Helen Keller (left) stands next to Anne Sullivan Macy, who is perched on a stool. This image was taken in 1924 during their vaudeville careers. Anne Sullivan Macy holds a book in her left hand and manually signs into Helen Keller's right hand. Both women are wearing embroidered and beaded evening wear. Helen's dress is sleeveless and appears to have a scooped neck. The light-colored dress is highly decorated to the waist and then falls in layers of organza-like fabric with a few vertical sections around the skirt that repeat the pattern of the bodice. Anne Sullivan Macy's dark, caftan-like dress has a boat neck. The elbow-length sleeves have slits on the top. Both women have waved hair typical of the 1920s.
The commercial failure of the movie Deliverance brought them home to the East Coast, where they began searching for alternative work. The success of their lecture series seven years earlier encouraged them to look for similar work. In early 1920, they took the opportunity to perform on the vaudeville circuit. Anne's biographer, Nella Braddy Henney wrote:
The set showed a drawing room with a fire crackling on the hearth; French windows at one side opening into a garden; a grand piano holding a great vase of flowers at the left. Velvet hangings in the background. When the curtain went up Mrs. Macy entered left stage in full spotlight (and no one but herself knew the agony that light cost her eyes). She came forward and told who Helen was, explained how she had taught her (just as in the lectures), and retired to the shadows while the orchestra played Mendelssohn's Spring Song, Helen's cue to enter.
