Evening Star Newspaper, June 10, 1935, Page 50

-~ One of the dancers who will take part in the Egyptian ballet. _N THE night of June 13, Pennsyl- vania avenue will be ablaze with a gorgeous pageant—one of the greatest ever staged in America. As an experiment in outdoor pageantry, this show of shows will pring to Washington the largest mobile stage jver constructed—a float 185 feet in length and ighing 10': tons. ’eAgbop gr that float will be scenery 24 feet high ” points, and a troupe of actors and actresses ,:‘mberlng 91 persons, playing a scene called sterles of Egypt.” 'I‘yhls processional pageant will begin at John Marshall place and Pennsylvania avenue at 8 ‘clock promptly and move in a westerly direc- up the Avenue. Twelve stops will be made various intervals, during which the persons 0 line the sidewalks will see one-act plays. Ru in itself is an innovation in pageantry ghich heretofore has been a constantly moving rade. At the outset of the pageant a massed band more than 100 pieces, built around the Almas :emple Band, will start the show with a blare ®f music—mostly Occidental and American, Roman chariots to the number of eight, each lled by four white horses, will come next, fol- wed by a ceremonial car on which the Masonic tual, framed by the late Gen. Lew Wallace, thor of “Ben Hur,” will be displayed. As a befitting escort to this ceremonial car, #0 Roman soldiers will march in military forma- $lon—a bodyguard. Then will come the great display of the eve- Bing. On the largest float in the world, so heavy shat three tractors will be required to move it ross the Avenue—but the tractors will not be Two of the tractors will be hidden under float itself and the third camouflaged as an tian Sphinx. On either side of the Sphinx, pulling the float, #ill be a consort of slaves—hefty men, used to ide the float on its way up the Avenue. “Mysteries of Egypt” will tell a thrilling story each of its 12 stops. It is the story of an ‘yptinn princess who has lain dead these many #enturies, but who comes to life during the prog- of the procession up Pennsylvania avenue— ing back to life with her the mysteries of own, her native land. TAKES a cast of seven principals to enact the play that will be staged upon this mam- $oth moving float. Two of these actors will Pe well known singers, one of the actresses a Pong bird of national reputation. Besides these $hespians there will be 44 Egyptian dancers, @l trained by Maurice Winthey, who was with 0 Ziegfeld and Earl Carroll in the heydey of e American theater. The costumes for the ncers, as well as those worn by the principals nd the 40 slaves in attendance, were designed Jane McKenzie, of “Plastic Display.” Gen. Amos A. Fries, former chief of the emical Warfare Section of the United States rmy, during the World War, is chairman of $he Pageant Committee for the Shrine, and has his assistant Col. Harry S. Kimberly, » owman of the old days, who has lived in ashington since the end of the World War. x;)gemnr, these two Army officers have planned e pageant, building it for ‘“entertainment purposes only,” so that all who see the pageant will get “the thrill of thrills.” Those who saw the first rehearsal of the pageant acknowledge that Gen. Fries and Col. imberly did a masterful job; that there has gever been such a spegtacle on the streets of any American city, Col. Kimberly started out in the motion pic- Ppure husiness years ago with the old “S. & A.” putfit, and during the wor he took pictures gor the Government, including the “shooting of ar scenes.” Naturally, he has turned his mo- ‘uu picture experience to good effect and de- gned the whole pageant as a real moving icture show. It was Col. Kimberly who put 1 the famous Pirate Show in Chicago in 1921, hich drew an attendance of 350,000 persons in 1€ ‘day. Though he had part in the Cherry lossom Festival of 1934, he says the present geant will top anvthing he ever did. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, @\y Y 4 KV , ‘ ‘ < g - <2 N2 SSos . -~ JUNE 10, 1935. Shrine to Stage lixperiment In Outdoor Pageantry The Largest Mobile Stage Ever Constructed Il Be Part of a Procession Planned to Outshine Any Lver Before Seen. ' La Nelle 4very and Mary Deery in an Oriental dance. Coming on the eve of Flag day, the pageant will have many patriotic touches, as well as the historic spots that will recall events as far back as 580 years B.C. That the gamut of history will be run is evidenced by the great stretches of time between the scenes depicted. For instance, there is a scene that goes back to the time of the Pharaohs and a scene that shows Admiral Byrd putting up his radio station in Little America. There is another scene that shows a Western prairie, a scene reminiscent of the old days in the West when ranchers and cowboys were constantly fighting Indians. To make this scene as thrilling as one of the old Wild West shows, Col. Kimberly recently sent West and 3ot an old-fashioned stage coach of the vintage of 1889. This will be shown in the parade—with Indians and cowboys in a hand-to-hand battle. The song, “Fifty Thousand Indians and Fifty Million Trees” will enlighten this part of the pageant. Then there will be the Dragon scene, one of the finest in the parade. Rightfully called “The Festival of Light,” this scene will show a dragon’'s cavern, with a beautiful maiden about to be sacrificed to the dragon. A hero comes along and rescues her. The whole scene will be notable because the float on which it is to be presented was first shown in the motion picture featuring Greto Garbo, the film called “The Painted Veil” The float, valued at $36,000, was loaned to the Shrine committee by the motion picture people of the West, Coast and was shipped directly to Wash- ington for this purpose, O GIVE variety to the scenes, the story of Robin Hood will be reiold. Members of the Shrine Committee feel that in honoring this old operetta they pay tribute te an American musician, Reginald De Koven, who composed the score of this operetta, “Robin Hood,” while living at No. 1 Thomas circle. Robin Hood and his merry band of pirates will b2 seen on this float, and the audience along the way will hear the songs that have been familiar to music lovers for so many years— Brown October Ale,” “Oh, Promise Me,” “It Takes Nine Tailors to Make a Man” and “The Armourers’ Song."” “A Desert Caravan,” one of the featured scenes in the pageant, will recall to the Shriners the gentle art of stepping over the hot sands, but for the uninitiated it will also bring back memories of a series of musical comedies and operettas staged in the American theatef within the last 10 years, notable among them “The Desert Song.” This float will have a troupe of vocalists singing the theme song from the aforementioned musical comedy, as well as other popular numbers, such as “The Sands of the Desert.” On this stage, with the singers, will be a troupe of Oriental tumblers doing their tricks. Built especially to appeal to the President of the United States, there will be a float en- titled “Home on the Range,” with an adobs house shown and a group of cowboys out on the ranch house stoop singing the Presi favorite song, ‘Home on the Range.” To give American history a g« pageant will contain such episodes as story of Molly Pitcher, told in mintature, wi a picture of Molly Pitcher taking her husband’s place at the gun, and of George Washingfon making her a ‘“sergeant” in the Revolutionary Army for her bravery. Then there will be a reproduction of the Lincoln Memorial, with an actor reciting ex- cerpts from the Gettysburg address and from Lincoln's first inaugural address; also, a htile log cabin, showing Lincoln as a young boy To give the whole pageant an air of Amerie La Nelle Avery, who will be one of the® principals in the penguin parade. . canism, the last three floats will be builg around scenes of the Star Spangled Banner— from the time Betsy Ross designed the flag g until it waved triumphant in the World War. One proud moment for all Shriners will be when the railroad train comes by, each car bearing an exact reproduction of one of the 15 »rs orthopedic hospitals now flourishing in all parts ws of the country for the care of crippled children— each car filled with children. For weeks the actors and stage designers e have been at work on this pageant, which will, set, undoubtedly, go down in the history of pageantry , . as the final word. More than 3,000 persons'”' will take part in the processional, and the total det cost will come close to $100,000—a street show ise, comparable to any ever seen in America, ery ers A= W hat to Seein Washington ni= Continued From Page 10, ! u- of commerce and industry, is the custodian on of the national standard measurements of length and mass and is the principal testing laboratory for governmental purchases and sup- "8 plies, although doing some work also for prie a vate industries and the public. e- It was established in 1901, under the De= partment of Commerce, and employs 700 skilled technicians in the flields of physics, chemistry and engineering There are 12 laboratory 0 buildings in the unit. B Bureau of Engraving and Printing LL the paper money and postage stamps g used by the population of the United States y are printed where visitors may see the processes, != under the chaperonage of expert guides, at the ‘- Bureau of Printing and Engraving. t Here 5,000 expert employes turn out a daily average of 3,360,000 currency notes. In this F institution one false slip of a workman's tool = or & miscalculation of a width or depth of line = may destroy the merit of months of labor and cause a grave business tragedy. The bureau has grown since 1862, when it occupied one room in the attic of the Treasury, to its present size, covering 15 acres of floor space. Visitors are encouraged to ask questions in this building, which carries on a labor most fascinating, perhaps, of all the functions of Government, Academy of Sciences For those who like to “see the wheels go round,” a visit is recommended to the National | Academy of Sciences. It was established in 863 by an act of Con s, to “‘advise the Government in scientific matters when called upon to do s0.”" The exhibits are purely teche nical, but are working models which the visitor may observe in operation by pushing a button. Here one may see the stroboscope, spectroscope, voice machine, Foucault pendulum and miniae ture aergnauatical wind-tunnels, among a score f other machines | Smithsonian Institution Housed in half a dozen buildings are the Smuthsonian Institution and the National Mue- seum Smuthuontan proper, the National Museum Noturatl History Building, National Museum Continurd on Page 18, l —-‘