2nd Encore - Call for memories of theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Mass.

 

This is to put out a call for memories.  In preparation for a book I’d like to write on theatre on Mt. Tom in Holyoke, Massachusetts, I’d like anyone to contact me who is willing to share memories of experiences either as a member of the staff, an actor, or one of the audience.

 

Live theatre had seen different incarnations on Mt. Tom, some of which were discussed in thisprevious post.  The old playhouse, called The Casino at one time, hosted the Casino Stock Company in 1911.  In the 1930s there were the WPA-sponsored shows, and in 1941 came the heyday of Mt. Tom theatre with The Valley Players, some of whose members, including Hal Holbrook, went on to greater fame. 

 

In the early 1960s, with the discontinuing of The Valley Players, the Mt. Tom Playhouse played host to a variety of touring shows featuring well-known actors and actresses. 

 

The Casino is gone now, and Mountain Park was closed in 1987. 

I’d appreciate hearing from anyone with memories of theatre at Mt. Tom.  Either leave a comment or send me an email at: JacquelineTLynch@gmail.com.  I’d also be happy to conduct phone interviews or in person.  Just drop me a line and let me know.  Thank you.

Hal Holbrook Recording Found - Valley Players, Holyoke, Mass.

A collector of old audio recordings recently contacted me about a reel-to-reel tape he discovered in a flea market in North Carolina some years ago, which features actor Hal Holbrook that was labeled: " Holbrook - recording made in Guilds living room 176 Lincoln St, in late winter 1957 of publicity material prior to his performance of Mark Twain tonight at the Mt. Park Casino to open the Valley Players 16th season".

We discussed the Valley Players of Holyoke, Massachusetts in this previous post. Hal Holbrook was among the most notable young actors who graduated from his summer stock performances there on Mt. Tom to a long career on stage, film, and television. The recording appears perhaps to be either commercial spots or recorded interviews meant for publicizing the one-man play he created, “Mark Twain Tonight”. The Guilds were Carlton and Jean Guild who founded the Valley Players in 1941.

Mr. K. Morgan found this tape with others which also includes recorded material by Orson Welles and others. He is offering these tapes to anyone who wants them, free of charge, because he does not want these tapes to be lost if they are of historical significance or value to someone. He is offering as well to digitize the material, so no worries about not having a reel-to-reel player.

If anyone is interested in this audio material, please contact Mr. Morgan at: kensunm@gmail.com.

Our thanks to Mr. Morgan for respecting this material as part of our shared cultural heritage. As we’ve seen regarding the discovering of old film, it is often the private collectors who find and protect lost material, and we owe them a lot.

The Valley Players - Holyoke, Mass.

A fondly remembered summer theater company produced plays and musicals on the top of Mt. Tom in Holyoke, Massachusetts. An idyllic spot of picnic groves, restaurant, ballroom, dance pavilion, amusement park, and zoo, Mountain Park also featured a theater called the Casino. At one time, it was the home of what was reputed to be the largest summer theater in New England.

From 1941 through 1962, the Casino was home to The Valley Players, a theatre company which helped nurture, or even launch the careers of many young actors, Hal Holbrook among them, who first performed his famous one-man show “Mark Twain Tonight” here. Future Tony nominee and native of nearby Westfield Anne Pitoniak appeared here as well.

Mountain Park was created in the late 19th century when the first train and trolley and mountain tram cars made their way up Mt. Tom. An early vaudeville theater was built here, later replaced by the Casino. In 1911 the Casino Stock Company produced stage plays here, but folded after one season. Vaudeville acts and silent movies shown at the Casino drew in the crowds. Stage plays were attemped again in 1924, and a 1935 renovation of the Casino led to more plays here showcased by the Works Progress Administration (more on the WPA theatre project another time). One Depression-era member of the company was future film star Wendell Corey.

Carlton and Jean Guild created the Valley Players here in 1941. They had been involved in other New England summer theaters, and along with collegues Dorothy Crane, Lauren Gilbert and his wife Jackson Perkins, Walter Coy, Louise Mudgett and Joseph Foley, were looking for a site for a new company. All would function on the administrative staff or perform in many of the plays produced by the Valley Players, or both. Joseph Foley went on to do some live television, was Gabriel Gurney the principal for the first season of “Mr. Peepers”, until his untimely death in the summer of 1955 in Holyoke.

The Valley Players was an Equity stock company. During 1943 Mountain Park was closed due to the wartime gas rationing. The heyday for the Valley Players was throughout the 1950s (coinciding with what is generally perceived as the golden age of summer theatre in New England), but the dawn of the 1960s brought rising production costs, lower attendance, and the curtain was brought down in 1962 with Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.”

Mountain Park closed in 1987.


Here are a few programs from The Valley Players. “Bell, Book & Candle” with Hal Holbrook was the final production of 1953. “Holiday” from July 1954 featured Si, (later billed as Simon) Oakland, later seen in many future film and TV productions. Hal Holbrook also appeared in “The Velvet Glove” July 1953, one of his earliest appearances with The Valley Players. The following month he had a part in “The Happiest Days of Your Life”.


Ralph Edwards, who at the time was the host of the “Truth or Consequences” gameshow on radio, and would also be the host when this show eventually moved to television, appeared in “Nothing But the Truth” in August 1942.


I’d love to hear from anyone who attended a show by The Valley Players, or was involved in any way in their productions.

Note: the postcards of the Casino Theater are from the Imagine Museum website. These programs for The Valley Players came to me by way of an old family friend (and collectibles & antiques dealer) Gail Watson. My dearest thanks to her.