MRHS59 50TH REUNION – THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON SHOW

photo: monty maclean
The audience taking their places at the University Club
Terrific. Fabulous. Colossal. Unforgettable. Splendiferous. There just aren't enough superlatives to do the Saturday Aftenoon Show justice. Those of us who were lucky enough to be there, will carry happy memories of the warmth, humour, good music and sheer exhilaration with us for the rest of our days. And since it has all been recorded on video (thanks for that great initiative, Saundie!) we will be able to relive it as often as we want to.

PROGRAM


Welcome – Jack Jackson, CEO

photo: from the video
Jack Jackson, Chief Entertainment Officer (CEO), had the difficult task of coordinating the artistic input from all the talented (and sometimes strong-willed) people who entertained us on Saturday afternoon. Jack used his considerable diplomatic and managerial skills to bring everyone together and produce a show that will set the gold standard for reunion entertainment for many years to come!

Jack (whom many of us still have to bite our tongues not to call Jackie) welcomed us to the University Club and opened the show.

photo: monty maclean

Dialogue – Robin Goodfellow and Carol Bromley

photo: monty maclean
Carol (alias Ann Chislett) and Robin Goodfellow
Not for Robin the comfortable suburban life of our parents! She married a genuine trapper and moved to Labradour, where their chief means of transportation is by canoe—when the lakes are not frozen over, otherwise by snowshoe. However, she does have internet access, and a few years ago she started an email correspondence with Carol Bromley (MRHS '58). What brought them together in the first place was their disdain at MRHS reunions being held in Toronto instead of Montreal. But they soon discovered that they had another common interest, although not one they had chosen themselves— breast cancer.

photo: mrhs 1958 torch
Carol Bromley
This dialogue is a shortened version of the email exchange between Robin and Carol that exteneded over several years. As they compared notes about their respective treatments, they made some surprising discoveries. Who would have thought, for example, that cancer actually enhances—but, no, that would be spoiling the story. Read it yourself!

For reasons that become apparent during the dialogue, Carol could not be with us in person, so her part was read by Ann (Chislett) MacNaughton.
 

Skit introduction – Saundra (Shapiro) Tobman

photo: from the video
Saundie: So here we are in 2059 ...
photo: from the video
Florence: ... and there will be a special
kind of fudge in the cafeteria today
Saundie is a veritable fountain of creative energy. She not only came up with the idea for the reunion skit, but also served as playwright, actress, singer, scenographer, costume designer and producer. Helping her all the way was Florence Schreiber, a professional actress. They bounced ideas off one another until they had produced a skit that had us in stiches and contributed greatly to making our 50th reunion such a tremendous success.

As Saundie tells us in her introduction, the scene is MRHS in the year 2059. Thanks to advances in medical science, the class of 1959 are not only alive and well, but enthusiastic life-long learners, who have taken their places in the classroom. The school bell rings. Let the show begin!

The MRHS59 100th Reunion of 2059

To call what we were treated to on Saturday afternoon a "skit", is a bit like calling the St Lawrence River a "stream". It was a full-fledged musical, which began and ended with the cast singing the specially-written song "We are living in a virtual world", whose tune is so catchy that Madonna has come out with a cover entitled "We are living in a material world". But her version just doesn't have the same vivacious esprit. Jaakob Palasvirta accompanied the singers on the piano.

The educators of 2059 turned out to have a somewhat more "progressive" attitude to sex and drugs than our teachers and parents (and their wards!) had in 1959. Things that we didn't have a clue about (and could have done with some enlightenment on) were scheduled subjects. (It would be interesting to know how the exams in these subjects were conducted!)

More mundane subjects seemed to bore the centenarians. Donna tried to report on a dietary project she had done, which had come to the conclusion that you could add three hours to your life by not eating a pizza. But her classmates hooted her down. After all—what's 3 hours when you are 117! Ken, who had done a statistical project, was able to inform us that the cost of the pizza that Donna suggested we skip was 190 globos in 2059.

An archeological project that Dale and Joan had undertaken had unearthed some 100-year-old relics, amongst them a pair of blue gym bloomers, size large, with the name tag "C. Brodie"; a red flannel waistcoat, name tag "Walter Herring"; and a shoebox marked "Mr Marcus", containing a large pair of brown brogues.

Herb's project had followed up on the ambitions that classmates had declared in the 1959 Torch. His project group had compiled a long list—in fact, a scroll—of failures. One person whose ambition had been to be a journalist had only succeeded in winning the Queen's medal for things totally unrelated to journalism. It turned out that very few classmates had fullfilled their stated ambitions, and had merely achieved phenomenal success in other fields.

The cast, in alphabetical order (Saundie & Florence appear above):

photo: from the video
Joan Barakett
photo: from the video
Dale Feintuch
photo: from the video
Herb Frank
photo: from the video
Ken Simon
photo: from the video
Donna Speisman

Instrumentalists – Mary McCutcheon and Friends

Doc Jones was busy in The Hereafter with the many bands, orchestras and choirs that he has by now organized the denizens of that world into. Luckily we had Mary McCutcheon with us, who stepped in as Director of Music, and with her Friends provided us with music of the highest calibre throughout the afternoon.

These were the instrumentalists, roughly in order of appearance (or, in one case, non-appearance):

Jaakob Palasvirta
McGill voice student, haling from Newfoundland—a happy coincidence for "Squid Jiggin' Ground", which he accompanied enthusiastically on his Finnish grandfather's accordion. Jaakob accompanied the skit, choir and "Little Buttercup" on the piano.

Mary McCutcheon
Mary, one of our classmates (11B), is a founding member of I Conviviali recorder quartet, other members of which she enticed to come and play for us.

Timothy R Walsh
Mathematics professor at UQAM, pianist, recorder player & arranger, founding member of I Conviviali recorder quartet (Toronto H.S. grad).

Karla Holmes
Newly-ordained Anglican priest, who will be joining the staff of Christ Church Cathedral in September. Early music enthusiast & recorder player, member of I Conviviali recorder quartet (Toronto H.S. grad).

Rebecca Molinari
McGill music student of early instruments. Rebecca hails from California, and was good enough to fill in for James Sangster at very short notice.

James Sangster
Founding I Conviviali quartet member who was recovering from an eye operation and could unfortunately not be with us on Saturday (Sherbrooke H.S. grad). Rebecca did a great job of filling in for him on the bass & great bass recorders.

photo: from the video
Jaakob Palasvirta
photo: from the video
Mary McCutcheon
photo: from the video
Timothy Walsh
photo: from the video
Karla Holmes
photo: from the video
Rebecca Molinari

Recorder recital – I Conviviali recorder quartet (minus one, plus one)

Mary tells us that I Conviviali was started in 2001 by four friends for the purpose of entertaining shut-ins and school classes, promoting the recorder, improving their own playing, and generally having fun, which they—and we—certainly had on Saturday afternoon. You can read more about the quartet, how the music for the reunion came to be, and Mary's conviction that the recorder is the ideal amateur music instrument in Mary's bio.

The instrumental pieces that I Conviviali played for us were:

In addition, I Conviviali accompanied the choir in "Devoted to You". (See below.)

"Little Buttercup" – Lyn Statten and Saundra Shapiro, with Choir and Piano

photo: from the video
"I'd a boyfriend in high-school
that handsome young Jackie
that brought out the whispers and knives."
photo: from the video
"I've ribbons and laces
to tuck in sly places
for sexy Dave Vineberg to prise."
To great acclamation, Lyn Statten and Saundie Shapiro sang "Little Buttercup" from The Gondoliers, which they had last sung half a century ago, on the stage at MRHS.

For I'm called Little Buttercup—dear Little Buttercup,
Though I could never tell why,
But still I'm called Buttercup—poor little Buttercup,
Sweet Little Buttercup I!

I've snuff and tobaccy, and excellent jacky,
I've scissors, and watches, and knives;
I've ribbons and laces to set off the faces
Of pretty young sweethearts and wives.

When riotous applause brought them back for an encore, they took a few liberties with the lyrics.

They were accompanied by the "Montreal Contingent" of the Reunion Choir (see below) and Jaakob Palasvirta on the piano.

A Special Guest – Mr Marcus

photo: Nelson Lawson
Mr Marcus
We were privileged to have with us one of the great teachers who kneaded our formative minds more than half a century ago. Bernard Marcus— whom none of us would ever have dared to call anything other than "Mr Marcus"—was able to join us for the first part of the show, but unfortunately had to leave at about this point.

The high regard that Mr Marcus was still held in was evidenced by the swarms of people who gathered around him on his arrival, and the tumultuous applause that he received when he bowed out.

Mr Marcus was the home teacher for many of us who were in the Latin stream in grades 8 and 9. He was renowned for a facial expression that expressed (a kindly) contempt for anyone who managed to mix up the vocative and locative cases when declining Latin nouns.

He was also renowned for his apparel, which tended towards reuse of a certain brown suit and large brown brogue shoes. Black, gray and blue didn't seem to be in his fashion vocabulary in those days. (On the other hand, perhaps he kept those colours for the happy occasions when he didn't have us to worry about. A sort of sartorial catharsis!)

It was good to see you again, Mr Marcus.
Best wishes from all of us!
acti labores jucundi

The Reunion Choir

photo: from the video
Reunion Choir
Harold Celtorius *
Dale Feintuch *
Herb Frank *
Kathy Hole
Sandy King
Mary McCutcheon *
Helen Menges
Lorna Neufeld
Margaret Porter
Joan Rossy *
Leslie Shaw
Joanne Walker
Ilene Duckett

photo: from the video
"He is an Englishman"
The full choir sang: all from H M S Pinafore by GILBERT & SULLIVAN, and In addition, the "Montreal Contingent" of the choir (indicated by * in the list above), who had more time to practice before the reunion, accompanied Lyn Statten and Saundra Shapiro in "I'm Called Little Buttercup" (see above).

Listeners with sharp ears may have heard Harold substitute Lith-you-ain-eye-an for Eye-tal-ee-an in "He is an Englishman". This was in the best Gilbert and Sulivan tradition. A few days after the reunion Harold flew to Lithuania as an organizer of the choir of local expatriates of that country at a gathering of over 1,000 singers from around the world.

In all numbers except "Devoted to You", the choir was accompanied by Jaakob Palasvirta on the piano or, in the case of "Squid Jiggin' Ground", on the accordion.

"The Squid-Jiggin' Ground" – Arranged for Choir, Accordion and Sou'wester

 
 
 
photos: from the video

The classes who were lucky enough to have Mr (later Dr) Scammell (1913–1995) as a teacher, usually managed at some point to talk him into singing "Squid Jiggin' Ground", a song that he wrote when he himself was still in high school in his native Newfoundland. Newfoundlanders took the song to their hearts, and on April 1, 1949, in ceremonies marking Newfoundland's confederation with Canada, the tune was played as the representative song for Newfoundland on the carillon of Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

Mr Scammell, who taught at MRHS 1942–1969, has his own page on the MRHS59 site where you will find links to the words and music of "Squid Jiggin' Ground", and to a biographical article.

The song is sung to the traditional Irish tune "Nell Flaherty's Drake", and was sung on this occasion with gusto by the Reunion choir and the audience (almost) in unison. Jaakob Palasvirta accompanied us on the accordion.
 
 
 
 
photos: from the video

Frank Sinatra – Pretending to be Ken Simon

photo: from the video
Sinatra was never as good as this!
Although Frank Sinatra (1915–1998) really belonged to our parents' generation, he was still-going-strong during our time at MRHS. In fact, he continued to sing almost up to the time of his death. Variously known as Chairman of the Board, Ol' Blue Eyes, The Voice, and other names, some less complementary than others, he was renowned for his ability to hold notes for a long time, for sliding from note to note, for his microphone technique—and for flirting with the women in the audience.

Ken showed us how all this was done on Saturday afternoon. He did it with such smooth professionalism that even those in the audience who might have been less than enthusiastic about Sinatra I, couldn't help but capitulate to Sinatra II. The apprentice has truly surpassed the master!

The songs Ken sang were

The applause was rapturous.

Valediction – Frank Mills

photo: from the video
Now if you think that I wrote all of this ...
Some classmates may have thought that Frank was "only" a best-selling pianist and composer. He put them right on Saturday afternoon. Frank is a great public speaker.

He began by telling us an hilarious (and true) story of two inebriated fly fishermen in a boat, one of whom thought he was Frank Mills.

Then he delivered the same valedictory address that he last held 50 years ago almost to the day. (We graduated on the afternoon of June 5th, 1959.) But it was more interesting this time around. Frank interspersed the speech with revealing asides, missing on the previous occasion. One of these was the fact that his first draft had not been accepted by Mr Herring, his teacher, who proceeded to wield a red pencil over Frank's manuscript.

In general it would appear that the more pompous and grandiloquent formulations emanate from the pen of Mr Herring—who was renowned both for his speaking style and for his sonorous speaking voice— whereas the more down to earth—and funny—words are pure Frank Mills.

It was with tears of happiness running down our cheeks that we gave Frank a round of applause that surely exceeded the one he received 50 years ago.

Full text of Frank's valedictory address (without the asides)

"Music Box Dancer" – Frank Mills

photo: from the video
Some of you may have heard this before ...
By popular request, Frank played the song he is probably best known for, "Music Box Dancer", on the piano. In mid summer 2009, there were 61 different recordings of "Music Box Dancer" available on iTunes. The sheet music alone has sold in excess of 3 million copies.

photo: Monty MacLean
More than 3 million copies
Wikepedia has a whole article devoted to "Music Box Dancer", in which Frank tells how the title came to him. The article lists some of the artists who have recorded this tune and even has lyrics to the Ray Conniff version.

Of course Frank has written a lot more music than this perennial favourite. You can read about his music and learn more about what Frank has been up to during the past half century on Frank's home page.

That's All Folks

Still ecstatic, after what must surely have been the greatest reunion entertainment of all time, we made our way downstairs to the yellow school buses waiting outside to transport us to the Alma Mater.

The Video, and Photo Credits

Many of the pictures on this page have the credit line photo: from the video . These are all snapshots taken by the webmaster from the fabulous reunion video.