HAMILTON SPECTATOR
MONDAY DECEMBER 5 1932
ODDS and ENDS - Peeks At the Passing Show
Older people in the city, who remember the days when the Star Theatre was one of Hamilton's (in Ontario Canada) chief centers of entertainment, will no doubt recall how, whenever the show began to drag, whenever an act was late, or whenever there was any need for extra talent, Chum Dashper and Lou Lee were always called on to give a dance number, and that dance, executed by Chum with Lou at the piano, never failed to be the hit of the evening.
Though Lou Lee is now in Dunnvine, where he operates his own store, Chum Dashper is still in Hamilton, and it is only four years ago that he left the show business, after almost 40 years behind the scenes.
Coming to Hamilton 45 years ago,as a boy of ten, Chum had an urge to stepdance, and with the aid of an abundant innate talent, he had soon mastered all the fancy flings.
In those days all the step dancing was done on sanded stage floors. Chum had secured a job in the Star theatre, where the Savoy now stands, and one of his duties was to clear off the sand after the dancing act. One time, when he was wielding a broom across the stage, Lou Lee, sitting at the piano in the orchestra pit, asked him to try his hand at a dance. It was a great success, so they put it on in front of an audience, and brought the house down with the applause. From then on, Chum was a great favourite with the audience and the management, and his dances were to be seen almost every night.
Chum can remember a lot of funny occurrences in the old show days. He tells of the time that Fields and Hanson had a little act requiring a fast train which shot across the stage. The train was built, and Chum, then property manager Bill Bratt, Walter Britton the stage manager, and three other men were to push it across the stage. Chum was supposed to go out first, dressed as a railroad switchman, carrying a red lantern, and fix the switch for the train to rush through. This night (Chum admits that it was in the days that the boys used to know what a swing door meant), Chum forgot to go out and throw the switch. He and the other five men, concealed behind the fake train, started to run it across the stage. Just as the fender reached the far side of the stage, it got caught in the side drop. This drop was supported by a rope, and it swung up in the air carrying the train with it. The audience roared with laughter, as six pairs of moving legs suddenly came into view beneath the train, making it look more like a centipede than an iron horse! The six men turned around and backed the train off the stage as fast as they could get up the reverse speed. That was before the days of aeroplanes!
Another funny occurrence which centered around Chum, was during an act put on by the May sisters. The setting was a boxing ring, and the sisters, dressed as boxers, danced as they sparred around the ring. Chum was called in to play the part or referee. In the corner of the ring stood a pail containing the sponges for the rest periods between the bouts.Just when the terpsichorean bout was at its peak, one of the girls bumped into Chum and sent him sliding into the corner of the ring, where he jackknifed into the pail. Maybe this didn't bring a laugh! And believe it or not, it was not a part of the show!
Chum played many parts in his days, and he stills remembers the whacks he used to get over the head with a bladder as Officer No. 666 in a burlesque entitled Irish Justice.
For a time Chum was night desk clerk at the Stroud Hotel, and later he followed the show game at Bennett's theater, afterwards the Temple; at the Lyric theater with the vauderville players; at the Capitol with Vaughan Glaser; at the Savoy with Gladys Gillan, and at the Grand with Victor Tandy and the English players. Chum knows backstage life like a book, and he says he has seen enough of it now and is quite content to quit.
He still works at the Grand Opera House hotel, so he has not yet divorced himself from the atmosphere of the old show days, when this hostelry was the stopping place of the actors and actresses who played on the old grand stage.