The Wilmington morning star., 1940-06-27
Man bout
r..I..
Bv George Tucker

ANEW
minded of Earl Carroll by a sim
pie little sign in a Sind street
night club the other evening.
Carroll was famous for his wan
ities'' on Broadway, and there
was a sign above the stage door
of his theater which said
Through These Portals Pass the
Most Beautiful Girls in the
World."s. More realistic than
idealistic, the proprietor of this
night club has altered the word
ing of his sign to read, Through
these portals the most beautiful
girls in the world PASS OUT"
We also were reminded of Zieg-
field just a couple of days ago by
notice of a singer in a suburban
restaurant. Perhaps her name had
best be omitted, although prob
ably you can guess it easily
enough. This girl came from Ken
lucky and was known as one of
the most beautiful girls who ever
worked in a Ziegfeld show. But
her luck ran out. She became in
volved in a scandal and disappear
ed. They say she worked in Paris
and later in China. Now, with her
youthful freshness and beauty gone
she is singing melancholy songs in
a third-rate restaurant for the re-
orted handout of S25 a week.
1t took about five minutes to
find a completely satisfactory re-
placement for Betty Cradle when
she stepped out of the cast of
''Dubarry Was a Lady" the other
day. The newcomer was Ruth
Bond, a little blond girl from Ruth
erford, N. j., who has made a
habit in recent seasons of stepping
into the shoes of stars who, for
one reason or another, have aban-
doned important roles on Broad
way.
Miss Bond would rather be a
straight dramatic actress than
anything she is able to imagine,
but her talents for tap, time-step,
adagio and ballet. plus a natural.
ly pleasant singing voice, were
precisely what Buddy DeSylva
needed when Miss Cradle an.
rounced, following a dinner en-
gagement with ex-husband Jack
lie Cooper, that she was returning
to Hollywood. Miss Bond has a
laugh and a sense of comedy that
reminds much of Ina Claire - in
fact, she looks a great deal like
Miss Claire, who undoubtedly still
is the first comedienne of the
Broadway theater.
Il suppose I inherited the tenn
permanent that enables me to step
into new roles without much pre-
vious thought or rehearsal" Miss
Bond says, because some of my
ancestors and kinsmen were vau-
deville people, and one - Ethel
MacDonough - was a noted head
Liner on Broadway"
1t hasn't been so long ago that
Miss Bond, on four hours notice,
took over the assignment of a
star in the musical Red Hot and
Blue The critical applause she
won for her relief pitching" eff
forts marked her among pro-
ducers as a girl to know when
trouble beckons. There just
doesn't appear to be anything
around the theater that she can't
Go.
Later we dropped in to see Al
Jolson during a rehearsal of his
new musical Hold On To Your
Hats and, after hopping his be-
cewed brow, he pointed to a nice
looking girl and said he had just
given her a job, though 1 don't
quite understand why"
"She came in here saying she
wanted a job because she wanted
to divorce her husband in Chicago,
and Chicago was that much near
er Reno. We open in Chicago, you
know. When l asked her w h a t
grounds for suit she intended to
use, she said, On grounds of exer-
tion.' l was so speeches. that l
hired her" 4