A.N.A. DANCE CLUB

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 256, 27 September 1945, Page 7

A.N.A. DANCE CLUB

RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT. With the entertainment to bo held this week-end, the curtain will fall on what has been tor the men of the Services one of the major patriotic undertakings of Palmerston North—-the activities of the Army, Navy and Air Force Dance Club, whose ballroom is in George Street. Servicemen from one end of New Zealand to the other have been generous in their appreciation of the work of those responsible for their entertainment there, and the activi-1 ties of the club through the past four I and a half years have turned marly an apparently drab leave period into a bright patch in a serviceman a memory. , ~ , „ Instituted in but a relatively small way, the club grew with the demand until, when the concentration of the Services in this district was at its height, the A.N.A. dance hall was the focal point for hundreds of men in uniform. Not only did the girl hostesses gladly give their time—and there were occasions when attractive entertainment was turned down through a sense of duty toward the Services —but they also garnered much in companionship and happiness. For them, too, the close of the activities of the club will end a small phase of life which will be pleasantly recalled in the years to come. Men attended the club from the many and varied home defence units in tiie district, and thousands came from Linton Camp, and the R.N.Z.A.F. Station at Ohakea. At one stage the patrons included personnel from t the United States Marine Corps camps at Paekakariki. Within the Army, the A.N.A. dance hall held a high place in the estimation of the men as an entertainment centre. It was freely said by large numbers that in their experience as soldiers in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch there was nothing to meet the standard set at the A.N.A. hall, in size and in management. Many laudatory remarks were heard in canip about the enthusiasm and the spirit of those responsible for the conduct of the dances, and the girl hostesses who regarded their attendance at the hall as a duty. • As to the A.N.A. Club in Broadway, many a soldier from Linton Camp had a good word to say of the. club and those conducting it. Men who had to connect with early trains were wakened in ample time, those who arrived late at night were welcomed with the same warmth as at noon. For many thousands the name of “A.N.A.” in Palmerston North will remain long in the memory. March, 1941, saw the commencement or the A.N.A. Dance Club in Miss Gwen Gibbs’s studio and the entertainment was later held at the Empire Hall, .changing to its present location in George Street in July, 1942. There were 20 members on the committee and those on the executive were Mesdamos G. M. McCaskill (convenor). J. 11. Whyte, and M. M. Lane and Misses R. Gillies (secretary), ami £. Bosworth (assistant-secretary). Mis" V. Royal was head of the games committee. At one time the numbor of girl hostesses reached a total of 1000. The largest number of people present in the hail at one entertainment was 1700. The club, conducted under the aegis of the Zone D Patriotic Committee, has provided entertainment for about 100,000 mon (taking each man’s attendance as. a new one) and over £3OOO has been provided for patriotic purposes. Originally the club was open on Saturdays; then with the increased numbers of men in the district its opening on Sundays also was instituted, but with the falling off due to transfers and demobilisations it has been open on Sundays only for the past ten months.