The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-03-07
In New York
BY PAUL HARRISON

theater programs cdrefully. down to the small-type, lists of mem bers of the chorus, always can a. muse himself wondering where on earth the pretty girls find the a- mazing pscudonyms with which they mask their identities.
 In the first place, of course, no chorus lass has any ambition to be commonplace. even in name. That often accounts for some of the exotic-sounding handles such as Villi Milli. Isis Brinn, Aida Conkcy and Dawn O'Day. Their names have to be genuinely dis q tinctive, else a fresh youngster of Is might become confused in the mind of some casting director with an elderly woman of 24 who has knobby knees or three excess pounds of flesh. ,---
 So they delve into the classics and the name-books. encyclopedias and probably even dictionaries, to find such noms de theater as Anya Taranda, Mauricette Ducret, Toni Sorrell, Debby Coleman, Amalie Ideal, Thella Phane, Mickey Mo- Killop, Thalla Zanou, Shawni Lan- di and Gaia Eric. Others besides Miss Phane choose names with a smile. There's Lou Lovey, for one. Also Dorissa Nolova, Mona Mcdlin, Hope Dare. Jewell Morse and La Norma Bourgeois - the gal with q social conscience. The prizc- winner in this category is Gay Orlova. There are lots more Hopes, few Faiths. but not q sin gle Charity. BY ANY OTHER NAME
 You'd be surprised, though, to know how many chorus cuties remodel their names upon the ad- vice of numerologists. Diris De Lairs, Lcvenoira Sabalis. Marial- yce Rice and Nellilew tWinger are some of these. Louene Ambrosius and Cleo Athcnoes. two current kickers, had 0 pretty hard time putting the right letters into pro- nounceable combinations. Louisa Riane had her name analysed and found she had to change it to Lou ga Riane. which she did with no misgivings.
 There long has been Q legend to the effect that Katharine Cornell but the second "a" in her first name for some numer0logical req son. Happens not to be true, however. in spite of the fact that the common English spellings are Katherine and Catherine. Miss Cornell will tell you that she Is using the Greek spelling of the early martyrologists. Saint Kath- arine of Alexandria, first of the ha1f-doZcn canonized Rates, popu- larized/ the name. Katharine Hep burn uses 1t, too.
 The greatest name.c changer
 in show business, though. is
 Charles Cummings, who plays
 the juvenile lead i'm the "Zieg-
 field FOllics." He's n numer.
 oIOgy fan, and alters his name
 every time he goes into new
 -"haTmOniZcs" 1t. by
 arithmetic formula, with the title of the play. In the Fol-
 lies he Is listed as "Bricc WutchIns". In Strange Or-
 chcstra' he was Robert c.
 Conway v. fin n previous "Van- Il itics" Inc was "Blade Con-
 way" and tn "Thc rOOf" he called himself "Bladc Stan
 hope Conway. ft*s
 PLAYING WITH EXPRESSION
 Jose Iturbi, the great Spanish pianist. speaks pretty good Eng fish now, and even has Q smatter- Ing of Broadway slang. But he likes to recall his dificulties dur ing his first visit to this country several years ago. One afternoon he had another musician. a cohn- tryman, in. his, hotel suite. and de- cided to order tea. He called the desk, but couldn't get Room serv- Ice or make anybody understand what he wanted. Tried again and again. and the young lady on the other end of the wire had no idea what he was trying to say. Final ly Iturbl shouted. "Wait. plizs you walt" laid down the telephone. went over to the piano and banged out "Tea for Two A. few min utes later q waiter arrived with tea and cakes.