Open Writing

In the summer we went up into the mountains and had the Thespian picnic - hamburgers, hot dogs, beer. We played baseball, made a lot of noise and had a great time. One of the members was Chris Tolos, of Greek descent, and he made the most marvellous hamburgers - 'Tolos-burgers' he called them. As he fried them on a grill over an open fire, I can see him now going along the line squeezing lemon juice on them. Talk about delicious...

We spent hours in Guggenhein Hall before every play, especially at weekends. On Saturday mornings we'd be up ladders with hammers and nails and paintbrushes, a break for lunch, a cup of coffee, then we were at it again. The two men who were self-appointed overseers and in charge of the painting and hammering were Ivan Hebel who was a professor at the School of Mines, and one of the top mathematicians in the US, and Vic Seiferth the city engineer. Ivan particularly was a bit bossy, but he and Vic did a really good job. Many of the flats were getting old and tatty and Ivan and Vic thought they should be replaced. Did we think we were capable of doing this? It was a big job, but we voted to make new flats in time for the coming season. Vic and Ivan made the frameworks, and then the canvases had to be tacked and sewn on to them. But everyone set to work with a will and the job was accomplished on time.

I was also invited to take part in another Thespian group in nearby Littleton. They were very friendly people and had an excellent director.

There they put on plays in the round, and one I enjoyed taking part in very much was The Country Girl. Both Golden and Littleton had some very good actors and actresses and the plays were always very well attended. One lovely warm evening as I drove over to Littleton in the Dodge to a rehearsal I said to myself 'I'll never forget this evening.' The lights on the dashboard shone red and green, the car purred on its way, and I never will forget it.

One play we put on in Golden was Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. Several years later when we returned home and I was in the Huddersfield Thespians, I was the only one who had appeared in this play, because it was running in London at the time and no one in England was allowed to put it on. But I have been in a number of Agatha Christie plays and am surprised at The Mousetrap's popularity, because to me it is no different from any other of hers - murders, a lot of suspects, and one of the most unlikely characters turns out to be the villain of the piece. In Golden I also took my turn and directed a play called Howie. It was a very funny play, and I enjoyed it, though I did prefer acting to directing.

At Elitch's Gardens, which I have mentioned in an earlier chapter, there was a theatre, and often we went there with the Buergers or other Thespian friends, the Simpsons. When she was a young up-and-coming actress Grace Kelly appeared in a number of plays there. A company came to Elitch's for the summer season and they put on a different play every week, often some of the same actors appearing in each play, which meant that while they were performing one play they were learning their lines and rehearsing for another. You had to be a good professional to do that, but these were good professionals.

After the play on the warm summer evenings, it was a pleasure to sit at one of the tables outside and have a drink, sometimes to be joined by one or two of the cast.

One day I was very pleasantly surprised to have another phone call from Len Bermon. My appearance on his show had gone down very well, would I like to be on again? Well, naturally I would, so once again he and I chatted over a cup of tea on 'Teatime'. He asked me how our trip to England had gone. We talked about the Thespians and other things and, as before, the twenty-five minutes went by all too quickly.

Len Bermon was a very nice man and would be in his mid forties, so I was very shocked and sad to learn a few months later that he had died very suddenly.