Evening star., 1936-07-14

STREET DANCING
STRIKES CAPITAL
w. P. A. Project, However,
Fails to Meet Expecta-
tions of Officials.

you can truck on down for nothin'
1t don't cost dime. I'm going to
phone Willie"
This was Mary's bland reaction last
night when street dancing-complete
with Harlems truckin'-swished into
Washington on an asphalt pavement
under the wing of Uncle Sans w.
p. A.
Mary made her phone call and
pretty soon Willie was there and they
''trucked on down" from 9 pm. until
IL. Mary was there when the band
arrived and she found out pretty
quick that 1t didn't cost anything
and that the piano player used to
play with Vincent Lopez and the
drummer with Meyer Davis and that
each man in the eight-piece band
made $79 per month-regular w. P.
A. relief worker wages.
Mary found out, too, that her
slacks and low-heeled slippers we're
just the thing for dancing on an un-
vanished asphalt surface and Willie
did pretty we'll by himself in a pair
Of rubber -soled sneakers.
Clicked In New York.
Mary probably hadn't heard.
though, that Uncle Sans w. P. A.
had been sponsoring the same sort of
thing in New York this Summer
with remarkable success. "It's really
caught on up there" the bands man
ager said. He's just returned from
New York. where he found out few
things about making Government
sponsored street dances click
In New York and Brooklyn huge
crowds come out for the dances and
in Washington next Monday. or some
Monday during the Summer, maybe.
the crowd will begin to approach the
1000 or 5000 that the park off,
cials hoped would attend the initial
program
Putting special preparation on
the street surface helps" he said.
Makes it slicker You just about
have to have an amplifying system.
too, and some lights" The amplifying
system and the street preparation were
missing last night. due to last-minute
slip-up. But lights weren't needed
particularly there on the Ellipse drive
under the shadow OF the Monument
Street lights shown through the over
hanging trees. which parted above for
a blue canopy of rky, shot through
with beacon shafts lighting the Monu-
ment.
Section Roped Of.
r. M. Jones led the orchestra the
bandstand having been erected just of
from Constitution avenue. Resined
and waXed earlier in the evening, q
section about the size of a downtown
hotel ball room was roped off.
There were lot of policemen about
at first, but they thinned out soon
Only few stayed to keep the rope
lines up. and they just stood around OF
sat down somewhere and hummed the
songs or joshed with the dancers and
quipped that if they didn't know
w. p. A. was sponsoring the dance
they would swear 1t was some shoe sole
company.
Nobody told the dancers to Join in
the chorus"-so they did. You didn't
have to. though. You could truck
whistle, waltz or 60 home About
500 - mostly youngsters - chose to
truck, whistle or waltz.
Everybody Friendly.
In the course Of the evening Mary
and Willie stepped on quite a few
crisp, long organdie dresses and scuffed
few white buck shoes, but it didn't
make bit of difference, because the
organdie dresses and white buck shoes
smiled back and everything was for
gotten.
Promptly at II o'clock the band
swung softly into Good Night. Sweet
heart: faded off into Home. Sweet
Home" and ended quietly on the
strains of "Au Revoir." A few hung
about for a few minutes, then cars
began barking and couples strolled off
Arm in arm. Mary and Willie saun-
tered away across the ball diamonds
toward Pennsylvania avenue. Gee, -
Mary sighed. Swell" said Willie.