Brother Brigham

Right about the time that FranklinCovey had transferred me to the Boston area in December of 1999 , the local Church Public Affairs Director had approached the wonderful museum in Salem, and, having found a fabulous collection of artifacts and documents that chronicled the early years of the Church in New England, was asked by the museum curator if they could collaborate on some kind of an exhibit.

Not being shy, and not wanting to do something small, this enterprising public affairs person created a 4-day event titled “A Legacy of Faith” and which was designed to show the local folks the amazing connections the early Saints of New England had with the city of Salem. A young 8-year-old Joseph was sent there by his parents to recuperate from a painful leg surgery, hoping that the sea air might do him some good. Brigham Young was on his way to Salem to conduct church business and was sitting in the Boston train station the afternoon of June 27, 1844 and tells how he was suddenly overcome with a sense of “melancholy and sadness” but wouldn’t learn until three weeks later that Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred that very afternoon in Carthage, Illinois. There were many stories and connections in and around Salem which were turned into an event that featured actors, musicians, craftsmen, horse-drawn carriages and bystanders who were fully outfitted in authentic costumes of the period. 

I was asked to perform in the vignette that told of Brigham Young and his connection and visits to Salem. I was back “on stage” and was gratified that The Church News referred to me as a “professional actor”. Because of the multi-day format and the many times that little performance was being offered to the public, there were two of us who alternated playing the part. My good friend Lewis Heaps and I switched off as “Brother Brigham” and Robert Furse, who bore an absolutely uncanny resemblance to the Prophet Joseph Smith, was also drafted/cast to be a “walking performer” all throughout the event, which took place in the beautiful setting of the Salem Commons on May 4-7 in 2000. We even got our photo in The Church News. 

It was an amazingly wonderful experience to create, write and prepare our 20-minute performance and gave both Lewis and I some terrific insights into the man we were portraying and also learn some fabulous things about Church History along the way. 

 

All that education and research really paid off, because two years later, I was invited to come to Whitingham, Vermont and once again perform as Brigham Young for the 200th anniversary of his birth in that very town. The town of Whitingham had created what they called the “Brigham Young Bicentennial Summer” to celebrate one of the town’s most famous citizens and the centerpiece of that celebration was a “visit” from Brother Brigham. 

It was a fabulous opportunity. So, I dug out my false beard and makeup and once again prepared to “be” Brigham for a day. One of the things we had learned in our early research was the beautiful bond of eternal friendship and love that had been formed between Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. It was so strong that on his deathbed, Brigham’s final words were, “Joseph, Joseph, Joseph”.

So…I thought…how wonderfully fitting it would be if Joseph himself were to be a surprise guest at Brigham’s birthday party. I called Rob Furse and he jumped at the chance to play “dress up” again so off we drove up to Vermont.

We kept him well-hidden, until the moment in my presentation when I was waxing eloquently about my love for Joseph and feeling a bit sad that he couldn’t “be here with us today.” When he came into the room, the gasps were loud and long. Bishop Furse looked so much like Joseph Smith that it truly shook the audience. Not so much with me, of course, because I didn’t look at all like Brigham Young. But the two of us together made for a terrific moment. 

That was a great experience for both of us.

I had one more reprise of this character when I appeared as Brigham for an early-morning seminary class when I was serving as the Bishop of the Webb Bridge Ward back in 2012.

I have since retired the role…and the beard.

BELLS ARE RINGING… 

The one and only time I had a perfect Straight-A average in college is the semester that I spent touring the Far East and the South Pacific in a wonderful Broadway musical called “Bells Are Ringing” when the school created a course they called “Rehearsal and Performance” just so the cast would be officially enrolled. It was a fabulous experience and a great story…

It all started when a friend of mine in the Music School asked me to accompany her on the piano when she auditioned for a musical theater production that was being staged by the Theater Department. We rehearsed her number and went to the audition. She did great and was grateful for my help. I hung around a bit after she sang and asked what the show was. They told me they were casting a musical that would tour all throughout Asia during the upcoming fall semester.

I thought, “Really”! Wow, where do I sign up? I asked the person running the auditions if I could still get on the list and he said ok. I waited through another few auditions then took the stage. Without any piano backup, I belted out the fun and rollicking song from My Fair Lady, “Get Me to the Church on Time” – which I had only sung before as I played it for myself on my own piano. T’was a true debut.

This happened in late May as my first year in school was winding down, and which year was a very different experience from what I had thought. I started out in the Music School with a Trombone scholarship, played in the famous CU Marching Band, took private lessons on my instrument, sang in the University Chorus, and played in the fabulous CU Jazz Band. I was loving life and having a really great time.
                                 

That all took a really weird turn when I contracted Mononucleosis and spent all of December and most of January in the college hospital. That meant, sadly, that I couldn’t complete my first semester of Music School so I was forced to take a grade of “incomplete” in every one of my classes. It was as if my first semester never really happened. On top of that tragedy, it also meant that I had to give up my scholarship. Talk about a major bummer!

After I was discharged from the hospital, and finally well once again, it was time to register for the Spring Semester…and even then I was a couple of weeks late getting started. I had a little money left to pay for just this one more semester so I signed up for a couple of classes in history, English and math. I was also very sad to realize that I wouldn’t be able to afford coming back in the fall.

Because I knew that I wouldn’t be coming back next fall, the idea of being in a musical for one more semester and even getting to travel around the world seemed like a fabulous idea. So, you cannot imagine my excitement when they called and offered me the truly delicious part of J. Sandor Pranz…the comedy lead in the show!

Wow! How very, very cool. My good friend for whom I played the piano was not offered a role in the show, which made me sad, but she was very excited about me getting a part so all was well in that department. Now, I needed to find something to do during the summer that would keep me occupied waiting for school to start up again next September.

That’s the summer that I wrote articles for my hometown newspaper, The Aurora Advocate. I got the terrific assignment of riding along with a Colorado Highway Patrol sergeant all summer taking pictures and writing stories. I was a very cool gig.

Here I am on top of a fire truck riding into a fire and snapping photos. Fun, huh? Crazy, but fun.

When I went back to Boulder in September, we started getting the show up and running, rehearsing songs, learning dances and memorizing lines…all the things you normally do when prepping a musical show.

But, we were also getting prepped to go overseas…passport applications, inoculations, and ticketing. The director was Dr. Scotty Faulkner and the cast he put together was fabulous! Bobby Mullin and Donna deVol played the romantic leads and became life-long friends of mine, along with Steve, Pete, Mimi, Zoe and David. Great people and great talents. It was going to be a terrific show.

 

It turns out, the show was being mounted specifically for the USO and would be performed mainly in military bases all throughout Japan, Okinawa, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. 

We would leave in early October, fly to Tokyo going through Alaska, tour all over the place and return back home to Colorado sometime close to Christmas.

Along the way, we would also perform at the University of Tokyo, the University of Seoul Korea and the beautiful new concert performance hall in Manila. But, we were also singing and dancing on the decks of aircraft carriers, tiny little stages in tiny little meeting halls and even outdoors in the jungle heat for a couple of performances. The show was fully mobile, and we were both cast and crew as we set up and took down our portable sets and moved the props around during the show for each other.

We had time to be tourists too. 

The experience of adapting to many different locations and having “the show must go on” attitude no matter where they asked us to perform, was going to be great training for me in later years. I learned a great deal about dedication and personal discipline during the run of this show. It was an absolutely wonderful experience.

But…it had come to an end and I had to say goodbye to good friends, and to my wonderful and beautiful school nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains. I loved school, I loved Boulder and really hated to leave.

My old friend Neal Ross who had hired me for my very first job back when I was 15, gave me a job as the assistant manager at the Tower Theater in Denver, so at least I had a small income while I tried to figure out what to do next. Since school was out, how was I to make a living and what would I do for a career? Tough times, tough thinking.

But all that changed when I got call that the Dean of Men at the University of Colorado, Dr. Glenn Terrill, wanted to see me…in person, and soon.

The only thing I could possibly think of why he wanted to see me was they finally figured out that it was me that broke the basement window in the dormitory way back when I first started.

But, that was not it. Phew!

When I walked into his office, he told me that I was a very lucky young man. He said that someone had seen my performance in “Bells Are Ringing” and was interested enough to do some research and discovered that I was leaving school because I was no longer able to afford it. The Dean told me that this anonymous person was giving me money for the next semester to cover tuition, books and lodging because he didn’t want me to be forced to quit school.

There were three stipulations with this amazing gift, however. First of all, I was to attempt to finish college and get my degree. Secondly, I was to continue to develop the talent with which I had been blessed. And lastly, this was not a loan and not to be paid back…but, sometime in the future when I was in a position to do so, I was to do the same thing for someone else.

That was it. A gift, totally out of the blue and completely unexpected. An anonymous benefactor who had a belief in me and was willing to support me without any return. And, a fantastic opportunity for me to continue my schooling and not have to leave my wonderful college in a town I had come to love.

What a blessing.

And what a true blessing it was to be. That Spring Semester of 1962 I was to meet my long-time friend Chub Anderson, with whom I started our little folk group, The Hustlers, which group would wind up paying for all the rest of my schooling. And, Chub also introduced me to the most life-changing experience I would ever have – he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And, two years later, I would also become a member.

This little musical journey turned out to be much bigger than I had ever thought it would and which lessons learned continue to resonate in my life to this very day.

And, this entire experience taught me that the Lord’s hand was most definitely in my life. He was truly ringing my bells!

Stadium of Fire - 1993

The Stadium of Fire is an annual patriotic event held in the Brigham Young University stadium and has become one of the largest Independence Day celebrations in the United States. The show was created by Alan Osmond back in 1980 and features the largest stadium fireworks show in America.

I was privileged to work on the very first one of these shows with Alan and Merrill and the Osmond family, and was hired again thirteen years later (in 1993) to write, produce and direct this fabulous annual extravaganza. Mick Shannon and Joe Lake, the founders of the Children’s Miracle Network, now owned the rights and were the executive producers and asked me to create and run the show for them this year.

What a fabulous opportunity to stretch my creative muscles! I took a leave of absence from my CEO role at Dayton FilmCorp to run this show and rented an apartment in Salt Lake City in late January to get started. “Wait a minute!” The show wasn’t until the 4th of July and I was starting on it in January…yes, this big of a show takes quite a bit of time to build. I was really in my element because remember that I had been trained by probably the very best “big show” designer by my first boss at Disneyland, Bob Jani, who taught me how to really think big. This was right up my alley and I was excited to get started.

Because this is a fireworks show, the very first thing I did was to sit down with Brad Bone, the pyrotechnic genius who had designed every one of the shows since 1980. This guy really knew how to blow up the sky!

And…we needed a theme to build the flow of the show around. I had always loved the wonderful song, “America the Beautiful” and that seemed to be an absolutely perfect idea to build upon.

So, I asked Brad to construct firework set pieces that would represent America from “sea to shining sea.” He created a sensational set, that when it was lit up, showed every iconic structure that represented everything from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate Bridge – and everything in between (St. Louis Arch, Mount Rushmore, Liberty Bell, etc.). I wish you could have heard the cheers that went up when we lit up those set pieces…what a thrill!

Several years before, the show had created what we called an “International Fireworks Competition” between three of the top firework producing countries in the world – China, France and Japan. It literally blew the roof off, it was fabulous. So that concept was added to our growing roster of fabulous stuff. This show is famous for the top talent it attracts each year and who become the headline acts for the show. This year it was top recording artists Kenny Loggins and Jeffery Osborne, along with the reigning  Miss America, Leanza Cornett. It was quite a show.

One of the most looked-forward-to features of almost every fireworks (and every other stadium show through the years) is a fly-over of military aircraft. The art of that event is, as you probably know, to have the jets fly over just as the National Anthem reaches “…and the home of the brave” – then swoosh with a thundering blast. The first year I did this way back in 1980, I had worked and worked to get the timing exactly right. There was always a land-based commander who talked to the jet pilots in the sky and gave them the countdown and the timing to hit the stadium at just the right moment. The jets would be circling several miles to the south of the stadium until they started their run north to be at the right place and the right time. Most of the time they hit it. But, this year (since I was the guy in charge) I tried something different. I asked the Colonel on the radio simply to sing along with the Anthem…and the pilots hit it precisely on the money! It was beautiful…and thrilling…and a real “high” moment if it was executed flawlessly.

I was “high” in that moment…but, it was about to get better. Showtime!

I really loved working on this show and have been a real fan of it ever since, even if I don’t attend. And, it was exciting to be able to talk to the public about the wonderful traditions of this event and the privilege it was to just be a small part of making it happen.

Please let me share with you the welcome piece I wrote for the program.

What a night! On the eve of our country’s 217th anniversary as a nation of free men and women, we gather together once again to celebrate the day that John Quincy Adams so aptly dubbed, the “Grand and Glorious Fourth.” He, of course, was speaking specifically of America’s first birthday in 1777, and he was admonishing his countrymen to celebrate with “cannon fire and the ringing of bells throughout the land.”

We folks, sit back and get ready to have your bell rung ‘cause here we go again! It’s time to wave the Flag, light up the sky, heat up the stadium, and sing a catchy song or two, all to say “Happy birthday America…God shed His grace on thee.”

One hundred years ago, Katherine Lee Bates wrote her poetic tribute to “America the Beautiful” which, after having been set to Samuel Ward’s tuneful music, has been promoted in some circles as a new national anthem. Her stirring words, which we have taken as our theme tonight, remind us all of the blessings of being citizens of this promised and bounteous land.

Tonight’s show is something of a watershed, as the Osmond Foundation takes over the creative reins of the “Stadium of Fire” from its very imaginative creator, Alan Osmond. Alan left some big shoes to fill and now its up to Foundation President Mick Shannon and Executive Vice President Joseph Lake to out-dazzle and out-wow you…a very loyal and discerning audience of annual patriotic revelers, who have come to expect great things of this event.

So, once again, we treat you musically in a special concert format, featuring two of the recording industry’s giant talents…Kenny and Jeffrey, both special friends of the Foundation, whose unique musical offerings will be a creative change of pace for this show. And we know that you’ve always enjoyed the Miss America’s of yesteryears, and are confident that you will feel the same about tonight’s very special guest, Leznza Cornett, Miss America 1993.

In researching tonight’s show, we discovered that the most talked-about feature by many of you down through the years has been the International Fireworks Competition. So, since you asked for it, enjoy once again some incredible combustible “pyro” magic from the master technicians from China, France and Japan, all coordinated and programmed by our own personal “fire chef,” Brad Bone.

 Tonight also marks the exciting debut of a very talented group of young people, gathered from all over the state of Utah especially for this evening’s performance. Our own Utah High School Honor Drill Team, all 500 of them representing 26 high schools from Tremonton to Green River, is the largest single group of precision performers ever to grace the Stadium of Fire.

Of course, this show could not be mounted without the very generous support of our wonderful sponsors and our many tireless volunteers. The Foundation is grateful to the terrific folks at Fred Meyer, TCI Cablevision of Utah, Coca-Cola/Maceys, KSL Television and KSL 1160 Newsradio for assisting them in helping to continue to build the traditions of the Stadium of Fire and most especially since, from now on, they will be participating in a true benefit.

The Osmond Foundation is delighted to be closely associated with America’s Freedom Festival at Provo and is looking forward to working together in expanding this happy extravaganza in future years.

But, for now…it’s time to celebrate America the Beautiful and a Grand and Glorious Fourth! You’ll have to excuse me…I’ve got to go load the cannons. Enjoy!

Mike Wuergler, Producer/Director for The Osmond Foundation

Our 30th Anniversary - 2005

To celebrate the start of the fourth decade of our wonderful marriage, Sherry and I took a fabulous trip. We were able to use my President’s Club Award money that I received from FranklinCovey and our company travel department made all of the arrangements.

We flew all night from Atlanta to Stuttgart, Germany, arriving at 9AM on March 18, then taxied to the train station that same morning to take the interCity train to Zurich, Switzerland where we spent the night in the Marriott Zurich Hotel.

I asked the hotel concierge to give me a printout of the Swiss telephone book with every Wuergler name he could find. I wound up with a listing of 85 names – both Wuergler and Wurgler – that lived all throughout the country. It was my very first foray into some family research that would pay huge dividends seven years later.

We took the train the next morning, March 19, to Geneva where we changed trains to Nice, France arriving at 8PM that evening. After spending the night at the Hotel Westminster in Nice, we took a 15-minute taxi ride to the Chateau de la Chevre D’Or at the entrance to Eze Village.

Eze is a most ancient place, first populated back in medieval times (2000BC) and serving as a defense post for invaders of all types and kinds.

The cobblestone streets wind up the steep hillside and don’t appear much different from olden times.

Our room was literally cut out of the mountain side and overlooked the Mediterranean 2600 feet below. It was fabulous.

The ramparts on the top of the fortress commanded a wide view of the sea. It is a place worth seeing and worth lingering around.

The 5-star restaurant in the Chateau was spectacular. What a fabulous place to spend the night of our 30th wedding anniversary.

After two fabulous nights, we then took a quick taxi ride to yet another fabulous place. The famous Hotel de Paris in the heart of Monte Carlo, the capital of Monaco.

We stayed another two nights, did a little shopping…well, window-shopping in this very, very upscale city.

With memories to last a lifetime, we left the morning of March 24 for New York City, then back home to Atlanta.

Fabulous experience.

Open Any Door

My time in Los Angeles was not all work. I also found some good time to “play” as in, theatrical play, which had been my “first love” from way back in both high school and college.

When I came back to California after having helped open Walt Disney World, I was assigned to work at the studio in Burbank on a traveling arena show called “Disney On Parade.” One of my jobs was to oversee the translation of the show’s soundtracks into eight foreign languages so I spent hours and hours in the main recording studio on the Paramount Pictures lot. The chief engineer was a wonderful and lovable guy named John Neal. One night, he invited me to stay late and listen in on a little outside-of-work-side-project of his. He was recording an album for a band of other Church members who called themselves the JustUs Brothers.

Dan Whitley was the lead singer and guitarist, Bobby Morphis was the drummer who also sang, and Nick Peper was the keyboard player who sang the third part.

(Side note: if you look back thru my articles, you will see that they performed at our wedding reception so you have to know that we also became really good friends as well).

What I heard that night was absolutely wonderful. These guys were very, very good.

Here’s the title song…”Open Any Door”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lww9ubSCWog

But it is what they were recording that caught both my heart and imagination with equal force. Dan and his wife, Bonnie, were Sunday School teachers who wrote one original song for every lesson in the 14-year-old church manual and they were creating an album for all of those songs.
 
                                                        

I was totally knocked out! As musicians, Dan and Bonnie were using that talent to enhance the gospel message of their lessons. It was absolutely terrific.

I went home that night with my mind racing about what might be done with this fantastic collection of songs that delivered the gospel message in one complete round, touching, as it did, the full year of spiritual lessons that are laid out so beautifully so a class would receive the Lord’s message to his children in its entirety.

Since all of their music already told a story, I started making notes about how to tie them together into a narrative flow. I couldn’t sleep and worked on my outline all night. It worked beautifully with maybe a couple of additional songs to fill in some missing links, at least in my outline.

The next day, I called my good friend Gordon Jump, the wonderful television actor, and invited him to lunch that same day.

(Side note: Gordon was really quite famous in the television industry having been the long-time “Maytag Repairman” in their very funny commercials, as well as one of the stars of the hit comedy show “WKRP in Cincinnati”).

 
                                     

                                          

I couldn’t wait to get him involved as he and I had been looking for something creative that we might do together. This was perfect.

He agreed. The JustUs Brothers were recording over at Paramount that same night so I called John Neal and he got Gordon and I past studio security to observe their session.

After another amazing night of recording, we sat down with the guys and laid out our thoughts about what we might do together and how we would showcase their fabulous music.

We were all very excited about what this project might turn out to be. What we agreed to was for Gordon and I to create a script and a production budget. We went to work immediately and the boys got back to finishing their album.

“Open Any Door” was born.

                                                    

Well, just barely conceived maybe...now we had to get this production up on its feet.

All of us were quite missionary-minded and wanted this show and the message it contained to touch as many lives as possible, and perhaps, to also introduce the truth of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to individuals through the words and music of this play.

Gordon and I wrote lyrics to a new song to which the JustUs Brothers wrote the music. That song helped fill in a key missing piece in our story line and was included on the album. It’s called “Heavenly Express” and tells of us coming down to earth to gain a body.

                                           

I put on my Producer "hat "and went to work designing the production, finding the stage technicians we would need, building the set so it would travel well, started the casting and scheduled the rehearsals.

                                       

                                     

                                             

We also needed a venue...somewhere to mount this theatrical production along with the necessary publicity to spread the word and gain an audience for which to perform.

                                      
                                      

                                                     

We tried something new and different. We contacted regional Church leaders, Stake Presidents and Mission Presidents in particular, to sponsor the show in their area. We sold advanced tickets to help us pay for the set construction and buy costume materials. And...amazingly- our plan worked!

We performed the show about twice a month all over California and drew ever larger audiences as the word-of-mouth spread that this was a show worth seeing. I guess you could say we had a minor “hit” on our hands...at least within the Latter-day Saint community.

                                                    


                                            

But, as I look back on the missionary focus we had at the outset, we were thrilled to discover that for every time the curtain went up, at least one person was prompted to take the missionary lessons and, eventually, join the Church. We were using the talents with which the Lord had blessed us to hasten His work and help build His kingdom on earth. We were doing our part.


                                          

                                           

                                               

What a magnificent blessing that turned out to be for all of us - cast and crew alike. And, what an absolute joy it was to perform it! I even wrote myself into the show as Arnold the Computer/Brain. Yep, back on stage at last, even if the costume made me look like a chunky Tin Man (remember, this was a really, really low-budget show).

                                        

But, the regional church-focused theater bug was about to bite me yet again...stand by.