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IN AND OUTS
Rochester, N.Y.
By Al S. Smith

My Dear Public:

In introducing a new magazine in the "Flower City," I am take the responsibility of giving you the low-down on the theatrical persons who are employed in various nightclubs of our fair city.

The Show-Down Publication of St. Louis, Mo., is giving to the reading public America's own Sepia Theatrical Magazine, and to you, the reading public, I wish to extend my appreciation for the subscription you so gladly gave me for this issue.

I know you will find this copy interesting so again I am thanking you very kindly for your interest. 

Now for a bit of news on the theatrical front where shells are exploding rapidly. I find I must give you the low-down right here. Well, in and out of Bardo's (ofay) Club I found the Old Maestro Stanley Thomas and his Dukes dispensing hot rhythm and furnishing the musical background for a floor show that should be in the "Cotton Club" of New York, or the "Grand Terrace," in Chicago, with such talented young ladies as the Misses Louise Russ, Josephine Roundtree, Alberta Dustye, Ruth Lewis, Greta (Sally Rand) Ross, Windy and Gussie, Lucus and Lamar; Jimmie Mills of Detroit, is M.C., doing a job of introducing better than any M.C. I've heard, East or West. The boys furnishing the music are Gale (Father Hines) Jones, Jazz (Base Fiddle) Curry, Bud (Armstrong) Curry, Ted Williams and Hobart Dustye. Thanks, Chicago, you gave us a break when you sent us the Windy and Gussie dance team. I think Windy is a very likable young fellow with a personality which is 100%, and what a producer!

Pardon me, my dear public, for the interruption, but I am being introduced to a charming young lady, Flo Butler, formerly of Cincinnati, Ohio, now at Airport Tavern. Thanks, Edna Miller, for introducing me. I will be out to the Tavern to see your song and dance act very soon.

Well, folks, what a break was given your scribe last week. Ralph Seymour of Chicago invited me to accompany him up to the "Gay Ninety" Club and what fun! There I found a charming little Miss swaying to and fro and singing the hit tunes of today. Beautiful Donez Lewis heading the floor show. We also found Babe Brown and his Manhattan Club Band of Reading, Pa., dishing out rhythm, Alonz with Boots Lavana, female impersonator, and Joe (Bill Robinson) Banks doing the M.C. and Little Ruth and Bobbie.
 
We must leave the "Gay Ninety" and go over to the Sagamore Hotel and up to the roof to Radio Station WHAM, where we find "The Dudley Brothers' Quartette broadcasting on a commercial contract for Brewster Gordon Co. at 7:30 p. m. Tuesday evenings, and on Friday evening for the Stromberg-Carlson Co., owners of the station. Tune in sometime and listen to the 

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University of the Dance
By Douglas and Jenkins

The sign reads "Norton and Margo - University of the Dance" and being interested in everything pertaining to the theatre and ball room, we went upstairs to the studio.

Mr. Norton was in and consented to give a few highlights on his career. He showed us around the studio and we gazed with proper respect at a vast high ceilinged room. The floor was highly polished and the walls were a warm neutral tone that blended well with the soft music that appeared to come from nowhere.

As we wandered around Mr. Norman talked. He reminisced of his childhood. Born in New York of Spanish parents, and early in life exhibited unusual ability for dancing.

For nine years he studies ballet dancing in Kobleff. His teachers were many and varied. He talked of Geo. Quaintance, Gen De Meus, Nicholas Tsaukalas, under whom he perfected his Adagio technique and many others.

By working very faithfully while continuing his studies, he was able to go to London, where he studied under Renant Ratanoff for one and a half years, thus developing his European Finesse.

Upon his return to the United States he founde most avenues closed to the type of dancing to which he was accustomed. He therefore too up tap-dancing and became a sensation throughout the West.

[[image: black & white photograph of a man in a tuxedo and woman posing together]]

Returning to New York he opened the school which he and Margot Love, the other half of the team, are the head. They devote all their time to teaching the younger set the beauty and art of dance, which Mr. Norton asserts brings out the real beauty of Negro children.

Miss Love, or Margot, studied the dance under Miss Robinson, of New York, with whom she worked. A graduate of Hunter College in New York, she majored and is extremely proficient in languages. Norton and Margot started together in 1933, and since then he has become known from coast to coast. Her knowledge of the dance, plus her business ability, has done much to make the work successful and necessary to this community.

The efforts of the school were primarily directed toward teaching the children of the community correct and beautiful dancing. In this particular they have been highly successful, weeding out the more apt pupils and placing them in a class by themselves in order not to retard their advancement until slower pupils have caught up with them.

A peculiar development has arisen in the school opened for the children and younger set. Norton and Margot discovered so many adults who were interested, they had to open a new studio in the same building. Adult pupils arrive at the school as early as 7:00 a.m. and go through their routine and then leave and go to business.

Classes of prominent men and women have been organized for grace, rhythm, and for those who need it, reducing.

Norton and Margot are open for club dates, exhibition dancing and novelties. The studio address is 2354 7th Ave. New York City.

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