« on: Friday 25 January 13 05:57 GMT (UK) »
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,632504.msg4803815.html#msg4803815The link above and the attached file will will point you to some particulars of my grandfather's career on the stage. His career as accountant, auditor, comptroller, and treasurer for petrochemical companies was more materially rewarding, but he could always delight you with a song and a dance and a droll story and an impersonation. He did a marvelous Harry Lauder! Can you imagine a charming auditor? I can't! I am wondering how much we can learn about my grandmother's career on the stage. My mother tells me that Margaret "Maggie" Dunsmore insisted that she was the star and John was the chorus boy when they first met. John was a veteran of Broadway, Australian variety, and WWI desert service when they met. So, what was Maggie doing? I'm told she made a great impression with "The lass with the delicate air" but I don't know whether the performance was on stage, radio, or recording. I do remember, as the oldest of her grandsons, that she was a most charming woman, delicately scented of violets, who was amply proportioned and well suited to entertaining four young grandsons with tea and biscuits and stories and books and games and songs and her very long lacquered fingernails made an interesting percussive effect on the keys of her grand piano. She was the oldest child and only daughter of her parents when her father, a lace manufacturer's agent, died and Maggie had to rear her five younger brothers while her mother took on her husband's business. There was no dole or social safety net in those times.
Campbell, McDonald, Sprague, Dunsmore, Altgelt, Paterson, Gordon, Rennie, Gorrie, Myles, Forbes, Stewart, Robertson, Scott, McEwan, MacCallum, McLagan, Perth, Dull, Lanark, Airdrie, Campbeltown, Saddell, Kessington, Cochno, Milngavie, Rutherglen, Kilsyth, Dundee, Killin, Ferryport-on-Craig, Kirkintilloch, Ohio, New York, Inverness-shire, Blair Atholl, Mathie
