DANCERS SNOWED UP

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3895, 28 April 1937, Page 11

DANCERS SNOWED UP

DUG OUT AFTER 37 HOURS IN TRAIN. One hundred dancers of Colonel de Basil’s Ballets Russes Company—du - at Coivent Garden for the coronation season—spent 37 hours in a tram partly buried in 14ft. of snow 4000 ft. up in the mountains of Northern California.

Bitter winds howled wildly down from the mountains and soft drifting snow hemmed in the train even mere firmly in a lonely pass, with no sign of human habitation in sight. The dancers were in a crack Southern Pacific special, which became snowbound 100 miles from Oakland. Wrapped in blankets and drinking het coffee from the train’s restaurant car, the entire troupe turned what was nearly a tragic experience into a merry lark. They sang and danced, and amused the other passengers while subduing their own fears. The company manager on arrival at Seattle said: “We were all frightened at first, since there seemed some chance that a snowslide would engulf us. Finally, assured that nothing more seilious than delay would happen, and while the snow was shovelled away, everyone made the best of it. W!e had a lot of fun —andjg-ot a rest between the strenuous engagements of