The Washington times. [volume], December 17, 1922, Image 70

About The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
Young Daniel Casw
Gay Stage Favorites
Girl in New York," Reveals
MU* Mary Lygtt,
tha Walt-Kaawa '
,,<n '. Slew Girl. "
ft* WltoTriad?ka ' ?
? "Stikida Trick"
and Won Back Har
Swaathaart;
and Triad Ik Agaia
and W??
Laughad At.
Helon Lm Worthing, Another Weil
Known Show Girl, Who Took Sotnothinf
Other in tho Way of Poison?But Didn't BW.
By Daniel 0. Caswell.
CHAPTER VII.
(Coatiautd from Lsit Sunday)
(C> ltlt. by American Weekly, Iijc- Great Britain Rlrhta Reserved
THE celebration that greeted me when I
returned to my home in Cleveland with Jessie
Reed, my "Follies" bride, was the climax of
my life behind the scenes. As I mentioned last week,
the only unfortunate circumstance that marred the
free-for-all party that was staged in my honor was
that it took place in a Cleveland hotel, and not in
one, of my clubs, as I had planned. . All of those
organisations had cancelled my membership when
the news of my marriage became public, and gently
but firmly closed the doors in my face when I called
with my wife and her peculiar friends from the
show
That ostracism was reflected iq the attitude of
Hijr family when I suggested to them that it would
be a pretty idea if Jessie could spend the week we
were to stay In Cleveland in my mother's old-fash
ioned mansion, next door to John D. Rockefeller's
Cleveland estate. But my mother ooldly put the taboo
dn this suggestion.
,!* *<* some unpleasantly chilly stares, too, from
?a* of the older members .of. Cleveland society
whqn I sought to introduce my show girl bride and
some of her show gir) friends in restaurants and
other public places from time to time during that week.
One old dowager, who once dandled me on her knee,
took one look at the frisky chorus girls I was entertain
ing at dinner and then gave me a stare that was fully
twelve degrees below xero, Centigrade.
But this singular lack of enthusiasm among the
strait-laced group of my mother's friends was more
than made up by the back-slapping congratulations
of the young men I hid known at college and prep
school. From the time I arrived in Cleveland until
the day I left, my suite was filled with these young
sters, all of whom professed great Admiration for
me and my "independence" in marrying a show girl.
All of them pretended that they woald do the very
same thing if they were given a chance, and all of
them seemed to think that a show girl represented
the essence of beauty, wit, charm and all the other
attributes that make a woman desirable.
This point of view on the part of prematurely
wise young men has always amused me since the
fortune that made me so popular with the chorus
ladies ran out, and I was invited to return to the
tall grass. Why is it that a mere, and often a very
temporary, connection with a musical show seems to
endow a girl with all the charms of Venus, Cleopatra
and the Queen of Sheba combined ?
These same young men would not waste a glance
on these young women if they saw them in the en
vironment from which they graduated to the show.
How many young millionaires, for instance, waste
their fortunes and their time pursuing waitresses
around the country ? ' And yet several of the popu
lar show girls who are the most successful in en
chanting these youngsters reached their present emi
nence from the humble stepping stone furnished by
a lunch counter. But the fac> that they are now
"Follies" girls seems to weave a magic spell that
completely obliterates their past, and their present
sometimes, as well.
At least one of the celebrities in last year's "Fol
lies" commenced life as a newsgirl on New York's
lower East Side. But all of that is forgotten now
by the millionaire admirers who besiege her with
their attentions, and who would not even notice her
in her former humble station of fife. Others in the
show are immigrant girls, and at least two that I knew
In the course of my career with the show conversed
with each other almost entirely in some Central
European dialect that was neither German, French,
Austrian or Poliah.
They had come to this country to be servant girls
and had unexpectedly been elevated to their present
prominence by a shrewd scout for 4 musical comedy,
from which they had come to the "Follies." But in
who were under the* delusion that they were perse
cuted Russian princesses, forced to leave their native
land 'because of political intrigue. It was even
hinted that these potential kitchen scullions were
the missing-daughters of the Czar.
But there are so many amusing instances of the
same sort that I will discuss them more in detail
later on, when I have more room. My purpose in
mentioning them now is to explode the preposterous *
notion that "Follies" girls are recruited solely from
the aristocratic families of America and abroad.
Were it not for the destiny that intervened in their
reapective careers, many of them would be first-class
laundresses, as, perhaps, some "Follies" graduates
aw now at this moipent.
Among the young men with whom I celebrated
my marriage in Cleveland all were eagebr to be in
troduced to the pretty little creatures of the chorus?
as eager as if they were meeting princesses of the
blood instead of the ex-hash house favorites and
former chambermaids who had been elevated to
prominence in the shew.
If each of the young men whom I presented to
my wife's friends in the show had had his hands on
enough of his father's hard-earned money at the
time, I believe that there would have been a drxea
marriages on the day we reached Cleveland.
As It was, there was at least one elopement, and
a very tragie one, following that all-day reception
in my hotel suite. It is a fairly typical story of
what happens when a foolish young man, with more
money than he knows what to do with, encounters
that glorious creature, the show girl.
Since the story is told here for the first time, I
will withhold the young man's name. Although he
waa married ttfo years ago, his mother does not
know it yet, and I am certain the news would liter
ally break h?r heart I shall call the girt Edna. Hm
?pit* of their obscure origin and former
ambition to perform the menial duties of
plain housework, they were greatly
sought after by the stage "Johnnies,'/
Gordo* C. TWm, WM Wu Cw
plotolr Foolod ky tko Flr?t "S?icMo
Trick" of Mary Lygo, But J?rod at
Hor mmd C.llod It "OW Staff" tin
Sacond Tim* Sko Triad It.
distinction while she wy with the show seemedJp
be that she possessed the most nearly perfect figure
in the cast, and was given all the poses that thaMii- <
tinction called for, often posing in the nude, for the
sake of Art and customer* who had paid their freod
$4.40 to see the show. Miss Edna, I understand,
left the "Follies" to become a private secreting a^
few days ago. Whether she is still married to my
young Cleveland friend I cannot say; but I do knew
that his experience was a tragic repetition efoty
own. \
No one suspected that he had "fallen" so liard
until the show again reached Boston, and this par
ticular young man was obeented
to be the steady cavalier-' of
pretty Edna. He was atteaHtfnf
Harvard at the time, so thaf,n<p
one was surprised to see hMf to
Boston. It was not untillater
that I learned he had found oc
sion to elope during the''tew
weeks that the show was there.
He took his marriage )iarjt, *
and was torn by all sorts of jeal
ousies that he would sometimes
communicate to me.. At last he
reached a rather serious mental
state. He gave up his studies
and, temporarily, a brilliant fu
ture, and began drinking
heavily.
His father, a splendid old gen
tleman, whose hopes were cen
tered on his son, could not un
derstand what had taken pos
session of the boy, and did
everything to matters to
his mother. The break came
when the young man drank so
heavily one night that the at
tendants of a Cleveland club of
which I was a member locked
him into a room on the tmrd
story of the bdildlng for his own
safety. The result was that he
jumped out of the window to
the street and missed death by
an eyelash.
For several weeks'he hovered
in delirium, while Mias
continued to delight the patttA
of the show in various cities, a)id
it was then that the storjr came
out The boy kept callnflpTe#
name, pleading with her
to his bedside. ?'
His father began to hayfliis
suspicions, and sent for me'. ;'to
gether we arrived at the tctrtlfc
The old gentleman was obviously
broken-hearted and begged me
not to say anything to the boy's
mother, as she was in a state fi
collapse over his. injuries^ .and
he feared that the news ttllht
have a serious effect. Since
I have heard that the father has
lost the greater part of hit fortune, and I have etflen
wondered whether the worry brought about by his
son's foolhardy romance was not partly the caus*.U.v
For some reason or other all of the romances
which I engineered during my career with the "Fol
lies" came to a most unhappy ending. Not that I aet
out to be a matchmaker, but many at th# young WW*
I met begged me to introduce them to gome m the
"Follies" girls, and I had the same requests from the
girls in reference to the men. I was a matchri$fer
in spite of myself.
While I am on the aubject, I might mention.the s
romance of Gordon Comstock Thome and Miss Mfry
Lygo, which waa as badly bungled as any of thep.in
which I had a hand.
Young Thorne waa the Prince Charming of Chi
cago'^ night life and a principal heir to the millions
of a pioneer Chicago'merchant. Pretty MaryTSygo.i
as the reader haa probably guessed, was one of the
ornamental ladies of the "FoHlee." My reason .for
introducing them was that I thought Miss Lygo,
might induce Mr. Thorne to leave my wife's WmtCj
where Jessie waa holding one of tier customary
salons. In this way I hoped to enjoy some of my
wife's society-?for a change.
Tiie next 1 heard of this particular romance was
that "Contrary Mary" Lygo had tried to eommtyjuib
cide in her bathroom at a Chicago hotel. In the pres
ence of the horrified Mr. Thorne. Mow, show girls
usually do not think very deeply?and when* they
stage a bathroom "suicide" scene, with a neglectful
sweetheart within sound of their screams ana etoWfr
a rasor across their wrists, aa Maty Lygo did, 4ht
alaahea are not uauatty very deep. I could fel!
through Mary's "suicide" at once. H is a common
practice in the show business. The lover rutfhes M]
repentant. The girt weepa a little, the drop nrVr# \
of blood ia mopped up, all Is forgiven and tntam M,
on sweetly aa before. ? j
, , ' ' 1. ? 4 ' wr?*