South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1921-08-28

/ chorus beauties tive dashing figure
OF a wealthy young blood. clad in the
latest mode. bouquet in hand. wait
/ ing eagerly AZ the rear or side en-
trance OF a theater. They take il for
granted that chorus girls are a fast
set. never happy unless they are fly
off on some g.ddy joyride 10 a gay
cafe where champa gne is secretly
uncorked and a general wild orgy
I ensues
This simply is not true OF the
modern chorus beauty. To hold
such a belief is unfair 20 an eminent
" respectable. hard working class OF
American girlhood. and II is with
particular pleasure that l take this
opportunity 20 confute any such ri
diculous notion. The story OF the
passing Of the Stage Door Johnny is
also the story OF the rise OF the
chorus beauty's profession TO the
high standard Of dignity which it
now enjoys What l tell you is OF a
historical nature, therefore, you Will
see has direct connection with the
popularity Of the very beauties who
are now favorites on 1925 stage.
Come back with me Is years. It
was then that the gay Lotharies
hung thickest about the stage doors
Of theaters all the way across the
land. 1t mattered not where you
[ took a show-Broadway or Hickville
the Johnnies always turned up 70
greet the chorus beauties OF that day.
What is a Stage Door Johnny,
anyway" some one asked me the
other day.
That is almost as hard a question
to answer as:
What is a man-about-town?" TO
answer which, If you remember. o.
I Henry wrote a delightful short story.
We'll. like the "man-about-town, %
| the Stage Door Johnny was some
times a bounder, sometimes just a
plain young fool Sometimes he was
an old fool and very often he was
downright vicious The type always
I included sprinkling of milliOnaires
who would get the chorus beauties
into fearfully extravagant habits Of
living. The great majority OF the
rest had much more money than
brains and were Of the kind that pes
tered a girl most annoyingly with
their silly attention.
You must remember that at this
time the average chorus girl was Of
no more importance 10 the actual
! performance of the play than parsley
springs are to the enjoyment of a
, planked steak. They were mere
I Il Ia Of
the less reputable Of the managers.
/ Il must be admitted. tolerated the
girls on their payrolls simply as a
sort of advertising attraction for this
very class Of Stage Door Johnny pa
I tronage to which have referred. In
| deed some Of them. il is known actu-
ally encouraged flirtations and gay
Iescapades begun at the stage door
! the great wrong Of which they could
not grasp until their pocketbooks
were subsequently affected
I suppose that $25 a week. at this
particular time, was considered a
high salary. Not all girls got that.
They were struggling to exist on this
pay and advance their profession at
the same time-and it was a terrible
task. Could the beauty Of those
| days really be blamed If she accept
ed luncheon and dinner engagements
from the Stage Door Johnny With
her it was often a case OF getting
enough TO eat she had expensive
clothes to buy and might be ordered
on the road at any moment, with no
larger pay to compensate her for the
D inv n
| travelling.
/ 1 recall a pathetic instance OF
those days which will give you a
graphic conception OF the poverty OF
I chorus girls possessed of really strik-
\ ing beauty. 1t is a thing which
could not happen today.
Some 20 years ago a young girl
came on from California 10 New
/ York-the city OF her dreams. She
was a girl with that rare sort of
beauty which enchants az first sight.
She struck the metropolis with a
high heart, high ideals and lot Of
am bition. Seventy eight dollars in a
|chamois bag under her dress was all
the money she had in the world.
Making the rounds OF the theatri-
/ cal manag gers offices, applying for a
I job in the chorus. 1t took three
weeks for this rare beauty TO land a
position (They did not know how
\ TO play up beauty effectively in
those days. Nowadays this same
girl would have been snapped up
/ eagerly by the first producer who
saw herr. And her pay was $50 per
week, out of which she was COM