| OCR Text |
Show jiy Looking at I ii ii imi ii ii ii I W' HAT a heritage for Rita nay-worth's nay-worth's baby! Everybody knows, of course, that little Rebecca's Rebec-ca's mother is one of the most successful suc-cessful and most popular of all our feminine stars, and that her father, Orson Welles is a remarkable young man (too remarkable sometimes!) in many fields writing, acting, producing. pro-ducing. But Rebecca's heritage is a matter of generations famous in the theater. That baby's great-grandfather on the distaff side is the great Antonio Cansino, one of the famous dancers t of all time. The story of his life and j of the 1G children he begot, and of : his grandchildren, is one of the fas-' fas-' cinating sagas of the theater, j Nearly 70 years ago a 12-3ear-old ' boy was left an orphan in a little Spanish village. His father had been 1 a well-to-do land owner; but there were crooked lawyers in Spain even J then, as everywhere else, and the boy found himself done out of nis i inheritance and left penniless to face the world. That boy was Antonio An-tonio Cansino. Out on His Own Antonio set out for Seville, and there he found himself a job as helper to a blacksmith. Little Antonio An-tonio liked to dance, and to play the guitar. When night came Antonio struck out for the water front cafes, and there he danced again for pennies. pen-nies. At that time the famous Imperia and her rival. La Companara, were having their heyday, and there was a popular male dancer, Fernando Fer-nando Feliz. Young Antonio sneaked into the wings to watch their performances and In time made their acquaintance. He had an Ingratiating manner, and before long he was having lessons from all three of them. Starting Up the Ladder So at 15 Antonio said goodby to his forge. A theater manager had seen him dance and had recognized a rising star. Within a year Antonio was famous throughout Spain. He .lad a house of his own, servants and a cariage. At 17 he married. At 18 he was a father. A London producer happened to be visiting Spain and watched Antonio Cansino at a performance in Madrid. He offered a contract for a month's engagement in London at a Bgure that couldn't be turned down. The month was extended to a year, and by that time Antonio was reaping reap-ing a fortune. Paris followed and then tours of Europe and South America. As the Cansino fortune grew, the family was growing, too. At the age of 35 Antonio had no less than 10 children. He was rich and his wife and children wanted him at home. To the chagrin of theatrical managers, he announced his retirement retire-ment from the stage. Never Too Young All of the Cansino children were taught to dance by their father almost al-most as soon as they could walk. Young dancers begged Cansino for instruction, so he opened a school In Madrid. When Diaghiley took the Ballet Russe to the Spanish capital several of the stars took lessons from Cansino, among them Leon-Ide Leon-Ide Masslne. The Cansino children all enjoyed great success. They toured Europe, Africa, North and South America, Australia. Edouardo, Rita Hay-worth's Hay-worth's father, took Latin America by storm. Antonio II was a sensation sensa-tion in Europe and Australia. Jose, Angel, Paco, Ellssa, and the others all had their share of triumphs. California, Here We Come When Rita was 16 she came to California with her parents, the Edouardo Canslnos. The movie bug got her, but good. She danced and played bit parts in dozens of pictures, pic-tures, and then came her big chance In "Blood and Sand," opposite Tyrone Ty-rone Power. You know the rest of that story. Her father and mother have been retired from the stage for some years, and Rita's father is now working at Douglas because he has two sons at the front And now the first Antonio, the patriarch pa-triarch of them all, is here. He lost house and fortune during the Spanish Span-ish revolution. And do you know what he's looking look-ing forward to? You guessed it it's the day when little Rebecca is big enough to take her first dancing lesson from her great-granddaddy. Did I say that baby has a heritage! heri-tage! And did I say there's a movie in the hlstoire Cansino? All right, I leave it to you and to the first smart producer that gets the same idea. And Why Not? When Joe E. Brown was decoratea In Manila by General MaeArthur with the Philippine service ribbon, the general said that it was the first time the honor had been given a civilian. ' Immediately after receiving receiv-ing it Brown left for Okinawa and Iwo Jima. This Is his fourth trip overseas. . . . Ida Lnpino gets what she wants Ray Milland in "Lady 17," with Lewis Allen directing at Paramount . . . Joan Fontaine didn't want to do comedy, but "The Affairs Af-fairs f Susan" is one of her best |
