The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [374]
He cake-walked aside, a wide grin on his face. Money was thrown to him, and he made side-comedy grabbing it.
“You’ve just heard the inimitable Squirmy Stevens tell you what it takes to win a marathon dance like the World’s Championship Super Dance Marathon which we are staging here in the ballroom of the Silver Eagle. Now, there’s been a lot of letters asking for Georgia Ginger, the attractive and spirited little lady from the famous peach state, so I’m presenting to you, Miss Ginger, the Georgia Flash as she is known here among us. Come on, everybody, give this little girl a hand.”
Loud clapping accompanied a bobbed, sandy-haired, plump girl in dirty, greenish beach pajamas, as she stepped forward, her coy, baby face a smothered picture of sleepiness.
“Hello, folks, I want to thank you all for wanting me to say hello to you all, and I want to say that we all here appreciate what you all think of us and the interest you all take in us, and, folks, I want to thank you all,” she drawled, rubbing her eyes as she stepped aside.
“You’ve just had a word from that spunky little girl, Miss Ginger, the Georgia Peach, who expressed a feeling that all of us connected with this World Championship Super Dance Marathon at the Silver Eagle Ballroom have. We all feel the same way toward the public for its interest. You know, it means a lot to these people here to know you’re interested in them and anxious to know how they’re coming along.
Because they’re out here twenty-four hours a day, battling for the coveted prize and honor. They’re here every day, rain or shine, the weather doesn’t mean much to them. Yes, sir, it means a lot to them when doggedly and persistently they fight sleep, it means a lot to them to know that you of the public are with them. Next, I’m going to present another favorite, Harold Morgan, one of our solos. Harold was coupled with Lilly Lewis, of team thirteen, and he thinks that his number is a jinx. Because a few days ago, after a game, game fight, his partner, Miss Lilly Lewis, was forced to retire. Well, Harold still has his heart set on the coveted honors, and his game solo fight here has been making dance marathon history. Harold Morgan.”
“Hello, folks,” Harold Morgan, tall, lanky and bucolic, began in a twangy voice, “I want to thank you all for the interest you have taken in my fight against odds in this here contest. Well, sirs, now my partner she put up a hard fight, a great fight, but, well, sirs, she got her feet blistered on the soles. She walked on those blistered soles of hers when nobody would have thought that she could have walked on such blistered feet. My partner, Lilly Lewis, she put up a hard fight. So Lilly had to give up and here I am, and of course I don’t wish bad luck to any of the boys here. They’re one and all a fine fighting bunch of boys, and I don’t wish them bad luck, but I am just wishing that somebody drops out and gives rue a girl for a partner, because you can’t win this here World’s Championship Super Dance Marathon if you’re a solo. And if any of the folks back home in Coonville, Missouri, are listening in, I want to say to them to tell everybody that Harold Morgan is agonna stick right in here until hades freezes over to bring home the bacon to Coonville, and also I want to say hello to Thad Shelden, and Ruth Allen, and to my ma and pa and tell them Harold is fine. Well, sirs, I thank you one and all for your kind interest and attention.”
“Say, I’ll bet he grows hay in his nose,” Studs said to Catherine while there was laughter and applause.
“If any of the folks of Coonville, Missouri, are listening in, let me tell you Harold is one boy that Coonville can be mighty proud of. I’ve watched him sticking it out here solo, and I tell you, Harold is one boy who shows all the earmarks of making good here in the city. He’s showing the real spirit of the