The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-01-16
THE
CLOVEN
HOOP
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By FANNIE HURST
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t@. Mcclure Newspaper syndicate,

OMETIMES neither the manage
ment nor large part of the
~ audiences which crowded the
kind of variety theaters where
this attraction appeared, knew what
Cloven Hoof meant.
But seldom did they miss its con-
notation. Even to the ignorant and
the unenlightened, the term "cloven
hoof" suggested the pagan, the fam
tastic, the unrestrained. the naughty
and forbidden.
The Cloven Hoof act did not dis
appoint.
1t consisted of series of "SoIo
Ballots" as the programs put it, per-
formed by none other than the Faun
himself, role that had for years been
successfully impersonated on vaude-
vile circuits by RenOld RenOlds.
There was a stage name for you.
Renold RenOlds. 1t intrigued the
fancy. 1t made girls who had stood
on their feet all day in shops and fac
.ories thrill with surmise.
1t was said that his performance
had once included stirring trapeze
act that had yielded him over twice
the salary he now enjoyed. bur that
his bride of two weeks had fallen off
the bar and broken her hack and that,
since then, the Glover Hoof act had
consisted merely of the Solo Ballet.
Be that as it may. the performance
still retained sufficient vigor and nov
city to insure Renolds steady and
long-term bookings.
His scene consisted of a grotto, moss
grown, lichen grown, woody. tropical
and full of strange under-and-over
growths of fern, MOSES, orchids and
climbing plants. The effect of wa
terfall was achieved by lighting. Birds
of strange plumages sat in the trees.
a red moon rose slowly out of clump
of jungle. Owls hooted. A nightin-
gale fiuted its half-finished notes. The
behOlder was transported from his
consciousness of city streets, banging
cars and day of moil-and-toil, into the
curious, half-rank. half-fragrant mys-
teries of the jungle.
1t was said that Renolds' "fan let
ters" amounted to hundreds a week.
At any rate, every month he sent
packet of them to the headquarters of
his management in New York as evil
dence of the continuing and hardy sue
cess of his act.
There were those who said the sue
cess of that act was not Renolds him.
self, but his animals During all three
of his Solo Ballots there appeared
upon the stage, birds, dogs, cats,
small trained leopard, a pair of mar
mosets.
Two love-birds lit on the faun's
shoulders and picked cherries rom
his lips. tiny poodle dog ran into
the scene on rear legs, carrying doll
baby in his fragile paws. The tame
leopard walked out of a moonlit
clump of trees and permitted Renolds
to turn double sOmersaults across his
beautiful back. The marmosets staged
a chase up and down the long, slim
TANKS of the solo dancer. Three pale
gold angora cats played ring around-a-
rosy. A flaming macaw flew across the
scene and alighted on the branch of
a tree.
1t was quite an act, ending with
Renolds surrounded by his menagerie,
birds on his arms, leopard at his side,
the dog standing on the back of one
of the angoras, the marmosets chit
tering, the macaw waving it's tri-col-
ored, widespread wings and the lights
causing the waterfall to leap in glory.
This final tableau was posted in
Autographs all over the lobby and
along the billboards of the town.
1t gave people pause. Especially the
young girls whose feet could ache so
at night liked to gather before the
faunal figure in its jungle setting.
Small wonder that the letters con-
tinued to stack up on the table in
Renolds' dressing room. Girls flocked
to his act. Women, especially the
tired, earth-bound ones who stood on
their feet behind counters all day,
wondered about him.
There was an ecstatic sort Of mys-
terry about the man who can be won
dered about. What was Renolds' life?
Fantasy, INDUCED in by the meager
girls in their meager rooms, ran wild.
Actually his everyday real life was this:
There was truth in the rumor that
the two-week-old bride of Renolds
had Fallen from q fvinp fra,~o1o Tho
short, blunt facts were that she had
broken her back, cracked her skull
and met with tortuous internal inju-
ries. She was a frail beauty of
girl who had danced before row of
footlights most Of her life, and, with
the sometimes astonishing endurance
and vitality of the frail, had wealth
cred the horribleness of the accident
and had at least won her life. Precious