Tag Archives: Nancy Grauer

Blog 26 July 14, 2014

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Time flies…I have been spending some time on this humongous class history project that I thought would be pretty straightforward. Individual write ups are straggling in slowly. So many have whined that they have done nothing significant these past sixty years. Just last week, I was speaking with (nameless person). She swore she has led a most mundane life; but the more we chatted, the more I was impressed with what she has done, and I finally told her to playback in her head all she had told me and then write it up. Trust me, it is rewarding to read about the many different paths taken in our collective lives.

By the way—if you do not have a recent picture and were at the reunion, we can use one of those.

That history project is expanding just a bit more. With so much information available via the Internet these days, I am going to try and include as many obituaries as we can dredge up. We probably have around 25 so far, provided by classmates who clipped them as they came across them in the recent years. If you happen to have saved any or a date of death, please send along the names and I will advise if we have them or not.

Photos!  Here are a couple from our senior class play.

Do you recognize these photogenic people?

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Well, the one in the dress is photogenic. That is Sarah Belcia Yates and yours truly. The one below is of Nancy Grauer, Bobby Rios, and again, yours truly.

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What I especially like about this photo are the two pictures hanging on the walls, left and right. The left photo is my mother’s first cousin and the one on the right is my great aunt. I think Mrs. Mac designated them Sarah Bernhard and Isadora Duncan.

One sad thing: IF you notice in both photos, there is a mike on the floor to pick up and amplify the sound. However, it was only an aid for thespians in those days. Mrs. Mac taught us to project, using our diaphragms to expel the sound out the body to the back of the auditorium. If you have been to any theater presentation recently, everyone has a battery pack and body mike, usually looking like some facial disfiguration. And the sound is amplified to overload the ear drums.

The same is true at any music venue—major over amplification to assault the senses. Somewhere along the line, people began to equate loudness with quality. We were recently invited along to hear the Irish Tenors at the Majestic. I could have stood across the street at the Gunter Hotel and heard them.

Does anyone remember these?

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Blog 9 March 3, 2014

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As the reunion rushes forward (or so it seems with all the planning details), there has been some neglect in posting here.

What to wear: Several have already asked what to wear to the two reunion dinners. We are planning two upscale events. The Plaza Club has a dress code in the evenings, though it is a bit more relaxed for a private event. Jeans and designer jeans are not really appropriate, according to management at the Plaza Club and shorts and flip flops are definitely out.

I asked our committee for opinions and received varied responses. The opinions are that we should say: “Dressy casual” or “Business casual” meaning coat and tie are optional, but as a minimum should include a shirt with a collar, slacks, and leather shoes for the men. Ladies normally like to dress a bit, so for both we may state to dress as if going to a fine restaurant.

Lost classmate: I previously mentioned Nancy Grauer as one of our lost classmates, noting that she graduated from The U of T in Austin and went on to New York for a stage career with her husband. While rummaging around the Internet I unearthed the following about her.

“Nancy Beakel lived in New York City for five years after getting a fine arts degree fomr The University of Texas and worked as a classical repertory actress. She specialized in Shakespeare and Shaw and met her husband, Walter, when he directed her in Shaw’s play Misalliance. When they moved to Hollywood after her husband became a theatrical agent, Nancy enrolled at UCLA, took a year of undergraduate courses, and then went on to get her PhD in clinical psychology.”

If you want to read the full article, or if you just want to see a couple of pictures of Nancy here is the site (I think she was the duckling turned into a swan):

http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2829/1/atlarge.pdf

In this article, Mr. Beakel was her second husband, to whom she was married from 1970 till her death on June 28, 1988.

Deaths: When I hear from people now and then, I am usually asked if there have been any recent deaths in our class. It is always sad to learn of one of our classmates who has died. From our class of 435, 25% of us are gone that we know of. I feel certain a number of our lost classmates fall in that category. The list will be posted at the reunion.

Memories: Most of our teachers at Jeff seemed older than the hills to us back then. And probably a few of them were—e.g. Miss Brawner, Miss Murray, and Miss George. Others were not nearly as old as we thought they were. When Mrs. McDaniel’s obituary was published some years back, I figured she was about 42 or so when we were there. Mrs. Talliaferro was late 40’s, and I will not speculate any more, at least here.

Does anyone recall the three most popular brands of toothpaste back then? “You’ll wonder where the yellow when, when you brush your teeth with ___). Right, Pepsodent. Well that was easy, but does anyone remember Squibbs or Ipana (with Irium, whatever that was.)

In 1954, the Supreme Court ordered school integration. We were still watching black and white TV with live programs, and we listened to Shake, Rattle, and Roll, among other popular tunes. Sports: The LA Lakers that we know today were then the Minnesota Lakers. Rocky Marciano defeated Ezzard Charles twice.

More soon.