Having a ball at the Cotton Ball, 50 years ago

In April of 1967, the Elks Club of La Crosse hosted the 4th annual Cotton Ball, a fund-raiser for the Twin Cities Shrine Hospital for crippled children.  It was sponsored by the La Crosse auxiliary of the Shrine hospital.  The theme was “Polynesian Paradise,” featuring hula dancers…fellows in long wigs and grass skirts…and Mrs. Robert (Bev) Henninger, described as “La Crosse’s own Phyllis Diller.”

The real Phyllis Diller was co-starring with comedian Jack E. Leonard in a secret agent comedy called “The Fat Spy.”  Also at the movies, Boris Karloff narrated an Italian documentary, “Mondo Balordo,” about “intimate shocking scenes of love.”

For more clean-cut entertainment, the Coulee Chordsmen were preparing a show of barbershop music called “Sweethearts of Harmony.”  And at the La Crosse State campus, students were performing the first hit comedy by hot new playwright Neil Simon…”Come Blow Your Horn.”  Fifty years ago, 1967, Yesterday in La Crosse.