Smithville, NJ---Late Summer
Smithville down on Route 9 in Southern New Jersey is another good way to spend an afternoon. When I visit there, it brings back memories of when my husband was well and they had their annual spring craft show. Out of the large number of crafters my husband was one of the most successful even when sales were down for everyone else. Roy sold useful things from his hand-crafted furniture business , Stools and Things. Benches with village scenes hand painted on the front panel were a favorite seller. Sadly, I can not locate any photos from these craft shows so I will post one from an earlier time on the boardwalk. The photo features his stools but at Smithville he sold many 3-foot long benches. His finish was excellent, like fine furniture except it was simple pine. He sold hundreds of little stools as well. My son never shared my husband's passion for hunting or shooting pool but I can say they spent a good amount of time together doing craft shows. Setting up for these shows was no easy task especially when you had to put up those crafter canopies. My son was a big help to him.
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I am also remembering the Smithville Theatre. It was a tent put up in the warmer months and it was a theater in the round. I have the program for a concert by Jerry Vale but that is not the one I remember seeing with my husband back in the 70's. I think it was "Jesus Christ, Super Star" or maybe "Hair". As much as I love the internet for research, I can not find anything about the shows that were produced there. At least I have the program that proves it existed.
Here is a list of the credits. Maybe someone on this list will contact me and tell me what other shows were produced there to refresh my memory.
So I will include some photos from a recent beautiful day with my pal who enjoys blogging and photography as much as I do. I wanted to mention the bakery there. While I have bought their regular offerings at full-price--yummy, I always hit their reduced items selection case. A quick shot in the microwave and they are like fresh from the oven.
The Shoppes at Smithville and the Village Green schedule many events. One past event was arranged by my daughter a few years back. She found an interest in Middle Eastern Dance after years of involvement in other dance forms. She spent a couple of seasons there on the Village Green presenting the dance troupes and other performers.
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I don't know if you are still looking at this, but I was the technical director at Smithville Theatre in 1976. We opened with Roy Radin's Vaudeville Revue starring Milton Berle, with Godfrey Cambridge, Georgie Jessel, Marilyn Michaels, Dick Haymes, The Ink Spots and some others. Then came Funny Girl with Carole Lawrence. Sylvia Syms was Fanny's mother, and Ron Holgate was Nicky Arnstein. We also had Ann Corio's This Was Burlesque, Gabe Kaplan and The Golddiggers, Sandler & Young, Jerry Vale, Showboat with Ann Blyth and a show featuring Lou Rawls and Sergio Mendes and the Brazil 77. I also met my wife there: Nancy Guenther and I were married the next summer and just celebrated our 39th anniversary. I think the theater only ran one or two more summers.
ReplyDeleteWow---I am a little late but at least I am responding in the same year. Hope you are well. Sadly my husband passed on August 20th this year. Do you think I could have seen Jesus Christ Super Star there. I saw it somewhere but not sure where.
DeleteI don't know if you are still paying attention to this blog, but you absolutely could have seen JC Superstar there. I was designer/tech director at the theatre in 1975. We resurrected it from the dead that year. The tent was nearly rotten and the lighting grid had sat on the stage for years. We had to rewire the theatre, patch the stage in install the lighting grid. That summer we did - in no particular order - JC Superstar, The Odd Couple with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall (I designed the set for that.) Eugene O'Neil's only comedy, Ah Wilderness with Dick Kiley and Barbara BelGeddes. We also had performances by Joel Grey, Joey Bishop, Barbara Eden, Baldomar Huerta and The King Family Singers. The tent seated 2500 people and for Ah Wilderness one night we had only 35 people. The cast was very unhappy. Joel Grey was awesome, but Barbara Eden was terrible. She had four male back-up performers who kept getting tangled up in their mic cables - no wireless mics in those days. We also did Fiddler on the Roof with Zero Mostel. I had heard that the tent was so bad that a couple of years later they put up a hard building, or at least there was talk of it. ABC had purchased the town and had reopened the theatre.
ReplyDeleteSaw Sergio! Loved the show!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, I'm so glad to have found this post! I saw The Odd Couple, Showboat and Fiddler on the Roof when I was a child. I remember seeing Jack Klugman and Tony Randall from about 10 feet away; I was 11 years old and my parents tried to get me to ask for autographs, but I was too shy. I wish I knew who played Paul Robeson's role in Showboat - to this day, I remember his beautiful voice. That was a lot of fun, and I sure wish they had theater like that around here now.
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