DARE COUNTY
The Weekly Journal of the North Carolina Coastland—Devoted to the Interests of More Than 30,000 People of the Four Southern Albemarle Countie
VOL. IV; NO. 209
MANTEO: N. C.,. JUNE 30.. 1939
Single Copy
HOW ROANOKE ISLAND HAS
BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO
GREAT TOURIST CENTER
PAUL GREEN AND BEN DIXON MacNEILL
SENATOR FEARING ADDS
THE FINISHING TOUCHES
Lost Colony’s Benefits Have Made the Island!
Conscious of Importance of Catering to'
Welfare of Visitors; It Likewise Brings
Benefits to Beaches and Other Parts of Dare
County, and Neighbor Counties
By ANTHONY BUTITIA
The summerlong celebration of
the 352nd anniversary of the
founding of the first English col
onies in the New World and the
birth of Virginia Dare gets under
way at Fort Raleigh tcsnorrow
night with the opening of the. third
summer season of Paul Green's
historical drama “The Lost Col
ony” at the magnificent Waterside
Theatre facing Roanoke Sound.
It will be presented nightly from
July I through July 9. Afterwards
it will be offered every Wednesday
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and
Sunday evenings. Curtain time is
8:15. No extra performances for
holidays will be given this season
since August 18, the date of Ameri
ca’s first blessed event, falls on a
regular performance night. How
ever, special baptismal ceremon es
will be held as usual to commemo
rate the birthday of little Virginia
Dare.
Acclaimed by dramatic critics
and civic leaders throughout the
country as the foremost historical
attraction in modern America,
“The Lost Colony” begins this sea
son on a permanent basis to be
produced summer after summer on
the site of the first English colonies
for those making a pilgrimage to
this Birthplace of the Nation.
Roanoke Islanders, who are skep
tical of the continuation of this
epic drama, need only make a trip
to Fort Raleigh where permanent
reconstruction has been going on
since last spring, under the super
vision of Albert Q. Bell, builder of
the theatre. With funds supplied
by the Works Progress Administra
tion, equally matched by the Roa
noke Island Historical Association,
the reconstruction program was
made possible.
Originally produced two sum
mers ago in connection with the
BIGGEST YEAR IN HISTORY
OF ROANOKE ISLAND TO
BEGIN TOMORROW NIGHT
Paul Green’s Epic Drama a Permanent Fea**
ture. Adding to the Life and Color of the
North Carolina Coast; New Features, New
Faces, and Sensationally New Interest in
Lost Colony
HYDE PLEASED
WITH MR. WEBB’S
FRIENDLINESS
THE MAN at the helm of Lost Col
ony, w.ho of all local people had
vision, foresight and nerve enough
I to grab it and make something of it Kinston"
is Senator D. B. Fearing, who is
now busy doing the _ finishing Cou"nt“y folks'In‘vdewh^g^Ve
touches. His is a mail-size job, and
1 he has handled it in a masterful
manner.
The people of Hyde County ap
pear to be much delighted with the
cooperative attitude" of the High
way Comrhissioner of their divig-
ion. Honorable Ernest V. Webb, of
There is somewhat a
feeling of envy on the part of Dare
mas-
By BEN DIXON MacNEILL
Years ago, about thirty of them,
a man by the name of Gerald
Stanley Lee contrived a book that
became the intellectual fashion of
thC'period and was as universally
read as it is now forgotten. But
the book contained one sentence
—It may have contained mar
mLore—that persists, now anor
mously among the aphorisms
the language.
Gerald Stanley Lee said
value of airy given piece of lai""
’ ASIDE FROM the author himself, the great Paul Green, who wrote
Lost Colony, no man has done as much to perpetuate it and its country,
than Ben Dixon MacNeill, newspaperman extraordinary, who loves to
; write about things worth while, r ro.m the beginning of Lost Colony,
RUSSELL COLLINS who plays the|
Mr. MacNeill has interpreted it to the nation. As a host to new * .aper-
men and visiting notables, he has done much to make Roanoke Island j
remain in their memory. He is a love' hie. hohiful personage, having .
part of John Borden in Lost Gol
ony. It is one of the strongest ^ , , . .
I parts in the play, and one never ways and a mind of his own and a heart of gold as big as an ox. The
snapshot shows Mr. MacNeill and Mr. Green, talking it over.
forgets the dramatic scenes be
tween this character and Eleanor
Dare.
has set about conciliating the dis-
' sension and long-standing feeling
of neglect entertained by the peo
ple of Hyde.
As one crosses the boundary go
ng south into Hyde toward Engel
hard, he is immediately impressed
by the fact that something is do
ing. For near Engelhard forces
of men are busy preparing to pave
a considerable stretch from that
town northward toward the Dare
Coimty line. As one travels Route
94 from Fairfield toward Colum
bia, there is great activity on both
ends of the road. Construction is
Webb 1 is determined by the number
people who drive past it,” or “■
the number of people who thur
their way, or fly their ways,” e
At any rate, there may have bet.,
sound truth in Gerald Stanley
Lee's aphorism, though it was,
since it was in a fashionable book,
not examined critically at the
time. Still, it is a nice-sounding
phrase.
And, granting the verity and
soundness of it, the didacticians
would probably insist that the con
verse would also be true, which
would bring about something of a ’
paradox which would read, “The
_av,
7
■(
v„
was
a
OLD TOM” THE MAS7ERLES3 MAN
CLAMS SHOULD BE BOUGHT
FROM REGISTERED DEALERS
County health officer Charles
Morgan this week urged beach resi-,
dents to buy their clams from reg
istered dealers rather than from
the unlicensed hucksters who fre
quently peddle sea food on the
beach.
Morgan said that the dealers i
must install special equipment for
handling the clams before they are
allowed to sell them, and he asked
historic 350th anniversary cele- ! cottage owmers to insure th^eir ^n
health by making certain that they
I purchase from registered dealers.
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MANTEO NOW AND 25 YEARS AGO
GET OUT AND RIDE. It will do
you good.. In our country it will
be more interesting maybe than
plenty of places which do not have
to pay tolls and which have more
paved roads. For after all, when
the dirt roads are good, there is
more of interest to be seen and
more joy in traveling because there i
are fewer people in the way.
rapidly being pushed forward on value of a piece of land is deter-
a new road, particularly in the mined by the number of people
Kilkenny section, and as one nears i who do not walk past it every day.”
Columbia, he runs into more con-: That, being paradox, would also
struction work where extending be this country of the Outer Banks
southward from the Tyrrell Coun- upon which the wind and the sun
ty capital is a hard-surface road , and the sea have laid an enchant-
reaching a long arm toward Fair- j ment.
field. Nub of the paradox when it is.
In the town of Columbia, the! so to speak, domesticated and
waterfront activity is greatly add- | translated, the value of Roanoke
J
,\,h
is,
’ »k-
• %
GET ON THE DIRT NOW AND gjj to by barges and cranes busy Island is determined 'oy the num-
THEN. It will do you good. And ^ in the process of unloading gravel her of people who come here in.
of you have troubles of your own,‘gnd other road build ng material a day, a week, a year and, con-
what aren’t shaken out of you by \ for transportation by motor truck ver.sely—by the number of people
the roads will be dissipated by , to the pai.’ing project underway. i who do not come here. Anywhere
meeting folks who have troubles; Both of these men believe that else upon the earth these oppo-
as great as your own. j in time and as reasonably early as
THE OTHER DAY I went to En- | the preliminary work can be done
gelhard in Hyde. The first man' at the triangular sjptem of roads
I met says what are you folks work- ; connecting the three county seats
ing more for a road to the west will so demand by reason of their
than one to the south. You ought importance, the attention of the
to know it is more important to , ,,
(Please turn to Page Light) i
es
s-
- n
J*
e-
pge
jper
' ties
,he
sed
,ry
sites would cancel each other. But
here: this being a land upon which
the sun an-d the sea and the wind
have laid an enchantment.
n
All of this by way. of prel minary
.ri-.Ai’ . 'fi 'l; i • I . 'If. f *
UO^sOlJ).SOMERS,’ plwfi t-Re .parlj pf, “51|il Tqe-J’’,. tlp.e ■Ii]|istfrles:f. Msjn
In. hilarity, in .soberness and in drunkenness', and' in thought proypkinu
’sentences','nfi part is more captivating - than'' ‘tliat'’oi-“Old Tem-’r 'tli^
Masterless Man of Lost Colony.
LOTS OF CHANGES haVe taken place in the town of Mahtep in. a
quarter of a century. It really is a busy place today. .The pietui-e was
made by Victor Meekins 25 years ago, on a busy day when Superior
CPurt was in session. It doesn’t take much examination to discover
the changes that have been made.
get the south road built. It will
profit you more and mean more to
us. • *, . ■ . i
WHEN I GOT AROUND to the [
town to the west, I was taken to
task by a good frfend whopiopir^-
ion was in reverse to tliat of my
Engelhard friend. And of course
I had to talk an hour telling him
too that what we want is all the
roads we can get, particularly
roads that were intended to carry
out the highway law. ^We,. hay,e
friends*' in .‘all 'directions,', aqd /fve
Want *theh con^eni^nde tq be’ equ
ally .'serv^ and share mutual
: good will w th all of them.
I KNOW NO PLACE where more
delighitfpl tpeoplfe -Wiil He ^fouiwi than ^
on the routes along the. Q)^tland;
where fencieht Viiages hou'sfe iriend-'
ly iipbplp^ Tljeip as.nq, tf)Wij:n^qref
^charming than tqwns, fn», wliich*
nevt * Hcmds of youni:er^ residents
rise white and shiny beside the
1 quaint and dignified ancestral
fhouses 'having; eqifel dliarm... ’
TROUBLES? MY dwN-^ANK in-f
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CHARMING HOSTESSES AT LOST COLONY
and
'ay
'of
I: rtft
I . . ing
.63
mVLKER IS-LIGHTING ’ i LOST COtdNY SCORE
s J D.IRfECfOR FOR ^RAMAj • I pROAI>G.^Sl TUESDAY ^gnificance knd mV heart was
* . J 1 .1 w. ^ r. lifted on finding
John A. Walker resigned lasti Radio listeners in these parts
PENDELTON HARRISON
, TAKES TRIPLE ROLE
YOUNG MISSIONARY GROUP
REORGANIZES AND ELECTS
I
Pendleton Harrison, well-known' The Hannah Brown Circle of the
North Carolina actor w.ho has ap- Woman’s Missionary Society met
peared for many years on Broad- Thursday night at the home of Mrs.
wav, ari'ived in Manteo early last . ,
week to do three roles in Paul ^^y Jones to reorganize and elect
Green’s historical drama, The Lost officers. Mrs. Hannah Brown,
Colony. founder of the circle and now a
Harrison was last seen in the resident of Moyock, is in Manteo
west coast company of “Kiss the for the summer and met with the
Boys Goodbye,” the Clare Boothe group.
comedy of the old south and the New officers elected are: Mys.
new. Prior to his appearance in Bruce Lennon, chairman; Miss Wil-
this work, Harrison was engaged ma Jones, vice chairman; Miss
for a number of Broadway hits on Estelle Midgett, recording secfe-
the road. Back in the late twenties, tary; Miss Pearl Etheridge, corres-
.be was one of the featured per- ponding secretary; Miss Nancy
formers of the Carolina Play- Etheridge, treasurer; Miss Inez
makers. \ | Midgett; ^hairft^an of ways and
' iOne of his most outstanding per- iheans oommittee- Miss Anne Twi-
V-foirmances with the Carolina Play- ford, program committee.
Lmflkers was with Marion Tatum,' Mrs. Edward Mann and Mrs. Ray
afeo here to play an important role Jones, members of the Irene Shear-
iri' The Lost Colony. The two did a ing Circle, will meet with the group
•memorable bit of acting in a unique in the absence of Mrs. Brown. The
roie-acter entitled “Cocaine.” They next meeting will be Monday, July
,afe now acting together for the 11, nt the home of Miss Doris
first time in many years. Jones.
know one young man who it seems
is sitting on top of the world, he
HOWARD BAILEY WILL
When I told him I wished I might
^ XT. c „ i.- i, relax like him and get more of
senes, “Story of the Song which ,
traces the origin and development'
nf. various types and forms of
music.
ASSIST SAM SELDEN
lifted on finding many people
, X .. .VT , whom I imagined as carefree, had
week as State director of the North were able to get last Tuesday s troubles as great as my own. I
Carolina Federal Theatre Project in; Columbia broadcast of the Lost
order to take up his new duties as Colony s6qre by tuning, in at 2:3b
director of lighting for the Lost
Colony.
Walker has been director of the
State Federal Theatre for the past
two years. In order to carry on his traces tne origin aim ueverjpiiien.i^^.g^y superficial ager of “The Lost Colonv”, which
vvork as director of lighting last nf. ™us types and forms of |
summer, he moved the state office music. ' . x i • i. t , , xx- j x
of the Federal Theatre to Manteo. Among the composers repre-, ' ^ored WOMAN CAME into \
He has been connected in this ca- sented in the Lost Colony score are f^e office of TlXer friend with Manteo recently after turning down
William Byrd, Thomas Tallis,;“ offers to head a stock company m
These attractive young girls are on the job at Fort Raleigh to make
your visit more pleasant. From left to right, they are: Misses Norma
Basnight, Peggy Etheridge, Carolyn Mae Daniels, Maxine Meekins, and
Blrs. Nora Etheridge Drinkwater.
on the Richmond station,/WRVA. ^e is burdened with debt.
The program originated in . IS ew
York, and was one in the regular
HYDE WANTS THE
Howard Bailey, production man-
pacity with “The Lost Colony”
since it was first presented in con
nection with the 350th anniversary
celebrations.
Under his directorship of the,
theatre project, Walker was in
charge of producing. units in Wil
son, Charlotte, Wilmington, Kins
ton, Raleigh, Greensboro, Green
ville, Salisbury, and Manteo. The
most outstanding productions of the
project were “II Trovatore,” “Room
Service,” and “Journey’s End.”
A native of Chapel Hill. Wallace
is the son of the late N. W. Walk
er, who was for many years direc
tor of the University of North
Carolina summer school session.
During 193’7, Walker was assistant
technical director of the Carolina
Christop.her Tye and Anne Boleyn.
.4dditional music and arrange
ments were written by Lamar
Stringfield, Pulitzer Prize com-
PRESSNT ROADS
EXTENDED FIRST
Dramatic Art from the University
that year. Walker is the younger
brother of Thomas H. Walker,
State editor of the News and Ob-
Playmakers, recemng an M,. A. in server. ;
ries.
' A COLORED WOMAN CAME into
the office of a lawyer friend with
whom I was talking. She was beg- interest in the
ging for money. A kerosene lamp j^^orth Carolina production and his
had exploded, burned up the home Roanoke Island were fac-
she and her husband had been pay- decided him and Helen
poser, and Adeline McCall, of the 7^®’ Bailey to return here for the sum-
* ’ _ _ ^ . laand Was dragging out the
older children, the two-year babyi puj-ing the past year, Bailey was
was burned to a^hes because they director of dramatics at Rollins
couldn’t get back in the room. The j College, Winter Park, Florida, and
two living children, badly burned, i -work was so successful there
hover between life and death in a 1yygg signed up to parry oj^
hospital. . ' .his Work during the toflbwing yfelr.’
THE FIRST 'VISIT OF THE ^ Under his direction the college dra-
STORK had brought twin daugh- | jjjarics club presented a series of
ters to one young man. He was | experimental short and full-length
evidently proud and happy. And'dramas.
here what one man would view as | -pjjg highlight of his activities,
a terrible trouble if singly, was however, was securing Fred Stone,
noted comedian of stage and screen,
University of North Carolina. Paul
Green collected the songs and con
tributed additional lyrics.
Mrs. Orlando Burrus and Miss
Edna .Tones spent Wednesday in
Norfolk, shopping.
Mrs. Mike Fuoehini is
her son, Frank Fucchini.
visiting
welcomed as a delightful blessing
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(Please turn to Page 8)
A movem.eht to create a new
road from Ponzer in Hyde County
some twenty and odd miles to the
shores of Lake Phelps and to event
ually connect with Route 64 does
not seem to be viewed with much
approval by substantial citizens of
that county living in Engelhard
and Swan Quarter. Without de
nying the probable value of such'
a contemplated road it is the gen
eral opinion in Hyde County that
it ■would be more important ,tO:
fini^ elxteting roads and thereby,
make them useful during all sea^'
sons of the year, to farmers and:
tourists who are greatly dependent
upon them. M. A. Matthews, cash-*.:
ier of the Engelhard Bank thinks
that the all-important road nOw
to complete is Route 264 to Manns
ffi
n (T
'er
(Please turn to page eight) ’