Show I 1 by L L STEVENSON two very personable young worn en whose early days were spent far from the glittering glitter mg lights of old broadway are attracting a lot of attention on that street at present one miss joy hodges you ve ably sung about or heard sung about she s miss jones of I 1 id d rather be right also she s the daughter of a des moines postal clerk A lot of people have asked have you met mibs jones but as a matter of fact she never met george M cohan until she became a member of the company of which he is a star the other is vivian vance she s the international spy with the terrible accent in hooray for what in the play she con besses that she was born in bapa koneta ohio As matter a aw iatter of fact her home town is independence kan though she reached new york via albuquerque N M both young women did a lot of dreaming about broadway before they finally got there before coming to new york miss hodges she was christened frances eloise but chose the name joy for stage purposes had never been on the stage except in a couple of high school plays in des moines after she left high school she tried to get a job ob as a singer along came a contest with the prize a job and a tour to new york included she won but the promoter left town suddenly at her mother mothers s insist ence she followed him to chicago only to learn that he was all washed up A piano player in his orches tra felt sorry for her and sent her to his brother who was running a night club in buffalo for the next three years she toured the coun try with dance bands and early last year reached hollywood one night moss hart heard her sing at a bene fit when she had concluded her num bers hart told miss jones beg pardon I 1 mean miss hodges that he was writing a play with george S kaufman and informed her that she was the girl for the play that was the last she heard of the mat ter however until last memorial day when kaufman conducted an audition two hundred girls sang but miss hodges was the one picked by kaufman As he was talking with her hart came in that s the gal I 1 told you about I 1 shouted hart to his fellow laborer miss hodges wag was hired she came on to new york her name leads the program but the show had been running several weeks before she got around to seeing the town I 1 one night four years ago down in albuquerque there was a benefit performance the play was the trial of mary dugan vivian jones was mary the house was packed and the play was a success such a success that its purpose was fulfilled since miss jones started for broadway at once with the good wishes of albuquerque ringing in her ears on broadway she changed from vivian jones to viv ian ran vance that s the way it reads on the program of hooray for what and in the marquee lights those lights didn dian t come overnight there was singing in choruses and in night club microphones then there was understudying ethel mer man in anything goes and red hot and blue in the interval miss vance who was miss jones became mrs george kook the wife of a dance band violin player with a home over in jackson heights queens L having her n name up in lights on 0 old d broadway an and t this is seeing her r dream come true seemingly has chasn t changed the albuquerque miss jones in the slightest her favorite meal is still meat mashed potatoes gravy pie and coffee also she ikes to cook and turns out a mean fried chicken she doesn doean t like to drink and her chief ambition is to sing as rr well ell as louella gear there is this difference however when she left albuquerque she weighed pounds now she weighs and despite her favorite meals and love of cooking has no trouble in remaining at that weight 0 bell syndicate service |