HOLLY DAYS

I re-read my little santa memoir as I posted it just know, and realized that most folk would assume that this was hyperbolic:

‘This Santa goes out on the street and waves at passing cars, and fantastically, despite his girth, does cartwheels and hand springs, grand jete’s and pirouettes, as he bellows out his ho ho ho’

But amazingly like this whole story, this is precisely true. During the War my dad acted in an all-GI variety show. They toured the battle theaters of the world entertaining the troops and even played a hugely successful run at the Belasco Theater (in fact they made so much money the company built a public swimming pool still in use on the grounds of Fort MacArthur, which guards Los Angeles Harbor).

He started out in field artillery (where his illustration of Hitler’s sweat-flinging, terrified face won a contest to become the US Army’s official Hitler-faced target), but quickly joined the Yardbird Revue, which would develop into ‘Hey Rookie!’ by the time it reached Broadway. It was mostly broad skits about army life, and my father’s favorite bit was as the prima ballerina leading a chorus of other GIs in drag.

Voracious guy that he was, he threw himself into studying ballet. Eventually, 100 shows later, he actually could lift his 250 lbs. above a graceful batterie, pirouette or gran jete as well as all the song and dance stuff like bell steps and cartwheels. As Santa, in the little village of Atwater where he worked, his wild dancing managed to stop traffic on Glendale Blvd. with kids hanging out of windows screeching, horns honking and drivers cheering.