Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • 35

Strange Urge of American Show Girls 4 to Head for the Convent But Never Get There in Spite of Their French Pious Example ANOTHER WHO WITHDREW Haudin Whose Loss to Them French Play-Monru Mile Haudin Like Delorme and Lavalliere Retired from the Acting Prefession When Sha Felt the Call of tha Church FOOTUCHT PIETY An Imprtuifi Scecc from the Driaa "Cradle la Which the Besnty mI Dignity af Religious Rednso's Iifa Ara Emphasised Susanna Dalormo Playing Oaa af the Nuua Cam Under Ilia Author a Spall la Surh aa Extent That She Abruptly Abandoned Brilliaat Stag Caraap la Taka lha Vail EYES OF HOLINESS Sve Uwllitrt Whose Life Reae ia a Steadily As- caadiag Arc from a Squalid Childhood Through Great eaowa aa a Reigning Faria Stage to a Saiatly Climax as a Nua Wha Begged from Door to Door for the Sake of the Poor Note the Stera Int-aiity of Her Dark Gaie ia This Remarkable Photo The Eyes Explain the "Emotional Drifi1 Her AateaUhing Carter COSSIP Dainty Dorothy Knapp Famous American Show Girl Announced She Would Eater Nunnery But She's One of tho 5000 Who Just Talked recognized Eve yet all there people had once been her intimate friends I When she lost her sight she refused to remain in the convent as a burden on the Sisters So she retired to a cottage nearby a complete recluse perishing there a few years ago in the odor of complete sanctity Between this saintly consistency and the indecision of various Broadway beauties who talk a lot about taking the veil and never get around to it there is a pronounced gulf For example A year ago Dorothy Knapp prize Earl Carroll show girl told people that she was through with the stage that she was completing preparations to enter a Mexican convent When they expressed incredulity she assured them that she was in deadly earnest Miss Knapp had been a member of Carroll's "Fioretta" company an elaborate and costly operetta flop backed by rieh aged Mrs Anne Weightman Pen-field When Dorothy was deposed from stardom in the ahow ahe sued Mrs Pen-field alleging it was her fault Mrs Penfield died Dorothy's claim was disallowed Tt was about then that conventual life exerted its strongest allure for her However nothing ever came of it At the time this article was being prepared the revue beauty was living at Hastings- on-Hudson New York qiimtiy seen on Broadway Another star who determined to withdraw from the glittering wickedness ef the world and devote herself to good works was Pearl White This famous blonde movie heroine of the pre-talkia day shook the dust of the Western hemisphere from her dainty slippers and headed for France It waa freely rumored that sha was sick and tired of superficial gayeties and would become a recluse Her ambition to become a nun didn't materialize Instead Pearl continued her festive course in Paris and Deauville where she became a racetrack habitue and mopped np on the ponies She acquired a superb collection of jewels She was and is famed for her daring and expensive costumes It'a true she did spend a week-end or twa with the good Sisters but she soon wearied of their company Psychology has yet to make an ex-hauktlre investigation of the curious hidden motive that animates these girls Just what emotional backfire them standing in the front row of a gorgeous musical comedy long a rely for the cool calm of the cloister? Why do they find a Broadway career just so much deadwood and ashes aid long to rush off to enroll themselves as conventual novices? Granting that except in a handful of cases they never get that far why da they about-face and run back to the theatre they affected to despise? And how would you account in the final analysis for the striking instances described above of the three girls who found the solace of religion more vital than the tinsel path to theatrical eminence? It is probahle that all these young French women have an imperceptible ip their personalities a sort of divided individuality that swings this way one day and that way the next Today fame tomorrow stern withdrawal from the world But the fact remains that the germ of show business is difficult to banish Once an actress always an actress is just as true now as it was when the theatre waa in its infancy thousands of years ago Nor is the desire for personal public ity anything but a perfectly human emotion common to nine-tenths of uc That's why when some cute chorus girl says: "Ns more bright lights for me I'm going to take the cynical Broadway shrugs unbelieving shoulders utters a couple of and proceeds to forget all about it and her ThU Liams la One af the Candice Menagerie's Proodest Pstssessiaoa Besides the Candler elephants the zoo contain lions panthers black bears chimpanzees leopards baboons zebras camels monkeys and birds Mv I know they all talk about it If but how many actually da It!" An animated group of theatrical people filled the barroom of Tony'i popular speakeasy in New York'a west Fifties They had Juat left the playhouse where all were employed There waa the leading man who had uttered the akeptiral exclamation half a doxen chorua girls the company manager and a atagehand or two The aecond round of cocktaila had circulated and the big diacuaaion waa on The theme of the argument waa: Why do hundreda df atage beautiea firmly announce that they are abandoning pro-feaaiona! life to enter and then let it go at that? "Well III tell you" aaid one of the chorinea meditatirely tipping her Old-Fashioned "After three or four ara-aona on Broadway the glamor etarta to fade Hard work endleae rehearsals late hours jealousies enough to make a girl cynical She begina to long for quUt repoae spiritual peraiated the leading man "but why not go through with it! W'ky the invariable backdown at the laat "But they don't all back ia-aiated the girL "Here get a load of She flipped over the pagea of a popular theatrical weekly that all ahow business reada with an almoat biblical fervor Under a Faria date line the diaput-anta read that Suzanne Delorme French actress had entered a Dominican convent "And ahe'a not the only the ahow girl triumphantly maintained waa the celebrated Eve Lavalliere who apent yeara in a religioua retreat And Juat recently tbnt other uhuh what waa her name! Yvonne llaudin of the Corned io "I don't think your grand total of three'a ao hot There muat be 5000 oth-era who juat talked Look at Dorothy Knapp Look at Pearl White Look "All right" chimed in the company manager "Say theae girla have gone a little wild on the idea of getting away from it all 1 don't think that arguee inaincere If once the Broadway virua geta into your blood it'a likely to be a permanent sickness Unleae the patient haa an iron wilL New take the cbm of thia Delorme And they all fell te diaeuaning Made-tnoiaella Delorme and her auddea withdrawal from the world of the atage where ahe had rhalked up aueh a remarkable eurceen In 1930 the actreaa waa appearing in Faria in a drama "Cradle Each of ita three acta is laid in a convent of the Dominican Sisterhood The play colored with a deeply devout sentiment waa a huge hit running a aolid year ana due to-continue At the expiration of that time the atar went to the producer with a atrange request Without apecifying her reasons ahe naked to be relented from her contract The manager waa astounded ahorked Here waa a pretty and gifted actreaa who at the Croat of a aucceaaful run wanted to throw up her job Why he naked her in lleaven'a name why? Delorme ami led an enigmatic amile She waa evaaive Now when actreaaea prove evaaive people are bound to a peculate At firat they conjectured an un- love affair But there wasn't a of evidence to aubatantiate that guess Next they aaid that Delorme waa din-contented with her work that ahe wanted to retire to atudy and perfect her art However there aeemed juat af few grounds for -thin auppoaition She waa nappy in the theatre particularly when ahe waa playing in Finally the amazing truth came nut Suzanne Delorme had come utterly under the spell of the role ahe waa portraying The calm of the make-believe doiater in which ahe nightly acted had her Now ahe waa no longer content with the ahe wanted the actuality She took up tha atudy of the liven of the Saints Daily aha bead religioua works Finally ana could atand It no note that Mme Cecils So re I another noted Paris stage favorite as a child was placed in a convent by ber parents Disliking it she raised such a terrific row that they hastily took her out She never returned to a life of piety but won further theatrical fame Today she is the Countess de Segur wife of a distinguished French nobleman After a futile attempt to kill herself Eve Lavalliere left the eonvent and got work with a hat-maker When a touring theatrical troupe pawed through the town ahe threw in her lot with them Eventually the company reached Paris where Lavallierc'a success was instantaneous Asa Candler Jr Atlaota Cs Soft Elephants an Which Local Society May Hanl 50 FASTIDIOUS Atlanta Georgia society has a neg elephantriding Not so long ago tha tallyho was tht vehicl favored by the elect That was in tha days of the lata Colonel Bob Lowry bank president and creator of quaint social customs CwftlsM Illl IS She became the rage of the town Among other celebrities ho applauded her were King Edward VII of Great ing Alt ijah of Manuel of Portugal Eve had many love affairs els and gowns became proverbial Suddenly at the height of her brilliant career she electrified all Paris with the statement that she plsnned to become a nun She was as good as her word After taking the veil she made it a practise of begging in haunts of the wealthy for the pour On one occasion she entered a smart Riviera hotel and solicited alms fjpim a gay laughing group None of the guests Drink Magnate with Reals On ef HU Rida to Front-Pago Glory Rosie Con Parsons But now comes Asa Candler Jr sen of the soft drink king with a big brand-ntw zoo of his own particularly rich in pachyderms He's especially proud of Rosie one of the largest in captivity Roaie's so strong ahe can haul around a great cart capable of holding fifty persona tWiam SwSlon Isx FAREWELL FAME! This la Beautiful Su-aaauo Delorme Idol of the Paris Boulevards Who Preferred tha Life of a Dominican Sister to That af a Very Popular Stage Artist lunger She resigned and entered the Dominican retreat "Oh" said her friends "that won't last Shell be back at the theatre within a They were bad prophets for it is obvious to the Sisters that Delorme's accepts nee of the religious life is a permanent thing Having completed her novitiate she has just assumed the veit for good She is through with the old life of flashing footlights rouge the beat of music and the intoxications of applause The gesture of Yvonne Haudin in repudiating a stage career was similar This leading woman at the Comedio Francaise Paris's home of classic drama had won a great personal following when to her admirers' stupefaction she abruptly withdrew from the scene of her successes The press was disposed to be cynical about her retirement The old story of waa applied! her case Some were even rude enough to murmur: "Publicity" -Y vonne is still in the convent no lunger a timid novice but a true daughter of the church "I shall never return to the outside she recently wrote to a relative i It is probable that the decisions af both these girls were inspired by the post-war conversion of one of the'boule-vsrds gayest butterflies the apkightly Eve Lavalliere The fabulous Eve had a perwmal history in which the wildly romantic was mingled with the picturesquely Iso rdid Her parents were Italians named Feg-nolio The home was the scene of perpetual quarrels for the husband was furiously jealous of the wife When the daughter was sixteen Feg nolio shot his wife and coiflmilted suicide The horrified child leaned from the window and ran away to ler aunt who placed Eve in the Convent of the Good Vicar The little girl couldn't bc: custom herself to a life of seclusion though later she was to revert voluntarily to it a In this connection it ia investing to Mm Fletcher' A Reyns Candler Zoo-Keeper I Baby Chimpaaxee And theyVa predicting that very soon Rosie's trumpeting will daily proclaim an elephant tallyho in the aristocratic Druid Hills section As a preliminary Mi Candler is arranging a series of ride on Roaia for tht many children in tha neighborhood.