Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-10-14
DANCED INTO FAME
AT FOUR, SHELEADS
BALLET AT SIXTEEN
Little. Miss Miller Never
Had a Lesson and Calls
Terpsichorean Life Easy,
If One Sleeps a Lot.

sixteen-year-old Miss Marilynn Miller
her real, rightly name, II you please
is the premiere danseuse In the divertisse.
ment in "The Passing Show of 1914" and
does some clever initiating to boot
She has never seen Anna Pavlowa, or
even the Vernon Castles. for that mat
ter. Moreover, che has never taken a
dancing lesson in her life, and yet at an
age when most girls are only Just maxi
ing UP their minds whether the game is
worth the climb, she has arrived well
toward the top OF the ladder of her chosen
career.
Quaint, demure and modest, with none
of the proverblal earmarks Of the actress,
she suggests the bread-and- butter miss
fresh from the confines of some young
ladies' finishing school rather than the
little ballet dancer in tarletan and tights
who nightly hops UP on her toes and
pirouettes around with all the lightness
of feather, the grace of butterfly and
the energy and vivacity Of a veritable
dynamo.
TOE DANCER SINCE SHE WAS FOUR.
To see her curled up in CHAIR in
her room, a maid trimming her a hat on
one side and sollcitous mamma hover
ing on the other you'd never think she
could do 1t. She doesn't look the part.
And yet:
"rve been doing toe dancing ever since
was four" she will tell you, with glrlish
pride. "I am known all over the Western
circuits, have been to Cuba and Hawaii
and to Europe twice. and only Just made
my debut in New York with this Pass
ing Show when 1t was brought out this
year at the Winter Garden.
How did | learn to dance? 1 didn't.
IT was born in me. l don't know how
do it, but | just do. It's as easy as
eating or breathing or sleeping.
when I was years old my mother
took me to a moving picture show.
remember it distinctly. 1t was in Day
ton. O., and the movies were novelty
then. One of the films showed n ballet
dancer, and after seeing her, It looked
so easy that l felt that l simply must
try IT."
Yes" interposed her mamma at this
point, "she said to me. Mamma. If you
would make a fluffy little skirt like that
I'm sure I could do that"
And mamma made me the little skirt"
she continued, 'and in my stocking feet,
without any slippers whatever, | dis |
covered that my toes would support me.
my mother and father were de- |
lighted. Together with my two sisters |
they were travelling In a vaudeville act. |
They took me in, and we became known |
as the Five Columbians. All over the |
West, frcm Chicago to the Coast, we |
Travelled, and was down on the pro-
gram as Baby Miller But whenever
the family came East they had to leave
me out, for the Gerry Society, of New
York, and the various child labor laws
of the other States prohibited my ap-
pearing.
1T was last summer in London that
Mr.. Shubert saw me. I was dancing in
vaudeville and had on a little frock that
! made all by myself" She ran to the
bureau and drew forth a cunning little
bIoomer costume In futuristic design.
ITS right we'll put together, too" she
added with naive pride.
well, MIR. Shubert came several times |
TO see me, and almost before / knew II
! had signed a iive-year contract with
him and was making plans for my New
York coming out. And here I am in the
Passing Show doing the thing that l
like best of all TO do-dancing.
Dancing, you know" she continued,
is not at all the strenuous occupation
That 1t looks, If you take it in the right
sort of way. A dancer must have sleep,
and plenty of 1t. Twelve hours, II she
can manage to squeeze them In. None
Oh your Edlson's 40 winks. That would
never do"