The Theatre: A Hit in Legit

Last month Burlesqueen Ann Corio made her debut as a legitimate actress at the Kenley Deer Lake Theatre on the outskirts of Pennsylvania’s hard-coal district. Cast as “Princess Kalima,” the hula dancer in The Barker (with silent cinema stars James Kirkwood and Lila Lee), the shapely stripper played her first legitimate role rather solemnly, moved many a simple miner with her earnest emoting. But more important than Miss Corio’s acting was her success in combining drama with louse opera: she worked from conventional street dress in the first act to a G-string in the third.

Last week Miss Corio journeyed to Guilford, Conn, to play Princess Kalima in the Chapel Playhouse, which used to serve as a community church. To the dismay of her audience, including many Harvard boys who write her love letters, she refused to do her strip. Said she austerely: “In Connecticut the theatre is art.” She managed to pack them in at Guilford nevertheless. Relatively overdressed at the curtain, Miss Corio felt like a real dramatic star.

In less pious precincts this summer, Ann Corio will probably fall back on her burlesque routine. When she returns to burlesque in the fall, she will add a bit of variety to her act by breaking into a boastful ditty written by Tunesmith Edwin Gilbert especially for her: I was a Hit in Legit.