Charleston Heston May 1956 On the steps of Northwestern University School of Speech. See the story here.
Son of the Chief of Tsonga (a Province of Mozambique) and later the President of FRELIMO, The Mozambican Liberation Front fighting for liberation from Portugal and the Portuguese Communist force c. 1957 Evanston, IL non-alcoholic pub. See the story here.
While I was teaching at Skidmore College, from Sept 1959 – May 1962, my roommate’s sister lived next door to Jackie Onasis (later Kennedy) and I got to hear all the scoop on Jackie’s comings and goings.
Robert Frost c. 1960, Skidmore College –
William Shatner c. Winter 1960, Skidmore College – Dorothy Chernock was chair person of the the Speech and Drama department the 2nd year of my time at Skidmore. She was also head of the Corning Glass Summer Theater and William Shatner spent a couple of summers acting in her theater. When Mr. Shatner, only 8 months younger than me, learned an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear and toured schools doing that performance. Since he was good friends with Dorothy, he included Skidmore on his tour. After the performance, I, Dorothy, Mr. Shatner, Jay Keene (theater lighting and design), and a few other members of the Skidmore Speech and Theatre department went out to dinner at one of the nice places in town. It wasn’t anything special at the time. All professional theatre people go out after a performance to cool down in what we called an after-party and talk theatre. It was so normal to just go out after a performance, so it didn’t feel like anything special. It was just fun.
Aretha Franklin c. 1964 I was “in charge” of the stage and production when visitors came for the Cincinnati Public School Artist Series. I got to meet Ms. Frankin when she did a show at Courter Tech for this series. She came to Courter Tech on one of her first tours.
OJ Simpson 1967 DisneyLand – CRH was there to attend the national convention of the speech association of America. On that trip, I went to Disneyland and saw the Rose Bowl Parade. While at DisneyLand, I got on a ride to Pirate’s Cove and half of the football team was there on the ride with us and O.J. Simpson sat down beside me for the entire ride.
Mikhail Baryshnikov c. 1980s walking down the street in New York City
Nick Clooney c. 1994 Cincinnati Historical Society Banquet @ Union Terminal about costume design while guarding the costumes on display
Suzanne Farrell c. 2008 Phi Beta dinner meeting and Master Class in Cincinnati, Ohio
Tennessee Williams Camino Real Play in New York City – I went to the play early and sat in front of a seat that had a program on it. I thought ‘that ought to be a good seat’. Just before the show started, in walks a man who looked very familiar and sat in that seat behind me. The play, Camino Real was one of those ‘moment-in-the-theater’ nights. It was unbelievable. At the end of the play, uproarious applause arose. And at the end of the curtain call, the entire cast pointed right at me, because behind me was sitting the author, Tennessee Williams. It was the highlight of my life. I got him to sign the program and of course, I lost it.
Keenan Wynn at a restaurant in the lower east side of New York City
Martina Arroyo, Opera Singer sometime late 1970s or early 1980s. I took an interesting double exposure photo of her standing on stage and walking off stage. I let her know about it and I gave her a copy of the photograph.
Daughter of the Bodyguard for Al Capone, 1958. I taught at the Northwestern University National High School Institute for 5 summers during my schooling to get my Master’s Degree there and after. The fourth or fifth year I taught there, my roommate was Al Capone’s bodyguard’s daughter.
