The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-09-13
T WAS born in Independence,
l. Mo, and my childhood was
SOant chiefly in Flt Worth TeY

T WAS born in Independence,
l. Mo, and my childhood was
spent chiefly in Fl. Worth, Tex.
My father died when I was only
5 years old and the several years
preceding our establishment in Fl.
Worth mother spent in Hollywood
writing scenarios for Baby Marie
Osborne, while 1 lived with my
grandmother in Kansas City.
No different from other pride
full mothers, mine used to show
photographs of me to the direc-
tors with whom she worked.
They suggested that the red
headed, freckle-faced young per-
son portrayed be brought West for
pictures, but mother has told me
that children didn't receive the
careful attention then that they
do now in studios, and she refused.
When I was 7, mother married
John Rogers and the family
moved to FIT. Worth. Our house
stood OIL Cooper-st, and the en-
vironment may have been partly
responsible for my eventually
going on the stage.
THE boys and girls of our
Il Cooper Street Gang" always
were organizing orchestras and
producing basement and attic
shows. Every boy and most of
of the girls studied music. Almost
all the girls took dancing lessons.
But if I had any visions at all
of a career, I saw myself behind a
desk expounding knowledge to a
classroom full of children. This
desire arose chiefly from heroine
worship" of my English teacher.
who lived with us for a while in
Fl. Worth.
That interest faded, however
as an equally wholehearted desire
to become pianist did. I used to
thump what 1 fondly thought was
music out of our piano day and
night.
So mother, perhaps for protec-
ton, gave me an instructor. For
three months I all but slept at the
keyboard, while uncritical friends
figured Fit. Worth was going to
give a feminine Paderewski to the
world
Then / gave my first recital
amidst applause from the same
friends. I never touched a piano
key again.
nNE interest grew up in Fl.
" Worth that did not fade,
however, and eventually led to the
stage. BY the time I was 10 I
didn't sing in the bathtub-I
danced in it.
My mother became society and
drama editor of Fl. Worth news
paper. BackStage regions of the
theaters she visited served as my
dancing school. I never had
formal instruction, but picked up
steps by watching hooters re-
hearse and create new routines.
Haunting the back stage finally
led to my remaining there pro-
fessionally. I met Vaudevillians
Santrey and Semour, who one
eventful season sponsored a
Charleston contest. They saw me
fiercely tapping and Whirling in
a dark corner and asked me to
enter.
Tears and cajolings won my
mother over from complete dis
approval and gained me a new
dress for the occasion. 1 entered
and won.
AS is usually the case, vaude-
vile contracts followed and
mother left her newspaper post to
accompany me. AS she tells me
now, she planned to resume her
newspaper career, figuring that I
would drop dancing as I dropped
music.
soon began talking seriously
about Broadway, however, and
mother decided that my career
was more important than her own.
FORTUNATELY, she handled
Il all business affairs and kept
me from marching on Broadway
before I was ready.
Our circuitous journey to New
York, gathering experience in
vaudeville, was neither long nor
short.
failed to set Memphis on fire