Old Friends

Art Sale, Golden Valley, Minnesota

“We've been friends for over 50 years! Can you imagine it?”

In the way your faces light up, in the way the conversation resumes, as if you had just stepped out of the room for only a second, rather than the months which had transpired. For this moment at least, the years mean nothing. The Now. Unstated, but appreciated.

Last week I received a comment from a director of an Adult community center in Wisconsin, who wrote in looking for information on Frances Bruno, the subject of a series of posts I did last year. I called the woman who wrote and she told me the story. Sybil, one of the seniors who was in attendance that day, was wearing a distinctive ring. When asked about it she said that she had bought it in Rio when she was a skater in The Holidays on Ice revue in the early 50s. She also said that her roommate on that tour, Frances Bruno, had also bought a ring at the same time. Whenever the woman wore it it reminded her of Frances and of how much she missed her still, after 60 years. I gave the director Frances' grand-daughter's email address.

Frances is gone now. But her memory is not. The two old friends pictured above can still see each other and share some time together. But the important thing is not that they can still see each other, or that Sybil and Frances cannot; it is that they had once been friends–a bond neither time nor death can destroy for it only passes out of our view.

Searching for Miss Bruno

This card found in a flea market with the ticket below, postmarked 1946, was addressed to "Miss Frances Bruno" of Saint Paul Minnesota. The correspondence mentions that "this place is really romantic. Been raining a lot though- darn. Houston TX next." A search for Frances came up empty; maiden names from the 40s don't usually survive the conversion to digital data:



The Court of Two Sisters still exists, catering to the tourist trade.  This next piece of ephemera has a little more information, with a little more searching I found enough to start a narrative:



The back has the name of Bruno, Frances written in pencil at the top, with "HOLIDAY ON ICE SHOWS, INC." stamped below it. A little research shows that this troupe began traveling across the country a few years earlier; these trips were made practical after the development of a successful portable ice rink.  There are programs from 1947 available online, although the contents are not. Searching a little further (on Bing no less!) I did find a mention of Frances on a HOI reunion board—she was in the chorus! These mementos had been removed from her scrap-book and sold for 50 cents.  That's a little sad, I'm sure there was more information about her, although the audience for her story might be very limited. It is known that in 1947 the HOI went on a tour that made it to Mexico City for a stunning nineteen day sold-out run (total attendance of over 350,000!) and also performed in a bullfight arena in Guadalahara.

As to The Southerner, numerous sources chronicle this train:



I take it that car S-4 is the same as SOU 804 Georgia Coach listed above. The locomotive itself is a classic streamliner which ran for many years:



All this must have been heady stuff for a youngster from Minnesota in 1947!

UPDATE: More on Frances Bruno, and even more!

UPDATE: I found her obituary…

Searching for Frances Bruno, Redux

In June I posted about some documents I discovered at a flea market. Yesterday, at a different sale, I saw the same vendor and found some postcards (torn from a scrapbook) which also concerned "Franny". Frances Bruno was a skater in the Holiday on Ice shows of the post-war 1940s. They were evidently sent to a sister and are a record of her time with the show, as well as one each from two different men—perhaps her brothers. The cards, along with their messages:




To Mrs. A. Bruno (Bruno overwritten Brand), St. Paul, Minn. Postmarked Oct 27 1946, Columbus, Ohio:

Hello, Well I saw Minn. get skunked by Ohio. We couldn't buy tickets they were sold out. Then the night before the game one of the show's owners from Mpls. passed out 40 tickets to kids in the show. Shirly & I got one cause we were from Minn. They were $3.50 tickets on the 40-50 yard line, perfect seats. It sure was nice.  Bye now, Fran

To Miss Frances Bruno, c/o Holiday on Ice, Milwaukee Wisconsin, Wichita, Kansas. Postmarked Jan 15 1947 and Jan 22 1947, New Orleans, LA:

Dear Fran, I received your letter yesterday & was a little surprised. Well kid, I'll give you a clue, I got me a ship last Mon. but we'll be around here for a while yet. We are (in) dock, won't you please write again, Love Carl            

SS Cape Lilibeo c/o Lykes Bros SS Inc. N.O. La

To Mrs. A Bruno (overwritten Brand), St Paul Minn. Postmarked Mar 31 1947, New Orleans, La:

Hi! Believe it or not, but this is what it looks like here. Flowers all over, lovely yards, etc. I was with Carl & Fritz today again - really had a good time. New Orleans sure is a place to see! Love, Fran

To Mrs. A Bruno (overwritten Brand), St. Paul, Minn. Postmarked Oct 3 1947, Columbus Ohio:

Hello. Well this is our town! Nigel is here. We leave for Cincinnati in the morning. Address my mail to Cincinnati Music Hall—Cincinnati Ohio. Bye Love Fran

To Miss Frances Bruno, Holiday on Ice Show, Auditorium, Memphis Tennessee. Postmarked Feb 2, 1948, Columbus, Ohio:

Hi Franny. We're moving around about as much as you are. We beat Northwestern 53-37 on Sat and hope to beat Ohio State tonight. Hope you enjoy Georgia. Whiz

The 47-48 basketball Gophers featured future Minneapolis Lakers star and NFL Vikings coach Bud Grant, no record of "Whiz" available.

Oh! You Beautiful Doll!

There is a first time for everything.

My latest garage sale discovery is a bisque doll from the 1960s. The head and bust section of the doll was marked with the name “Pearl Lewis” who was either the designer of the bisque head or the name of the doll itself. The clothes were made by Frances Davis, who was also active in doll making in the New York area at that time.

I found Pearl in a box of other dolls, most of which were well-used. With her dirty face and clothes she looked like a “fallen” woman that had been forced to lie, cheek by jowl, with the grubby and broken low-life denizens of the penal colony/container. After purchasing her freedom I took her home and carefully disrobed her to see the extent of her injuries, if any. She may have been blushing from my masculine touch, but if she had I couldn’t see it under the grime.  I was looking for water damage, insect infestation, or mold. Fortunately, she was in pretty good shape. A few of the stitches holding her undergarments had unraveled, but there were no tears or other damage. After hand washing her clothes, I let them dry while I constructed a simple stand with a block of wood and a dowel (I’ll let your imagination figure out where the dowel went!) A slight “tea stain” remained on the shoulders of her frock, but otherwise everything looked like new. Her prim smile indicates that she is most pleased with her restoration:



My first doll.  

One doll.

Not a collection.

Yet.

Terra Incognita

Focus Films

Moonrise Kingdom
A film by Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson's films are, in spite of all the strong design elements and quirky characterizations, an examination of the mysterious emotional underpinnings of human behavior. When he turns his attention to that most mysterious and emotional of all behavior, adolescence, the result is the awkward, funny and haunting Moonrise Kingdom. The story revolves around two twelve year-old "troubled" children, Suzy and Sam (Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman), and the reactions of their parents and authorities when the kids run away to seek a better life with each other.

It starts out slowly, the dialog of the children is stilted, even mumbled at times. Scenes have random moments of strangeness. But about halfway through it all starts to click, and the very gentle magic of the film grows. The adult cast is stellar— it's almost an embarrassment of riches: Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Harvey Keitel and, of course, Jason Schwartzman. But the story is about the kids, and the performances by Gilman and Hayward are artless yet perfect. If you can enjoy a movie that takes its time to develop and you can appreciate subtle and bittersweet humor, this might be the summer "adventure" film for you. You won't need a map either, if you follow your heart.