The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-09-11
FRANKIE BAILEY
NOW|SD DRUG
CLERK
Famous Coryphee Of .HaIcyon
Stage Days Was First in
U. S. to Wear Tights.
By CosmOpOlitan News Service.

HOLLYWOOD, Calf. Sept. IL
Dame Fashion occasionally stabs
Ambition in the back and gives the
knife a remorseless twist.
Take the case Of frankie Bailey.
When corsets went out of style, 80
did frankie Bailey.
In odd and homogeneous shops of
theatrical costumers all over the
world, chorus girls of today ask
merely for Frankie Baileys," and
the clerk takes out Of q box q pair
Of silk tights. How many OF
these petulant coryphees know the
origin Of FRANKIE Baileys''? How
many Of them know there even was
frankie Baileys' have become
seIJ B-..GeIEeO eIuuv,, q1IM SuoIv
cyl IBoIIlBsq1 10 uopn4I4suT us
ticket-"F'rankie Baileys" are def
initely written into stage history.
but frankie Bailey has been writ
ten out of it.
Now An Humble Clerk.
Today frankie Bailey is an humble
clerk in a Hollywood drug store.
Her duty Is to sell cosmetics
great figures in the film colony.
Very few of her film customers
know who Frankie Bailey was and.
so intensive and swift is the race
for laurels here in this little uni
verse Of its own that few there are
who care because frankie Bailey
is what she Is.
There are two frankie Baileys. the
one Of yesterday and the one OF
today. The frankie Bailey Of to-
day Is q woman, matronly in ap-
pearance and with black hair
streaked with gray. The frankie
Bailey Of yesterday was ''the girl
with the hour glass FORM" the girl
with the most shapely legs in all
the wide, wide world"
She was, so she claims, the first
woman on the American stage to
wear tights. This was twenty-seven
years ago. She cried when she was
first told, by Jake Rosenthal, the
manager Of the show, to put them
on. For seventeen years, frankie
Bailey held her fame on Broadway.
She was one Of the featured mem
bers Of the galaxy Of talent" at
the one-tine famous Weber and
Fields Music Hall in New York.
HalcyOn Days.
These were. she recalled today,
the halcyon days Of the droll Pete
Daley: the inimitable Charlie Ross
Lillian Russell; the golden voiced
Fay Templeton. to say nothing of
the rollicking 1.-THE long and the
short Of it" Of comedy, Joe Weber
and Lew Fields. The last curtain
has fallen on LIES stage, frankie
Bailey remarked today, for Pete
Daley and Lillian Russell: Fay
Templeton, at last accounts was
somewhere in Pennsylvania" +;
Weber and Fields are not partners.
in fun now; and Jake RossnthAE
passed away in a Los Angeles hos
pital a little while ago.
Frankie Bailey was born in New
Orleans and raised in Cincinnati.
She made her appearance in New
York on the legitimate stage, then
went to Weber and Fields and her
popularity increased as the seasons
rolled by.
Then some man or woman some
where, with no thought in mind
but to please a human vanity, de-
creed that corsets were no longer
the vogue.
That within Of fashion sounded the
death knell for Frankie Bailey.
Wits Of her day had said why give
her lines to speak? All we ask is
lines to look at"
COrsets Pass.
Corsets were passe. frankie
Bauey's occupation was gone, for
frankie Bailey in corsets and
frankie Bailey out of corsets were
two different women. Weber and
Fields bought a gown for frankie
Bailey. The company press agent
laid great stress on it, its cost was
$500. But frankie Bailey In
dress did not look as good as
frankie Bailey in tights. Then
events in the life Of frankie Bailey
moved to a pathetic climax with all
the terrifying sweep and poignancy
twice. A daughter died. She in
| She was badly advised. She lost
bought a ticket to Hollywood. hop
ing with a Pickering faith. to
comeback" in this new theatrical
| women with black hair streaked
with gray look alike to the casting
directors. The supply any morning
| for all the studios.
frankie Bailey got a job in the
drug store selling cosmetics. She
Is still looking backward toward
the glory that was hers. But she
is faced with the practical present
which is a matter of bread and
hlItfer fO her