Transcription: Lu Ann Simms Promises Kiss For 500 Victor
By Ben Hilton
Little 500 spirit hit its pre-race peak last night as a kick-off parade, featuring Miss Lu Ann Simms, TV vocalist, Wilbur Shaw, president of the Indianapolis Speed-way and the big 500 pace car toured Bloomington streets.
At the Theta Chi-Kappa Kappa Gamma Bicycle Bounce, Miss Simms promised a big kiss for the members of the winning team. Thirty-three brightly decorated convertibles in the parade represented each team.
When asked for her opinion of the dance and today’s race, Miss Simms said, “It’s fun for me because I am back again with kids of my own age.”
At 8:30 p.m., the Bicycle Bounce got under way with music by Ed, Yate’s dance band and several vocals by Ann McKay and Ron Holden. By popular demand, and for a rest from the demands of autograph hounds, Miss Simms gave her slow, soft, magic-voiced Visions of “Embraceable You” and “Blue Moon.”
Amid the bright lights and bicycle and cube decorations, nearly six hundred students and guests danced and admired the official “500” pace car parked under a light in the front of the Theta tennis court, scene of the campus wide, free affair. With all the noise, lights, pennants, and modernistic creations giving the idea of “Little 500” cinder-skippers on two wheels, the dance had the thrills and excitement of a spring-time carnival.
