Later in the month I made my acting debut in “Polly," a play presented by
some adults of Saints Peter and Paul’s parish. I was “discovered" one night in the
parish bowling alley when the play’s director and some cast members dropped by
after rehearsal. They needed someone to play “Tommy, a poor little boy." I was
fourteen, but small for my age, so the director asked me if I would like to be in the
play. I jumped at the chance. (After all, as you may recall, I was King James I of
England in the third grade!) I overacted and tried to steal scenes, but the play was
nonetheless a success, as small-time parish or school productions, regardless of their
quality, usually are to their partisan audiences.
Let me expand here on the subject of stage productions and other events in
Saints Peter and Paul’s parish hall, for, indeed, “the hall," as it was familiarly
known, was highly important to parish life - and by extension to my formation.
Built in 1893, conveniently situated directly across the street from the church, it is
still in active use in 1994.
In the Twenties, if not before, the parish sponsored the Saint Joseph’s Club, a
dramatic organization. Leo Ley, a parishioner, was the respected, perennial director.
Mainly, I recall their musicals, which they devised by interpolating popular songs into
ordinary comedies and dramas. The club had been dormant for a few years when
“Polly," sponsored by the parish’s Alpine Club, was produced. For a number of
years, Mr. Ley directed an annual minstrel show in the traditional format: the lineup
of black-face comedians bantering in Negro dialect with a white “Mr. Interlocutor,"
“darky" songs by soloists and chorus, skits and specialty songs and dances by
whoever had the talent -or ambition - to do so.
Twice in the Thirties, the Saints Peter and Paul Dramatic Players (no doubt
an ad hoc title) presented The Passion Play under the direction of Rev. Father
Leander, O.M. Cap., assisted by Leo H. Ley, Sr. and Floyd L. Summers. (I was in
one production, playing a bearded Jew who screams at Jesus: If thou be the Son of
God, come down from the cross.!). And of course, the sturdy parish hall was the
scene of many worthwhile productions staged by Saints Peter and Paul’s
elementary and high school.
Stage productions have been far from the hall’s only use. Oyster suppers and
turkey suppers, annual bazaars with 25-cent gambling wheels, countless card parties
and bingo games have been attended over the years by thousands. I enjoyed many a
happy hour there during my teenage years in Cumberland.
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