Evening star., 1951-09-01


The Helen to, whom they play
in show business as a solo dancer
a wife and mother. Mrs. Kaufman
used to be FollieS' girl, when
there were Ziegfeld Follies and
she was a girl.
She was a medium" which is
a Ziegfeld term meaning middle
sized girl between the ponies and
the show girls. The ponies were
the spirited Follies dancers and
the show girls were those huge,
stately ones who looked like $48-
a-dozen roses. Mediums doubled
as dancers and decorations, which
is to say they could do anything
either of the others did although
not necessarily better.
Mrs. Kaufman is still medium
.. as hula costume shows
almost like a bathing suit :.
and what is more she looks rather
exactly like one would expect a
former Ziegfeld medium to look.
1t is a pleasure to report facts like
these.
Mrs. Kaufman, who is a candid
type, is not at all surprised to find
herself back on a stage. There is
nothing she would rather be than
Sam Jacks wife, and the mother
of Carol and Noel. but she,
never forgot show business by SIM
ply being out of it.
This comes out in her reply to
the inevitable question: How did
it feel to work yourself back into
shape? This is question based |
upon the notion that lungs
and muscles. especially those of
dancers. are not what they used
to be. Mrs. kaufman has quick
answer to it.
why, I've never been out of
shape" she says. I've gone right
on dancing ever since I left the
stage. In many ways, I think I'm
"a better dancer now than I was
then. I've studied regularly with
Marion Venable and I've learned
ever so much I never got pro-
fessionally."
How did it feel to find herself
again on stage?
LAS if I'd never been away"
she says.
The family secret is that her
husband worried much more than
she did about the whole thing.
1t was not a lack of confidence in
her ability to do the fairly simple
number she is dancing. Just ex-
citement that there she was doing
once more the thing she was
when he first laid eyes on her
Seeing ones wife as one first saw
her might do that to any man
Mrs. Kaufman thinks it very nice
Of Jack to have butterfly or sol
when he plays her accompaniment.
1t is Carol, II. perhaps. who
got the biggest emotional bang
out of her mothers reappearanceI
in the public eye.
Like all children who do mott
know their mothers before the
latter are married, Carol had not
thought much about what Helen
did as a pre-mother.
When, however, Mrs. Kaufman
began rehearsing again for def
mite show, Carol got interested.
She began asking the usual ques-
tions of any curious child and
listened intently to the answers.
When the last one was given, she
summed up her judgment of her
mothers past in statement
Helen still does not know how
to take it.
why mother" Carol said,
"you were chorus girl"
Any writer worth a salt tablet |
or an old typewriter ribbon walks
out on a limb now and then.
Sports writer's do it most of all,
but even playwrights get into
the act.
Take Davis Snow who works
for Public Housing and writes
drama as an avocation.
He is out on a limb and liking
it. He has written a comedy,
"On His Honor" which will be
presented at the Cross Roads
Theater September IL, and he
Is directing it himself. Some
one else directed Shows last
play. on which the TheaterI
Guild had an option, and the
author did not think much of
the way it went. This often
happens but most authors do
nothing about it. Snow decided