Show w 1 1 h R I FrY A 9 1 l 1 Ever wonder what a hula dancer does when she isn't tossing her torso 7 Alma lma Ross who performs a neat job of grass skirting for the movies stretches out for a busy 15 minutes of doing nothing 3 Hula Lesson Pays Dividends To o Stage Film I m- m to e Hip I- I I er erBy By Dy PAUL HARRISON one HOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD One One of the best invest investments ever made inthe in inthe inthe the modern history of show business ranking business ranking with Charlie Chaplins Chaplin's cent 50 cane Arthur Marxs Marx's 8 harp and Sally Rands Rand's first s set t of sale rummage fans fans is is the 3 Alma Ross spent for a hula lesson For 10 years from the time that she herself was 10 Miss Ross studied tap dancing She learned triples and spins and acrobatics and stair-dancing stair but all she got out of it was a hoofing engagement engagement engagement engage engage- ment the last time Show Boat was filmed And then her bit was chopped from the picture The movie colony seemed to be swarming with tap dancers Then one day early in 1936 Miss Ross heard about a a. call for a few Hawaiian Hawaiian Hawaiian Ha Ha- dancers for Hollywood Boulevard That evening she paid a Hawaiian girl to teach her a hula routine and the next day she got a job Customers Dodged It was no time at all on the set at Paramount that Alma Ross was discovered to be sensationally assembled assembled assembled as as- by nature for the undulating undulating undu undu- la lating ting of the grass skirt Without moving her feet she could flip a hip so far and fast that orchestra orchestra orchestra or or- chestra members and cabaret customers customers customers cus cus- Involuntarily dodged She was downright gyroscopic c defying not only the limitations of anatomy anatomy anatomy anat anat- omy but the laws of gravity Fascinated persons would tiptoe onto the stage to stare at atthe atthe atthe the middle swiveled middle swiveled marvel Long before the picture was released to toa toa toa a public that found it pretty dull there thre there being little o of the in ln the final cut Miss cut Miss Ross was wason wason wason on her way to London to dance I in the revue called Stop Press While there she also wriggled in ina ina ina a late floor show at Dorchester house and by day she found time timeto timeto timeto to toss her torso a bit in five English English Eng Eng- lish movies An agent from Cannes Cannes Cannes Can Can- nes meanwhile had been sitting around patiently with a contract so Miss Ross and her hay wardrobe wardrobe wardrobe ward ward- robe went to the Casino for sev- sev later Returning to Hollywood she met Band Leader Louis Prima whose I jive rhythms had nothing in common common com com- I mon with the island tunes to which she danced Nevertheless they were married a couple of months Started Own Show I IFor For a year she just traveled with her husband By this time Paramount regretted her ner capture by foreign agents and now it offered offered offered of of- her a term long-term contract Alma Ross came back appeared Ina in ina ina a few college pictures but mostly posed for leg art and fashions So she quit went to New York and produced a new show at the Hurricane club Miss Ross is perhaps perhaps perhaps per per- haps the first American who ever taught Hawaiian girls how to do their own dances dances or or versions of them anyway She also mowed the grass skirts a bit and introduced introducer intro intro- ducer the use of luminous paint Soon the expected cycle of south seas movies arrived and she re returned returned returned re- re turned to gyrate modestly in all those of the past two years Oddly most of them have been Tahitian rather than Hawaiian such as the current Tuttles of Tahiti Miss Ross mind She's still being being being be be- ing paid off by that lucky 3 3 investment in- in In in- vestment |