THE MERRY WIDOW
McLean High School
May 1960
The 2 leads   Leads discuss in front of all  
The two leads -- Richard Bowers & Lynn Rasmussen -- and right, the crowd at Maxim's.
girls dance   Guests at the Pontevedrian Embassy  
The girls at Maxim's, and the Ball at the Pontevedrian Embassy.

girls dance at Maxim's - closeup   Girls dancing at Maxim's -- alternate take/12
(left) Merry Widow - those girls at Maxim's. (Closeup from earlier shot; click to enlarge.)
(right)  A different dance shot.  I see the chairs in front are empty, so maybe they let the phtographer come in and make a nuisance of himself only at a rehearsal.  
Girls' curtain call  
Girls' curtain call.

(OK, these 2 won't get bigger if you click on them because I just had to show you the big version straight off.  But if you go ahead and click, at least you'll get them on their own page, where your selection can be printed without all the others.  These are just gorgeous in a real print from the original computer files, the girls' curtain call especially.  So many beautiful ladies, so little time.  What ever was I doing during high school?)
Curtain call  
Final curtain.


Curtain call w/arrows,names  
click for larger photo -- may take a moment to load . . .

Hi, Ellen!  Hi, Minnie von Zahn!  But for so many other names, I'm clueless.  Please e-mail me if you have even a guess.  Eddie, Gary Ellison, thank you.  Are the thespian revivalists in the Class of '59 going to invite Mr. O'Rourke up to tell us how to build a stage set in 6 weeks flat?  (Walter O'Rourke, 722 Kawana Rd, Columbia, SC 29205).

Five years earlier, there was cow pasture, the Espey Farm, others.  Where did this all come from?  Who built the sets?  How did the furniture get scrounged?  And the costumes!   Where did we get the energy?  In the middle stands the inspiration for it all, Beverly Skrinak (dark dress), then a recently-minted B.A. from Catholic University.  
--jn '60

ABOUT  "THE MERRY WIDOW"

Franz Lehar's (1870-1948) classic operetta from 1905 predates the many innovations that Americans brought to the musical comedy on Broadway later in the century.  The plot is complex but the issues raised are never serious, the action stops for the singing instead of integrating the two.  It is a tradition of musical farce running back two centuries at least, to the birth of opera in Italy.

Today finds a website and many performances (find the "diary" link somewhere on the left) in celebration of the 2005 Centenary of the operetta. 
Remind yourself of the music (in English) here, before buying one of the tons of CDs on amazon.com.

--end Merry Widow
Home page (photo list)
rev 12/06