Vaudeville memories preserved in late mom’s diaries

Barbara Patch knew her mother wrote about her daily life in multiple diaries — and Patch was told she would inherit them after her mother’s death. But the Dr. Phillips resident had no idea those 14 books contained the fascinating history Elinor Wheeler had documented while touring with her twin sister, Elizabeth, as a Vaudeville and Broadway act.

They were the dancing twins, known as the Wheeler Twins, and they were famous for their sky-high kicks and radiant smiles. The pair traveled to performance venues and had a successful career that included appearing in two Broadway shows, dancing on the luxury cruise liner SS Paris, performing at the London Palladium and traveling to many states showcasing their talents in numerous Vaudeville theaters.

Patch was enamored with her mother’s stories and digested every beautifully penned word written by Elinor, who was nicknamed Mickie. The diaries began in 1926 when Mickie was 16 and living in Miami during a devastating three-day hurricane. She gave minute-by-minute updates on the weather conditions and included vivid details of her mother closing the doors to the sleeping porch and the family eating bread and jam in the dining room while the Victrola plays.

The details of her life continue in 13 more diaries written in the span of 12 years.

STRAIGHT FROM THE DIARY PAGES

After her mother’s death in 2012 at the age of 102, Patch located the diaries and began reading. She was encouraged to write a book after she started sharing Mickie’s stories with family members and friends. One Christmas, her son gave her a gift certificate to Storyworth.com, which allows people to dictate a book and receive one copy.

“That sounded like fun, and I thought, ‘What could I write about?’” she said. “I thought my mom’s diaries are keenly interesting. I read to my son out loud on the phone every night and together we’d laugh and talk and decide what pages were interesting to put in the book.”

As she came across interesting names of people or places, she made note of it so she could Google images later. Her 286-page book includes nearly 200 photos of the Wheeler Twins, the famous theaters in which they danced, performance programs and people they met.

Two of Patch’s favorite parts of the book are the details of the hurricane, written over about a dozen diary pages, and a set of instructions the doctor gave Mickie after Patch’s birth in 1940, which told new mothers to avoid shampooing their hair for four weeks and to be sure to take a nap morning and night.

The diaries ended after Patch’s birth.

Mickie included the costs of everyday items like movie tickets, a mug of beer and the hotel rooms they stayed in during the traveling shows.

“She uses a couple words in there that are so cute,” Patch said. “Everything was grand. And if she didn’t like something, it was punk. … Everything you read is my mom’s exact words, but every so often I would insert an editor’s note with more information.”

After receiving her published book from Storyworth.com, Patch wanted more so she could share with her children and with others eager to read about her mother’s life as a performer. She chose to self-publish, and in June, her printed books arrived.

Three weeks after being published, “Mickie’s Diaries” was named the No. 1 new release in the category of dancer biographies.

THE WHEELER TWINS

Mickie and Elizabeth, who grew up in Indianapolis, always had a passion for dancing, and when they were 17, they auditioned for a Broadway show called “Hold Everything.” The show demanded six-day-a-week rehearsals, so their mother allowed them to quit high school their junior year.

The girls remained in the performing arts circuit, doing mostly Vaudeville shows and traveling by train or boat up and down the East Coast.

During their career, the dancers worked with and befriended well-known stars including Mickey Rooney, Dick Powell, Guy Lombardo, Bert Lahr, Bob Hope and Walter Winchell. Mickie documented all of it.

“She gave her opinions of everything, which was fun,” Patch said.

Mickie described traveling to Europe on a cruise ship and said it was hard to dance on a moving stage when the seas were rough. She talked about the difficulty of dancing on a tipped stage at the London Palladium so the audience could see their feet.

“They were so limber and had these incredible high kicks across the whole stage,” Patch said. “They also danced on pointe shoes and tap shoes, and they did soft shoe and ballet, so they did all kinds of dancing — but what they were known for were their high-kick songs. Their theme song was ‘Tea for Two.’”

The Wheeler Twins performed from 1927 to 1935, but their career as a dancing duo ended when, at age 25, they were taking a curtain call and Elizabeth slipped and broke her back and was in the hospital for more than seven months.

“That stopped their career, and they never danced together professionally again,” Patch said. “My mother did dance a few more times without her sister, but she said it was not the same.”

Mickie met her future husband in 1931, and they married in 1937. She continued writing in her diaries until the birth of their first child, Barbara Nichols Patch, the book’s author.