The students of Stearns High School did themselves proud on their initial attempt to stage a musical comedy in the High School Auditorium.
The bevy of pretty girls in striking costumes, the tuneful chorus, and the antics of the comedy characters kept the good-natured crowd which jammed the building in an uproar.
Miss Genevieve Mollenhoff who directed the effort certainly did good work in getting the amateur vaudevillians together in the short space of one week.
Miss Eleanor Bird as the pretty daughter of Widder Brooks was as self-possessed and sure of her lines as any experienced juvenile performer. Miss Nannie Sue Arledge was quite effective as the oppressed widow. Miss Eunice Cloud as the wife of Steve McSplosh “who had a clue” delivered the goods.
Jake Cobb and Hugh Jack as young men about town were rather “young” but had all of the mannerism of the big town sports they represented themselves to be, and Bob Landis and Ed Barber, who impersonated two tramps, looked just like a couple we saw unload from a box car near Melrose last summer—‘nuf sed—they were natural as life. Hanford Thompson, Eulas Davis, Gordon Gibbs and Earnest Gibbs played their respective roles creditably.
Virginia Steele was the hit of the chorus, and she was effectively backed up by Barbara Voorheis, Irene Edwards, Jettie Hague, Blanche Feagan, Thelma Hague, Ruth Cobb, Eloise Cobb, Anna Lynch, Grace Smith, Flora Gilbert, Ruth Tate, Edna Ward, Otletta Landis, Marie Hall, Lizzie Lee Wilson, Gladys Walker, Esther Wilson and Carrie Barber. Gretchen Lynch as soloist won her share of applause.
The audience drawn from Columbus, Tryon and other parts of the community appeared to be extremely well satisfied with the program, and many expressions were heard which would indicate that they may be made regular events in the life of the school with financial success.
From the front page of The Polk County News, Tryon, N.C., Nov. 6, 1924. To see a program, go to: newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn94058241/1924-11-06/ed-1/seq-1/#words=November+6%2C+1924
