In The News
Bathing Beauty Revue
By Don Taylor
“Donna in the News” is my reporting of newly found newspaper articles and advertising regarding my grandmother, Madonna Montran (Donna Montran and Donna Darling). I am always excited when I find a new venue for my grandmother’s exciting show business career of the 1910s and 1920s.
This week’s article is from the Kirksville Daily Express & Daily News (Kirksville, MO) dated September 7, 8, & 9, 1924.
I didn’t find any write-ups for the vaudeville shows, but an ad for the Princess Theatre indicates that:
Donna Darling presents
Her Moving Picture Bathing Girls
and
The Life Guard
in a Beach Promenade. 3 Shocks and 2 Gasps!!
“The Evolution of a Bathing Suit”
It’s a real vaudeville treat!
Don’t Miss It!
The advertisements over the three days indicate that it played at the Princess on Monday and Tuesday, September 8th and 9th. The display ad on Sunday spelled the name of the feature film correctly, but the text ad on Monday misspelled the feature film as “The Excitors.”
On Monday, besides the feature film “The Exciters,” a Mack Sennett short, The Hollywood Kid also played. It appears that Donna’s show was the only vaudeville at the theater Monday and Tuesday.
Because of those newly available online articles, I was able to add another venue for Donna’s 1924 Bathing Girls show:
1924-09-08 – Kirksville, MO – Princess Theatre – Moving Picture Bathing Girls.
Endnotes
- Kirksville Daily Express and Kirksville Daily News (Kirksville, Missouri) Sun, Sep 7, 1924 · Page 2
- Kirksville Daily Express and Kirksville Daily News (Kirksville, Missouri) Mon, Sep 8, 1924 · Page 2
- Kirksville Daily Express and Kirksville Daily News (Kirksville, Missouri) Tue, Sep 9, 1924 · Page 2
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That show must be what they were doing in the picture of Donna and other girls onstage wearing old-timey bathing suits.