Laurel outlook., 1944-07-12

The Junior Emergency Relief So
ciety recently completed 30 years of
continuous service. Founded by
Mrs. Walter Eyre Lambert in 1914,
it differs from similar organizations
in many ways. For instance, it has
passed through one war and is in
another. For three decades, from
200 to 300 women have met every
Tuesday, six months each year, to
make surgical dressings of. various
kinds, also layettes for wives of
servicemen. Not only that, but
members actually pay for the privi-
lege of operating sewing machines
and using needles for the benefit of
the armed forces. No contributions
are solicited. The Hotel Biltmore
donates the large assembly room in
which meetings are held and at
tends to the assembling of sewing
machines and other equipment. A
department store provides trucks
and another, warehouse space. ALI
other expenses, including materials,
are borne by members who pay an
initiation fee and make a stated
contribution each year. Member
ship is by invitation.
During the year just closed,
$50, 900 articles were turned out by
the members, almost all of whom
are listed in the social register.
Since its inception Cat first it was
the Junior Wal Relief society,", the
organization has made 5000, 900 such
articles. One-fourth goes to the
United States army, one-fourth to
the navy, one-fourth to England and
%one-fourth to home charities. A
large beneficiary is Halloran Gen.
eral hospital, on Staten Island,
where patients r wounded men
brought back from overseas. At
the beginning of the Both season,
Mrs. Lambert was too i'll to make
plans or attend the opening sessions.
A group of officers took over and
the work continued.
= 4
Never before in Broadway's his
tory has ballet enjoyed such
popularity as it does at present. In
the past, Broadway looked on bal
let as strictly "long hair" or "arty."
But a change came and now every
hit show along the street has ballet
in one form or another. Even Billy
Rose, who is said to know a good
show when he sees one, has signed
the classical ballerina Markova
for a musical next fall. So, the man
in the street knows something
about ballet. That brings me up to
a story told the other evening by
Edwina Seaver who is the dancing
Venus in the prologue of Helen
Went to Troy" in addition to her
stint as ballet dancer throughout the
show.
During rehearSalS of the musical,
getting a taxi to and from the thea
ter was a task that taxed the in
testinal fortitude of even expert
enced troupers. Hence when Miss
Seaver, one rainy evening, stepped
of her home in the East Sixties
and hailed a cab, she did so list
lessly, thinking it and many others
would merely pass by. To her vast
surprise, the cab drew up to the
curb. No sooner had the elated Miss
Seaver seated herself than the driv-
er looked back and inquired: "You :
a ballet dancer?" Miss Seaver, no
end puzzled, replied that she was
and was bound for the theater. With
her answer, the driver swung into
high and passed through two red
lights with all the ease of the daring
young man on the you know what.
All the way downtown, the driver,
who informed her that he was a
pallet fan, kept plying Miss Seaver
with questions about dancing-where
she studied, did she follow the clas-
steal or modern, etc. When they
the theater, he got out,
opened an umbrella with a flourish
md conveyed his fare to the stage
Then the question that had
,een burning within Miss Sewers
Thy self finally burst forth. "How
N earth did you know l was a ballet
Iancer?" she asked.
THAT was easy" answered the
river. Nobody but a ballet dancer
would hail a cab on tip-toe when
he's holding an open umbrella"
Yes, Broadway has come to know
'allet!
FatherhOOd: John Kieran and
Dwell Thomas were reminiscing
bout the time when they became
athers . II was in such a daze,"
aid Kieran, that l went around
people how old was our baby
hen it was born . :" That's
othing," returned Thomas, 81 was
} excited that when I first saw the
lrse, I asked her if the baby was
how or n mani