Proud Papas Will Prance in Fashion-Variety Show, by Frances Hallam Hurt

Left to right: Patricia and John Beaver, Terry and Buddy Overbey, Mary Lee and Jim McKeever, Mollie and Jack Hunt, and Ann and Warren Bowers.

CHATHAM, April 10. — The true purpose of the nose, in all its unselfish glory, has gradually dawned on the populace of this little town. In the last two weeks the nose is purely and simply something to be led around by.

Men who view personal exhibition with about the same enthusiasm as Public Enemy No. 1 find themselves not only on display tonight, but dancing, tumbling, singing and clowning.

Their appearances, due to the persuasion of the Future Homemakers of America, will be in a show, the Clothes Horse Revue of 1957. Its original purpose was to display the garments made in the home economics classes of Mrs. Edwin S. Lowe and to raise some money for FHA. From this, it grew to include younger, clothes-conscious sisters who wanted to be in on the fun and wear fashions from local stores.

The show, sponsored by the Chatham Parent-Teacher Association, grew to include parents who wanted desperately not to be in on the fun, but found themselves in on it, anyway. The eight acts which interlace the showing of 90 fashions are exclusively those of parents and progeny.

Left to right: Mollie and Jack Hunt, Mary Lee and Jim McKeever, Patricia and John Beaver, Ann and Warren Bowers, and Terry and Buddy Overbey.

Left to right: Ann Bowers, Mollie Hunt, Patricia Beaver, and Terry Overbey.

One group of gentlemen, accustomed to footing the bills, find the tables turned. It's a case of billing the foot. They will dance. Five of them — James McKeever, Buddy Overbey, Jack Hunt, John Beaver, and Warren Bowers — will execute a form of modified Astaire with their little daughters, then each couple will perform a specialty — waltz, polka, Charleston, Mambo, and jitterbug.

Dr. Cary Whitehead, whose usual country-doctor problem is to stay on his feet, will take a nose-dive with his five children in a tumbling act. A plant pathologist, J.L. LaPrade, will serve as a bearded, Hindu assistant to LaPrade the Peerless, his son, the magician. A country farmer, Earlie Boles, will play the guitar and sing a spot of rock 'n' roll with some of his daughters, while his Dalmatian cow-dog lies at his feet awaiting his turn to do tricks.

Ellis Dodson will take his chances as Elvis Presley's papa, serving as chief teddy bear-toter for his son, billed as Gyrating Junior. A professor from Hargrave Military Academy, Capt. Earl Spencer, will do a blackface song-and-dance routine with his daughter, while Dr. Robert Hogg will play the piano accompaniment for his daughter to dance. Only one mother, Mrs. W.L. Saunders, will hold up the distaff side: she will play the piano for her daughter to sing.

Notes

This article was first published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, April 11, 1957.
Research assistance is provided by Sarah E. Mitchell, VintageDesigns.com
From Mollie Hunt Holmes, 3/10/2017, in response to a question: “It was I, dancing at age 7 with Daddy to the square step waltz. That's not what it is called, but that was the way the dance was performed. One step, two step, three step and four – making a little square on the floor, then turning a few degrees and doing it all over, so we didn't just turn within a square box area. I remember the dress I wore, made by Mama, perhaps yellow, and also there is the memory of being SO nervous. Mama had, of course, Tonied my hair into a kink and cut my bangs up to my hairline. Such was the style … Needless to say, I learned very early that ‘Dancing With The Stars’ was not in mine….”