Evening star., 1938-01-30
NEW YORK.

III HERE was no escaping Sonia
Henie this week. The 26-
year-old girl, who has cap
L tured 10 world and three
Olympic fancy skating champiol-
ships, and who will tuck away
something over 100000 this year
for her pictures and her skating
tour, is the toast Of the town, from
critics to taxicab drivers. For the
first time in the history Of Madi-
son Square Garden the reserved
seats were sold out in advance for
all five nights rof her Hollywood
Ice Review" and in order to get q
5O-cent seat the lines were form
ing at 4 pm.
Only by employing our bone
crushing theater agent were we able
to secure q single seat. We found
Hollywood moved to New York.
The workmanlike Garden, accus-
toned to housing everything from
pugilsts to the circus, looked like
the International Casino. There
were colored lights all around the
smooth ice arena and tremendous
multi-colored spots working from
the steel girders. At one end of
the rink a terrace of fake ice was
constructed. where a full orchestra
from Roxy's. with gold equipment,
white ties and everything but the
organ. poured out music ranging
from Strauss to the Suzy @. The
arena audience was done up to a
man or a woman in top hats and
sumptuous dark mink coats.
Sonia Henie made her entrance
eoasting down q slide Of ice in q
gilt sleigh to roaring applause.
Her company, made up of 100
dancing skaters. trained in and
collected from California, prodig-
ally costumed. whirled smoothly
around the arena in q series of
production numbers.
It was an eye-filling spectacle,
but the most extraordinary sight
was the reaction of the public.
After each one of her seven indi-
vidual exhibitions, Sonia had to
give anywhere from four to seven
encores, and then retired to the
poundings and yellings of Henie-
hungry crowd. And remember that
New York audiences are notorious
ly unimpressed by Hollywood stars
who perform in person on their
island. Fredric March closed his
play within week of his New
York opening this winter. Kath-
arine Hepburn's performance in
1.-THE Lake" was drearily received.
But where New Workers are from
Missouri about straight Hollywood
glamour. they are pushovers for
technical skill. especially in sports.
This little Scandinavian, built like
War Admiral, compact and neat,
with Shirley Temple face and
brave and flashing technique, has
succeeded in making softies of
them. One of the saltier sport
critics even offered, in print, to
take issue with movie critic who
called her "pudgy."
THE other night at Elsa Max
wells house she asked her
guests, during dinner, what she
could give to friend of hers who
was sailing. The first, and best
received answer was. kittens. When
we heard about this we began to
pick our brains and those Of our
friends for list of the most wag-
gish presents they had either given
or received. The results seem to
give Cole Porter first prize, with
Alexander Wollcott hot runner-up.
Not long ago. when Neysa Nc
Mein was sailing for a long trip to
India and was watching carefully
the weight and amount of her
luggage, she looked out of her
cabin to see two stewards, totter-
ing down the passageway with a
life-size stone image of the Venus
de Milo. There was no place to
put it but in her cabin, until
room could be found in the hold.
Before that happened storm
came up, and what that statue did
to the furnishings Of the cabin and
the nerves of the stewards is still
an unmentionable subject with the
steamship line.
That was Cole Porter's brain
child. Another he had was send
ing Elsa Maxwell, when she sailed
for Europe one spring, what looked
like lush basket of orchids. She
was entranced until she noticed an
unusual movement and something
pink within the flowers. 1t was a
small pig, his little. restless snout
sticking up among the ferns. Dur
ing the trip Elsa became much at
tached to her pig. sent him up to
the kennels and visited him daily.
When she got to Paris she found
him fine home and it was not
until she left Europe that he went
the way Of all pork.
Another time, when Neysa Nc
Mein was going to Egypt for
Christmas, a group of her friends
decided to give her a party before
she sailed so she could enjoy her
presents without the nuisance of
packing and unpacking them.
Alexander Woollcott began brood
Ing on this as early as August.