Olden days, golden days. (75).

OLDEN DAYS, GOLDEN DAYS" SANG FAY Templeton in Jerome Kern's Roberta. The song was "Yesterdays," and here are a few: * The first freelance article I wrote for Dance Magazine, in 1945, was assigned by an editor in her 50s who wore a hat in the office. I mention her approximate age because she was soon to leave and have a baby. She was Lucile Marsh, and I later learned that she had a solid reputation as a college dance teacher and as co-author of a book called The Dance in Education.

Several editors followed Marsh: Ruthella Wade, Ezra Goodman. Wade made the happiest impression. I was genuinely sorry when she moved to Alaska. Then in 1947, the magazine was hit by a storm named Helen Dzhermolinska. When irritated, she launched into a cascade of zapateado. When really angry, she went so far as to smash a bust of Pavlova. Despite a generous supply of probable paranoia or perhaps because of it, her writing brought new color, new flair, to the pages of the magazine. During a party at her apartment, I met a young woman whose enthusiasm fascinated me. She had recently been hired as the magazine's advertising manager. She didn't know much about advertising, but she was passionate about dance. So was I. Lydia Joel and I became friends.

Lydia had studied with Hanya Holm; had been a dancer in Holm's celebrated Trend. Her first marriage to the conductor of the initial touring company of Oklahoma! had ended with his suicide. Her life was also dogged by the suicides of two other people close to her. Despite these tragedies, she was a spirited woman, who soon became the magazine's editor.

Shortly after, in 1952, I joined the full-time staff as associate editor and principal critic. (I also inherited a plethora of other functions not listed on the masthead. For example, I wrote circulation copy, the Christmas merchandise brochure, and publisher Rudolf Orthwine's editorials.)

In the 1950s and '60s, not many writers specialized in dance. Often people would turn up at the magazine with a single story in mind. Lydia enjoyed helping to give it shape. This took an instinct for creative potential. At that time, the distinguished dance writer Edwin Denby was suffering from writer's block. Lydia would be his listener, discussing his ideas at length, sometimes even delaying deadlines and returning his copy for additional pondering. One of those pieces became his seminal essay on Balanchine's Agon.

Dance publications today devote a good deal of space to the needs of students. Dance Magazine has published a Young Dancer section intermittently since 1938, and it was in Lydia's capable hands before she became editor in chief. In 1952 she engaged Regina Woody, a former dancer, to follow in her footsteps as Young Dancer editor.

I became involved with the regional ballet companies that were sprouting around the country. I developed a monthly feature called Regional Ballet: USA that profiled the more promising groups and offered concepts and services to help them grow.

One day a shy young man with tousled, white-blond hair turned up to ask for work. He did fey drawings for which he was paid $5 each. One of those, a mouse, was reprinted annually thereafter; I don't remember for what occasion. I do remember the artist's name. It was Andy Warhol. Yes, those olden days were in many ways golden.

Author of Wild Grass, a biography of Rudolf Orthwine, and 25 Years of American Dance, Senior Editor/Advisor Doris Hering continues to write cogently about dance. She is honored by the Dance Critics Association in New York on June 1, 2002.