Supper at Six, a rare short film featuring singing sisters Ethel and Dorothea Ponce, is set to be screened for the first time since its release in 1933. The screening will take place at Capitolfest 20 at the Capitol Theatre in Rome, New York, on Saturday, August 12. Capitolfest, which takes place this year from Friday, August 11 until Sunday, August 13, is Central New York’s 35mm classic film festival, screening rarely-seen silent and early talking movies from around the turn of the 20th Century into the late 1930s.
In 1990, shortly before he left his native New Orleans to move to New York, David McCain began a long correspondence (by phone and letter) with Dorothea Ponce of the Ponce Sisters. Dorothea was delighted to tell McCain about her career with her sister, Ethel. Ethel (1907-1989) and Dorothea Ponce (1909-2000) were the daughters of songwriter and artists’ manager Phil Ponce and Ethel Fernandez. Phil Ponce was Fats Waller’s manager for several years. Ethel Fernandez Ponce was an extraordinarily talented pianist who had performed in vaudeville and recorded piano rolls.
Dorothea’s sister, Ethel, was a pianist and the composer of the novelty piano solo, Holiday. The Ponce Sisters began their radio career in New York on WEAF in 1925, the same year th
