Theater Buffs Tour New York City

By Betty O’Neal Giboney

“It’s a do-it yourself tour,” observed Jeannette Ogborne (or was it Ruth McCord?) the second day out of the Raintree county Opera House Guild New York Theater Tour last week.

The appraisal was a compliment. There was no herding about. There was flexibility, but with the security of having familiar faces about.

The tour leaders, Dick Willis, Chrysler High School teacher, and his wife, Vickie, and assistant leader Phil Barr, having provided everyone with exhaustive written instructions nearly compiled in a pamphlet, said cheerily in effect, “See ya.”

That system got us safely to and from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or United Nations, or supper at Sardi’s or whatever play we were going to see at any particular matinee or evening performance.

And we got to our destinations on time by whatever means we chose—on foot, by cab, by subway, by bus.

Some people improvised quite profitably on their own. Take Jeff Hamilton, Knightstown High School junior. Above anything else, Jeff had wanted to see “Annie,” as indeed, did everyone else. Tickets for that super-hit show, however, were simply not available during the time we were in New York , even though inquiries had been made months before.

About an hour before curtain time, Monday night, Jeff stopped by a ticket agency, asked for—and received—a ticket to Annie. He said it was the best show he saw.

That night, at Sardi’s, the famous gathering place for theater people, we were there, and so was Carol Channing. We all stood at a discreet distance, and gawked. Jeff walked right up and had his picture taken with her. He went back the next night, alone, and had his picture taken with Reid Shelton, the “Daddy Warbucks” of “Annie.”

Then there were the young people, including Peggy Ward, David Flynn, Denise Poore and William Carnes, all of Tri High School , and Perry Niles, a graduate of several years ago from Chrysler High School , who went to a discotheque. They were properly chaperoned by several adults, including Phil Barr, teacher at Tri High School , and Mrs. Wayne Elston, a teacher from Madison, the daughter of Mrs. Ruby Thomas of Greensboro . She was accompanied by her daughter, Beth.

“I though the disco was seamy,” Mrs. Elston said, “But the young people generally agreed everything was fine.

Tony Hickman, a supervisor at Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children’s Home at Knightstown, hiked the several miles from the World Trade Center, in Lower Manhattan to Lincoln Center in Midtown. There he saw and heard Beverly Sills rehearsing for “Merry Widow.”

Many of the young people were interested in theater, and for them, the person to meet was tour member Adeline Nall, teacher of the actor, the late James Dean and of Phil Jones, chief of CBS congressional news.

Mrs. Richard Schweitzer took several in tow, including Edithe Tipton and JO Carter of Knightstown, to the Palm Court of the Plaza Hotel for lunch. It was expensive, but very elegant.

Tour Leader Dick Willis and Della Mae Tronchuk, formerly a teacher in New Castle and Hagerstown, spent time interviewing a possible director and actors for “Summer Theater in the Park,” which Willis would like to continue for the summer of 1978. Jim Baird of Lewisville , currently living in New York , had assembled some talent.

Bill Zeigler, art teacher at CHS, it was suspicioned, spent much of his time museum hopping. Some others went to museums, too, with Katie Hall of Lewisville leading a group down Fifth Ave. from the Metropolitan to the Frick Museum, while Vickie Willis took another group to the west side of Central Park to the Museum of Natural History.

The tour encompassed people spanning several generations, starting with Mary Beth Wallace of Greensboro , 12. Miss Hazel of Jessup of Knightstown, my roommate, was probably the most senior of our citizens. Wherever we were to meet, she got there first—and alone. She loved her independence.

This was a theater tour, and we did see plays. On Monday night it was “A Chorus Line.” It was so realistic—an audition for a show—that I experienced again, after all these years, the anxiety of attending a show call. This one was like an inquisition, with each dancer having to tell her—or his—life story. Others all of us attended were “Chapter Two,” “On the Twentieth Century,” and “The Gin Game.”

On three occasions, those on the tour could attend the “show of your choice.” The most popular one was “Hello, Dolly,” with Miss Channing in the role she created. Some attending it at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater were Gloria Castelluccio, business ed teacher at CHS; Kelly McKee, CHS student; Jim Robbins, CHS debate coach; Joy Robbins, Parkview Junior High school home ec teacher; Vera Grabill of New Castle and her sister-in-law, Doris Winter; Jennifer Nicholson, CHS student; Ann and Joe West of New Castle, our honeymooners; Muzetta Guymon, CHS teacher; Amy Bolk, Dick Willis’s niece of New Castle; David Burgess, Parkview teacher; Betty White, retired surgery supervisor from New Castle, and Glen Linn of Richmond and friend of Actress Julie Harris.

Several attended “Dancin,” the new hit musical which just had opened and among us were Nell Willis, Dick’s mother from Terre Haute ; Mary Sinnock of New Castle ; Edna Ferguson, formerly of Knightstown and now of near Martinsville ; and Laura Klute of Richmond .

Maureen McAnany, CHS teacher, Lee Annette Turpin, Ball State Freshman from Greensboro and Jennifer Wallace, a Tri High senior, were among those attending “I Love My Wife,” and John Williams, who formerly taught in New Castle and now is choral director at Park-Tudor School in Indianapolis, was one who attended “Timbucktu!”

Attending “The Wiz” were Jim Barr of Greensburg and a Purdue Student; Nelle Wallace, Knightstown High School teacher; Catherine Mahin of Florida and mother of Sandee Sweigart of New Castle.

“Dracula” was a popular one, chosen by the tour leaders themselves, Vickie and Dick Willis.

“The Magic Show’ was seen by Frances Benner, retired professor of music now living in Mays and others. Jeri Horn, psychologist, and her daughter, Karen, a CHS senior, were among a large group attending, “The Act,” with Liza Minelli.

The trip by ferry to Staten Island , after the show on Thursday night, as well as seeing the show at Radio City Music Hall , were among the more popular choices on the tour, the same as the Statue of Liberty.

As the ocean liner advertisements once read—“Getting there is half the fun,”—so it was with the 60 people going to New York .

With tour leaders Vickie and Dick Willis and assistant leader Phil Barr in charge, most of the theater tour people went by train—an 18-hour trip by coach leaving Richmond , Sunday evening.

Plane passengers left from Dayton about 3 p.m. Monday with Katie Hall of Lewisville and Edna Ferguson, who flew up from Florida to be on the tour, taking head count. Everyone kept asking questions of Katie’s brother, George, but he insisted he is not a leader.

The last (one of only two) opportunity on the trip for any of us to get a look at all the rest of us as an intact group, was luncheon on Saturday at the Back Stage. I had opportunity to talk then to Harold and Kathleen Coursen about some unfinished business on a book Harold’s mother has written.

During that lunch, William Carnes, president of the senior class at Tri High School , summer up the trip. “If we go home and tell our friends,” he said, “they really won’t comprehend until they see it. Pictures are nice, but you can’t feel what is going on around you.”