Posted: 9/15/22 at 1:03am
After the wonderful post by Theatre Fan3, I couldn't help reviewing, in my mind, so many thrilling times I have had as a fan and audience member. My experiences began as a volunteer teenage usher at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles over 60 years ago and continue to this day.
However, my most memorable experience was my first visit to Broadway to see My Fair Lady in 1960. At the age of 14 this was my first trip to NYC. I was beyond excited. Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison had already left the production but that didn't matter to me. I couldn't wait.
We arrived in New York during a scorching July heat wave. Temperatures we in the high 90's and the humidity about the same. The morning of the matinee performance, I developed a severe nose bleed that just wouldn't stop. My relatives in Brooklyn rushed me to their doctor who cauterized my nose. I left the office with my nose killing me and stuffed with cotton which was to be left there. All I remember of the show was that the theatre was way to hot. I sat through the entire performance in misery and couldn't wait for it to end.
My aunt and uncle felt really bad for me and the next day they told me they were getting tickets for a new show which they heard was better for kids. I was in a terrible mood and told them that I didn't want to go to some "kids show" I had never heard of. But, of course, I went anyway and we saw Bye Bye Birdie which had opened a couple of months earlier with Chita and Dick Van Dyke. I loved it. Ironically, a few years later, I played Hugo Peabody in our high school production.
