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ent001704-006
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University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

This item has not been digitized in its entirety. The original item is available for research and handling at the UNLV University Libraries. Additional digitization is available upon request. Please contact Special Collections to request additional digitization or with any questions regarding access at special.collections@unlv.edu. Original Donn Ardep^npers open the ?╟úLido de Paris?╟Ñ show nightly are IT was the early 1950s at Jimmy Barron?╟╓s house pne recent Saturday night, as more than two dozen Donn Arden dancers gathered to compare notes and retell stories covering more than three decades of show business. Although the founder of the famous dance companies was detained in Palm Springs, he did convey his love, regards and admiration by telephone during the evening. ?╟≤ A number of the girls, once the most admired showgirls along the dusty section of Los Angeles highway that later became the Strip, have remained in the business, although they have moved from dancing to acting. Marion Neuman, who married E. Jack Neuman of ?╟úPolice Story,?╟Ñ played the school teacher in ?╟úMr. Novak,?╟Ñ the popular TV show that starred James Franciscus. Gloria Maye, who joined Donn Arden in 1947 at Bill Miller?╟╓s Riviera in New Jersey, ?╟úhigh above the Hudson River,?╟Ñ is an active member of Screen Extra?╟╓s Guild, is currently in the Lou Grant series, and prior to that played in the Mary Tyler Moore shows. Two girls who married into television are Peggy Burke, former wife of actor Paul Burke, and Midge Ware, whose husband produces ?╟úQuincy.?╟Ñ Another TV actress, Ruthie Clarkson, ban also be seen in the Lou Grant and Mary Tyler Moore reruns. Fluff LeCoque?╟╓s is the company manager of the smash hit production show at the MGM, ?╟úJubilee.?╟Ñ Some of the girls have branched into other areas of the arts. Tally Richards has a gallery of contemporary art in Taos, New Mexico, and Terry Chaffee has an interior design studio in San Francisco. FT^HREE of the male dancers compared notes during the evening. Gordon JL West is a CBS-TV executive in charge of programming in Philadelphia, Eddie Krieg is an animal trainer ?╟÷ the doves that his ?╟÷ and host Jimmy Barron works in the showroom of the Ziegfeld Theatre of the MGM. Virginia Badham, now retired, was a wardrobe mistress longer than anyone in Las Vegas. She traded stories with Evelyn Roen, who started at the Desert Inn as a Donn Arden dancer. Evelyn ?╟÷ Mrs. Allard Roen ?╟÷ is retired. Costume designer Jeanie Malone flew in from California, as did Joan Michaels and Michelle Boyer, Local girls included in the gathering were Anabelle Ricks, Barbara Lorman, Randy Ireland, whose mother was a Ziegfeld Girl, and Dusty Reale. Carol Hoffman, who is involved in wardrobe at the Sands* produced her scrapbook of old publicity pictures, which gave the group a lot of chuckles and some nostalgic sighs.D ?╟÷By ELLIOT S. KRANE PLEASE TURN THE PAGE Desert Inn founder Wilbur Clark, surrounded by Donn Arden dancers, in early Dl show, 1950s. Front row, Barbara Lorman, Clark, Carol Hoffman; 2nd row: Audrey Wood, Gloria Maye, Joan Michaels; 3rd row: Ruth Clarkson, Jan Perry, Jeanie Malone, Flo Walters. Rene Molinar, Lady Michael Sunday, April 'vt'-: \ ;** I \ - * s i > \ < Las Vegas SUN Magazine f enWeriHHft Hv<i gjtjff