The Allen's 51st anniversary was celebrated a few days late in 1972. Tuesday, April 4 saw Sally Rand grace the Allen's stage, in two big shows, one for golden agers at 11 AM, and an evening performance at 7;30. The show opened with Gene Jackson doing a passible Al Jolson tribute, followed by the 1929, All-Talking-All-Singing musical, Sunny Side Up, with Janet Gaynor. After a brief intermission, Sally appeared. much to the delight of the crowd. The early show also had an appearance by Mayor Ralph Perk who presented Sally with the key to the city. The early show was the slightly better attended, 2,200, and about 1,800. After the evening show I went to the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel, with Ray and Ceil and listened to Sally tell a bunch of old show biz stories, she was pretty cool. The next morning, I was sent down the street, with $1,000 in cash in an envelope for Miss Rand. I was so afraid I’d get robbed, I stuffed it inside a book about the 1930’s. I had Sally autograph a page in the book with a photo of herself for my grandmother. This was a busy week, with the Flintstones/Banana Splits/Yogi Bear on stage running all week, that Tuesday there was only one poorly attended performance at 3 PM. More on that later.
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