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Smokefall |
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Orson Bean |
At the time I
was a young Navy Dental Officer assigned to his first ship and living a high
life in port at St. Thomas. I had asked
for the name of a nice restaurant and made my way inland to the top of a hill
and a place with a fantastic view.
I was alone,
being new to the ship, and was having a drink when I struck up a conversation
with Orson Bean, who at the time was often a hilarious guest on the Johnny Carson
show.
Did I
mention this was in 1965?
Mr. Bean had
an entourage of about 10 and when their table was called he graciously invited
me to join them. I sat next to him and
his second wife Carolyn who was with him, essentially on their honeymoon. During the course of the evening he told a
joke that I not only remember and tell to this day; it also made page 183 of my
book “Harnessing a Heritage”.
In addition
to the honeymoon thing, he was also in rehearsals for a musical based on the
film “Never on Sunday”, called Illya
Darling. Mary and I were living on
the East Coast at the time (when I was in port) and made our way to Broadway to
see the play that opened in 1967. We
asked and received permission to go back stage where I paid my respects to
Orson.

We were not
so fortunate this last weekend but hope that a friend of ours who works at the
Segerstrom might have delivered my book and got an autograph on the vinyl Cast
recording. My unexpected backup came
when Orson, who lives now in LA, came out after the performance to find
friends. I was able to corner him for a
quick autograph and a comment, “St. Thomas!
That must have been 50 years ago.”
Forty eight actually, and one wife removed.
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Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy |
Mary was
checking her collection of about 60 Playbills from Broadway shows we have seen
in our past trips to New York. And was
sharing with me her memories of some of the plays. Of note were Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in
The Bridge Game, Tommy Tune in My One and Only, Sammy Davis Junior in Stop the World, Matthew Broderick in How to Succeed, Judd Hirsh in I’m Not Rappaport, Dustin Hoffman and
John Malkovich in Death of a Salesman,
Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, Julie
Andrews in Victor, Victoria and Angela Lansbury in Sweeny Todd and Patti LuPone in Gypsy.
We have
indeed been blessed and enriched by Theater, and I have also been blessed by
the number of plays I’ve performed in, many of them very good. I was fortunate to start attending plays at
any early age when my mother took me to Chicago to see, among many, Damn Yankees.
Mary and I
went to see Billy Elliott the day
after Smokefall and were pleasantly
surprised to see the number of young attendees.
The energy of Elton John’s score was infectious and the closing with
everyone in tutus was perfect. Several
of the young girls in attendance were posing in their tutus in front of the Billy Elliott billboard.
I’m sure
they will have their reverie moments when they reach my age.
My next post
will be a little whimsical as I share how my house has made it to a Walking
Tour. Please come visit.