 'its most treasured g .and each di1y of thé New Year will find Ag_’til’o.rér 40 the return of all peacetime pleasures.. : (To.cach of our friends bere at home, ive extend the very best wishes of the Ywletide séason It has been 0:' good :"""“z plus the hope.that 1945 will bring your fondest wishes into being for yourself and your’ to serve you during the pasl f e e e — —ETEIE year and we want to take this V’o';!’;‘_‘ 0 ,{,yy SHATTUCK AGENCY INSURANCE — BONDS the imminence of the return of our men and women in service— iy