"Kiss Me, Kate" on Broadway

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from December 20, 1949 to January 5, 1950, as June enjoys Christmas break at home (with frequent dates with Art)…

“I’m still thinking over Kiss Me, Kate.  Maybe we just expected too much at the time.  When I look back, Alfred Drake was wonderful, Patricia Morison had a beautiful voice, Lisa Kirk sure could put over her main song, I loved Harold Lang’s dancing, and many parts of the play were real cute.”

                                                 June Anderson

                                                 Letter to Art Price, undated

This appears to be June and Art’s first Broadway musical date.  They both enjoyed musicals very much.  After he returned home from the Navy, Art had treated himself to a trip into New York City to see Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! on Broadway.  So we know this wasn’t Art’s first time at a Broadway musical – although it may have been June’s.

Patricia Morison, Alfred Drake, Lisa
Kirk and Harold Lang in
"Kiss Me, Kate."

A musical by Cole Porter inspired by Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” Kiss Me, Kate opened on Broadway on December 30, 1948.  It received the Tony Award for Best Musical of 1949.  The cast members mentioned by June – Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk, and Harold Lang – were all in that first run (1,077 performances) which closed on July 28, 1951.  For the first half of the run, Kiss Me, Kate played at the New Century Theatre at Seventh Avenue and 58th Street.  This is where June and Art would 
have seen it.



Patricia Morison and Alfred Drake
in "Kiss Me, Kate."



Here’s a 1958 TV clip of Alfred Drake and Patricia Morison performing “Wunderbar”:

"Wunderbar" from Kiss Me, Kate

While “Wunderbar” isn't really typical of most of the songs in the show, it’s still nice to have a visual record of the original stars performing together (eight years after June and Art saw them on Broadway).

© 2011 Lee Price

A Mystery Letter

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from December 20, 1949 to January 5, 1950, as June enjoys Christmas break at home (with frequent dates with Art)…

June wrote the following letter and even prepared an envelope for it.  But unlike the other letters, there’s no stamp on the envelope or a cancellation.  It appears to have been written but never sent.

At the top of the letter, June wrote Thursday but it remains difficult to place this letter on a June-Art timeline.  It refers to Historic Research homework, which she completed before she left for Christmas vacation.  Also, it mentions a lovely date with Art (dinner, a Broadway play, and drinks at the Plantation bar).  But there aren't enough clues to conclusively tag this date as occuring either the weekend of December 3 or 10 (the most likely suspects).  It could be either, or it might be another date altogether.

Here’s the mystery letter:

Thurs. – 10:15 p.m.

Dear Art,

All illustrations from
Historic Research homework
by June Anderson.

I’m disgusted with myself!  I’ve been in this room over four hours and have just about done no homework.  And I have so much of it!  I have to do watercolor and print, and a velvet dress layout, finish five problems, letter two signs, paint two print gowns for Methods, and finish historic research – all before the end of the term.  Why don’t you be good, and memorize that list, so when I say, “I’m so confused – I can’t even think of what I have left to do anymore!” then you can just pop up and recite the whole list?

By the way, did I tell you I had a lovely evening with you?  The dinner, the play, the Plantation bar, and you – everything was just perfect.  I’ll miss you this weekend.

I’m still thinking over Kiss Me, Kate.  Maybe we just expected too much at the time.  When I look back, Alfred Drake was wonderful, Patricia Morison had a beautiful voice, Lisa Kirk sure could put over her main song, I loved Harold Lang’s dancing, and many parts of the play were real cute.

Don’t wear yourself out with the boys this weekend.  Be careful riding around in your car.  Did you have a hard time finding it?

All my love,

June

© 2011 Lee Price

New Year's Eve Speculations

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from December 20, 1949 to January 5, 1950, as June enjoys Christmas break at home (with frequent dates with Art)…

When Art was young, the Price family would celebrate New Year’s Eve by staying up until midnight, listening to Guy Lombardo on the radio and waiting for the countdown to the ball dropping in Times Square.  At the stroke of midnight, Art, his sister Dorothy, his father, and his mother would cry out, "Happy New Year!" and bang on whatever was handy, making noisemakers out of anything available.  Art’s mother would sometimes open the front door and clash the metal lids of her pans together like cymbals.  Then, from the radio, Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians would play Auld Lang Syne, the traditional first song of the new year.

One of Art's photos, circa 1949, unknown location
and people at a party.

That was back in the old days.  Art was older now and would take June out to celebrate New Year’s Eve.  His first plan of spending the evening at Smitty’s fell through when Smitty booked a private party at his restaurant.  We don’t know if the fall-back plan was another restaurant or a private party.

Drawing by Art Price.

Chances are that Art and June spent the evening somewhere with “the boys,” the now familiar group of Joe Cerullo, Bruno Marcincuk, Jack Raynor, Walter “Singer” Hoinski, Frank “Farmer” Stachecki, and Frank "Footles" Hoffman.

Did June and Art see each other just on weekends and holidays over this two-week break or was it more often than that?  Well, at the end of this time, Art will look back and write:

“This is the first evening I’ve been home in two weeks.  There were some awfully nice evenings in between there.”

It sounds like they saw a lot of each other.

© 2010 Lee Price

Two Portraits of Great Grandfather

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from December 20, 1949 to January 5, 1950, as June enjoys Christmas break at home (with frequent dates with Art)…

My next free night I really have to do some work on my great grandfather.  I wonder if that last sentence sounded strange to you?  I mean work on his portrait.

                                                                  Art Price

                                                                  Letter to June Anderson, Dec. 15, 1949

There are two versions of this painting.

Art was unsatisfied with his first attempt at a portrait of his great grandfather George J. Werner.  He was working from a photograph of his ancestor in his Civil War uniform, posed after the war as is indicated by the Grand Army of the Republic insignia on his cap.  This is the first version of Art’s painting.

Portrait of George J. Werner, oil painting by Art Price.

Then Art tried again.  This time he painted his great grandfather against a landscape typical of the backgrounds found in some of his other paintings.

Portrait of George J. Werner, oil painting by Art Price.

Art’s great grandfather George J. Werner was born in Baden, Germany in the early to mid-1840s.  While still a boy, he and his family immigrated to the United States.  He would have been in his late teens or early twenties and probably living in New York City when the Civil War broke out.

George Werner entered the army in a brigade composed entirely of German immigrants living in New York.  He started in Company E, 20^th New York Volunteer Infantry, in September 1862.  His service in the Army of the Potomac placed him at important battles in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.  He was slightly wounded by gunshot on his right side near Cold Harbor, Virginia in July 1864.  Promoted to the rank of Sergeant, he continued his service and was present at Appomattox Courthouse at the conclusion of the war on April 9, 1865.  His service continued a few months longer, and he was honorably discharged on June 24, 1865.

After the war, records indicate that George Werner married Emma Baldwin, and he worked as a hatter in a felt hat factory and later as a letter carrier in Orange, New Jersey.  George and Emma had two sons, Herbert and Edwin.  Herbert was Art’s grandfather;  Ada Belle (Art’s mother) was his daughter.

© 2010 Lee Price

Nice Weather for Dating



Draft newsletter cover for the
Southampton V.F.W. by Art Price.

There was no white Christmas for Southampton and Riverhead in 1949 and, in fact, there hadn’t been any significant snow accumulations yet that year.  It was probably cold enough to snow, with the temperature in the low 30s for Christmas morning, but there was no snow reported.

The day after Christmas was one of the warmest on record.  The temperature reached 54 degrees that afternoon.  The nighttime temperature only dropped to the low 40s.

The weather remained warm but clouds moved in on Tuesday (December 27, 1949) and it rained

                                                                                     most of the day.

And that was as bad as the weather got over Christmas break in 1949.  The rain passed by the next day, the sun came back out, and the pleasant, unseasonably mild, weather returned.  It was nice weather for dating and frequent trips back and forth between Southampton and Riverhead.

The snow shovels remained untouched in the Price's garage on Cooper Street.  Some years you get lucky.

Thanks to Weather Underground for their excellent historic weather data!

© 2010 Lee Price

Christmas Art

When this entry was first posted, we were uncertain
who painted this.  Since then, Diane M. Martin Anderson
has shared that she remembers this as a paint-by-numbers
painting done by June's mother, Maud Anderson.
This sounds right to me.



Draft newsletter for Southampton United
Methodist Church by Art Price.



Christmas cartoon by Art Price.

© 2010 Lee Price

Christmas Candlelight Service, 1949

“I was very surprised when you invited me to the Candlelight Service on Christmas Eve.  I thought you would be ushering in Southampton and I wouldn’t see you that night.”

                                                               June Anderson

                                                               Letter to Art Price, Dec. 19, 1949

Draft of newsletter design for the
Southampton United Methodist Church
by Art Price.

Art and his parents were very busy with activities at the church throughout the year but especially at Christmas.  One of the letters refers to how Art helped his father put up the two huge Christmas trees that dominated the front of the sanctuary during the Advent season.

The Southampton United Methodist Church had one Christmas Eve service, beginning at 11 p.m. and ending at midnight.  In the 1940s, you’d dress up for the service.  Men would be in suits and women in dresses.  Art would have picked June up at her house in Riverhead that evening and brought her to Southampton.  They would have sat with his parents in the pews on the left side, near the front.

Candles were handed out at the beginning of the service.  At the Christmas Eve service, there was more singing than usual – nearly all of the traditional Christmas carols.  The Christmas story was read from the Gospel of Luke.  The minister’s sermon was kept blessedly short.

Near the end of the service, the ushers came forward to light their candles from the Christ candle at the altar.  Then they proceeded back through the church, pew by pew, lighting the first candle in each row.  Down the pew, each candle would light the next until the church was filled with shimmering candles.  The main lights were turned off and the congregation sang “Silent Night” in a church glittering with candlelight.  Then, still in candlelit darkness, the organist tolled twelve notes signifying midnight.  There was a moment of silence and then the service ended with a rousing “Joy to the World.”

June and Art would have blown out their candles before venturing out into the cold December night.  He still had to return June to Riverhead for Christmas at home with the family, probably not getting home himself until well after 1 a.m.

(Tomorrow – Christmas art.)

© 2010 Lee Price