In 1947, the decision had to be made whether to study at The Feagin School of Dramatic Arts and Radio or at The Pasadena Playhouse. While sunny California held great appeal, the pull of Broadway made the choice of schools easy. So in 1948, I headed off to New York with enough money to complete the two year program at Feagin. However, attending every theatrical production, bussing up to Boston for the premiere of Oliver’s HAMLET, running up to Mount Vernon to catch Katherine Warren in a show , it soon became clear that I would complete only the first year at the school before joining the U.S. Navy.
During my time in NYC, before security was an issue, I managed to get backstage to meet every headliner of the shows I saw: Henry Fonda (Ralph Washburn, the husband of Ella who was a teller at the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Benton Harbor where I worked during High School, served in the Navy with Mr. Fonda and gave me a letter to deliver), John Gielgud, Lillian Gish, Jessica Tandy, Florence Robson, Judith Anderson (our acting coach at Feagin, Grace Mills, was in the cast of MEDEA), David Wayne, Celeste Holm…the list goes on. Those were halcyon days!
Earlier experimentation with time exposures with my parents’ Brownie Box camera encouraged me to capture some of the Feagin staff and all of my classmates on film (See: Farmers and Merchants Bank website). Those photographs have languished in the attic of my place in Michigan for some 63 years.
Nourished with nostalgia, we have developed this site, wondering what happened to all of these vital and talented people and hoping that it will provide us the opportunity to reconnect with them and their families.