Donna in Hamilton, OH, at the Palace Theater – March 22-25, 1925

BATHING GIRLS BE AT PALACE

According to announcement just made known, the Palace management has succeeded in obtaining a most unusual and decidedly high-class bit of entertainment to be offered to its patrons starting Sunday next. It is known as The Hollywood Bathing Girls Revue, and presents an exceptionally interesting half hour of pleasure. Miss Donna Darling, a winner of numerous beauty prizes is the star of this spectacular Revue. She played the principal role in the late musical comedy success Chin Chin, and is a talented singer and dancer as well as possessor of pulchritudinous charms. Before Miss Darling left the California studios, she selected several accomplished motion picture bathing girls to accompany here on her brief tour of the Eastern states. Each of them will do a specialty number, singing, dancing and comedy. And there will be a fashion display of different styles of bathing suits from Grandmother’s day on down to the present. Betty Bryant, who was selected as “Miss America,” in a recent Atlantic City contest has an important part in the presentation of this Bathing Girls Revue; and others included in the cast are Alyce Louyse, Mildred O’Brian, tiny Anita Walker, Todd Watson, Clarice Allyn, Al Ross and Gerry Gene, all of whom have won recognition in the “movies.”[i]
The following day, the exact same “article” appeared in The Hamilton Evening Journal. There was also a small ad indicating the show was coming “Next Sunday.” [ii]

It is interesting to note that Betty Bryant isn’t in the list of Miss Americas. The first Miss America was Margaret Gorman who won in 1921. Her title was “The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America.” It wasn’t until the following year, when she defended her title, that the title “Miss America” was used. So, Betty Bryant must have been a contestant either before 1921 or in another pageant.

March 21st was a big day for the show. There were ads on both page 2 and on page 27. Additionally, there were two articles about the show on Page 27[iii]. That longer of the two articles reads:

Bathing Girls at The Palace

The Journal News (Hamilton, OH) March 21, 1925 – Page 27 Source: Newspapers.Com

Bathing Girls from the Western motion picture studios will make a personal appearance at the Palace theatre starting tomorrow. The star of this spectacular Hollywood Revue is Miss Donna Darling, a winner of numerous beauty prizes, and portrayer of the principal role in the late musical comedy success “Chin Chin.” Miss Darling is not only beautiful, but can sing and dance with unusual ability. Her presentations are so charming that she has been justly called “The Girl with the million dollar personality.”

Miss Darling selected several accomplished motion picture bathers to accompany her on her brief tour of the Eastern states. Tiny Anita Walker sings as well as she wears a stunning black and white satin bathing suit. Todd Watson and Clarice Allyn, as gypsy dancers, entertain with a difficult and spectacular number, which is followed by an aerobatic novelty by the talented movie star, Gerry Gene. Al Ross, one of the life-guards, is an eccentric dancer who also appears with Alyce Louyse in the comedy number, “1000 Bathers.” Alice Lenyse is at her best in the Hawaiian dance. Mildred O’Bryan as a beach flirt does a nifty song and dance.

This revue displays the different styles of bathing suits from mother’s day, in which Miss Darling appears in an elaborate silver and orchid gown—a comedy number of 1900—on to the present day bather, when Betty Bryant, late of the Ziegfeld Follies, appears in a scarlet bathing suit as “Miss America of today.” Miss Darling as the “Globe-trotter” presents bathers of various beaches of other nations as well as the fashionable bathing centers of our own country. These include the Chinese, Spanish, Egyptian, Hawaiian, and Palm Beach bathers.

The gowns of this revue are elaborate, special interest centers about the rhinestone bathing suit, which Miss Darling wears in the finale. Much time and effort has been spent in selecting the stage setting and the elaborate lighting effects of this revue. The management of the Place theatre is to be congratulated for succeeding in procuring such clean and enjoyable entertainment as is “The Bathing Girls Revue.”

In addition to this unusual attraction a picture of rare merit—“Forty Winks” – Featuring Viola Dana, Raymond Griffith and Theodore Roberts, will be offered as the feature film. And the regular run of short subjects will also be offered.

Owing to the enormous cost of this big double bill, the Palace Management finds it necessary to slightly increase the price of admission, but it is said that this presentation will well be worth the increase in price.

The Bathing Girls revue will be presented four times tomorrow—at about 2:30, 4:30, 1:10 and 9:15 p. m. During the remaining three days of its run at the Palace theatre it will be presented three times. [iv]

To the Public:– 

   All rumours and reports in the contrary notwithstanding, we hereby guarantee this Bathing Girl Revue to be absolutely CLEAN, free from all vulgarity or suggestiveness and suited to the tastes of the whole family. It conforms in every respect to the Palace Theatre standard of presentation, and once again bears out why the Palice is known as

HAMILTON’S FOREMOST THEATRE

Newspapers articles and advertising also ran on the 24th and 25th in all three papers, Hamilton Evening Journal, the Hamilton Daily News, and the Journal News. 

Palace Theatre — 215 South Third Street, Hamilton, OH

The Palace Theatre was built in 1919 with the exclusive intent of showing movies. It was an opulently appointed silent movie theater. A newspaper of the time said that the $100,000 facility was “a replica of the famous Rivoli Theater in New York City.” The theater was designed by the managing director of the theater, Fred S. Meyer, and a renowned Hamilton architect, Frederick G. Mueller.

The theater’s ornate columns and windows were covered over in the in the 1960s, when the theater was “modernized.” In 2003, Greater
Hamilton Civic Theatre (CHCT) purchased the building and restored the original, rather striking, 1919 facade. Today, the Palace Theatre is used for GHCT theatrical support need.

Further Research
Research the other cast members of the show:

Anita May Walker 
Todd Watson 
Clarice Allyn 
Gerry Gene
Al Ross
Alyce Louyse 
Mildred O’Brien
Betty Bryant

Endnotes

[i] Hamilton
Daily News (Hamilton, OH) 17 March 1925, Page 2 – “Bathing Girls Be At Palace.”
Source: Heritage Microfilm, Inc. and Newspaperarchive.com.

[ii] Hamilton
Evening Journal (Hamilton, OH) 18 March 1925, Page 11 – “Hollywood Bathing
Girls Will Appear in Person at the Palace.” Source: Heritage Microfilm, Inc.
and Newspaperarchive.com.

[iii]
The Journal News (Hamilton, Ohio) · Sat, Mar 21,
1925 · Page 27 – Source: Newspapers.com.[iv]
The Journal News (Hamilton, Ohio) · Sat, Mar 21,
1925 · Page 27 – “Bathing Girls At the Palace.” Source: Newspapers.com.

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