Grandmother Hoofers Hit Their Marks Anew

How Miss Abbott would have bristled at rehearsal the other day--the two girls tap-dancing to side-by-side spots on a bench, exchanging grins. Clearly having a ball!

When the two were together last, Miss Abbott didn’t tolerate any tomfoolery. None of the Abbott Dancers ate more than a few crumbs, worried they might be packed off for a skim-milk diet. They didn’t dare look at the boys in the band for fear of getting kicked out, like the girl who dated that fellow from Tommy Dorsey’s group. They dared not get uppity, even after dancing seven nights a week, or Miss Abbott would snap: “And what makes you think you’re sprinkled with stardust?”

Oh, the two girls laugh at those days now. Grandmothers now, they thank their lucky stars for Merriel Abbott, who instilled the get-up-and-go that now has them high-kicking their way toward a millennium milestone. Come midnight New Year’s Eve, at Palm Spring’s historic Plaza Theatre, they will mark an improbable show-biz anniversary--60 years since they first shared a spotlight as Abbott Dancers.

“And now, after all these years, the two of us are back together again, down memory lane--is that a story?” said Dorothy Kloss, 76, letting loose her howl of a laugh.

Beverly Allen, 82, who lets Kloss do most of the talking, said: “It’s like being back home.”

The two first danced together in 1940 and then separately left the Abbott Dancers to perform in the last of vaudeville, in USO shows and in star-studded programs featuring such entertainers as Jack Benny and Mae West.

Both had retired from show business, but then came “The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies,” which holds the Guinness world record for oldest professional chorus line (Follies’ cast members must be older than 50).

Riff Markowitz, 60, a former TV producer, created the follies eight years ago after the Palm Springs City Council asked him to help revitalize the city’s old movie house, the 1936 Plaza Theatre. He decided to put together a cast that understood what ‘30s glamour was all about. The company’s 24 dancers, ages 53 to 87, were chosen during auditions in cities such as London, New York and L.A., and include former Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, Las Vegas dancers and vaudeville performers who once worked for the coins that patrons threw on stage.

Old pros such as Allen, Markowitz said, know more than how to hit their marks.

“She’s in the show because she exemplifies everything the follies stands for, everything the follies means. The follies is so much more than just entertainment. It’s a statement of hope, you see, that life goes on, that sensuality goes on, that sexuality goes on, that laughter lives.”

Kloss and Allen grew up in Chicago, both daughters of widows. Miss Abbott’s legendary studio was a ticket to the Palmer House’s Empire Room, a grand supper club that drew businessmen, gangsters and their fur-draped girlfriends--the city’s escape from the Depression and brewing war in Europe.

Backstage one night, Kloss, then 15, met Allen, then 22. They danced together in the big midnight shows to cornball songs such as “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart” and “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody.” They still remember one of their first numbers together: a hunting scene, in which the dancers had to grand jete in long jackets and chase a tiny woman dressed like a fox.

“I don’t think that we were ever that chummy in the Palmer House, Beverly and I,” Kloss said. “There was like a five-year age difference. She was going out and dating like crazy, and I was hoping to date like crazy but unfortunately. . . .”

Kloss collapsed into giggles.

World War II interrupted everything, and they both moved on. After the war, both married, raised families, moved to California and began new careers. In more recent years, Kloss worked in guest services at the Queen Mary in Long Beach; Allen was a postal carrier in Beverly Hills. Each taught dancing occasionally.

At the suggestion of a former dance student, Kloss tried out for the follies in Los Angeles and made the cut. Now single, she was so happy that she moved to Palm Springs and threw herself into summer rehearsals, five days a week, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Maybe she is a beat or two slower than the first time around, maybe it takes her longer to nail a new move, but she’s back, and she knows it.

“With a show business background,” Kloss said, “I know when it’s over, so to speak. For dancers, I mean, you reach a certain age, and you don’t have that cute, wonderful face that you had when you were younger. . . . But the thing is, once you get into the show . . . you hit that stage, you love that audience, you love that applause. Then it’s happy time.”

Three years ago, Kloss heard that Allen might be interested in the follies and, even though they hadn’t stayed in close touch, she dropped her an encouraging line.

“I didn’t know whether I would be able to do it,” Allen said. “I was getting up there in age. I thought nobody would want to see an old lady get up there and dance.”

But Allen aced her audition and, with her husband, moved from Santa Maria to Palm Springs. Ittook a few shows to shake off her doubts, but “I’m tickled to death to be back on stage,” Allen said. “When you get older, you think, what will I do now? I’m happy when I’m in front of an audience. I’m a ham at heart.”

What tickles them now, they said, is not what a Miss Abbott might think, but the awe of their children and grandchildren. Every aching muscle is forgotten when an old-timer waits to shake their hands after the show and says, “I was the light man for you at the Chez Paree.” And this month, five ex-Abbott Dancers will come from as far away as the Philippines to watch Kloss and Allen in the follies’ ninth season.

“This is going to be a very exciting year for us, you know,” Kloss said. “I never thought that I would be on stage in 2000, knock on wood. We just keep moving along, singing a song. . . .”

* Renee Tawa can be reached at renee.tawa@latimes.com

* The ninth season of “The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies” begins Tuesday and runs through May 28. Tickets: $33-$65. Information: (760) 327-0225 or https://www.palmspringsfollies.com.

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