Philip Spiess

Dexter:  Correcting myself:  B. F. Keith and Edward Albee (adoptive grandfather of the playwright) were eventually in partnership in the Keith-Albee circuit (eastern vaudeville circuit out of New York).  They later joined with the Orpheum circuit run by Martin Beck (western vaudeville circuit out of San Francisco).  The whole organization was later bought out by Joseph P. Kennedy (father of the president) during his Hollywood days, and that was bought out by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), headed by David Sarnoff, to become RKO.  Although all of the RKO theaters in Cincinnati are gone (I think there were five), apparently a good number of the older Keith and Orpheum theaters are still in operation (rejuvenated) around the country.

Sandy Steele (Bauman)

I remember something funny about Mrs. Foley, which I have told my husband many times. She once told our health class that if you sneeze ten times, you would die. No idea why that has stuck with me, but it's definitely not true.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Roger Dixon - I hum that tune as well on rainy days, it was an odd song, odd tune, just ODD... "...sit-ting, (one, two, three) sit-ting in the kit-chen drink-ing fresh made tea, fresh made tea...".  I couldn't remember where we sang that song.  Mr. Kyte-Powell.  Did we sing that at Music Hall?

I also remember being part of a chorus the summer after high school graduation that rehearsed at UC.There were a lot of CCM students in the chorus.

I also recall singing background for a play at the Playhouse In the Park Shelterhouse.  The play was call Don Perlimplin, about this fat old man, Don Perlimplin, who was enamoured with a sweet young thing named Elissa.  The old letch was peeping her while she bathed.  We sang another ODD song from behind stage, " ...on the banks of the river, night has stopped to bathe, on on the breasts of Elissa, the night wind is dying of love...." I think the play must have run at the same time as The Zoo Story.  I remember seeing the opening act, over and over again.  The actor, Richard Rust. who starred on one of the soaps, was in it.

Oh, the clutter in my brain......

Dexter Roger Dixon

Phil:  I stand corrected.  I bow to your superior historical knowledge.

Ann:  Yes, Ann, we sang that song at Music Hall under the direction of Haig Yahgian(sp?) who was the assistant director of the orchestra under Max Rudolf. I also remember ushering for The Zoo Story and a few other shows at the Playhouse.  I remember meeting Richard Roat who was pne of the leading men th at year (he was the lead in Arms and the Man and The Devil's Disciple.)

Steven Levinson

Dexter:  Cathy and I have probably watched our (now BluRay) copy of Cloud Atlas at least five times.  We've found that we gain new insight and increased respect for and appriciation of it with each viewing.  I also marvel both at the brilliance of Mitchell's novelistic structure and the the almost miraculous way the film makers found a way to adapt the virtually unfilmable to the screen. 

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Richard. Roat!! Oh yeah. 

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Home Ec: Miss Mary Jane Junk.

I recall that we had a cooking section where we learned to grill glazed grapefruit and make cinnamon toast. In our sewing section, we made a sewing bag which was a square piece of fabric with a draw string top. (I still have mine!) We also made a cotton gathered skirt which, upon completion, we had to model. Mine was plain pale pink and it looked absolutely awful on me. I was embarrassed to wear it.

Do any other of you have other remembrances of this class?

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Home Ec. another 7th grade subject that rattled my confidence. The cooking segment wasn't too bad except you had to eat what you cooked. Tuna salad à la Junk was edible, but plain white sauce (nothing added) was hideous. On to sewing, my gathered skirt was an awful goldenrod cotton. It didn't match any other earthly color in nature or otherwise.  I think the material was a remnant given to me by my Aunt Mamie, who ran the clothing/sewing room at the welfare department, where ladies sewed clothing given to families with children who were on welfare. In any event, I struggled with that skirt trying to gather it, put in a zipper and a waistband. It turned out terrible. I was embarrassed to have to wear the thing too. After that experience I never tried to sew again.

Flash forward to 1984. Ed and I always gave each other gifts at Easter. He'd always get me an outfit and I'd get him a nice shirt and/or sports coat. I had seen a beautiful dress in a magazine and showed it to him. Easter morning came. He opened his gift. He then left the room, came back smiling with a gift wrapped box. I opened it, knowing he had tried to disguise the fact that MY dress was inside, since the box was heavy and much shorter and deeper than a dress box.  I had tears of laughter rolling down my face when I saw my gift. It was a brand new Viking sewing machine!!!

Philip Spiess

Steve:  Do you recall that, though the Shubert Theater in Cincinnati was a very active theater, there was something not quite right about it?  The balconies were surprisingly close to the Proscenium arch; it was a very narrow theater.  This was because that building had started out life as the Cincinnati YMCA!  And that entire block of downtown was almost all theaters:  on the east end was the Shubert Theater, on the west end was the RKO Capitol Theater (turned in the mid-1950s into Cincinnati's theater for the showing of Cinerama movies), and hidden in the middle of the block between the two was the George B. Cox Theater, named after Cincinnati's big political boss (the last performance I saw in this theater was Blackstone the Magician, not Blackstone Jr., the son, but the original Blackstone, famous for his act of cutting a lady in half with a buzz saw).  And I remember when this block was torn down in the 1970s [?].

It is actually amazing how many theaters there were in Cincinnati when we were growing up, many converted from vaudeville and legitimate theater into movie palaces.  But all the big Broadway traveling companies appeared at the Taft Theater, connected with the Masonic Temple downtown; it was there I saw My Fair Lady, Camelot, and An Evening with Shakespeare, featuring Helen Hayes and Maurice Evans.  They were always talking about tearing the Taft down, but to my knowledge it's still there.

Philip Spiess

Sorry, Gail, I didn't take Home Ec; I managed to skirt the subject, and sew what!

Helen Sayrs (Hurley)

Phil, bet your costume for Halloween is a pun-king!

Helen Sayrs (Hurley)

I made an apron.  Wish I had managed to skirt the subject.  I learned much more about sewing from my mother!  Miss Mary Jane wasn't a favorite of mine.

Philip Spiess

Helen:  Witch costume are you referring to?  (But very witty pun!)

Henry Cohen

Phil, Taft still here but Aronoff is the main facility. Playhouse in the Park still thriving. Lamentably Gayety Burlesque is long gone causing a paucity of employment opportunities for worthy ecdysiasts. 

Philip Spiess

Thanks, Hank, for updating me.  I remember seeing La Plume du ma Tante and A Man for All Seasons (in its original play form -- much more dramatic than the movie) at the old Shubert Theater; various plays, of course at Playhouse in the Park (including Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth); and some old "silent" movies at the Emery.  I always thought it was hilarious that the Gayety Theater was next to the main Public Library.  (I never made it to the Gayety, but I did get to the Hollywood Follies Theater in Louisville, Kentucky, during my college days and saw "Torchy Lee" twirl tassels attached to her breasts in two different directions at once!)  As to the Aronoff, I know about it, but it came in after I left Cincy, so I've never been there.  

Philip Spiess

Sandy:  When my Middle School students used to have sneezing fits, I told them that the best cure for sneezing was to stick their head in a bucket of water for half an hour.  Their response:  "BUT -- . . . !"  I said, "Don't worry!  It'll cure anything!"

Hank:  In my days as head of research at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, I once compiled a national list of Halls of Fame.  Turns out there is a "Burlesque Hall of Fame" (a stripped-down venue, no doubt).

Paul Simons

Rick Steiner

North Avondale Elementary school sent 40 students to Walnut Hills when we were effies; 29 graduated.I suspect we had the largest  number  of incoming students that year.    It would be interesting to see if other classmates can compile a list from their elementary schools.

from North Avondale

Cheryl Albert, Laurie Alberts,  Bonnie Altman, Paul Bernheimer, Mary Benjamin, Arn Bortz, Paul Brower, Dana Cohen , Carol Cohn, Chuck Cole, Sam Engel, Ellen Fleischer, Suzie Goldhagen, Ken Holzman, Carol Huckaby, Mary Joseph, Steve Kanter, Linda Karpen,Eugene Katona, Tom Kreindler, Al Lederer, Jerry Malman, John Marks, Diana Marcus, Fred Mayerson, Nancy Messer, John Osher, Steve Rauh, Jeff Rosen,Jim Schloss,Jon Singer, Rick Steiner, Robt Stern, Leslie Toole, Julie Waxman, Mike Weiner, Diane Wiesen, Sandy Woliver and Ron Youngs.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Evanston Elementary sent only D. Roger Dixon and me. (A little help here Roger if that needs to be corrected.)

I had gone to Columbian Elementary through third grade. I remember Harry Martin and Phil Penn from those days. There may have been others. 

Henry Cohen

Noticed the pun fest on one of the personal pages, think it is Phil's. I think we should start some WHHS oriented ones. I have a modest example that occured to me as I was cutting the grass--some of my best thinking happens then. Anyway you all can decide just how modest it is. What do you call a WHHS 11th grader who is obsessed with urination?....... A Pee Nut.

Henry Cohen

The broadway series has been coming to Cincinnati since the opening of the Aronoff. This year's production of the Phantom was exceptional. Not sure that this is true, but rumor has it when Jersey Boys, Hairspray or the Producers plays, Rick Steiner can be seen counting heads and saying Cha-Ching. Next day he is at the Ferrari dealer signing up.

Henry Cohen

Phil among the historic treasurers was there a vintage Ski Slopes bra? Probably need to invent a 27th letter of the alphabet to size that baby. That had to at least be worth a boobie prize. OMG it's contagious. Where is Larry Klein, he used to be pun central.

Nancy Messer

home ec - When we had to wear the skirts we made, I thought everyone else's was gorgeous since I already knew mine was the worst in the group.  Before the skirts we made pin cushions since we were going to need to use them.  I still have and use mine.  The pins in it are the same ones since 7th grade.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Rick's post had me thinking about how many elementary schools there were in those days, almost one on every block.  I looked in that old May Festival Programme for the children's chorus.  There were 61 elementary schools from Cincinnati Public Schools listed with the music teacher who prepared the students. I'll post the first page here and the remainder to follow.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Here is the list of the remaining schools..