BURST INTO SONG

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 41, 16 August 1941, Page 13

BURST INTO SONG

"NO ORDINARY CONTRALTO"

SURPRISE FOR BANK TELLER

i. "Dame Maria Karinska, the contralto, is back from Australia," writes James Coleman in the "Vancouver Daily Province." "Dame Karinska is no ordinary contralto. As far as our records reveal, she is the only contralto who has sung 'Song of the Volga Boatman' in the main branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce. "This purely impromptu performance i took place the other day. Dame Kar- | inska produced a handful of Australian pound notes. The teller exchanged them fqr Canadian bills. Dame Kar-

inska was elated, and, giving vent to her feelings, she burst into song. "The reaction created was comparable to that which would have been occasioned if someone had tossed half a dozen incendiary bombs through the bank windows. "Even the junior clerk, who was industriously throwing the pens against the west wall in order that they would be ready for the use of the bank's customers, desisted from his labours. His mouth fell agape until it resembled one of the portals of the Connaught Tunnel. "Dame Karinska didn't wait for applause. She swept the bank-notes into her handbag, and sallied forth into the bright sunlight. "Dame Karinska also is the only con. tralto who calls reporters 'my precious' and beloved' immediately after making their acquaintance. And, as as iar as we know, she is the only contralto who was smuggled through the Bolshevik lines disguised as a corpse jin a coffin."'