The Coral Gables Times

Thursday, May 11, 1961, page 6 (of 24)

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THESE LADIES are part of the fun at the ninth annual minstrel and variety show sponsored by the Gables' First Methodist Church. The curtain goes up tonight (Thursday) at the Coconut Grove Playhouse and the show continues through Saturday. See page 7 for another minstrel picture. Left to right are Mrs. Rachel Mendel, Mrs. Nell Parker, Mrs. Pauline Sahle, Mrs. Marian Idyll, Mrs. Kay Spooner, Mrs. Dorothy Dekle and Miss Katherine Eason, known as "The Suffragettes."

After a Day of Wherefores And Whereases Lib's on Cue

By PAM FULLER Correspondent Five days a week, Elizabeth Connally is a legal secretary but by 8 o'clock each evening for three months out of the year she is a stage show chameleon. During this time you can find her kicking up her heels teaching some snappy dance routine to a chorus line of career girls, coeds and mothers; throwing joke line cues to six end men and an interlocutor; pep talking ticket and publicity committees and plowing through music with vocalists trying to find the right song for the right voice. Lib is director-producer-choreographer of the Annual Minstrel and Variety Show sponsored for the past eight years by the Wesley Fellowship Class of the First Methodist Church of Coral Gables. And so, this weekend the redheaded secretary-producer will be standing in the wings of the Coconut Grove Playhouse watching her brainchild come to life for the ninth consecutive year. Enthusiasm is Lib's middle name. And it is this essential ingredient in putting on a show that rubs off on the cast of over 100 participants and helps make the show a hit. Gremlins attend dress rehearsals . . . cues are missed; mikes don't work; the cast is tired and discouraged. But not Lib. She has a solution to everything. Before curtain time opening night, changes or corrections are smoothly made, the discouraged are encouraged and suddenly, it's a show. An amateur show, but a good one. Lib's monumental task in producing the show is added to her roles as legal secretary (to Louis Sakating), wife, mother and homemaker. Home interests for Lib revolve around husband, Si, daughter, Anne, and one snow-white Persian cat named Snow Puddin'. How did Lib connally get interested in show business? When she was a little girl, Mrs. Lillian (Lally) Connally, now Lib's mother-in-law, and the show's technical producer, frequently produced charity shows in Lib's home town of Spartanburg, S. C. Lib danced in those shows. "I never had a formal dancing lesson in my life. If you feel music you just dance. That's all." Without instruction, how do she create dance steps for the show? "Oh, that's nothing," she said. "You just fit steps to the music. I do it while I drive to work. Like this. With these two fingers, I tap out the steps on the steering wheel of my car." She demonstrated how she substitutes her dancing fingers for dancing feet. Lib's experience in putting on shows is considerable. In addition to directing in college, she has assisted Lally many times. For five years, with Lally as producer, Lib directed the Junior Cabaret at the Coral Gables Country Club, sponsored by the Coral Gables Kiwanis Club. What do the Minstrel and Variety Shows mean to her? As she says, "I have a feeling of satisfaction in two different directions. First, seeing something I have created in its entirety. "And too, I know it gives a great deal of pleasure to those who take part. It's a thrill that lasts them all year." LIB CONNALLY

Show's Tonight

You'll have fun and contribute to a worthy charity, too, if you attend the Ninth Annual Wesley Minstrel, and Variety Show which opens tonight (Thursday). The location is Coconut Grove Playhouse. Curtain time is 8 p.m. The show will be repeated Friday and Saturday. Seats are reserved. Donations go to medical missions.

Many From Area Work On Minstrel

It takes many people to put on a minstrel show and just about as many people to put on a variety show. In the minstrel show the interlocutor (straight man) is Dr. Lewis N. Head. The end men are Bill Culbreath, Jim Powell, Joe Creel, Hal Dekle, Ed Bishop and Oscar Stroberg. Members of the ensemble are Larry Schroll, Haynes Bates, Frank B. McElroy, Leroy Harrington, Jason Isbell, J. W. Sauble, Oren Coates, J. C. Herren. Doug Hazen, W. E. Howard, Sam Burroughs, Roy R. Fricker, Mike Thompson, George B. Gray, David Frederick, Norman Clayton, Roger Eikenberry. Finney Brossier, Ernest Challender and Ralph Eastridge. The director is Mrs. Helen White. The orchestra members are Ted Slack, Jim Speights, Sam Davenport, John Traylor, David Bowers, Ethelyn Walter, Sam Mosely, Becky Traylor, Andrew Henry, Jack Overgarst, Al Baer, Lucille Coleman, Floyd Wheatley, and Harwood Gillette. The director of this group is Leo Livingston. Persons in the specialty numbers are Oren Coates, Norman Clayton, Sam Bailey, Holly Bailey, Ernest Challender, Leo and Mark Livingston, Judge and Mrs. W. R. Culbreath, Jim Powell, John Sauble. Fenney Brossier, Dave Fredericks, Vince Romano, Bill Papy, George Crawford, Stubby Herns and Phil Mendel. Boy Scout Troop 438, Opalocka, Dick Pinna, Larry Powell, Pat Shaughnhessy, Dale Spikes, Ronnie Bell, Geoff Carver, Bruno Condrone, Barry Dolgow, Bob Dorris and Ronnie Murphy. "Let's Wave The Flag" is the title of the variety show and here is the cast. Jim Powell, John Sauble, Finney Brossier, David Frederick, Sue Leiser, Scott McDonald, Stubby Kerns, Pam Fuller, Ralph Eastridge. Betty Stebbins, Helen Allison Rogers and Emily Eikenberry, Bill and Lois Papy, George and Wynelle Crawford, Jason and Dot Isbell, Vince Romano, Mary Green. Sue Leiser, Sara Knupp, Kay Spooner, Dorothy Dekle, Rachel Mendel, Marian Idyll, Pauline Sahle, Nell Parker, Lil Cooper, Katherine Eason, Ann Lyons, Norman Clayton, Scott McDonald. Anne Connally, Helen Hudnall, Barbara Dicker, Frances Wentworth, Oren Coates. The production staff is Elizabeth Connally, Lillian Connally, Leo Livingston, Ed Bedinger, C. W. Cogburn, Helen Hudnall, Maxine Kimbrell, Shook Smyers, Rita Searle and Hal P. Dekle. The committee members are Mrs. W. C. Dennis, Katherine Sauble, Ophelia Harrington, Virginia Buice, Shook Smyers, Hazel Romano, Eleanor Pascales, Dorothy Hall. (See Methodist, Page 7)

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