Chehalis Woman Talks Life as a Vaudeville Performer

There are few people who can say the words, “Bob Hope once complimented my singing,” as casually as Allene Halliday.

Over the summer, Halliday moved into Woodland Village, an assisted living facility in Chehalis. Halliday, who is 84, spent decades as a performer and traveled internationally to share her talent.

“Shortly after she moved in we were having a conversation and she was sharing some of her background as far as being in the entertainment industry,” said Tanya Laeger, who is the community relations director for Woodland Village. “She would just name drop these names like Bob Hope. … She was talking about the Manhattan Revue and I had heard of it, vaguely. It was a nightclub act that travelled internationally.”

When Halliday was 10 years old, she and her sister sang every song they knew from Oklahoma! on a pair of swings in their backyard. They didn’t know at the time, but this launched their careers in vaudeville — live specialty act entertainment that was immensely popular before television.

Halliday was born in 1934, and spent her late teens and early 20s performing with a vaudeville troupe across the U.S., Europe and Northern Africa until she was 24. She and her sister began as dancers, then became singers and later added comedy to their act.

“My dad had built these beautiful swings for us, and we were swinging and singing everything we knew from ‘Oklahoma!,’” Halliday remembered of her discovery. “(It) had been the big hit the year before on Broadway. This woman heard us and came to our front door … and asked our mom if we would sing for the USO (United Service Organizations). We did, but the service people were so delighted with us because we had no fear.”

Allene Halliday is three years older than her sister, Pat Halliday. The two performed together during their childhood, as young adults and again later in life. The sisters performed with The Manhattan Cocktail Revue, a six-person troupe started by Betty Bryant and Jat Harot. 

“It was like a family,” Halliday said. “The Harots were very professional, and they wanted their girls to stay with them. They spent time training us, making us into true professionals and they didn’t want to lose us. So you couldn’t get married, you couldn’t have a serious boyfriend, which might interfere with performing. Since my sister and I were very ambitious, gung-ho to have careers, it wasn’t a problem for us at all.”

Allene Halliday was 18 when she joined the troupe, while Pat Halliday was 15. The two joined the other performers in Biloxi, Mississippi.

“That night, after performing, we piled into a car and went to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras,” Halliday said. “(We celebrated) our opening and then came back to do the show for the following night.” 

The sisters were originally hired as dancers, and performed in a family show. 

“We wouldn’t have lasted if we had been asked to drink,” Halliday said. “Thank God we were working with professionals. Things worked out for us.”

Although the sisters worked in nightclubs, they were not required to drink with the customers, such as performers in New York often were.

“It was dangerous to be a drinking showgirl,” Allene Halliday said. “In Detroit, there was another show on with us because it was really an all-night performing thing. So we were working with another show. One of those girls we picked up. She was running across the parking lot, said the gangsters were chasing her, so we put her in the car.”

The troupe travelled across the U.S., usually spending two weeks in each city. Hawaii and Alaska, both territories at the time, were the exceptions and warranted six-week performances.

“Alaska got a little exciting,” Halliday said. “But of course the Harots were there and they got us out whenever there was any excitement. It was wild and wooly in Alaska in ‘54.”

Although Halliday never personally witnessed a shootout, she explained the 1950’s Alaskan night club culture.

“The prospectors would come in with their sacks of gold and throw it out on the bar,” Halliday said. “People would look at it, but apparently the prospectors got all their gold back, except for the drinks they bought. Every so often there would be a shootout. There was one (where) three people were killed — it was the man, the wife and the bartender in one place.”

Halliday left the troupe at 24 to get married, but performed for the rest of her career.

“It was at the Ram’s Horn that Bob Hope heard me sing and complimented me on my singing,” Halliday said. “(He said) ‘I really enjoy your act. You’re a wonderful singer.’”