Dancing life was always a kick
‘I
Eve Barna
t was a glamorous life for a while," said Eve Barna of her years as a chorine during the 1930s. "I’m glad I did it and I would do it again."
Barna, 86, was a member of the legendary Rockettes around 1934-35 when lavish chorus line productions were part of the vaudeville bill that accompanied film screenings.
A resident of Navesink House in Red Bank, Barna followed her older sister into the dance world as a member of the Chester Hale Dancers, one of the best-known dance companies of the era.
"They had a whole circuit including all the Loews theaters throughout the country," she explained. "We were known for tap, modern, high kicks and dancing in line. We toured and I worked in Boston, New York, Chicago and Washington."
Eve Barna’s career as a dancer took her around the country during the 1930’s. Here she and her troupe pose as part of a promotional campaign.
Barna still laughs about the fact that her dance career got off to a shaky start.
"I was working in Montreal for a small company in the beginning," she said. "It went out of business and I had to call home for money to get home."
Her career got under way in earnest in New York.
"I started in the Capitol Theater at 50th and Broadway," she recalled. "They would show a movie and then there was a vaudeville show. I worked with Eleanor Powell and Jackie Coogan when he was boy. That was my start on Broadway.
"At that time there were a lot of dance lines," she continued. "Every theater had a line of girls. We did three or four shows a day. People would see a movie and a show for 65 cents."
Barna joined the Rockettes just a few years after the high-kicking, precision dance troupe became an instant success at its Radio City Music Hall debut Dec. 27, 1932.
The Rock-ettes were the creation of impresario Russell Mark-ert who set out to form a line of long-legged dancers performing intricate tap routines and eye-high kicks who would out-shine the other popular dance companies of the day.
Markert founded the Missouri Rockets in St. Louis in 1925 and over the next few years, took his dance troupe to Chicago, Boston and New York, where they danced at the Roxy Theater and were renamed the Roxyettes.
The dancers moved to Radio City Music Hall in 1932 and were renamed the Rockettes. Along with the screening of a new movie, the Rockettes staged a lavish production weekly.
Barna danced at the Roxy Theater in New York and then auditioned for the Rockettes.
"At first I was a swing girl," she said of her start as a Rockette. "It was very exiting. Being a Rockette was a big deal even then," she acknowledged, "because they were always the best."
Barna remained with the Rockettes for less than a year because she didn’t like the late-night commute home. "It was scary and I preferred to travel because I wanted to see the country," she said, so she rejoined the Chester Hale Dancers.
"I worked at the Capital Theater in Washington for three years. It was very exciting meeting the biggest and best stars and political figures," she recalled.
Barna was part of a dance line that did a precision military routine as part of the entertainment for a birthday party for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The party, she said, was attended by dignitaries including England’s Queen Mother.
"Every year President Roosevelt had a birthday party, and 30 or 40 stars from Hollywood were invited. George Brent came to the theater and Errol Flynn and his wife," she recounted. "I performed for them."
During a week off in Washington, she had dinner with a friend and met the young man from New Jersey who would become her husband in 1940. "It was love at first sight," she confided.
Barna gave up the dancers’ life to stay at home and raise her daughter but continued to teach dancing at her sister’s dance studio before moving to Holmdel.
Although minuscule by today’s standards, Barna said the dancers were well paid. "We were making much more than the average office worker was then. My sister was a supervisor with the phone company and she was making $20.
"We made $35 a week, and I was captain of the dance line so I made $20 extra," she said. "That was good money in the 1930s. It was during the Depression and we were glad to be working."
Barna said she relished the years she spent as a dancer, years when glamorous stars and vivacious dancers captivated audiences.
"Showbiz was at its peak then," she said. "The stars were out in Hollywood. That was the greatest time."
— Gloria Stravelli