Camp Rondack - Rondacts Yearbook (Pottersville, NY)

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IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT And it Was, although it is difficult to report accurately on that hilarious performance because so much of the play was lost in the laughter of the audience. The casualties were terrific. Sixty people were found rolling in the aisles, and at least twenty had to be treated for paroxysms of laughter which they couldn't control. It is also difficult to decide just who was responsible for all this. Estelle Wieder, as the sorely-tried coach, sat down in mid-air so expertly that even the players shouted with glee, and Elaine Dworetzky, as the fussy bespectacled authoress of the play, was perfect. The pony chorus, which included Nat Frankel and Doris Woloshin, helped greatly to weaken the audience, as did the antics of the well-intentioned Social Hall Committee, Donna Goldman and Barbara Bersohn, the insistent piano-tuner Shirley Frost, and the dull-witted Susie of Jean Jahr. But surely never on land or sea was there another such scene as that in which the little villain Rosalind Fisher tried simultaneously to hold up her trousers and wrap herself affectionately around tall Phyllis Merson. Phyllis's coy gestures as Julia the heroine are simply indescribable. They had to be seen to be believed! Judy Weiss, as the dashing hero My love, how beeyoutiful you are! was devastating, and Corinne DuBois, as the bewildered Props, rushing in with Alowishus, the cross-eyed dinosaur, should have been preserved for posterity. If the limpness of the spectators is any indication, It Will Be All Right on the Night was the funniest thing that Rondack has ever seen. TI-IE TRYSTING PLACE Sh- rumor has it that- sh-it's' a secret sh- Rita dropped a letter giving the Whole thing away- sh- Yes, a real stock company- sh- That's right, they're giving a professional perform- ance- sh- Sunday night, August tenth, the letter said- sh- Didn't you hear what Mr. Chankin said at supper? 'A real surprise' - sh-sh- The curtain's going up any minute now'-sh-sh-I've heard they're going on Broadway this fall-sh-sh-Did you bring your autograph album?-I did-Mr. Chankin said they might sign!- sh-what interesting names he's announcing-sh-Leopold Stowkow- ski-Alicia Swiss-sh-I And thus, amid the Great Hush, did the story of the million cats on the back fence turn out to be one mewing pussy. The stock company may have watered its stock but Rondack's councillors performed nobly and even the dis- appointed autograph-hunters had a good laugh.

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Nurse: And almost succeeded in doing so, didn't she? Well, l have one thing to say for her. She was a very clever actress. Why, she even fooled me and I'm hard to fool. Doctor: Not as clever as G-Man Percy Wolff. After twenty years of dealing with maniacs, anyone who can trick me into thinking that he's crazy when he's really perfectly sane, is pretty good! Nurse: Well, he did get the pearls back for Dennis and Lartier's. The Whole case was ridiculously and hopelessly tangled, but since it all turned out happily Cexcept for Mrs. Lesterj I don't suppose I have to keep the card? Doctor: No, you can destroy it. Anyway, l got one thing out of the case. Nurse: What was that? Doctor: Lots of laughs-after it was all over! THE CLOCKSI-IOP Have you the time? There's more to a clock, you know, than meets the eye! Clocks, it seems, have hearts as well as hands, as we learned from one delightful visit to Clockmaker Elaine Davidson's Clockshop. We arrived just before the New Year, in time to see the lovely little Freshie snowflakes greet Father Time Cwho reminded us immediately of Arline Friedlanderlj. No sooner had Clockmaker Elaine said good-night to her beloved clocks, in the charming strains of 'iAll the World ls Just a Little Clockshopf' than, with a whir and a stir, the Clockshop came to life. The busybody cuckoo clocks in their little brown houses-with June Saltzrnan leading them into mischief-stretched their legs in song and dance to the measures of Listen to the Cuckoo Clocks, in which they told us We're Not as Cuckoo as We Seem! We discovered how villainous Alarm Clocks could be, when they informed us in menacing, musical accents that everyone is in our thrall, when they hear our strident call, out of bed they falll but we were greatly comforted when we saw and heard the little red-cheeked Dutch Clocks sing to Dearest Gretchen, Sweetest Maedchenf' It was also reassuring to find that even in Clockland Virtue ls Tri- umphant and Love Conquers All, that the False Alarm-a fierce moustache- twirling Irma Newman indeed I-was foiled in his dastardly attempt to win Felice Linder, the perfect Gretchen, away from her dear Claire Field, who was a very dear young Hans. When Grandfather Clock chided Hans-in Ruth Cohn's deep voice-for his fast past, we were very nervous indeed until, with Father Time presiding as judge, the jury of clocks decided, as we had long before done, in Hans's favor. Peopled with Rondack's talented little Juniors, on this occasion all the world was indeed a delightful clockshop, full of a wonderful kind of time.

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Gert, as the adolescent Lancelot Briggs smitten with the glamorous young widow, Mrs. Curtis CMargie, resplendent and sophisticatedj, was delightful both in front of and behind the animated settee. No movie idol was ever more warmly received than the handsome Rupert, and Syvvie's love scenes with Rita were highly educational. The entrance of Mr. lngoldsby CLee, practically unrecognizable behind her whiskersj almost stopped the show, while amidst gales of laughter the audience tried to identify this Kentucky-looking Colonel who so closely resembled the Four Marx Brothers put together. Mrs. Briggs was truly a Whiz and the Mysterious Voice sounded suspiciously like Lil's. In this manner, at the Trysting Place did Rondack's wise young campers meet the Great Hoax, and learn not to put too much stock in their councillors. INVESTMENT IN JUDY Rondack took a Hier on the market and invested heavily in Jervis Pendle- ton's Investment in Judy. By a wide margin, the gamble was successful, and both Jervis and Rondack profited greatly. Chief among our gains was the discovery in our midst of that up-and- coming Garbo-Gaynor-Hepburn, Beulah Davidson, who carried Judy out of the orphan asylum, through college and into several romantic scenes with Hue dramatic skill and understanding. We recall hearing distinctly a number of lumps being swallowed in various throats at her stormy outburst of rebellion in the asylum. And Jean Field! While Judy carefully described her dear old Daddy- Long-Legs, feeble and bald, with a white fringe of hair, there stood tall, charming Jervis, every inch a matinee idol! so handsome in Gloria's' dressing- gown that our sentimental young sophisticates practically languished. As Judy might have put it, When in doubt, swoon! Lil Bader's Miss Pritchard rose nobly, if somewhat hoarsely, out of her temporary laryngitis. Surely no one would have recognized our famous Mikado in this gentle arranger of Judy's destiny! As for the tight-lipped Mrs. Lippet, it was truly a remarkable disguise for our smiling, good-humored Muriel Helfman. For the convincing atmosphere in the orphan home, the order of merit goes to the children, Beatty Wasser, Lenore Farber, Judy Weitzner and Rosa- lind Fisher, as well as to that tintype of all trustees, who looked like a June Bug, Connie Reichbach. b For the remarkable change to gay college life we bow to the art of Nat Sobol, Virginia Rosencrans, Thelma Savada, and that ultra-snooty Mrs. Pendleton, Isabel Schlifman. We all heaved a romantic sigh of relief as everything ended well under the xgis of Butler Muriel Wiesenthal and Secretary Leila Rosenzweig Griggs. However, Judy, as Jean Field, put it: Couldn't you have guessed that I was Daddy-Long-Legs?