Kathleen Dooley
Performance Critique
Those Thrilling Days of
Yesteryear performers presents
"School Days"
@ the
This afternoon I had a unique theater
experience that was unlike any other live performance I've previously attended.
Today, I felt magically transported back in time. I enjoyed a live recreation of 2 famous shows
from the Golden Age of radio, Fibber McGee and Molly and The Great Gildersleeve
in his spin off show, Honest Harold.
First, the Grand Ballroom of the Oak Park
Arms impressively set the scene for time transportation. This elegant and
historic hotel from the 1920s caused me to imagine I was one of the fortunate
ones to be in the live studio audience over fifty years ago as I watched my
favorite performers create the show. I noticed all the senior citizens taking
their seats in the marble tiled, ornately decorated ballroom. It's neat to
watch their faces as they laughingly remember the
comedy performances as they heard them for the first time in their youth.
The
narrator suggested we might wish to sit back, close our eyes and imagine we
were sitting in the living room, in front of the old Philco radio, anxiously
awaiting our favorite show to begin.
Before the show even began, the pianist,
Joanne Dougherty, played a prelude of songs from the 1940's including School
Days. I watched in anticipation as the twelve performers, smartly dressed in
vintage clothing sat in a row on the stage smiling and studying their lead
sheets.
It was interesting and entertaining to see
and hear the sound effects man seated up front. He was busy the whole time but
unnoticable with slamming doors, buzzing buzzers, tinkling chimes, walking
shoes and cracking leaf filled branches for the show.
The first episode was Fiber McGee and
Molly from 1947 and the bow tied, Harlow Wilcox character gets up to the
microphone with a commercial for Johnson's Wax. His affected voice was so
convincing that I wanted make my housework easier with
Johnson's wax, paste, liquid or cream. I
think it’s this announcer played by Evan Cater and the time specific
commercials for antique products that really set the flavor for this delightful
recreation.
The voice of Fibber McGee is so well known
by his fans that it's really impressive to have Gary Joy pull it off so accurately as he did.
This first show titled, "Trouble
with Grammar", was dedicated to the colloquialisms and parts of speech
Fibber McGee always seems to mangle. Some of the best gags included the parade
of visitors that came by 79 Wistful
My favorite visitor to Molly and Fibber's
home that day is an incorrigible little girl, aptly named Teeny who dialogues
with Fibber in a voice that stays with you as she giggles and says, "You
betcha Mister". Teeny is
played by talented, adult actress Joy Kenyon, who's most
memorable career break was her talking toilet bowl voice in a Service Master
commercial.
I can tell the director has a passion for
old time radio and the
The second show was The Honest Harold
Peary Show which originally aired in 1951.
Here was a test of acting greatness.
Steve Schroeder had to pull off the Great Gildersleeve's low, infectious
laugh, which was Harold Peary's trademark. He did a great impression, wholly
believable. He even sang an old Al Jolson song about boys in their youth in a
beautiful baritone bass just like the original Gildy.
I have to mention the pianist again,
Joanne Dougherty. Though she never says a word during the whole performance,
her piano tied the whole program together in a polished but unobtrusive way.
She really added so much depth to this show without being noticed
hardly at all.
This "First Day of School" show was especially entertaining
because it reminded me of the first day of school in many homes at this time of
year. Kids just want to be kids and
sometimes parents want kids to be little grown ups instead. The Harold Perry
character has temporarily adopted a distant cousin's son and dresses him up for
the first day of school in a blue business suit with a red carnation in the
lapel. It's just funny to imagine this little ten year old showing up to school
dressed like a "department store floor walker", poor him!
I interject to note one of the reasons I
love old time radio shows so much better than television. Radio is like reading
a book. You have the pictures in your mind and it's always funnier or more
meaningful than seeing the interpretation of someone else's imagination. The
young man on stage was not dressed up like the floor walker description but
that did not stop our imaginations from getting the joke!
Well, the story is predictable from here
that the young Marvin gets off on the wrong foot with somebody at school who
called him a sissy. Harold Perry has to spend the rest of the episode trying to
bribe and coax young Marvin to get off the roof of the house where he has
decided to hide in disgrace. While Marvin stubbornly insists, "I won't go
back to school." A variety of helpful visitors give well-meaning advice to
Harold as to how to win him over.
A hilarious moment with Marvin on the roof
is when the rotund Harold is trying to bribe him down by offering him a puppy!
Hefty Harold has his neighbor Doc stand on his shoulders and climb up a trellis
along the side of the house while holding onto the howling and whimpering puppy
dog. Pam Turlow, who plays Molly McGee in the first show, imitates a great, howling
beagle pup.
The 2 shows today were a delight. The Oak
Park Arms hostess announcer summed up my critique perfectly when she thanked
the audience for coming and said, "This is entertainment that spans all
age groups. Today we have in the audience a little darling named Claire who's
one year old and Leonard Eagle who just celebrated his 100th birthday this past
June. Interestingly enough, Leonard has his professional roots in live radio
shows. He was a violinist with the WGN
radio orchestra, the Wayne King Orchestra and was Franklin McCormick's violin
accompanist."
My family and I came away refreshed,
highly entertained and eager to see more performances from this talented troupe
in the near future.