YOU KNOW YOU'RE OLD WHEN...

by Rose-Mary Rumbley

You remember shows and revival meetings held in a tent! Yes, this is before air-conditioning, when we sat and sweat for entertainment and the message of God.

In this article, I will take on entertainment--a show in a tent--as they were called TENT SHOWS. What else?

Theatre in Dallas in the 30's and 40's was in a tent. There was no Theatre Center, no Wyly, no Winspear, no nothing. We all went to the MADCAP PLAYERS in a tent on Haskell Avenue.

The program offered hysterical farces of the 30's. In other words, "pure corn." But who cared! It was fun. In the cast, there was the leading man, the leading lady, the dumb blond, the clown and an old lady who played the mother-in-law, or an old maid aunt, or a zany neighbor. She, with the clown offered the comedy relief from a plot that was stupid from the very beginning.

This theatrical group, the MADCAP PLAYERS, was under the direction of a fine actor, Neil Fletcher, who always played the leading man. His wife, Minnie, was the dumb blond. Toby Gunn played the clown and his wife played the leading lady. Jessie Adams played the old lady of various descriptions.

Jackie Calwell, a fine musician, played the organ while we ate pop corn and anxiously waited for the curtain to rise. Minutes before the curtain went up, Jackie played HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN, and a genuine thrill hovered over the audience. By the way, Franklin Roosevelt was elected with that song--HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN. It was the anthem of the 30's.

So, what happened to the MADCAP PLAYERS. Sadly to say, in 1941, it was all over for the troupe. They were finished. Dallas was becoming too sophisticated for a tent show, and, besides, the fire marshal frowned on the whole scene.

Neil Fletcher was broke. What to do? Was he defeated. NO!

He went into his kitchen and found a wiener and some corn meal and invented the Corn Dog!

He opened his first stand on the Midway, Fair Park, in 1942, and the rest is history.

What would the State Fair be without a Fletcher's corn dog? He died a millionaire. His sons are keeping the whole operation going. They tried freezing the dog and selling it in the stores, but that didn't work. We love seeing those dogs floating in the grease, served in wax paper, so that the grease drips down our elbows into the mustard that is offered with all the germs and bugs that are clustered around the dispenser. Who cares? We're eating the best food this side of heaven.