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.
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!
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