NIGHT CLUB "FUN."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 267, 10 November 1937, Page 13

NIGHT CLUB "FUN."

CREDITS AND DEBITS. HAILE SILASSIE'S RING. HOW IT REACHED THE ACTRESS. , (By CHARLES ESCOURT, JUN.) NEW YORK, October 10. Xow that the American Legion has returned home from leave, it's time for inventory—time for credits and debits. On the credit side there are certain large items. One would be the "big apple." That's an item you may have heard of. It came hopping and caterwauling up here from Charleston last summer, and, while it intruded itself on various dance halls in town, it never did get to circulating in the big time. But that's over now. That's over ever since the South Carolina delegation started "big apple-ing" all over the lobbies of the hotels, dragging everybody around into their big squares and commanding them in no uncertain terms to shag, truck, lindy hop, etc. A couple of the chorus directors were seen viewing the spectacle with a thoughtful eye, which indicates that you may count on seeing one or two or three big apples among the chorus routines of your next musical shows. When you do, thank the Legion.

Another item is that it showed the Broadway boys how to have fun in their night clubs. Not since the rah-de-rowdy days of the 'twenties, when boys fresh from the football gameß uptown and in Xew Haven and over in Princeton came marching down with bks of goal posts and souvenirs torn from policemen's costumes, has there been such wholehearted gaiety in tli£night clubs.

Freakage and Breakage. j People climbing all over the stage, stopping the ehow to give impromptu shows of their own, chasing giggling and shrieking coryphees up and down the aisles, squirting seltzer at one another and letting the champagne corks pop where they may. Fun? Well, everybody thought he was just going to die! The depression had introduced a certain austere and tired note into nighttime revelry. Xo more, my hearties. Those of the local people who managed to live through the night clubs this week have learned better. The debit side consists largely of breakage. One whole news-stand at the Commodore (1">0 dollars), several thousand dollars' worth of glass and china ware dropped out of windows to make a nice noise, bar mirrors, furniture and rugs. The hotels had prepared for the legion bv taking up the large and expensive lobby carets/and moving all the better furniture out of range, so what they lost doesn't count. Trolley car bulbs and signs, street signs, traffic stanchions, etc. —well, th« town can afford to buy new ones. Saga of a Ring. There is a huge ring going around town these days and nights on the slender finger of a dark-haired, greyeyed beauty whose name —Anna Matehek — will come as a surprise to you unless you've been in Czechoslovakia. Anna, at 24. is that country's leading actress, and has come to town for a vacation which will include Hollywood. That is, it was to be a vacation, but she is being haunted by scripts of plays, and Hollywood's agents have lieen parking outside her door. The fabulous figures they are offering may break down her [Mission to return to her native country. But about that ring. Originally it enveloped half the finger of the Emperor Haile Silassie. Then it came , into the hands of one of his adjutants, from whom it was transferred to a high Italian officer who occupied it (it's pretty near big enough for a bird bath) while his army was occupying Addis Ababa. Heaved Into Her Lap. From there it travelled to Rome as a gesture of respect and esteem for Antonio Mosconi, Italian Minister of Finance. Sr. Mosconi, seeing Anna Emote in Home, was overcome with her art, tore the ring off hU finger and heaved it into her' lap. It darn near broke her knee. It's a silver ring, beautifully engraved with script writing which Anna has not had translated, and with a vivid lion of Judah. It comes over Anna's knuckle, and when she wears it she can't bend her finger. She agrees that its beautiful, but then she thinks everything is beautifulj right now. She's been seeing the town with her friends, Lily Pons, the singer, and Arthur Schwartz, the composer. She thinks they are beautiful and the town is beautiful. —(N.A.X.A.)