The Days We Danced: the Story of My Theatrical Family from Florenz Ziegfeld to Arthur Murray and Beyond.THE DAYS WE DANCED: THE STORY OF MY THEATRICAL FAMILY FROM FLORENZ ZIEGFELD TO ARTHUR MURRAY AND BEYOND By Doris Eaton Travis; with Joseph and Charles Eaton as told to J.R. Morris. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press The University of Oklahoma Press is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. It has been in operation for over seventy-five years, and was the first university press established in the American Southwest. . 2003. 279 pages. Cloth. $27.95. Mamie Eaton adored show business. Small wonder that five of her seven children became performers, and one of them, Mary, was a Broadway star. The Days We Danced is the story of this plucky pluck·y adj. pluck·i·er, pluck·i·est Having or showing courage and spirit in trying circumstances. See Synonyms at brave. pluck family, written by Doris, who, at 14, became the youngest dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies. When the depression hit the theater world, even the lovely Mary, a consummate performer, was out of work. Like more than one of her siblings, she eventually resorted to alcohol and pills. Doris was perhaps not so polished as Mary, but she was a charmer charm·er n. 1. One that charms, especially a disarmingly attractive person. 2. One who casts spells; an enchanter or magician. Noun 1. in her own high-energy way, and she was a survivor. The depression wiped out not only the Follies, but also the Vaudeville touring circuit. Doris turned to teaching at an Arthur Murray ballroom studio. "After all, it's still dancing," she mused. Before long, she was in charge of eighteen Murray venues. One of her students, a brilliant inventor named Paul Travis, became her husband. He bought land near Norman, Oklahoma, and they raised quarter horses. Doris rounded out her days by earning her BA (Phi Beta Kappa Phi Beta Kappa: see fraternity. Phi Beta Kappa Leading academic honour society in the U.S., which draws its membership from college and university students. The oldest Greek-letter society in the U.S. ) at the University of Oklahoma University of Oklahoma, abbreviated OU, is a coeducational public research university located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. . She turned 100 this year. Recently she has danced in several New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of benefits, even reprising a solo she introduced in the Follies of 1919. Back at the ranch, which she has run since Paul's death, she sometimes puts on music--and simply dances. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion