Milestones & Epiphanies
In our day, public schools stll did Christmas events, including plays. In Jr Hi we did WHY THE CHIMES RANG & I was the Old Man who brought my life's work, a huge book, to the Manger as a gift to the Christ Child. Kenny Sanson was one of the singers, doing Cantique Noel among old Carols, as part of the play.
In Hi School, Peter Pan Players did THE BETHLEHEM ROAD, about the evil King Herod at the time of the Nativity. I played Seth, the stable boy. While I was in dialogue with another character onsage, backstage some idiot carrying a tall ladder hit the long sheet of tin used for thunder effects---a thunder clap was a very unexpected addition to my scene. And my very
next line in the script was "Tis the wrath of God". There was a big laugh from the audience.
We did another play based on the song, Annie Laurie, with Margo Copeland---she was kind of our resdent Bette Davis---and we all had to attempt Scottish accents. A Scotch lady who resided in South Pasadena told me after the final curtain that we hd done well.
Amy Rachel Foote was an important force on campus--in earlier years Hollywood sent talent scouts to her productions.
Without her, William Holden (Billy Beadle (SP?) probably would never have become a movie star. I don't think he was even in The Peter Pan Players, but took another class from Miss Foote, and she needed an extra boy in some play and literally drafted him for the part. While I was at SPSMHS, William Holden's mother (Still a SoPas resident then) sent Amy Rachel Foote a copy of a movie magazine which had just been published, which mentiond her influence on William Holden---only the magazine spelled her name as Aimee.
It could have been Photoplay Magazine, or at least a very similar publicaton.
In Hi School as an extra-curriciular event for Spanish Club, I performed LOS TRES OSOS with hand puppets. The heads were originally tennis balls. I still remember the opening line---"Una vez, vivian en el bosque, los tres osos; El Padre Oso, Su Esposa y El Osito". I wrote the script for the Three Bears and translated it into Spanish.
In 1965, my high school Spanish was helpful in Rumania & Italy when communicating with puppeteers there.
Since High School & Pomona College, I have done many puppet exhibits for museums, galleries and even theater lobbies. Parts of my collection have been lent to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC, Cooper-Hewitt in NYC, Oakland Museum, Long Beach Museum of Art, Los Angekes Municipal Art Gallery, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, LAX International Terminal, Joohn Wayne Airport, Ontario Airport, San Francisco Airport, Universities (UCLA, U of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Northern Illinois at De Kalb, U of Tennessee in Nashville, William D. Cannon Art Gallery in Carlsbad CA and at many Regional & National Puppetry Festivals. But the very first (and small) exhibits were at the Alhambra , South Pasadena, Pasadena Public Librairies and a display window in the So Pas Hi Art Department.December 4, 2011, we lent over 40 puppets to a one-day exhibit at the Huntington Library---a private event for Library Members, set up in conjunction with "A Visit with Santa". The exhibit was also scheduled Dec. 3rd, 2011, but there was no electric power Nov 30 and it did not return until 3 a.m. Dec. 4th. The Huntington Library was without power at the same time---all resulting from the horrendous windstorm that also created problems for South Pasadena.
