During the spring of 1964 my sister got our entire family
involved in a pageant being presented in the Tabernacle as a part of the “Days
of ‘47” celebration. The night of the
last dress rehearsal the Tabernacle was filled to capacity with over 6,000 members
of the cast, crew and audience. When we’d
finished the director asked if there was a little girl or boy in the cast who’d
like to offer the closing prayer.
(Please note: my parents were in another group of actors on the other side of the
stage. I had my own blocking which was totally
different from theirs.) Anyway, I raised
my hand, actually I was waving it wildly with a near verbal, “Oh, Oh, Pick Me,
Pick Me!” when the director picked someone else. When that little girl turned to the audience,
she froze and burst into tears. Well, there
were a whole lot fewer hands when the director asked for another volunteer and
I was selected.
My grandma was in the audience and later said that I gave a
very “sweet prayer”. My parents on the
other side of the stage were very surprised when they heard me since they
couldn’t see me from their vantage point.
At the time, guest stars from Hollywood would be brought in
for the pageants ever year. This
particular year the two guest stars were Keith Larsen and his wife Vera Miles. Both of them were impressed with me too and
they had the director contact my mother for an audition the next day.
I had horrible Hay-fever when I was little and July 1964 was
pretty bad. I’d been sneezing my brains
out that day so my mother decided to give me a Benadryl. As the phone started to ring with the
director on the other end, I was swallowing that pill.
Hmm, change out of “play clothes” (do kids have play clothes
anymore?) into “good clothes” and a 30 minute ride from Midvale to downtown
(I-15 was still being built) and the old Hotel Utah in July in a car without air
conditioning and you may be able to imagine how groggy I was. Needless to say, I was a whole lot less
impressive the next day than I was the previous night. The effects had worn off by curtain time for
opening night, but I didn’t get a second chance and thus, temporarily at least,
ended the acting career.
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