EAST FAREWELL
NEWS
Thursday, December
22, 1960 Vol. C808
LOCAL
NEWS
CHRISTMAS CAROL OPENS TO RAVE
REVIEWS
East Farewell – Last Friday night (12/16) the Playhouse opened
the last play of its 1960 season. The beloved and enormously popular “A
Christmas Carol” with visiting star Leo G. Carroll premiered to a sold out
audience and will run until the end of the year. The production has been
presented since the Playhouse opened in 1952, it was the first “final”
production and has held that esteemed place ever since. Carroll has played
Scrooge for six of the eight presentations bewitching his East Farewell
audiences with his growls, insults, demeaning comments and ultimate redemption
and each year he brings a new bit of originality to the character. This year’s
production was the straight forward production that it has always been,
directed by Jeb Bernstein and as always locals filled out the cast. Bob
Cratchit was once again played by Randel Cross. This was his third year in the
role and has achieved a bit of notoriety for the part. “I just love this part,
who couldn’t? I just love working with the whole crew and am both honored and
greatly humbled to work with someone as great as Mr. Carroll.”
Tiny Tim was played by a new actor
this year, Eddie Patterson, 10, for the last two years Jason Bailey played the
part but he is now 13 and almost 5’6” tall kind of putting him out of the
“tiny” range. All three ghosts were again played by Douglas Beaufort, who was
able to change completely from the wisp of Christmas Past to the very portly
and jovial Christmas Present to an ominous and portending Christmas Future with
ease and skill. This year Frank Sullivan played Fezziwig, a first for him. One
of the most popular actresses, the locally famous is Natalie
Mallard, also played several roles, Mrs. Cratchit and Belle, Scrooge’s
early love.
The sets and effects for the play are
always a big part of the production. Once again this year Marco & Sons
contributed their skills and time to remake Scrooge’s flat, Cratchit’s home, a
London street and a foreboding graveyard where Scrooge sees his possible fate.
The costumes were again handled by Lilly Watson and she and her group of
seamstresses brought a refreshed look to her beautiful and authentic period
costumes. The effects were once again handled by the Inquiring
Guys, a local group of craftsmen and hobbyists that just love to make cool
stuff. This year they were able to enhance Christmas Present’s glowing crown to
intensify as he spoke and they added more swirling smoke to Christmas Future’s
robe and the graveyard. Somehow they made Christmas Past’s wispiness seem
almost transparent, a secret that they have yet to divulge. “We just love
coming up with neat things and it is even better when they work every night,
all night,” said lead Inquiring Guy Teddy Franklin.
If they opening night is any
indication as to the coming performances it look like there will be sold out,
standing ovations all around. The Play will run until January 8, 1961. There
will be shows on Friday and Saturday nights and a matinee every other Sunday.
There may be some tickets still available but not many. They can be
pre-purchased at the Playhouse Box window during regular business hours. Don’t
miss it.
Ghost of
Christmas Present touches Scrooge
SPORTS
DEVILS CURSE THE COUGARS
Corning – The Corning Devils came onto the court on
Friday night with great confidence. They were the chosen favorite to win the
league this year by the early polls. They were a very experienced team, four
out of five of their starters were seniors and all five had played together for
three years. Three of the seniors had played together since grade school. The
Cougars, on the other hand, were still trying to find their footing as a team.
They played a good game against a strong Central Bears team last week but came
up short and their short comings were on display. They had too many turnovers
and too many missed passes and broken plays to put together a formidable
offense. Their inexperience was also shown in their defensive with the Bears
able to drive through the Cougars repeatedly.
The
game started with the Devils pressing the Cougars and causing a bit of
confusion in their ranks until Coach Wilson called a timeout and settled the
young Cougars down. By then the score was 15-6 Devils. The Cougars were able to
beat the press by bringing center, Dan Davis up to the forecourt to help with
the inbounds and then use Wendell Williams to bring it up court. The Cougars
showed improvement with their defense and by the end of the first half the
score was not as bad as the first moments would have suggested, the Devils lead
was 29-14.
The
third quarter started with a renewed Cougar offense. The backcourt of Williams
and Welch started to sync up and Williams became hot from the outside scoring 8
straight points before the Devils started to double team him. The Cougars were
quick to pick up on the double team realizing that one of their other players
would have to be free and they were able to find him, if was one of the
forwards, Billy Green or Gene O’Donnell, or the other guard, Jimmy Welch or
center Davis, the Cougars were able to work together and cut the lead to two
with five minutes to play. The Devils called off the double team and went to a
man to man defense and were able to keep Williams quiet while shifting to an
up-tempo offense. The Devils were able to put together a 12-8 point run and as
time ran out the Cougars tried desperately to regain the momentum to no avail.
The clock ran out and the Devils won 42-34.
Since
there is no Christmas Tournament this year the Cougars will play a normal
season game next week against the Slate Mountain Canaries. The game is at home
and will start at 1:30 Saturday in the Regional High Gym.
NATIONAL NEWS
KENNEDY WINS ELECTORAL COLLEGE – FIRE SWEEPS
THROUGH USS CONSTELLATION - NLF IS CREATED IN VIETNAM – COMMANDANT OF AUSCHWITZ
IS ARRESTED – COMMIES TRY TO SEND DOGS INTO SPACE
John
F. Kennedy was elected as the 35th President of the United States, as
the 534 persons who had been selected (on November 8) to serve in the Electoral College, met in their
respective states' capitals. Democratic candidate Kennedy received 300 votes,
31 more than the 269 needed to win, and Republican challenger Richard
M. Nixon had 219. U.S. Senator Harry
F. Byrd received 15 votes, from all 8 of Mississippi's slate of unpledged electors (a ticket which finished
ahead of Kennedy and Nixon), six from Alabama pledged to Kennedy and one from
Oklahoma pledged to Nixon. Hawaii's
3 electors had not been certified, pending a recount of the popular vote, but
were awarded to Kennedy prior to the January 6, 1961, tabulation.
Fire
swept through the USS Constellation, the largest U.S.
aircraft carrier, while it is under construction at a Brooklyn Navy Yard pier, killing 50 and
injuring 150.
The National
Liberation Front (NLF) was created as a Communist political
organization in South Vietnam, to oppose the government of
President Ngo Dinh Diem, who gave the group the nickname "Viet Cong".
As the NLF gained adherents, it began carrying out military attacks against the
South Vietnamese Army, and against U.S. forces.
Major Richard Baer, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration
camp, was arrested after 15 years on the run. Baer had been posing as
"Karl Neuman", a gardener on the estate of Otto Von Bismarck, since
1945.
The Vostok-K rocket
made its maiden flight, carrying a satellite with two dogs, Kometa and Shutka.
An attempt to put the payload into orbit failed when the third stage failed
seven minutes into launch, but the dogs survived the landing.
Many thanks to
Wikipedia for input in the News section
