Donna Darling Collection – Part 67

Treasure Chest Thursday
By Don Taylor

Two Temple Theaters

For this week’s Treasure Chest Tuesday, I’m looking at two clippings from the Donna Darling Collection that relate to two  Temple Theaters.

The good news is that I encountered Temple Theaters previously.

Back in Donna Darling Collection – Part 39, I learned that Donna had played at the Temple Theater in Brantford, Ontario from January 27 to January 29, 1927.

Back in Donna Darling Collection – Part 63, I learned that Donna & Sammy played at a Temple Theater at the same time as Richard Talmadge’s movie “The Wall Street Wiz” sometime in May 1926 or later.

The first of the two clippings suggested that Donna and Sammy were at the Temple theater in “Braneford, Ont.”  After a closer look, it appeared the “e” was actually a “t” and the location was Brantford, Ontario. The advertisement shows the movie “The Only Way” with Sir. John Martin Harvey was playing.

The second image is unlabeled. It indicates that:

Temple Presents Act by California Bathing Girls

The Temple presents a pleasing bill for the last half of this week headed by the well-known singer and bathing beauty, Donna Montran, assisted by 10 of California’s selected peaches, in a most unusual offering of song and dance, entitled “A Beach Promenade.” A pretentious dancing revue is offered by the Homer Girls and Pease. Their revue is splendidly produced with special scenery and costumes and original music. It consists of dancing, both old and new…..

Other shows on the bill include:

• Jess and Dell as “The Human Puppets”
• Fred and Tommy Haden, “The American Englishmen”
• Miss Leila Shaw in “There She Goes Again
• Jay Raymond – “Soap Box Orator” (Possibly – unclear if he is an act or is only being referred to.

Donna began her “California Bathing Girls” in July 1920 and ended it in May 1921. So, this clipping comes from that period.

During that time, her show venues were in six Mid-Atlantic states, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC. There are 14 theaters in New York alone. Hopefully, a newspaper article will come up showing Donna at a Temple Theater with the same side acts.

Conclusion

I added a date of 1927-01-27 to the image of the Brantford, Ont., clipping and file.

I added “Before May 1921 and after July 1920 – Temple Theatre, unknown location. (See DDC-67)” to her career calendar.