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.”