Chapter Twenty-Five Name Dropping

Chapter Twenty-Five
Name Dropping

During the summer between my first and second year at the Playhouse I lived in a UCLA frat house in Westwood. During the summer months while the students were on vacation they would rent out rooms. I lived in one for the summer and worked at Pacific Ocean Park. POP was an amusement park on the Santa Monica pier. They closed the park in 1967. (click here to see info and vintage photos of POP) Westwood in the 60’s was a nice college town with no high-rise office buildings. It’s very commercial these days.

I didn’t live in the dorm for my second year. A fellow student of mine, Matt Uitz, and I got a small apartment located on the second floor of a house farther north on El Molino. Matt was born in Germany and grew up there during World War II; so, when the World War II “Combat” series starring Vic Morrow was on TV (1962-1967) Matt was able to get several bit parts. We actually roomed together even after the Playhouse living in a couple of places in Hollywood.

During my second year at the Playhouse I took a television class. We had a small studio with a small closed circuit system of monitors. We didn’t broadcast anything, but we were able to learn the basics of directing, tech directing, camera and sound jobs. Dale White was the instructor for the TV class and we became more than teacher/student friends. Dale had a reappearing part on the old Jack Benny show as Don Wilson’s son. Don Wilson was Jack Benny’s announcer who also appeared in the show. Dale looked like he could be his son. I remember one time Dale got me on the set of the Benny show when Carol Burnette was the guest star. They did a very funny Tarzan skit. A side note on Carol Burnette: a Playhouse friend of mine had a part in some kind of holiday show in Beverly Hills and she was in attendance with her kids. We were able to say “hello” to her and she was very gracious. Another side note out of chronological order: when Ginger worked at CBS she got dad and I in for a rehearsal of the Carol Burnette show. That was fun and dad really enjoyed it. Back to Dale White, more on him and White Productions later on.

The Playhouse had a couple of small theatres in addition to the main stage and I remember playing a small part of a poker player in a production of “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Rue McClanahan played the part of Stella. Rue went on to play a featured role in both Bea Arthur’s “Maude” and “The Golden Girls”.

Stu Margolin was another classmate who made good in TV also. Stu was a year ahead of me and I think we may have been in one play together, but I knew him fairly well. I kept in touch with him for a couple of years after the Playhouse. Stu landed a part in James Garner’s “Rockford Files” TV series (1974 – 1980). He appeared in 38 episodes as Angel. Here's Stu with Garner in a scene from the “Rockford Files”:

Charlotte Stewart another classmate and good friend got the part of Ms. Beadle the school teacher in Michael Landon’s “Little House on the Prarie”. Charlotte got me on to the set to watch them filming a scene from the show. Her role on Little House inspired me to write a script for the show and I actually got an agent to submit it to the Producer, but it was not what they were looking for. Here’s a somewhat recent picture of Charlotte :

Other classmates that got parts in major movies or TV include Gigi Goluban in the 1962 “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm”, Frank Atienza as Ito O’Hara in the 1961 Elvis Presley movie “Blue Hawaii” and a good friend of mine Sid (Mosesian) Haig who played villains in several movies and TV shows.

Tyler McDuff who had graduated earlier from the Playhouse came back to work in a play that I was in also got production work on the Perry Mason TV series. He got me on to the set one day. I also had the opportunity to watch Andy Griffith and Don Knotts rehearse a scene for the Andy Griffith Show where Barney is playing chess against himself. It was really funny. I don’t remember who got me on the set for that one.

With all these former classmate doing well and getting on to the different sets I thought that I was going some place in Hollywood. But I only worked in two training films shortly after graduating. One was a pharmaceutical film and the other was for the telephone company which I understand my sister-in-law Pat saw back in Topeka. Next chapter Shakespeare and Hollywood.