Shirley you can’t be SERIOUS?
Jacqui Brown
Some things just keep getting better with age, but like many things
in life, routine maintenance and the occasional surgery help.
The Alex Theatre is one of the oldest treasures in Glendale and
the mainstay of Brand Boulevard.
Established in 1925, the theater has gained a reputation all
across the Los Angeles basin as it evolved from its movie palace and
grand vaudeville days to a place where world-class performing artists
can shine.
The Friends of the Alex Theatre, a nonprofit, all-volunteer
organization whose main function is to raise funds to help maintain
and upgrade the Alex, is presenting “An Evening of Conversation and
Laughter” with the legendary Shirley Jones and Marty Ingels on Monday
evening.
This is the Friends’ main fundraiser for the year, said John
Drayman, vice president of development for the organization, even
though they host many other events, on a smaller scale throughout the
year, including backstage tours, and managing the theater’s
membership.
“It’s meant to be an intimate evening,” Drayman said. “We close
off most of the theater and sell only about 208 seats.”
This year’s event will include a pre-show reception, cocktails
and, for the first time, a silent auction featuring donations from
many local corporations, including Warner Bros., NBC Universal and
Disneyland.
“We’ll have a wide variety of items such as gift baskets, guest
passes for tours and show memorabilia to bid on,” Drayman said. “The
evening will also offer an opportunity for an up close and personal
visit with the two celebrities after the show because Shirley will be
signing her CD afterwards.”
This is a bust-a-gut recollection of the trials and tribulations
of how this wacky couple has managed, for more than two decades, to
sustain a friendship and love affair amid the glitz and glamour of
Hollywood.
Ingels, the funny-faced slapstick Brooklyn comic who starred in
the 1960s comedy “I’m Dickens -- He’s Fenster,” and later moved on to
head a busy Hollywood talent agency, recalled that most people were
not happy when they got married.
“Shirley got flowers and I got death threats,” Ingels said. “We’re
as different as night and day; we disagree on everything and Shirley
loves me dearly but disapproves of everything I’ve ever done.”
But he added that no marriage, after 25 years, slides along
especially in a town where it’s so easy to get separated.
“We decided we had too much at stake so we went to therapy instead
of giving all our money to lawyers,” Ingels said.
Jones, whose resume is exhausting, is touted as America’s
Oscar-winning sweetheart.
She’s done everything from Broadway to the concert stage but is
most notably recognized for her role as Shirley Partridge on the ABC
series “The Partridge Family” that aired during the early 1970s.
Because Jones is constantly traveling for work, she said she’s a
firm believer that absence makes the heart grow fonder.
“I couldn’t live with him [Ingels] 24-hours a day, seven days a
week, 365 days a year -- no way,” said Jones, flashing a big smile at
her husband. “This is not a rehearsed show, it’s very impromptu and
we talk about our marriage very openly.”
Both of these talented entertainers are delighted to be able to
help raise money for the Alex.
“I’m all for these kinds of theaters because too many of them go
down the drain,” Jones said. “This is such a wonderful theater, very
historical, so I was thrilled to be able to do this.”
Fundraisers such as this subsidize a big part of the theater’s
annual operational costs, said Barry McComb, executive director of
the Alex.
“The Friends organization helps keep interest in the theater
throughout the year and they also run our membership program,” McComb
said. “The monies that they raise during the year goes toward
specific projects at the theater. Sometimes it’s restoration of a
piece of the theater. Sometimes it’s things like the new display area
in the lobby.”
In one visit, you can see how much the Friends are involved by the
many plaques mounted on the walls near completed projects.
“They’ve done things like helping us remodel the dressing rooms
downstairs, remodeling the box office a few years ago and sometimes
they help us by buying additional radios so the staff can communicate
better during events,” McComb said. “In addition to our own
fundraising events, they play a key role in the overall operation of
the theater.”
The most current projects at the theater include restoring the
ticket kiosk, which over the years has suffered extensive termite
damage and is projected to cost $25,000.
They are also looking at restoring the stage curtains back to
their original style, which included a hand-painted outdoor scene.
“We’re involved in doing historic research on the original color
pallet for the kiosk, which we discovered isn’t what it was
originally, and hopefully within the next 30 days we’ll get to the
point where we’ll be painting,” McComb said.
“We don’t know if the original curtains were destroyed by the fire
in the 1940s or they just disappeared somehow, but that project is
going to cost somewhere around $100,000 dollars.”