Señorita Carmela and José Reachi hit the road on the first day of January 1925, and brought their act to venues across the East and South with the revue The Land of Joy. Papa Hanrick tells in his memoirs that “35 people left from New York in 2 cars”. Mama Hanrick traveled with them “to check on the costumes”. It was customary for New York-based Vaudevillians to travel to small theaters far from New York to try their wares on Keith's or other circuits, and to polish their acts before bringing them back to Broadway. Sometimes it was just a road show that ran across many of Keith's venues across the East, and some independent theaters too, as was the case with The Land of Joy. Harry Leavitt managed the tour.
Wellsboro, PA, is a small town in the Adirondacks (240 miles west of New York) that was a trade center and shipping point for the region. The Land of Joy was compared to the Ziegfeld Follies in ads, it was a variety show with as many as 30 acts ("Joys"), including comedy, singing and dance (a "Revuesical Travelogue" they called it). It was produced by Anton F. Scibilia, and included several Spanish-inspired themes. The troupe consisted of as many as 30 performers, but over time the cast was fluid. The Land of Joy opened at the Bache Auditorium on Friday, January 2, 1925.
The next day the troupe made a back-breaking trip through Pennsylvania to appear at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster for two very different shows, one in the afternoon and one at night, the entire act was being tested and rewritten on the fly. The Fulton is a landmark, the oldest continuously operating theater in the United States. The press called the revue "fair" at best, the jokes were "stale" but the dancing was definitely a plus. The critics also noted the lack of a unifying theme in a show that included Arabic as well as Spanish subjects. Señorita Carmela was still doing the Tango with Vincent Martínez.
The next week, on Wednesday January 7, they were at the Chestnut Street Opera House in Sunbury, PA. Then on January 9 and 10, they were in Harrisburg at the Orpheum, and on Tuesday January 13 they were at the Academy in Lebanon, PA.
The tour continued with shows at
Jan 14-15 | The Playhouse, Wilmington, DE | |
Jan 19 | The Opera House, Frederick, MD | |
Jan 22 | The Masonic Theater, Hinton, WV | |
Jan 24 | Huntington Theater, Huntington, WV | 🏠 |
Jan 28 | Colonial Theater, Bluefield, WV |
At the Huntington Theater, the program shows significant changes. Vincent Martínez was out, he had commitments in Miami and soon took off. In his place José Reachi was dancing the "Tango Caprice” with Señorita Carmela. Reachi and Carmela also danced “The Moonlight Waltz”, and others. Compared to the program the previous September in Altoona, this show was less Spanish-centric. Carmela was also doing two solo numbers.
Feb 4 | New Theater, Staunton, VA | 🏠 |
Feb 8 | Liberty Theater at Ft. Monroe, VA | |
Feb 10-11 | Academy of Music, Richmond, VA |
Feb 12 | Majestic Theater, Danville, VA | |
Feb 14 | State Theater, Raleigh, NC | |
Feb 24 | City Auditorium, Charlotte, NC | 🏠 |
Feb 25 | Textile Hall, Greenville, NC | |
Feb 26 | Auditorium, Ashville, NC | |
Feb 27 | Lyric Theater, Knoxville, TN | |
Feb 28 | Elks Auditorium, Tuscaloosa, AL | |
Mar 2 | Bijou Theater, Chattanooga, TN | |
Mar 5 | Elks’ Theater, Huntsville, AL | |
Mar 9 | Tulane Theater, New Orleans, LA | 🏠 |
Matilde Carpos was praised as was Señorita Carmela for her dance of the scimitar. Yet by the end of February it was clear that the breakout artists from the troupe were the Tango dancers. Southern critics were concerned with the amount of skin on display, "daring is an adjective much abused by press agents" one wrote. In Tuscaloosa's Elks' Home they were booed by one side of the house.
Mar 13 | The Academy, Selma | |
Mar 16 | Greensboro Opera House, Greenville | |
Mar 17 | The Grand, Montgomery | |
Mar 18 | The Academy, Selma | |
Mar 21 | Jefferson Theater, Birmingham |
Then they started to make the return trip up North. On April 1 they were at the Town Theater in Columbia, SC. On April 8 The Waco News Tribune reported that Babe Hanrick would travel with Mama Hanrick from Norfolk, VA, to New York, an overnight trip on a steamship.
Babe Hanrick married José Reachi at the Holy Trinity Church, on West 82nd Street in the Upper West Side in New York on April 22, 1925. Babe was 17 years old, and Ramón was 22. It was front-page news in the hometown paper.
They went promptly back to work to Pennsylvania for the last leg of the Land of Joy revue. Scibilia plotted an afterlife for the revue (a condensation), but after Pottsvile it was done really.
May 2 | Earle Theater, Philadelphia | |
May 11 | Colonial Theater, Bethlehem | |
May 15-21 | The Hippodrome, Pottsville |
It was time to move on to new projects. As noted on the news, the Reachis were using their Spanish nicknames very effectively. On July 27, and for three nights, they joined the Walter Rosemont’s revue at the Colonial Theater in Allentown, PA, and for the first time they appear as “Rosita and Ramón”. Mama Hanrick returned to Waco around this time.
They were not named in the ads but the reviewer did not forget their new names, they "took the house by storm”.
Babe probably got her new nickname after Mary Pickford’s famous silent film of 1923. Paul Dupont composed a Tango for that movie that was very popular.
After playing in New York the revue's name again changed to "Rosemont Troubadours: A night at The patio", maybe they were trying to evoke memories of the nights of El Patio at the Hotel McAlpin. Then they went to Boston and to Upstate New York where they appeared at
Aug 18 | Keith's Theater, Boston, MASS | |
Sep 12 | Temple Theater, Syracuse, NY | |
Sep 13-14 | Majestic Theater, Elmira, NY | |
Sep 16-18 | Binghamton Theater, Binghamton, NY | |
Sep 20-23 | Nixon Theater, Philadelphia, PA | |
Oct 1-3 | State Theater, Scranton, PA | |
Oct 4-6 | Earle Theater, Philadelphia, PA | |
Oct 11 | William Penn Theater, Lancaster, PA | |
Oct 14 | Towers Theater, Camden, NJ | |
Oct 19-20 | Grand Theater, Philadelphia, PA | |
Oct 22 | Keith's 105th St. Theater, Cleveland, OH | |
Oct 24 | Orpheum Theater, Germantown, PA | |
Oct 25 | The Hippodrome, Baltimore, MD | |
Oct 31 | Edgmont Theater, Chester, PA |
María Fayad must have seen her son and her new daughter-in-law at the State Theater in Scranton, where the revue played for 3 days in early October. They were on the rise and by the end of the month their names were appearing on the ads.
Ramón and Rosita and the Rosemont Troubadours finished their tour of the Northeast with shows at
Nov 4-6 | Broadway Theater, Philadelphia, PA | |
Nov 9-10 | Feeley Theater, Hazelton, PA | |
Nov 12-14 | Strand Theater, Shenandoah, PA | |
Nov 18-21 | Sheridan Square, Pittsburgh, PA | |
Dec 2 | Capitol Theater, New Castle, PA | |
Dec 6-7 | Crosskeys Theater, Philadelphia, PA | |
Dec 14-16 | Majestic Theater, Harrisburg, PA | |
Dec 17-19 | Mischler Theater, Altoona, PA | |
Dec 21-23 | York Opera House, York, PA | |
Dec 24 | Colonial Theater, Lancaster, PA |
On December 15 they appeared without the Troubadours at the Century Roof in Baltimore, MD. They used “Rosita and Ramón” or “Ramón and Rosita” indistinctively. Incidentally, Medrano and Donna danced at the same venue the previous week, they were going on the road too.
The Reachis decided to split from the Troubadours and went back home to New York for Christmas. They were looking for work. They danced at more than 60 venues in 1925, it was exhausting really but they had names now.
Notes
1. Antonino Fortunio Scibilia had a long career in Vaude and beyond, as a producer and writer. In 1925 his Flashes of the Gay White Way and World of Pleasure revues were popular, and then he worked with legends Texas Guinan and Mae West.
Bibliography
1. Cinema Treasures is a treasure
http://cinematreasures.org
http://cinematreasures.org
2. The University of Arizona has a website full of Vaude stories
https://vaudeville.sites.arizona.edu/node/29
