As I stated in the front of this story I have enjoyed performing which I believe came form seeing my father being so happy as he performed. I have had many wonderful inspirational and humorous things take place in my life because of this activity.
My first recollection of being on stage was when I was in the 2nd grade. I didn’t have a speaking part, but I remember I knew all of the dialogue and would move around the stage and remind both my cousin, Roger and my brother Frank, when it was their turn to speak. The play was “The Magic Forest”.
After moving to Ogden my next stage performance was reciting Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address at Lorin Farr School. The stage was built in one of the classrooms and I performed for one of the other classes at school. While in Lorin Farr I was able to participate in the drum corp. We would practice in one of the rooms and the noise was pretty loud. I remember having Mr. Ray Minter, who was our instructor, stand at my side one time and then tell me that I was to be one of the solo drummers. We used to march in the city’s Boy’s Day parade which I enjoyed very much. And maybe this activity just rubbed off on my daughter, Debra, who also loved to march.
After becoming old enough to attend Mutual and participate in their activities, I remember my first part of being in the Road Shows that were held every year in the old Ogden Stake. In those days we actually moved from ward building to building to perform our show. I was a prop man and was responsible for putting a large potted shrub on the stage. At the Pleasant View Ward the stage was below the chapel and there was a staircase from the back of the building to the stage. I carried my plant very carefully down and walked out on the stage while some other ward was performing and on finding myself in a place where I was not supposed to be, turned and walked back up the stairs. I have often wondered what the audience thought my entrance had to do with the play that was going on, on the stage.
I don’t remember all of the road shows, but one comes to mind where we had a dating bureau and while the girls were on the stage trying to make up their minds what kind of a date they wanted, the boys appeared in single appearances as various characters. We had an aviator, forest ranger, artist, violin player, matinee idol, news paper reporter and a crooner, which was my part. The girls couldn’t make up their minds until a football bounced on the stage followed by my brother, Frank. They all decided that they wanted a football player. So all of the boys, who by now had changed their clothes, ran on the stage and with the girls between them we all sang “You’ve Got to be a Football Hero to get along with a Beautiful Girl”. Everything went well during practice, but at dress rehearsal we found that we had to change the time of the character’s appearances to compensate for the time that the boys had to get dressed in football uniforms. That rehearsal about broke up everyone, including the director, Sister Karns, but with a little bit of ingenuity and another practice we had a very fine road show and it went well in all of the wards.
Besides the road shows we also put on one and three act plays and operettas every year.