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[Copper]

OLD GUY, I have a question!

I was looking through some old pictures of SDC and I saw an outdoor stage that was elevated. It was almost like a teahouse stage. I had never heard of it before. I was wondering if you knew what it was.

[Old Guy]

A bright idea from someone in 1977 was to put all the stages above the head level of the audiance. It was a bad idea that only lasted one season. The photo you saw was the entrance to the lumbercamp. The tower is still there, but the platform is gone. Another was located at what is now the woodcarvers door facing Thunderation. The audiance sat across the street and the flow of traffic walked between them! The next year the door was cut in the building and the Valley Theater was built. 77 was also the first year to have sound on the stages but to hide the mike stands they made burlap sleaves the entertainers called condoms to cover them. They fooled no one.

[sdcforever]

^The burlap sleeves sound funny! 

The tower at the Lumbercamp looks cool (it's my favorite eatery), but it always struck me that it looks like it used to be part of something else.  You have now confirmed my long term suspicion, Old Guy.  Thanks, as always! 

[betamike]

Old Guy (or other members):  Do you remember a show inside the Spring House Restaurant which is located next to the General Store.  I recall that it some type of puppet show and could be watched as you dined inside of the Spring House.

[Old Guy]

This is from another post, but I copied it here to ansure your question. It wasn't the springhouse. SDC's first puppet show was in the early 70's in what was then the Vineyard Restrant on the corner of Main and Hill street. A corprate sponsership was forged with Welch's Grape Juice to launch there new white and red grape juices. They wanted entertainment with a plug for them, so was born the "Wally Welch Revew", featuring an all grape cast of singing and talking grape puppets. The show went away with the sponsership  around 1978 or so the story says.....but after all the years the gristly truth can be told. One day while dining there I accidentally sat on Wally Welch and mashed him flat. He said nothing from that day forward...but he did let out a little wine. (Pause 2,3......)

[betamike]

Ha!!!!  That is great Old Guy!  You are exactly right, it wasn't the Spring House, it was indeed the Vineyard (or Smokehouse) Restaurant.  I don't remember them being grapes, although I am sure they were, I just remember trying to convince my parents to get me out of there and onto the Float Trip.  Thanks for the clarification.

[Old Guy]

A bit off subject, but in the Entertainers have lives outside the city Dept:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1T8Joo33N0
Here is a vid from Sammy B. Good, aka Wayne Milnes, the old SDC undertaker, Judge in the Courthouse show, Zenus in the Toby show, and so much more. He did a kids show in Springfield at one time and here is a skit filmed at SDC with a lot of the  late 80's to mid 90's street show and saloon cast. Mean Murf is Ed Marshal, one time rain maker, His dumb sidekick is Jay Mcfairen, who not only played in numerous SDC shows (main street, saloon, etc.), but was Toby in the Toby show, and a writer for many of the classic SDC theater shows as well.
Another is this one with cameos by Wayne, and Terry Sanders, and their kids.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9178500217813224846

[History Buff]

Old Guy, do you have any information about Mercy Purvis the Third-and-a-Half?  I believe he might have been the best comedian who ever graced a Branson stage.  And when he took to the zip line from the waterwheel in Echo Hollow...totally unexpected.  This was during the Dillards and the Branson Brothers era) still the best evening shows they've ever offered.

I guess I'm becoming and old guy, too.

[betamike]

I'm old right along with you History Buff!

[Old Guy]

that was Jack McDowell. The funnyest man I ever knew. Used to be the SDC deputy, moved to Echo Hollow with the Dillards, Comedian for the short lived Calton Family theater at Notch MO, parked cars at the Very short lived Blue Eye Ren fair Camalot, and last time I saw him was at the mall in Springfield. At that time he was an Agent for a troup of Chinese acrobats. Id love to know where he is now.

[Zephon]

Here are some cast tintypes from some of the shows to which you all are referring.

The original cast of the Choctaw Charlie & Tillie Show in the Saloon, sometime around '82 or '83 I think.

The original cast of the Timothy Turnbuckle Show in the Playhouse, in the late 80's.

The original cast of the Hoedown Show in the Playhouse, late 80's-early 90's.

The original cast of the Musical Feud Show in the Playhouse, early 80's.

The cast from a Carry Nation Show in the Saloon, late 70's.

Another Carry Nation Saloon Show cast from the late 70's or early 80's.

[History Buff]

Those look like fun casts.  They are a throwback to the days when an actor could toss out a fake like just to see if the rest of the performers could squirm through it in response (like when Tim Conway would ad lib and break Harvey Korman up on the Carol Burnett show).  I can imagine what rehearsals were like.

The groups in these two venues were also much larger in number than they are today.  When I saw the saloon show last year there were just two saloon girls and two men in the show.  And it's been soooo long since we had a comedy in the playhouse.

[sdcforever]

^^Those are great tintypes!  It's too bad the shows are so much smaller now.

[Old Guy]

Wow! those really bring back memories! Good to see some friendly faces from the past.

[Zephon]

Yes....things change, sometimes not for the better.  Smaller casts now, less shows per day now, although each show is a little longer.  I remember the days when we did 12 shows a day in the Saloon.  Basically there were two casts, an early and a late, each performer had two shows off a day, the breaks coming during the period of cast overlap. 

There are several of us "oldies" that wish comedy shows would be brought back to the Playhouse.  It's a great venue for them.  Not too large, but large enough to hold a good crowd.

Generally, rehearsals were pretty straight-forward, as we had to learn the blocking and songs, etc.  It was during the first few weeks of the public run of a show when things would start to get crazy.  Things in the script that didn't work would be tossed in favor of adlibs that did.  Mistakes that yielded laughs would get permanently added. 
That's how the famous "candle bit" in the Hatfield Haint show and the "kick the bucket bit" in the Hoedown show entered the shows.  Now, if an actor "strays" from the script, and the "higher ups" find out about it, he is severely chastised.  But maybe that's for the better; there's only one or two actors there now that have the wit and timing to be able to pull off a good adlib.