St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 119

Clarissa Start Career as Midget-at-Large St. Louisaii Henry Boers Has Seen the World, From Czar Court to Hollywood i-i 'Operation Jungle9 In Her Backyard MY NOMINATION for the most depressing thought of tha week Is the headline In one of the gardening magazines, which States, "Your garden has a personality only if you have." Looking at our garden these end of the summer days, it's if plain that it has a personality akin to that of Its owner, witn procrastination its greatest weakness. Our roses are starting to look pretty good right now, the way they were sup-posed to look in Some of the annuals may start blooming just in time to be nipped by the first frost. As for general upkeep, give us another week or two and we should have things in shape for the summer garden parties, Our big project and tha one most overdue was Operation Jungle, which wa completed last weekend. This consisted of hacking our way through the mock i i i i I I 1 i T''V" 1- i 4 $, ii if I- I 'l i i I iitris I J' L- I QUARTS.

2 GAiUJhS. t0 -i i 'j 4 I it I I 7- 4 I 1 1 i Alice Faye Back in Spotlight By Rich Du Brow HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 8 (UPI). ALICE FAYE, a leading ttar of tfie movies in the late 1930s and early 1940s, is returning to films after a 16-year layoff "before I fall completely apart." She's in no such danger. She'i 46, still blond and looked like a million at Twentieth Century-Fox studios, where she's making her comeback as Pat Boone's mother in the musical picture "State Fair." There was nostalgia in the air as waitresses, studio policemen and old-time executives came over to greet her at her lunch table in a remote corner of tha commissary but hardly a young star there recognized her or said hello.

"I feel like a tourist," she said, wistfully. "I guess if I could see Ty (the late Tyrone Power) or Don Ameche walk in, I'd feel better." Almost as if reading her mind, the studio announced shortly afterward that old-timer Ameche also had been signed for the movie to play her husband. Power and Ameche were two of her top leading men in the glorious Hollywood era when she starred in such period movies as "In Old Chicago," "Little Old New York," "Tin Pan Alley," "Lillian Russell," "Rose of Washington Square" and "Hello, Frisco, Hello." But for most of the last 16 years, the New York-born star has been a housewife to her husband, ex-bandleader Phil Harris, and their two daughters in Palm Springs, Calif. Why, then, is she returning? "It seemed the right time," Miss Faye said In the same deep voice that put over her songs. "I never missed movies.

But now Phil Is quite a hunter, and he's in and out a lot. My oldest daughter Is 19 and married, and the young one is at the University of Arizona. So there I was ail alone for spells. THEN CHARLIE BRACKETT, the producer, called. He was so persistenthe called three and four times a day for four days.

I liked the script and told Phil, and he said I was crazy not to take it. So I said yes, and the next morning I woke up screaming, saying, 'What have I done?" "It's really thrilling, I must admit. Maybe my fans will like it. I've already got fan letters again. It's nice to be remembered.

"The money was nice too and I guess I was flattered." The warm, witty, relaxed actress, who will sing again in CLARISSA START 1 suckle and trumpet vines in tha "woodland," the poetic name we've given to our naturalized or overgrown corner of the yard. This area has a little brick walk lined with tulips and daffodils and in early spring it's very nice. By July It needs a clean-up and by this time of year it's impenetrable to anyone but native scouts. With shears and sheer determination, the entire family tackled it, some cutting, some pulling, some trundling the wheelbarrow. From a distance, it sounded like a busy day at the guillotine.

EVENTUALLY we had uncovered the walk, uncovered the garden bench in a secluded corner, uncovered the ferns planted in tree-shaded 6pots, occasionally even uncovered a tree. Flushed with success, not to mention poison oak, wa moved on to the front walk. Here we have a multiflora hedge which would do credit to the thicket protecting the Sleeping 1 Beauty. Theoretically the hedge has a ground-covering of euonymus but you have to tear out honeysuckle, trumpet In working uniform as clown policeman, midget division. By Jack Rice Of the Pont-DiKpatch Staff HENRY BOERS began traveling when he was 14 and stayed on the move almost SO years.

He saw half the world and tha world stared back, curious and entertained, because Boera Is a four-foot midget and made his living as a performer capitalizing on being small. tl a Potl-Dispitcli Fhotoqriphtr. jcrobat supplements his income HENRY BOERS at his part time Job; the former midget in a warehouse here. vine and wild morning glory to find the euonymus which has proved to be a slow grower, about one leaf a year. The thought occurred to me, as we wrestled with ontamed nature, that none of the things which grow so luxuriantly in our yard is treated with tender loving care.

On the other hand, the things we feed and cultivate and water and pamper the roses, euonymus, yews, azaleas are slow to grow and puny of perform-. ance. MAYBE WE SHOULD reverse our gardening tactics, start feeding large quantities of plantfood and mulch to the weedy (hings and neglect the choice specimens. I'm often tempted to these reverse tactics when I look around at trays in cafeterias. There are the fatties, obediently eating their high protein meat and eggs and ungarnished salads.

What are the skinnies eating? Mostaciolli with a 6ide order of mashed potatoes and a 6lab of lemon meringue pie. Could it be that the pampered and well-nourished people like the pampered and well-nourished flowers grow thin and spindly while the undernourished grow like weeds? The theory is worth looking into. Like the trumpet vine, the honeysuckle and the wild morning glory, I could do with a little pruning back and thinning out at the end of summer. "7" Ann Landers Why Always Tall Men? DEAR ANN LANDERS: Why do women think a man must be tall In order to be a good husband? I'm 5 foot 6 and have been Jilted by girls ever since high school always for a taller fellow. I am 38, good-looking, and still a bachelor, although 7 VA i I I rt 1 If' 1 J' I- 't I 4 4 i 1 3 1 IV hands.

He doesn't talk to you, except to say 'How do you and his family is laughing but the officers all around him aren't. They're watching us, very-y-y closely. "The Czar was satisfied. He laughed at our show." Boers looked a little sad, remembering one of history's most fumbling rulers as a good family man enjoying a night out with the children. "I saw the revolt of 1912 in St.

Petersburg," Boers added, unburdening his dark memories of Russia all at once. Officially, there was not a rebellion in Russia in 1912; it was one of the quieter years leading up to 1917. There was an election of the Duma, an early Russian joke on popular representation, and the election returns brought about action in the streets that would look like a revolution to a non-Russian. Boers said he was standing in his hotel room In St. Petersburg, looking out the window, wondering where all the people had come from and why they had not heard it was illegal for more than two people to stand together and talk on the street.

By the standard of the time, two was a crowd, three was a rebellion. Then Boers saw a sight that still excites him and brings him to his feet, making a slashing motion with his right arm. He saw Cossacks ride into the crowd, holding formation, wielding sabres. "Oh, those Cossacks," Boers said. "Strong, rich fellows, so big, and on such horses.

They ride into the crowd and the sabres come DOWN. They don't take prisoners, the Cossacks. "I watch and I say to myself for the first time, 'In this world, you take care of yourself. Nobody else He had been taking care of himself and his younger brother Teddy for three years then, They were born in Cologne. There were eight children in the family.

Henry and his brother Teddy were midgets. "We had a big brother and five big sisters," Boers said. "One sister was real big. She was over six feet, six-feet-seven inches I think." the Wizard of Oz, as the captain of a midget guard. He was cast as a sspeaking captain of the guard but when his German accent went into the microphone thick and came out thicker his dialogue was cut from the script.

He appeared in two other movies. One had him cast as a npy stealing plans for the Secret Service. He has forgotten the name of the picture and so has the studio, if it has a conscience. He recalls the title of the other as "Tiny Town," a midget horse opera. He rode into town and was shot off a horse.

At stunt man's pay for taking a dive off a horse? "Sure," Boers said, "but I didn't get it, the manager got it, for the troupe." The "Tiny Town" epic was a replay of another show that put Boers's world in true scale. Soon after he aiid Teddy left home their circus troupe of midgets did eight months in a Midget Village in Paris, 500 midgets in a town of their own leading their own lives like anyone else, except for the paying customers leaning on the railings, watching. Henry Boers was happy. He drove the Village fire engine, a pony-hitch pumper. "I was doing what I did in Cologne, being around horses," Boers said, "except at home I drove big horses.

I was good driving a team." He never again was so close to big horses but he had hopes for a few years. When he was 24 years old he noticed his clothes becoming too small and he pondered that, and as the clothes continued to shrink he consulted a doctor. The doctor said it was remarkable, Henry was a growing midget. Boers grew two inches, to an even four feet. "I thought," Boers said, "that I would keep growing, maybe to 4-10, five feet, and then I would go home to Cologne and get a regular job driving a team." He shruggwd and said, "But it was not to be." have the little fellows with My father said No.

"My mother said, 'Henry knows his way, he can take care of Teddy, let them and we did." The developments sounded Just right for a 1909 plot, Little Fellows Capitalized Upon. Cruel Manager makes mint off child stars, 20 years ahead of Holly-Wood. Stage Mother in wings. Boers said it was not that way. "We were treated very well, the manager was like a father.

He knew the parents would not stand for foolishness. "The manager sent the money home many years, but when I was 19 I commanded the money for my brother Teddy and myself and send my parents what they need, and keep what we need." There was, by Boers's account, no end of managers in the brothers' careers after that and although there is no evidence in his current way of life that the managers planned carefully to insure the midgets a comfortable old age, neither is there an indication by Boers that Obey were mismanaged. His only specific regret is that he has grown too old to travel about the world aa a working midget, full-time. His only admitted tragedy is the death of his brother Teddy in 1945. "We were teeterboard acrobats, good," Boers said.

"We were in vaudeville. We were on the Orpheum circuit after we came to the United States in 1922. We traveled all over. I have been in every state and have seen half the world and I enjoyed It, but now I am too old, I cannot travel. "When Teddy died In 1945 I was through as an acrobat, I went to clowning." The brothers were In Hollywood, between their time in vaudeville and Henry's eight years as a circus clown with Ringling Brothers, after Teddy's death.

Henry Boers appeared in When Boers speaks of people in his life he usually classifies them, if they need an identifying label, as "little people" or "big people." He uses the phrases with dignity, and as calmly as a livestock man setting it straight whether he is talking about horses or ponies. Boers is 66 and he no longer works exclusively among midgets or even in show business. He has not centered his life among midgets since 1933 when he played a theater in St. Louis and met a girl and married her. The Boers have been married 27 years, and make their home here, and have three daughters.

"We have seven grandchildren," he said. "Eight," said his wife. "Seven. Eight. I lose count I have been given three grandsons, though," said Boers.

"He's probably the only midget married to a fully grown woman and with three grown daughters and eight beautiful grandchildren," his wife said. The count stood at eight finally, because Mrs. Boers said so, and because she was straightening up the score with me over the telephone, and was not happy about Mr. Boers bringing home company while she was at the office unable to defend her housekeeping. Boers shrugged.

A husband's shrug, full-scale. "So?" he said. "I can use the publicity. People not in the business don't always understand that so much." Boers is not exactly in the business now. He has Social Security and he works four hours a day in a liquor wholesaler'! warehouse and he makes appearances with his supervisor, Bill Bentlage, when there is a call for a clown and a midget policeman.

Bentlage and Boers play club dates, and store-openings and such and have one grand engagement annually as clowns end stars in the Shrine Circus here. Bentlage is 69 and long ego acquired a rrputation as a master of clown's makeup but did not break away to make a complete career of clowning. Boers made a career in Europe and Russia and the United States as a performing midget, an artiste among midgets, and now is in that peculiar limbo of the aging trouper, better off doing a fragment of his former work than doing none at all. He was born in Ormany and became a performer In 1909. He timed it well.

He is among tha thinning ranks, the show people able to include in their billing, "And performed before the I keep hearing that there's a shortage of males in my age group. Why shouldn't a girl be satisfied with a man who is intelligent, a good earner, a non-drinker, a neat dresser, honorable and kind? I've written to several matrimonial agencies and lonely hearts clubs but almost every woman who wants to get married specifies that the man must be tall. Why? DISGUSTED. t. ANN LANDERS Dear Disgusted: I have no answer, but I DO bave question.

Why would a man who is intelligent, a good earner, a non-drinker, a neat dresser, honorable and kind lwk for a wife In a matrimonial agency or a lonely heart's club? There must be a good reason why you'ie still single. Short men get married every day. The Boers brothers, Henry supporting Teddy, as midget acrobats about 25 years ago. Their father was a laboring man and he took the midget brothers to the laboring man's theater, a circus, when Henry was 14 and his brother 12, in 1909. The circus manager saw them and his experienced eye told him they were two fine boys, extra-small for their age.

"He said to my father, 'How old are Boers said, "and when my father told him tlie manager said, 'Oh, I'd like to DEAR ANN: Our 24-year-old daughter has had many romances but nothing serious until now. She brought the young man home to dinner last night and we were appalled. We offered him a glass of sherry and he snorted, "What to this a Sunday School picnic? I drink bourbon." When dinner was announced he took the bottle along to the table. He started his salad before grace was said and continued to eat during the blessing. He speared a chop off the platter with his own fork and when our daughter reached for the last roll he said "That's got my name on it," and took It out of her hand.

My husband and I were mortified and we told her of our feelings after he left. She claims manner unimnortan nnH that his fine mind and good character count for everythina. heads Europe." There were some crowned my APPALLED. ALICE FAYE At peak of her career. "State Fair" which also features Bobby Darin and Ann-Margaret has been married to Harris for 20 years.

And she admits she's surprised their marriage has lasted. "So's everybody else," she said. "They didn't think we'd make It. But I'll tell you how we did and most women will probably hit me over the head for this: I never say no when Phil wants to go hunting or fishing. I'll admit sometimes the trips are long, and my girl friends say I'm crazy.

But I know guys like to be. alone sometimes. They don't want their wives around. "ONE WOMAN can ruin fun for a bunch of guys. I tell my girl friends, 'Do you want a guy hanging around with a long Phil fishes a lot with Bing Crosby, and I think privacy means much to him.

I'll credit this attitude with 70 per cent of our marriage. Because I'm the same as Phil." Miss Faye, daughter of a New York policeman, broke into show business as a chorus girl at the age of 14. She got her break when crooner Rudy Vallee heard a party record of her singing end signed her for his band. She hit stardom in 1934 when Vallee brought his troupe to Hollywood to appear in the George White "Scandals." Miss Faye smiled as she thought about those days. Then she put on dark glasses and strode from the dining room In slacks, print blouse and camel's hair coat.

Outside, she waved goodby and shouted from a distance: "Hey, I hope they don't fire me before your story's printed. It's been so long, I don't know if I can remember my lines." jjt- irBsaB3Bsrr Trying to YOU TURN ITON ANPOFF HERP. THINK YOU CAN HANPLETHAT? WELL THEM; WHAT Pip. YOU LEARN AT YALT?" Dear Appalled: More Is involved here than btA manners. The young man Is selfish, inconsiderate and Immature.

I hope your daughter recognizes (before It's too late) that a "fine mind" counts for little alongside crippling, destructive flaws of character. DEAR ANN: Recently you printed a letter which involved rather sordid family fight. The name of the wife who wrote was Ruth and the husband was Bill. Well, it so happens that my name is Ruth and my husband's name is Bill. A few of Uie details 6ounded as If the letter could have been from ma but it wasn't.

Our friends almost died laughing. The telephone rang for ttree days straight. People stopped me on the street to talk about it. My sisted wanted to know why I was so stupid as to sign our right names. I think it is unfair of you to use real names.

You should change them to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. And please print this. Thank you. MAD AT YOU. Dear Mad: I did change the names to Ruth and Bill.

At you gonf ittadyf Making marring plan? If in, $md for Ann Landnn' booklet, "Oefort You Marry li It Loi' Or Inclonint trilh your request 20 enntt and a long, telf-mlremed, Humped envelop. heads he missed but he played to the major ones of his birthplace, the princes of Germany, and he played to the world's last born autocrat, the Czar of All the Russias. He performed by command at the Czar's Winter Palace in St. Petersburg tn 1912. He was with the Stelner Troupe of Midgets In St.

Petersburg for eight months. He recalls the last of Russia's czars as a nice man, not much for overdoing a welcome to a visiting midget, but pleasant to be around and not deserving to be shot as crudely as he was. "We went to the Winter Palace, a nice building," Boers said, "and we went in the front door. A troupe like ours did not go around the back. We went into a big room, a ballroom I think.

"A carpet was rolled out and the Czar walked In with his little family and we watched him walk down the carpet to his seat. Wa met and shook -THE PO-CP FITS MUCH, CVERTHEWHfPS-irS' NAME.THIS. TURNS. CORA-UUST SITTING AROUNP WATTING FOR. MORE FUSES TO BLOW.

'COULDN'T EE FIXEP, WHO SAIP VAUPEVTLLC WAS PEA? Sept. 10, 1961 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH.