was said in Celeron that the gypsies would kidnap local children and take them off to their campgrounds. Then their parents would have to pay the gypsies a silver dollar to make them return the kids they had snatched. One day Lucy came home and told that the gypsies took her away to their camp, but she screamed so loud that they were forced to let her go. This caused paranoia in the family. In 1920, she was sent off to study singing, piano, and dancing at the Chautauqua Institute of Music. After Lucy came back from school her maternal grandmother, Florabelle, died of cancer of the uterus on July 1, 1922. Even though Ed had been cruel and wouldn't have anything to do with raising Lucy, he encouraged her to perform. Since Ed belonged to the Shriners, he arranged for her to act, dance, and sing at their conventions. In 1923, Ed and Desiree took her to see the celebrated monologist Julius Tannen who was performing in the area. After seeing his performance Lucy said, Tannen was magic. . . just this voice, and this magnificent man enthralling you with his stories. . . his intonations. . . which I never, never forgot! He changed my life. I knew it was a very serious, wonderful thing to be able to make people laugh and cry, to be able to play on their emotions. . . (Higham, 23). Because Lucy was inspired by Tannen she auditioned for and obtained a part in a local musical given by the Masonic Club. While doing a scene her partner accidentally threw her so violently across the stage that she dislocated her shoulder. For the rest of her life she had trouble with that shoulder. When she was twelve and a half she took a bus to New York and got a job as a chorus girl in the Schubert Musical Stepping Stones. She was soon fired and sent home when her true age was discovered. At the age of 14, Lucy was tall and excessively thin and leggy for her age. She was overly energetic and her friends remember her diving into every activity she could think of from...
