Fantasticks and Pajama Game

For nine years (1974 to 1983), I acted in thirty plays or musicals in community theater and dinner theater in the Tampa Bay, Florida region.

Fantasticks is a 1960 musical. It tells an allegorical story concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa, and Matt, into falling in love by pretending to feud. 

The show's original off-Broadway production ran a total of 42 years (until 2002) and 17,162 performances, making it the world's longest-running musical.

I played Hucklebee (the boy's father) and with the girl's father, (Bellomy), we sang Never Say No and Plant a Radish.

The Pajama Game is a musical which focuses on a garment worker's union in Iowa, negotiating a raise for its members at the Sleep Tite Pajama Factory. Originally set in 1954, The Pajama Game has several favorite songs like Hernando's Hideaway and Steam Heat.

I was featured as "Prez" the head of the union.

Nancy Reagan running for first lady

In 1975, I landed a job as the Pinellas County Bureau Chief for the news department at WSUN Radio in St. Petersburg, Florida. 

As it turned out my first major interview was with Nancy Reagan.

Nancy Davis Reagan was an American film actress and the first lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, as the second wife of President Ronald Reagan.

When I interviewed her, Nancy Reagan was the first lady of California because her husband was governor from 1967 to 1975.

I also broke the story when the Church of Scientology took over the City of Clearwater. 

In late 1975, the Church of Scientology relocated its international religious headquarters to Clearwater.

Scientology's presence has for decades cast a shadow over Clearwater and has led to the city being known for its geographic concentration of Scientology rather than its miles of pristine beaches.

Ten years of folk-rock music

Here's the Fender acoustic guitar I played from 1965 to 1975. I was into folk-rock music, and I learned many of the songs from The Byrds, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

At first, I spent about six months learning how to play. In 1965 and 1966, I was in a Smothers Brothers tribute band. We played in northeast Ohio when we were not working at WJER Radio.

1967-1968, I played in ski clubs and bars around Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania.

When The Navy found out I played guitar. I was put in a "music company" in Great Lakes boot camp and I played in the Officer's Club Band.

While on duty at Naval Air Station Kingsville Texas, I played at local clubs in 1969. 

(With my best friend, who was a photographer, we'd go to the Padre Island National Seashore. He would shoot pictures of me with the guitar in the hopes of making young girls interested. It worked a half-dozen times.) 

Great times.

WSUN radio news in the 70s

One of my best broadcast journalist jobs was in the Seventies when I was a newsman for radio station, WSUN in St. Petersburg.

Kris Rebillot and I were the primary reporters for Tampa (Kris) and North Pinellas County (me).

Grandpa Vanderhoff & Doctor Lyman

You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play premiered on Broadway in 1936. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was adapted for the screen in 1938, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director.

I played Martin Vanderhof, referred to as Grandpa in the play. He is an eccentric happy old man who was once a successful businessman, who left his job 35 years before for no reason other than to just relax. 

He's the main character.

Bus Stop is a 1955 play by American playwright William Inge. Produced on Broadway, it was nominated for four Tony awards in 1956.

I play Dr. Gerald Lyman, a college philosophy professor who is articulate and charming but cannot hold a position, partially due to his resistance to any kind of authority, and partially due to his taste for young women. He also has a drinking problem.