Chugiak Belles lured local carnival crowds

By Chris Lundgren
For The Star

The Chugiak Belles stepped, hopped and high kicked across the stage for their first performance at the second annual Chugiak Spring Carnival in June 1955. Billed in the Anchorage Daily Times as “Chugiak's Dancing Housewives,” the women performed the cancan, the Charleston and another dance to the song “By the Sea,” said former Belle Katie Phillips of Eagle River.

Chugiak Belle Bonnie Flint shows off her petticoats at a June 1956 performance. Photo courtesy of the Chugiak-Eagle River Historical Society

Being in the Chugiak Belles probably appeared to be all fun and laughter, but the group worked hard to make it look easy. “It took quite a bit of time to get that many women to be able to dance halfway together,” said Joe Anne Vanover of Eagle River. Knowing they were performing for a worthwhile cause galvanized everyone, she said, as the Belles helped draw people to the Spring Carnival, which raised funds for the Chugiak Volunteer Fire Department and other community groups.

Instructor Gloria Cross choreographed the dances and taught the dozen or so Belles their steps at Schroeder's Dance Studio in Eagle River, Burg said. Cross was the 1954 Spring Carnival Queen and a high school junior who gave tap dance lessons to children. “She took on the chore - and I mean chore - of teaching us,” said Vanover. “She was good, and she had patience.”

“Gloria didn't cut us any slack,” said Phillips. “We had to do what she said.”

After learning their routines, the Belles practiced at different locations around Chugiak, Birchwood and Eagle River. “It was just at everybody's houses because we didn't have any regular place we could go,” Phillips said. “Kids were always running around. Sometimes we'd have to wait for somebody to breastfeed their baby before we could go on with the practice.”

The Chugiak Belles, left, perform the cancan in 1956. Photo courtesy of the Chugiak-Eagle River Historical Society

“We each picked a color for the ruffle on the bottom,” Vanover said. “Mine was red, and I used some gold braid on it.” Other costumes included a 1920s flapper style dress with a dropped waist and an old-fashioned swimsuit complete with stockings and bloomers, she said.

“They were really beautiful costumes,” Burg said. “Head gear, feathers - we had it all.”

The Belles learned to make a multitude of garters too.

One night at the end of a performance, they returned to the stage for an encore, during which they were expected to throw their garters to the audience. Instead of allowing the music to end after one last cancan, sound technician Dallon Oberg kept it playingand playing. “He wouldn't turn it off,” Phillips said. “We just kept having to dance.”

“After one of those incidents, we all wore spare garters,” Burg said. “They took a long time to sew, and I always hated to part with them.” Yet garter-catching was an audience favorite, according to Burg. “Those guys were drooling to get one,” she said.

Pictured are Joe Anne Vanover, Bonnie Flint, Lucille Tedrow, Maxine Hendricks, Lois Riddell, Harriet “Rusty” Bellringer, Katie Phillips and Virginia Parks. Joe Anne Vanover and Katie Phillips, both of Eagle River, and Christa Burg of Anchorage, right, were members of the Chugiak Belles, a dance group that entertained audiences at the Chugiak Spring Carnival between 1955 and 1959. Photo by Chris Lundgren

Burg thinks a group like the Chugiak Belles wouldn't be well received now. “It would be primitive in today's thinking,” she said. “You might not even draw an audience. It was different then. There was true camaraderie.”

Vanover echoed Burg's thoughts. “It was such a small, tight community, and everybody knew why we were doing it,” she said.

The Chugiak Belles continued their performances - even dancing a couple of times for Anchorage audiences - until the last Chugiak Spring Carnival in 1959.

Reach the reporter at news@alaskastar.com.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, January 3, 2008.