New Orleans audiences got an eyeful — and an earful — when Donna Darling brought her song and dance act to the Palace Theatre during the second half of the week of November 15, 1923. The New Orleans States and Item wasted no time in singling her out from a packed vaudeville bill, calling her a “musical comedy beauty” and praising her “spectacular and charming skit” of song and dance numbers.
Palace Theatre, New Orleans — advertisement, New Orleans States and Item, November 15, 1923, p. 23.
Donna appeared alongside some formidable company. The bill at the Palace that week featured former film villain Walter Law in his one-act playlet Just in Time, the comedy duo Bill Dooley and Viola Votruba in Vaudeville a la Carte (which earned two curtain calls), blackface comedians George and Paul Hickman, and conjurer Amac, billed as “the happy deceiver.” Reviewer Ed R. Liuzza, writing for the States and Item on November 16th, noted that the program contained “not a dull moment,” and Donna’s act held its own among the week’s highlights.
A preview notice from November 11th had already teased New Orleans readers with the billing of “Donna Darling and Boys, with her dancing fool, Murry Earle, and her beau brummel, Tod Watson, in a Song and Dance Romance” — describing it as well worth seeing.
The engagement ran through Sunday, November 18th, the final day’s advertisement confirming “Donna Darling & Boys” as a headline act before the Palace turned its bill over to a fresh roster the following Monday.
Disclaimer: This article was researched and written by the author. Claude (Anthropic) was used as a research and drafting aid, and Grammarly was used for editorial review and copy editing.
In the continuing effort to document my grandmother’s vaudeville career, Madonna Montran (stage name Donna Darling), contemporary newspaper accounts remain invaluable. Each newly discovered engagement helps refine the chronology of her touring schedule and broaden our understanding of her professional reach.
I am particularly pleased to document Donna Darling Company’s appearance at the Bucklen Theatre in Elkhart, Indiana, in November 1924. This engagement shows the continued development of her larger revue format and demonstrates her sustained presence in Midwestern vaudeville markets.
Performance Details
Venue: Bucklen Theatre
Location: Elkhart, Indiana
Dates: Monday and Armistice Day, November 10–11, 1924
Act Name:“A Beach Promenade”
Company Billing: Donna Darling Co.
Supporting Acts on Bill:
“An Overhead Oddity” – Miss Rubye & Billy Lathan (double trapeze act)
Lamey and Pearson – “Just For Fun”
Aalbu Sisters – “A Few Different Things”
Beck and Berry – “A Bit of Nonsense”
Feature Photoplay:“Those Who Dance” (Thomas H. Ince production)
Source: The Truth (Elkhart, Indiana), November 11, 1924, Page 12.
Newspaper Coverage
Advertisement – “VAUDEVILLE Today and ARMISTICE DAY”
“Five Acts of Vaudeville” An Added Attraction
DONNA DARLING CO. IN ‘A BEACH PROMENADE.’
“Five Pretty Girls and Two Men compose the company known as Donna Darling’s Bathing Girl Revue. The sketch shows the evolution of the bathing suit in three shocks and four gasps.”
Review Column Text (Page 12)
“Today the Bucklen offers five acts of vaudeville and in addition the feature photoplay, ‘Those Who Dance.’ Three shows today, afternoon at 4 and evening at 7 and 9:15.
The vaudeville program for today and tomorrow consists of the following selected acts: ‘An Overhead Oddity,’ in which pretty Miss Rubye, weighing but 100 pounds, handles Billy Lathan, who weighs 180 pounds, in a double trapeze act, including toe hangs and contortion feats; Lamey and Pearson in ‘Just For Fun,’ a pleasing act centering around the New York young fellow who meets a girl from the country; the Aalbu Sisters in ‘A Few Different Things,’ an enjoyable variety of novelty dancing, music and songs, assisted by a dancing partner; Beck and Berry in ‘A Bit of Nonsense,’ a singing and talking act with clever songs and up-to-date comedy; the Donna Darling company in ‘A Beach Promenade,’ introducing five pretty girls, who know how to wear bathing suits, and two life guards.”
Analysis and Context
Evolution of the Act
Documented fact: By November 1924, Donna was touring with a formally titled company presentation — “A Beach Promenade.” The advertisement explicitly describes it as a “Bathing Girl Revue,” featuring five women and two men.
Interpretation: This marks a clear evolution from her earlier smaller-format singing and dancing revues. The “bathing girl” theme aligns closely with 1920s popular culture trends emphasizing seaside imagery, modern swimwear, and light comedic spectacle. The phrase “three shocks and four gasps” reflects the era’s promotional hyperbole, suggesting playful, risqué elements without crossing into indecency.
Billing Hierarchy
Unlike her March 1923 engagement at the same theatre, where she appears to have headlined, the November 1924 advertisement lists her as an “Added Attraction” within a balanced five-act bill.
Interpretation: This suggests either a rotational billing structure or a strategic marketing choice to highlight the novelty of the themed revue. The phrasing still gives her act prominence, particularly through bold typography in the display advertisement.
Touring Geography
The return to Elkhart demonstrates repeat bookings within the same market approximately twenty months after her prior appearance.
Interpretation: Repeat engagement in the same theatre suggests that her earlier appearance was commercially successful. Vaudeville managers were pragmatic; performers who drew audiences were frequently rebooked.
Conclusion
The November 10–11, 1924, appearance at the Bucklen Theatre confirms the continued growth and sophistication of Donna Darling’s touring production. “A Beach Promenade” represents a more developed company format, consistent with mid-1920s vaudeville trends emphasizing themed revues and ensemble presentation.
This documented Armistice Day engagement not only expands her known itinerary but also illustrates the maturation of her act from solo-feature billing to a branded company production — an important stage in her professional evolution.
Disclaimer: This article was researched and written by the author. ChatGPT was used as a research and drafting aid, and Grammarly was used for editorial review and copy editing.
(Originally published 1 August 2026) Updated 4 November 2026
By Don Taylor
In mid-November 1920, my grandmother, Donna Montran, headlined the vaudeville bill at the Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown, Maryland. She appeared with Tom Rooney’s Bathing Beauties in A Beach Promenade, billed by Hagerstown’s Daily Mail as “Donna Montram.” Tom Rooney, Donna’s husband of nearly five years, presented the act; they married on November 24, 1915.
The Daily Mail tells the story in three items: a Saturday ad promising the act for the following week, the engagement ad itself, and a glowing review that ran on November 12, 1920.
The Engagement
Donna played the Maryland Theatre for the last half of the week, Thursday through Saturday, November 11–13, 1920. Opening night fell on Armistice Day, the second anniversary of the end of the Great War.
The theatre began advertising the act on Saturday, November 6. Its big ad for the Monday–Wednesday bill ended with a teaser:
Maryland Theatre advertisement, Daily Mail, Hagerstown, MD, November 6, 1920.
THE PRIZE WINNER OF THE YEAR COMING THE LAST HALF OF NEXT WEEK — TOM ROONEY’S BATHING BEAUTIES WITH DONNA MONTRAM IN “A BEACH PROMENADE.” TEN OF CALIFORNIA’S SELECTED PEACHES — ALSO OTHER BIG ACTS.
The engagement ad billed the act as the “Supreme Triumph of the Year.” The Maryland ran three shows daily, at 2:30, 7:30, and 9:00 p.m.
Seating
Price
Matinee
17¢, 22¢, 28¢
Evening
22¢, 28¢, 33¢, 44¢
Box
50¢
The last ad I found ran on November 12. From Hagerstown, the act moved on to the Pastime Theatre in Union Hill, New Jersey, for November 15–17, 1920.
The act also appeared in the local theatrical calendars on November 8, 9 and 12, where Donna’s name ran in the same column as Man o’ War.
The Production and Cast
Maryland Theatre advertisement, Daily Mail, Hagerstown, MD, November 12, 1920.
A Beach Promenade was a bathing-beauty revue in the style made famous by Mack Sennett’s films. Tom Rooney presented Donna with a line of young women billed as Californians. The review said they had “won nationwide popularity by their appearance before the moving picture camera.”
The act mixed singing and dancing with a parade of costumes “representing the various nationalities, and seaside resorts in this country.” The ads promised ten “Selected Peaches”; the reviewer counted “eight in all, and Miss Donna Montram.”
The rest of the bill, as advertised:
Act
Billing
Bob Milligan
“Comedian De Luxe”
Galetti’s Monkeys (the review spells it “Galatini’s Baboons”)
“Monkey’s Day at the Races,” “The funniest act in vaudeville”
Man O’ War and Sir Barton
“In their last race,” a special picture
The Maryland News
Newsreel
Overall Hero
Chester comedy short
The race film showed the October 12, 1920 match race at Kenilworth Park in Windsor, Ontario. It was Man o’ War’s final race, and he beat the 1919 Triple Crown winner Sir Barton easily.
Reviews and Reception
“Rooney’s Bathing Beauties Score Big Success at Md.,” Daily Mail, Hagerstown, MD, November 12, 1920, p. 3.
The Daily Mail’s November 12 review on page 3, headlined “Rooney’s Bathing Beauties Score Big Success at Md.,” called the act a hit. It described crowds outside the theatre on opening night:
That there was something unusual or extraordinarily attractive being offered at the Maryland would be the conclusion that most everybody would arrive at had they seen the throngs of people entering the Maryland Theatre last evening.
The writer singled out Donna and the troupe as headliners:
Tom Rooney’s bathing beauties, eight in all, and Miss Donna Montram, in their exhubrant beach promenade headlined the show, but not in the usual way.
The review praised the costumes and the staging, saying the act’s “triumph over the first night audiences will go down in history, for not in a blue moon has any completely captivated the audience the way this offering did.” It concluded that “the new show that is now in it’s second day is certainly a sure fire winner, from every viewpoint.”
The baboons drew laughs “most every minute of the time,” and Bob Milligan “won many rounds of applause.” The reviewer called the race film “well worth seeing” and the whole program “one of the greatest bills of vaudeville offered in this city.” The review never mentioned that Tom Rooney and Donna were husband and wife.
A note on the name. The Daily Mail printed her as “Donna Montram” throughout this engagement. The spelling turns up repeatedly in sources from this period when she toured with Tom Rooney. I have kept the paper’s spelling in quotations because that is what was printed.
Theatre Profile
The Maryland Theatre was Hagerstown’s leading vaudeville and photoplay house in 1920. Its ads promised “All that’s good in Vaudeville and short snappy Photoplays,” backed by the ten-piece Maryland Concert Orchestra. Charles Thropp was general manager. Its rivals that week were Nixon’s Academy, presenting the musical comedy Honeymoon Night, and the Palace, showing Wanda Hawley in Food for Scandal.
History of the Theatre
The Potomac Realty Company built the Maryland for about $200,000. It opened on May 10, 1915, with a live orchestra and the five-reel feature The Commuters. Tickets cost 10¢, or 35¢ for a box.
The Maryland began as a vaudeville house. Sound films arrived in June 1928 with The Jazz Singer, and it became primarily a movie theatre. Warner Bros. ran it from 1930 to 1953, followed by Stanley Warner and RKO-Stanley Warner.
Full-time movies ended in November 1973. A fire on February 8, 1974 destroyed the front block and lobby, but the auditorium survived. A local funeral director, Gerald N. Minnich, bought the building in 1976 as it faced demolition. Restored by local citizens, it reopened in 1978.
Location Today
The Maryland Theatre still stands at 21 South Potomac Street in downtown Hagerstown. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (November 13, 1976). A centennial restoration followed in 2015, and a five-level Performing Arts Center opened beside it in 2019. It is home to the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and seats about 1,293.
Theatre Specifications
Address
21–23 South Potomac Street, Hagerstown, MD
Opened
May 10, 1915
Architects
Harry E. Yessler (Hagerstown) with Thomas W. Lamb (New York)
Interior design
Arthur Brounet (New York)
Contractor
George Wolfe (Hagerstown)
Cost
About $200,000
Original seating
About 1,400
Style
Neoclassical
General manager (1920)
Charles Thropp
Status
Active performing arts venue
Significance
Hagerstown is one of the best-documented stops on Donna’s 1920 Beach Promenade tour, with a teaser ad, an engagement ad, and a full review. The ads also confirm that Tom Rooney himself presented the act, so the couple was touring together five years into their marriage. The engagement closed just eleven days before their fifth wedding anniversary.
It is also a reminder of what vaudeville audiences got for 44¢: Donna’s revue, a comic, trained baboons, a newsreel, a comedy short, and film of the most famous racehorse of the day.
I love finding these little theatrical calendars and ads — the kind of thing nobody kept on purpose, but which somehow survived. Seeing my grandmother’s name beside Man o’ War in the same column makes that week feel vivid. Hagerstown clearly gave her a warm welcome that November.
Sources
Maryland Theatre advertisement, Daily Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 6, 1920.
Maryland Theatre advertisement, Daily Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 12, 1920.
“Rooney’s Bathing Beauties Score Big Success at Md.,” Daily Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 12, 1920, p. 3.
“Theatrical Calendar: Attractions at the Local Theatres This Week,” The Herald-Mail, November 8, 1920, p. 5.
“Attractions at the Leading Theatres,” The Herald-Mail, November 9, 1920, p. 5.
“Attractions at the Leading Theatres,” The Herald-Mail, November 12, 1920, p. 5.
This article was researched and written by the author. Claude (Anthropic) was used as a research and drafting aid, and Grammarly was used for editorial review and copyediting.
Darling-Huber 2026 – Ancestor #61 Darling-Huber-Trümpi Oertli Line
By Don Taylor
Anna Maria Oertli was born in the shadow of the Glärnisch, in a Swiss village where nearly everyone could recite which of a handful of old families they belonged to. She married into one of them, the Trümpis, buried an infant daughter during the hunger winter of 1847, and spent her last years more than 4,000 miles away, in the coal-and-river country southeast of Pittsburgh. She lies today in a small-town Pennsylvania cemetery under a name — “Anna M. O. Trumpi” — that quietly carries her maiden initial across the ocean with her.
7th Great-grandfather: Hans Heinrich Oertli (1679-1745)
8th Great-grandfather: Josua Oertli (1644-1702)
* I have not researched Fridolin Oertli (1799-1827) not any of his ancestors. His ancestor names are tentative/speculative.
Anna Maria (Oertli) Trumpi (1823–1896)
Birth
Anna Maria Öertli was born on 4 December 1823 in Ennenda, Canton Glarus, Switzerland, the daughter of Fridolin Öertli and Sara Heer.3,4,5 Ennenda sits just across the Linth River from the town of Glarus, the cantonal capital. In Anna Maria’s lifetime, it was one of the centers of the Glarus textile-printing trade.
Childhood
Anna Maria’s childhood was marked early by loss. Her father, Fridolin, died in 1827, when she was about three years old. My records list six siblings — Abraham, Fridolin, Felix, and Josua, who were older, and her younger siblings, Sara and Johannes (who died as an infant). Like most Glarus girls of her generation, she probably grew up in a household that depended on the mills and print works along the Linth, supplemented by small-scale farming and alpine pasture.
Marriage
On 30 January 1844, at age 20, Anna Maria married Bernhard Trümpi in Ennenda.2,3,4 He was the son of Bernhard Trümpi and Anna Maria Dürst.2,3,9 Their first child, Bernhard, arrived on 16 May 1844, about three and a half months after the wedding — not an unusual circumstance for the time and place.4,11
The Hungry Years
The young family began life together at a hard moment. Hand printing and weaving were losing ground to mechanization, and in 1845–1847 the potato blight and failed harvests brought real hunger to the Swiss mountain cantons. Glarus responded partly by organizing emigration; in 1845, a party of Glarner settlers founded New Glarus, Wisconsin, and several Trümpi families eventually followed.
Anna Maria and Bernhard stayed. Their daughter Maria Magdalena was born on 12 August 1846 in the hamlet of Ennetbühls, part of Ennenda. She lived just five months, dying on 28 January 1847 in the depth of that hungry winter.18 Five years later, on 3 March 1852, also in Ennetbühls, Anna Maria gave birth to a son, Fridolin — the boy who would become John Frederick “Fred” Trumpi in America.4,7,15
Children of Bernhard and Anna Maria (Oertli) Trümpi
Child
Born
Died
Spouse(s)
Bernhard Trümpi 3,4,11
16 May 1844, Ennenda
28 Dec 1913, Switzerland
(1) Regula Stüssi, 2 Jul 1867; (2) Bertha Koch, 10 Feb 1883 — both in Ennenda
Maria Magdalena Trümpi 18
12 Aug 1846, Ennetbühls, Ennenda
28 Jan 1847, Ennetbühls, Ennenda
—
Fridolin “John Frederick” (Fred) Trumpi 4,7,14
3 Mar 1852, Ennetbühls, Ennenda
24 Oct 1917, Lincoln Twp., Allegheny Co., PA
Katherine Eubley, abt. 1875
The gaps between 1846 and 1852, and after 1852, suggest there may have been other children who have not yet been identified.
Emigration
When Anna Maria left Switzerland is unknown. Anna’s husband died on 20 March 1870 in Ennetbühls. Her younger son, Fred, came to Pennsylvania and married Catherine Eubley about 1875.16,17 Anna Maria followed — or perhaps came with him — sometime before 1880.
Life in Pennsylvania
On 1 June 1880, the census taker found Anna Maria living in Lincoln Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, boarding in the household of John Webley along with her son Fred and his family.10 Lincoln Township lay in the rural southeastern corner of the county, near the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers and the borough of Elizabeth. Anna Maria was then about fifty-six.
The household head’s name is worth a second look. Fred’s wife, Catherine, is recorded as a servant in John Webley’s household. However, if the census taker misheard the name, it could have been “Eubley.” If so, John Webley could have been Catherine’s relation. Fred and Anna Maria are listed as boarders.
Death and Burial
Anna Maria (Oertli) Trumpi died on 24 March 1896 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-two.3,4,5 She was buried in Elizabeth Cemetery in Elizabeth, Allegheny County, where her memorial reads “Anna M O Trumpi.”5 Her son Fred was laid to rest in the same cemetery when he died in 1917.14
Research Notes
Birth year. FamilySearch and Patrick Wild give 4 December 1823; the Find a Grave memorial gives 1828.4,3,5 I have accepted 1823 as the better-supported date, but the age in the 1880 census is not legible.
Source quality. Most of the evidence so far is derivative — online trees, Find a Grave, and Patrick Wild’s compiled pedigree. Under the Genealogical Proof Standard, the Swiss conclusions in particular should be checked against original parish registers.
Further Actions / Follow-up
Search the Ennenda Reformed parish registers and the Kubly-Müller Genealogiewerk des Kantons Glarus for Anna Maria’s baptism, her marriage, her parents, and all of her children.
Search 1865–1880 passenger lists and the 1870 census for Anna Maria, Bernhard, and Fred.
Look for Anna Maria in the Allegheny County death register (1893–1905) and in Pittsburgh-area newspapers for an obituary.
Sources
1. Pennsylvania Death Certificate #109868, Frederick Trumpe (1917). Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906–1965, Ancestry.com. 2. Patrick A. Wild, Descent of Mary-Alice Darling Howell from Charlemagne (Zurich, 2021), p. 13. 3. Patrick A. Wild, Pedigree Chart for Shirley Elizabeth Darling: Following the Trümpy line in Glarus (2021), p. 002. 4. FamilySearch Family Tree, Family Group Record – Bernhard Truempy (LTQV-JFS), accessed 15 Dec 2018. 5. Find a Grave, Anna M O Trumpi, memorial no. 116047103, Elizabeth Cemetery, Elizabeth, Allegheny Co., PA, accessed 15 Dec 2018. 6. FamilySearch Family Tree, Anna Maria Oertli (LTQV-J9C). 7. Heather’s Ancestor Hunt, “Descendants of Benhart TRUMPE [LKWX-DPP],” https://heathersancestorhunt.weebly.com/trumpie.html. 8. FamilySearch Family Tree, Anna Maria Dürst (LBW7-XY6) — no sources attached. 9. Geneanet, Patrick WILD’s Family Tree, Anna Maria Dürst, accessed 22 Apr 2026. 10. 1880 U.S. Census, Lincoln, Allegheny Co., PA; Roll 1089, p. 383A, ED 066. Ancestry.com. 11. FamilySearch Family Tree, Family Group Record – Bernhard Truempy (LB7D-66R), accessed 15 Dec 2018. 12. Find a Grave, John Frederick “Fred” Trumpi, memorial no. 116042448, Elizabeth Cemetery, accessed 16 Dec 2018. 13. 1900 U.S. Census, Lincoln Twp., Allegheny Co., PA, Fred Trumfee (Trumpi), head. FamilySearch. 14. 1910 U.S. Census, Lincoln Twp., Allegheny Co., PA, ED 114, sheet 3A, family 37, Fred Trumpe. FamilySearch.
Disclaimer: Written by Don Taylor with research and drafting assistance from Claude.ai and editing support from Grammarly.
In October 1925, my grandmother — working under her stage name, Donna Darling — played one of the more unusual dates I have found in her career. Instead of a theatre, Donna and her girls performed “Her Little Revue” under a huge circus tent at the Elks’ Mardi Gras and Auto Show in Carlinville, Illinois, a county-seat town of about 5,000 people roughly forty miles south of Springfield. A run of short items in the two Springfield dailies, the State Journal and the Illinois State Register, lets us follow the carnival from the day its tent arrived to its final night.
The Engagement
Carlinville Elks Lodge put on a week-long Mardi Gras and automobile show, billed as the “Biggest carnival in Central Illinois.” The proceeds went to charity.[2] Preparations were reported as early as October 6, when the State Journal announced that “the great circus tent for the Elks’ carnival here next week has arrived.” It also reported that the management had “booked a number of high-class vaudeville performers from the Orpheum circuit,” including “the prettiest of girls, all famed for fun and pep,” and that “one of the numbers will be a miniature musical revue.”[1] That miniature musical revue was almost certainly Donna’s act.
The carnival opened at 5 p.m. on Monday, October 12, 1925.[2][3] That morning’s State Journal named the vaudeville acts. They came through the Western Vaudeville Managers’ Association, “affiliated with the Orpheum circuit,” and included “Two Sunflowers from Dixie” and:
Donna Darling and her girls in “Her Little Revue” with a wonderful finale, “The Evolution of a Bathing Suit,” will be sure to please. These acts will cost $1,500 and are free to all who attend the carnival.
The State Journal (Springfield, IL), October 12, 1925[4]
The Mardi Gras ran through Saturday, October 17. On that day the Illinois State Register reported that “today is the last day of the Elks’ big Mardi Gras and automobile show.”[6] Donna’s own run may have been shorter than the carnival’s, though. On Wednesday, October 14, the State Journal noted that “there will be a complete change of vaudeville tomorrow night.”[5] Western Vaudeville routinely booked its acts in split weeks. Only the week before, Donna Darling and Girls and Padgett & Harmon’s “Two Sunflowers from Dixie” had shared a Monday-to-Wednesday bill at the Lincoln Theatre in Belleville, Illinois, October 5–7.[7] This suggests the same unit played the first half of the Carlinville week, Monday through Wednesday, October 12–14, and that a new bill took over on Thursday.
The Production and Cast
“Her Little Revue” was a small-girl act, with Donna leading a line of chorus girls in song and dance. The Belleville paper called it a “Song and Dance Revue.”[7] The Carlinville notices single out its finale, “The Evolution of a Bathing Suit.” The bathing-suit theme ran through much of Donna’s work in the mid-1920s. That same year she toured with the California Bathing Girls, and a fashion parade of swimwear from modest Victorian costume to the daring one-piece of 1925 would have been a natural crowd-pleaser.
The vaudeville was only part of the entertainment. Every evening the program combined:
Donna Darling and her girls in “Her Little Revue”
“Two Sunflowers from Dixie,” billed as “the funniest comedy act obtainable.” This was Padgett & Harmon, a blackface comedy duo, which was a common and now uncomfortable staple of 1920s vaudeville.[1][7]
Dance orchestras: Roche’s singing band, Bradley’s Favorites, Gillespie’s Golden Peacocks, and Widener’s orchestra of Gillespie[4][5]
Local bands: the Standard City Boys’ band, the Girard Boys’ band, and the Kincaid band[4]
An automobile show with exhibitors “from Springfield to St. Louis”[4]
A “most popular lady” contest, also called the carnival queen contest, decided by ballot[5][6]
George A. Childs of Kansas City directed the carnival.[4]
Reviews and Reception
The newspapers did not review individual acts, but their reports show the vaudeville was a real draw. Halfway through the week, the State Journal’s Carlinville correspondent wrote:
The great tent was thronged again tonight with merrymakers. The automobiles on display are attracting much attention as each car is the latest pattern its company has to offer. The entertainers attract a big crowd each performance. They are from the Orpheum circuit.
The State Journal, “Vote on Carnival Queen,” Carlinville, October 14, 1925[5]
By the end of the week the Register judged the event a success:
Many of the best features have been saved for the last night and the big tent is expected to be filled to overflowing with visitors. The carnival has been a decided asset to the life of the city during the last week.
Illinois State Register, October 17, 1925[6]
Venue Profile: The Great Tent
This engagement had no theatre. The Elks rented a circus tent 80 feet wide and 200 feet long and pitched it “on the land owned by Dr. Conley on North Broad street just off the square.”[1] The tent sheltered the vaudeville stage, the automobile display, and a “big dance platform” that was “erected for the pleasure of those who enjoy dancing.”[2][3] The auto show opened at 7 o’clock each evening, and the features followed “in rapid succession, assuring the public of a continuous good time.”[4]
Playing under canvas was a different job from playing a theatre. There was no proscenium, no fly loft, and no dressing rooms in the usual sense. The audience had not bought tickets and drifted between the cars, the dance floor, and the stage. For a girl act built around costume changes, ending with a parade of bathing suits, it must have taken some improvising.
History of the Venue: Carlinville and Its Elks
Carlinville was founded in 1829 and is the county seat of Macoupin County. The 1920 census counted 5,212 residents.[8] The town is dominated by the Macoupin County Courthouse, built from 1867 to 1870 at a cost of more than $1.5 million and known ever since as the “Million Dollar Courthouse.”[9] Its square was lined with businesses and the 1870 Loomis House hotel.[11] By the 1920s the town also had a new neighborhood of Sears catalog homes that Standard Oil of Indiana had built in 1918 for its coal miners. This connects to the Standard City Boys’ band that played at the carnival.[8]
The host was Carlinville Lodge No. 1412 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The lodge is still active and still raises funds for “educational, patriotic, and community-minded programs.”[12] A week-long Mardi Gras with hired vaudeville, a car show, dancing, and a popularity contest was a typical Elks fundraiser of the 1920s. The committee had “worked for months for its perfection,” and the profits went “for charities.”[2]
Location Today
The tent stood on North Broad Street just off the public square in Carlinville, Illinois 62626.[1] The exact lot owned by “Dr. Conley” has not been identified. The setting has its own historical footnote. A year later, in 1926, North Broad Street became part of the original alignment of U.S. Route 66, which entered town on Broad Street and circled the square until the highway was moved east to Litchfield in 1929–30.[10][11] A historical marker titled “Circling the Square” now stands on the north side of the square at North Broad Street, a short walk from where Donna and her girls performed.[10] The square, the courthouse, and the Loomis House survive today within the Carlinville Historic District.
Venue Specifications
Venue: Circus tent (temporary), Elks’ Mardi Gras and Auto Show
Dimensions: 80 x 200 ft.[1]
Site: Land of Dr. Conley, North Broad Street, just off the public square, Carlinville, IL[1]
Host: Carlinville Lodge No. 1412, B.P.O.E.
Director: George A. Childs, Kansas City[4]
Booking office: Western Vaudeville Managers’ Association (Orpheum affiliate)[4]
Admission to vaudeville: Free with carnival attendance[1][4]
Features: Vaudeville stage, dance platform, automobile show
Carnival dates: Monday, October 12 – Saturday, October 17, 1925
Significance
Most of Donna’s documented dates were in theatres, from big-city picture palaces to small-town vaudeville houses. Carlinville shows another side of a 1920s vaudeville career. Small-time acts filled their routes with fairs, carnivals, and lodge benefits that the circuits booked alongside regular theatre time. Here Donna performed for free to the crowds at a small-town charity carnival, sharing a tent with new automobiles, dance bands, and a popularity contest.
The engagement also links to her October 1925 route. The same pairing of Donna Darling and Girls with “Two Sunflowers from Dixie” appeared at Belleville’s Lincoln Theatre on October 5–7 and at the Carlinville Elks’ Mardi Gras the following week. That suggests Western Vaudeville was sending the two acts around southern and central Illinois as a package. And the State Journal’s mention of a finale called “The Evolution of a Bathing Suit” tells us something new about the act itself.
Sources
“Elks Secure Orpheum Acts for Carnival.” The State Journal (Springfield, Illinois), Oct 7, 1925, page 8 – “Dateline Carlinville, Oct. 6, 1925.” Accessed via Newspapers.com.
“Carlinville Is Set for Elks’ Big Carnival.” The State Journal (Springfield, Illinois), Oct. 10, 1925, page 8. “Dateline Carlinville, Oct. 9, 1925. Accessed via Newspapers.com.
“Elks’ Carnival at Carlinville Opens Monday.” Illinois State Register (Springfield, Illinois), Oct 10, 1925, page 10. “Dateline Carlinville, Oct. 10, 1925. Accessed via Newspapers.com.
“Elks’ Carnival to Hold Stage in Carlinville.” The State Journal (Springfield, Illinois), October 12, 1925, p. 4. Accessed via Newspapers.com (image no. 1328144927).
“Vote on Carnival Queen.” The State Journal Register (Springfield, Illinois), Oct 15, page 20, “Dateline Carlinville, Oct. 14, 1925. Accessed via Newspapers.com.
“Elks’ Carnival Beauty Contest Closes Tonight.” Illinois State Register (Springfield, Illinois), October 17, 1925, p. 10. Accessed via Newspapers.com.
Belleville Daily News-Democrat (Belleville, Illinois), October 6, 1925. See “Donna Darling – Lincoln Theatre, Belleville, IL – 6 October 1925,” dontaylorgenealogy.com. https://dontaylorgenealogy.com/2022/07/donna-darling-lincoln-theatre-belleville-il-6-october-1925/
