Partner Harriet Parsons, Cora Mutschler
Queer Places:
150 N Almont Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Evelyn
Marie Inter Farney (November 29, 1916 - January 2, 2006) performed on Broadway and toured with many of the Big Bands as their solo
tap dancer. Evelyn was billed as "Princess of Taps."
Harriet Parsons settled down in Palm Spings with a companion, Evelyn Farney, a
former dancer whom she also legally adopted.
Among the Hollywood gay couples whose names Mike Connolly placed within spitting distance of each other were producer Harriet Parsons and dancer Evelyn Farney, Jacque Mapes and producer Ross Hunter, Tom Hatcher and screenwriter Arthur Laurents, and Frank McCarthy and Rupert Allan. In one item, director Mitch Leisen and singer Billy Daniel were actually adjacent to each other, but as a three-way "date" with Hedda Hopper. Billy Haines and Jimmy Shields got into the same sentence at least four times; since Shields had never been a film industry name, the mere mention of him was meant to convey gay information to insiders, especially when Connolly scooped Shields's secret facelift. The same held true when Connolly applauded writer David Hanna's genial cocktail party "at Ivy Wilson's place"; Wilson had been president of the Hollywood Women's Press Club, but her son Dougie Crane was Hanna's longtime partner, a connection Connolly intended his readers to understand. On the other hand, if a gay couple was not affiliated with Hollywood, Connolly could relax his rules, as he did with the famous writer Lucius Beebe and his partner Charles Clegg, publishers of the Virginia City, Nevada, Territorial Enterprise. When Beebe and Clegg came to town in their ornate private rail-road car, the Gold Coast, Connolly wrote about their joint ownership of it and the cocktail party they hosted in it, which he attended, with no compunction.
In 1942, Evelyn Farney was dancing at the Lookout House, Cincinnati. According to a review: The girl who dances, Evelyn Farney, leaves little to be desired in the way of a good supporting act. Without being tops on the bill, Evelyn manages to leave a very nice impression of her work with the audience, tapping vivaciously to such oldies as the "Shiek of a Araby " "Old Man River", and a few more. The Victory Dancers supply the necessary girl effects with plenty of gusto and bright costumes, while the band, Wally Johnson, and crew, play a smooth date in anyone's night club.
In the 1970s, Farney was the agent of Annette O'Toole.
In 1985 Farney came out of retirement and delighted everyone with her dancing and singing in the Melrose Theatre's production of "Follies." Evelyn danced her whole life, leaving her dancing shoe prints on everyone who knew and loved her.
She passed away of natural causes on January 2, 2006, at the age of 89. She is survived by Cora S. Mutschler, who in the 1960s was living at 11570 Hamlin St, Van Nuys.
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