"THERE IS NOTHIN' LIKE A DAME"

CLOVIS REMEMBERED!

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BOYS' QUARTET AND "MOP DAME" TAKE FIRST PLACE!
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We loved our dame! She was, to us, though she may have seemed skinny to others, a beauty! With her hair all fluffed up and that big nice red ribbon tied around her neck, she was the stuff of poetry and song! Songs like....

"She was fair like a rose,
Like a lamb she was meek;
And she never, no never
Put paint on her cheek!"

Or,
"Born like a zephyr on the summer air..."

Or,
"Light she was, and like a fairy..."

If we'd had the time to name her, I'm sure it would have been "Clementine."

You see, my story is this: Word had gone out that April of 1951, that an under-entertained Clovis population was to be favored (and blessed) with a Youth Talent Show, in the old over-used and much-beloved Junior High Gym. A platform had been set up at the west end under the basketball goal, and a piano rolled out.

When we guys in the Clovis High School Boys' Quartet heard about this contest, we said:"Hey, that's our cup of tea; let's enter and win that sucker!" Every one of us: Levi, bass; Mil, baritone; Jack, Second Tenor; and Dale, First Tenor, were ready to go! We knew immediately that our selection would be "There Is Nothin' Like A Dame," a number from "Tales of the South Pacific," which we had used in one of Mr. Barton's excellent music productions. (My reader, keep in mind that, in 1951, WWII and South Pacific memories were pretty recent to everyone.)

Accordingly, we enlisted a pianist, practiced our song, and selected our costumes: identical ones----blue denim Levis, white sweat shirts, and white sailor caps. I cannot today remember who our pianist was.

We had decided that we would "get us" a dame to give ourselves a "competitive edge." Not knowing any live ones that would want to be "manhandled" on the stage ( most of the girls we knew were "shy"), we decided to go, we might call it---the "mail order bride" sort of route. Thus it came to be that our marvelous "MOP DAME" came to us from Barry Hardware. (How many great things came to Clovis through that store!!!) Okay, she was a little skinny and likely was a borderline anorexic, but let me tell you, she had a "Great Mop of Hair," so to speak! We didn't even get her a perm before the event (everyone knows that women have to fool around with their hair before events!) and luckily for us, expensive streaking was unknown, and still in the mind of some beauty operator, somewhere.

I'll have to say, though, that no dame has ever been sung to with more sincerity, more devotion, and more admiration than our "Mop Dame" that evening. Let me tell you, our second tenor, Jack (an actor at heart), just put it on the top shelf, as he held her out front of us and sang:

"Lots of things in life are beautiful, but brother,
There is nothing that is any way, shape or form,
Like...any other..."

Then we all came in--full blast:
"There is nothin' like a dame,
Nothin' in the world,
There is nothin'  you can name
That is anything like a dame;

There are no books like a dame,
And nothin' looks like a dame,
And nothin' acts like a dame
Or attracts like a dame.

There ain't a thing that's wrong with
Any man here
That can't be cured by putting
him near..."

  And here I must interrupt to help you visualize that great ending: Jack was holding "Our Dame" up and out in front of us, she was the main focus...probably of the whole crowd. We, the rest of the quartet guys held our right arms fully extended out to our "Dame," palms up---and WE ENDED IT MAGNIFICENTLY:

"A GIRL-Y, WOMAN-LY FE-MALE
FEM-I-NINE...
DAME!!!"

It was our finest hour! The people in the gym went wild! We won FIRST PLACE!
And you know, I thought our "MOP DAME" LOOKED.....PROUD!

(We gave our First Place Trophy to Mr. Harry Barton, Music Teacher, Clovis High School.)

(Quartet Guys: Though it has been sixty-one years since this event, and we have raised many tunes into the air since, I still think of you all...and love you.)

"There's Nothing Like a Dame":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgzvTHsOxSQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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BY MIL
6/12/12