Evening star., 1937-03-21

m he impression OF QeSOl5LlON Is
just shade above hat of your
apartment after a party and
lust below that of Madrid
It's cabaret after hours. The room
is darker than usual Walters move
softly in the gloom, stacking chairs on
tables Ash trays are emptied, linen
is changed on the tables and the last
debris of the last party is carted out
to a weary dishWasher. The chairs
sit on their tables and say: Why
don't you go home to bed, 70 dope?
The place closed"
But tonight there are signs of life.
Back in a corner chairs are dragged
from the tables and a few girls drop
onto them YEARLY. The ratio is about
one and a half chairs per girl. Some
of them need only one chair. Some Of
them are wearier and need two.
A dance team comes in. You can
tell it's a dance team by the mans hat
and topcoat and his sleek lack hair,
by the girls blond hair and the dog on
the leash. A theatrical agent strolls
in and grabs another chair from an
other table. Musicians drift IN one by
one, not particularly refreshe by an
after midnight snack. The producer,
down from New York, hands a batch
of music to the orchestra leader, goes
into whispered conference with him.
It's rehearsal night. Tomorrow at l
O'Clock a brand-neW Broadway revue,
with scintillating feature acts and a
bevy of beautiful girls, opens. To-
night the scintillating feature acts
and the bevy of beautiful girls are apt
to labor until or in the dawn.
WE GO back to sit down and have
w a look at what goes on. 80 you
still stay up all night, do you?" asks
voice from the gloom. It's a girl
who's been here before But before
we can make obvious reply the man
ager of the place strolls Ny. asks,
How about a picture this week? Look
at these. Pretty, eh?" He spreads out
some stills" just obtained from the
dance team.
More girls drift out from the
dressing rooms. Some of them are in
rehearsal clothes-shorts, rompers,
bathing suits, play suits for kiddies or
anything that's comfortable. Some
still are in street clothes. Their re-
pose is interrupted.
Hey kids" calls the producer from
the floor, now brightly lighted. Lets
90 through the Love Is a Dancing
Thing number No music this time. "
The girls take places at the edge of
the floor, at a signal start to dance.
They don't hit all the taps and the
kicks aren't so high at this hour. They
have rehearsed the number often
enough so that they know the rhythm
and can stay together without the
music. Then something happens. One
girl goes the wrong way, another fol-
lows and they end up completely
muddled
"Whoa!" shouts the producer
"You couldn't do a formation like
that again if you rehearsed 1t a
month. Let's take it again.
The girls start over. Halfway
through the number one slips and
almost falls. The producer stops
them.
"All right" he says. "Once more,
and if you're going to fall down, all
of you fall down together"
Again the girls start the routine
In the midst Of it the band blares
forth and the blues singer starts to
rehearse next weeks featured song.
The girls look disguised, try to go on
with their own number, then give up
as the bands different tempo throws
them off They drift back to the
tables. Two of them start for the
dressing room.
II am going to put on pair Of
tap shoes with rubber on them" says
one, a bit defantly as though ex-
pecting argument. Or ice skates.
1 don't know what they did to that
floor, but they did a good job Of it"
FINALLY the singer and the band
finish with the song. "Hah,"
growls one of the girls. Half hour
for one song. At this rate we'll still
be here when it's time for the matt
nee"
"Okay," calls the orchestra leader.
who's next?"
"I am" says the comic.
Yeah? How come you are?" asks
the male half of the dance team a
shade belligerently.
"'Cause got cold, and if don't
get home and get some sleep I'll
never be able to sing tomorrow"
"Cold?" says the dancer Where?
In the throat? Yeah? Say, did you
every try spraying it with -" The
dancer and the comic go into a con-
ference over the favorite methods Of
knocking out colds.
'Oh, come on one of the girls
groans. Lets get this over with and
have the clinic tomorrow"
The comic instructs the orchestra
about his music. He gets technical
about bars and tempos. The dancer