Evening star., 1944-08-22
After Dark
News and Comment Of the Night Clubs
By the Spectator.
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Now that the heat waves over,
at least for a few days, several Of
our friends have been torturing
themselves thinking Of all the ways
they could have stayed cool. Treas
ure Island, with its life-sized ice
pond, came up for honorable men
ton.
"Brrr"-the coldest place in town,
someone reminded us, used to be
the Wardman Parks Metronome
Room, but that was when the decor
consisted OF dripping icicles. The
walls made you shiver with their
murals OF Byrd's trip to the South
Pole and all across the top Of the
bandstand were those formal little
penguins In snow white shirt fronts
balanced on a fringe of ice over
the band leaders head. Now the
ice has been replaced with colorful
murals. and frankly, since the first
day Of fall is only a few weeks
away, we're just as happy.
\ X X
You've got to hand 1t to Jack
Jurmain, manager of the Trade
Winds. Either he's awfully lucky or
he missed his calling as a Holly
wood talent scout. First he diScov-
cred Margaret Phelan and now he
has new singing star by the name
of Wally Kibbler with looks and a
real voice. OF course, we may be
giving Mr.. Jurmain too much credit
since Major Bowes really discov-
cred Wally five years ago. Also that
lyric baritone didn't just happen.
Wally had an uncle with a baritone
good enough to get him a contract
at the Metropolitan. Just finished
a four weeks run at the Mount
Royal Hotel in Montreal, the singer
has his own radio show scheduled
for the blue network this fall.
We have no inhibitions about ask
ing good-looking baritones their age
and Wally told us he was 81. But
what's harder to believe are those
lO-week-old twin girls. No wonder
mes a proud papa and no wonder
he flashes around that gold band
on his left hand.
Xxx y
Walter Gonsalves is getting that
Rio urge again in his toes as we'll
as his f1ngers-and it's a bad sign
for Washingtonians. Mr.. Gonsalves
whose red hot drum rhythms ac-
company the Millers' piano-organ
escapades in the Neptune Room
talks lately about heading the
equator way toward Rio. You see,
Walter can't speak English and as
yet not one Portuguese speaking
glamour girl has come within ear
shot OF the American Capital.
It's demoralizing," he told us
with the aid Of few interpreters.
Also he has several sentimental
attachments to the Brazilian capital
besides its brunettes. As a matter
OF fact Eddie Duchin tried his best
to get Walter to join up with his
band several years ago but Walter
said no" The Millers used personal
friendship to get him to Washing
ton but they're having a hard time
keeping him here.
We've been told that headwaiters
rarely make mistakes. No wonder
John Lumier thought he was Slip
ping the other night. He picked up
this weeks reservation list for the
Embassy Room and it read almost
identical with that of Hildegardes
opening week. He checked and dis
covered there was no mistake.
Since there's no union rule about
borrowing reservation lists, the
Spectator asked John for a peek.
You'd be surprised at just who
among the Who's Who" were on
Hlldegarde's return list. We were
especially inquisitive after those
publicity releases which told how