It is long gone now and happened many years ago in 1928 when a group of 11 men playing cards in the back of the there after a Matinee and the cries of a child was heard and was located in one of the theater seats
Pinned to the young child was a note
Please take care of my baby. Her name is Catherine. I can no
longer take care of her. I have eight others. My husband is out of work. She
was born on Thanksgiving Day. I have always heard of the goodness of show
business people and I pray to God that you will look after her.”
With this child and note began an enduring mystery. Who was she and where did she come from
Although the theater along Penn Ave is long gone and the men who found her have all long since passed . They made sure she was taken care of for many years serving as adoptive uncles and given to a good set of parents who adopted
her and kept anonymous despite fact she served in Korea and Vietnam as a nurse in 1980 .
She voluntarily came forward to reveal who she was as an adult and sadly passed at the early age of 65 in September of 1994.
But that's not the end of the story . Many speculate the reason the mother had abandoned her daughter in the theater is because show people have a big heart . In fact those 11 men where among a group of theater owners and performers who had the year before set up the social club known as the Variety Club which was known for its many good deeds she had indeed picked the right place and Catherine
became the inspiration behind it
Now known as Variety- The Children's Charity it has spread worldwide in its quest to help disabled children.
But who was Catherine some speculate she came from a Catholic background because Catholics often raised big family's . No one knows for sure and to my knowledge a DNA test was never performed to possibly find descendants.
