Dinner With Ruth Wallis

Press, Volume C, Issue 29638, 7 October 1961, Page 2

Dinner With Ruth Wallis

No-one should feel overawed if invited to dine with Miss Ruth Wallis. She is a charming, warm-hearted hostess, and a natural woman, who has that endearing quality to guests—she really enjoys her food. Dinner-table talk seemed superfluous. “Why don’t you get on with your dinner, Honey?” she asked a guest who was plying her with questions.

The sweets arrived. She protested, "I really shouldn't,” but helped herself to cream. Her trim figure, however, indicates that she need not worry about calories. On medical advice she does not eat fresh fruit or salads. She never drinks alcohol.

She designs her own stage gowns, using beautiful French brocades. Simplicity is their keynote—they are slim and made with shoulder straps and a modest skirt slit to ensure freedom of movement on stage. From a wardrobe of about 40 gowns. Miss Wallis has chosen 12 for her tour of Australia and New Zealand, but has brought only four to the Dominion.

Touring has made her very tired. But she and her husband, Mr Hy Pastman, are delighted with New Zealand, even though they had been warned they would not like it. They explained that Americans knew surprisingly little about New Zealand. “So it has been quite a revelation,” they said. Miss Wallis has never been out of the United States before. Asked about New Zealand audiences, she replied: “Wonderful, and no different from Americans.” She has not experienced the trouble with the Customs Department that she did in Sydney, but she and Mr Pastman both had their bags searched. She sincerely believes her songs are harmless. Although she has been hurt by having

her records banned in some places, it has nek made her down-hearted.

Undoubtedly one of the factors that keeps her going is her husband's devotion. Mr Pastman formerly controlled the "Latin Quarter” night club in Boston. He met Miss Wallis when she was playing the piano and singing in the club’s lounge. They corresponded regularly during the war years, when Mr Pastman served in Germany. They married in 1946, four years after they first met. Two Children

They have two children, Ronnie (a girl), aged 10J, and six-year-old Allan. When Miss Wallis is not doing shows or writing her own songs, she likes to do her own cooking, although the family has a housekeeper. Miss Wallis belongs to the Parent-Teacher Association in Miami Beach.

Her career began with song-writing. She found that publishers wanted her to sing her own songs, so she began recording. One publisher told her that although he could not use her songs, he could use her voice. She has written more than 120 songs, including straight jazz numbers which feature in her shows.

Intrigued by the Australian saying. ‘ She’s apples,” Miss Wallis has written a song featuring the phrase, and other typically Australian sayings. But she says she has not been in New

Zealand long enough to find inspiriation for themes here.

The company has been in New Zealand five days. It will return to Sydney tomorrow. Miss Wallis will then go to Las Vagas to take up a three-year contract at the “Sahara,” where she will earn 50,000 dollars a year, for a minimum of 20 weeks. Her contract will begin in March of next year. • Miss Wallis and her husband decided to make this tour when they first heard conflicting reports that Ruth Wallis records had been banned in Australia and New Zealand, and from another source that they had been playing in both countries for five years. They decided they had better come to see “what the score really was.”