Black Wells: Selections from A Collected History

The Jack Brookshire Show

Transcribed audio from Black Wells Public Television
Program: The Jack Brookshire Show
Year: 1969
Season: 4
Episode: 11
Segment: 3

Guests: Terry Harrow (Mayoral Candidate) and Jonah Havilland (Radio Personality/Writer)

(Audience applauding, back from commercial break)

Jack Brookshire: Thank you, and welcome back. Before I bring on our next guest, I want to remind everyone, and this is important I think, that while we had on Mr. Harrow, we’ve also invited the Mayor incumbent George Mason for equal time on our show. Mr. Mason has refused that offer. I just want to take the time to let him, and his campaign manager know that the offer still stands. We’d be delighted to have him–Now, moving right along…It’s always a bit intimidating when I see that we’ve booked our next guest. He is most well-known for his voice, which poured over the air waves and into Black Wells homes for over a decade. Bringing us such shows as Mystery Theater Radio, captivating audiences with his timeless production of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, and lending his unique baritone depth to such characters as Henry V, Sam Spade, and countless others over the years. Ladies and Gentlemen, please help me welcome, Mr. Jonah Havilland. 

(Crowd applause and whistles)

Jonah Havilland: My goodness…

(Crowd applause)

Jonah: Thank you. Please. Thank you.

Jack: You know, I’m so glad to have you with us. I was just telling the audience, and I’m sure you could hear me just off stage there–

Jonah: Yes, listening from the wings, always.

Jack: (Laughs) Of course. I was saying that it’s intimidating when I know you’re going to be on because of the great shadow you cast, not–

Jonah: A shadow that gets bigger and bigger over the years, I regret to say.

(Crowd laughs)

(Jonah laughs)

Jack: Do you ever get used to that? That reaction? Audiences? I assume you must be used to it by now. The roar of the applause, I mean. Adulation.

Jonah: Oh, no. Certainly as a performer it works like a kind of fuel. But no, my late mother would roll over if I ever admitted to that. I live for it, though. Still. Constantly. It’s always a humbling tune, applause. One can never cease to appreciate the appreciation of others. Don’t you think?

Jack: Do I?

Jonah: Yes. Get used to it. You’re out here almost every night, I admittedly try to catch your program as often as I can, and every night they prologue your entrance with the same kind of thunderous welcome.

Jack: I’ve always assumed they’re just doing what the big, neon sign asks of them.

(Audience laughs)

Jonah: No. No I don’t think that’s it. I mean you’re a staple in homes now, regular as the newspaper that arrives at their doorstep each morning. But, does it still get your blood pumping? It does me.

Jack: Well, I always believe that they’re applauding for the people who join me, but I’m very glad have you on once again. You’re one of our favorite and most requested guests.

Jonah: Thank you.

Jack: Do you come back to Black Wells often? I know you’re traveling and doing theater now, but–

(Jonah lights a cigar, puffs)

Jonah: I try to come back as often as I can. There’s a magnetism to the city, and having spent a large measure of my life around the globe, I’ve found that only New York and London can rival this place. The unseen electricity, you know. Though here the history is much shorter than those other places, of course, and while I consider myself a citizen of the world, Black Wells will always be home. If that makes sense.

Jack: I like that, a citizen of the world. And you certainly are, I mean you’ve been playing Macbeth at the Globe–

Jonah: Yes. For the last six months, and years and years before that. 

Jack: And tomorrow night at the–

Jonah: And tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow…

(Some audience members laugh, one man louder than the rest)

Jonah: Ah, a couple surviving fans of the Bard are out there.

(Jonah laughs)

(Audience laughs, some applause)

Jack: And will the performance be one night?

Jonah: Two. A weekend stint. Mostly as a favor to a friend whose theater, and I shouldn’t say this, he’ll hate me for being so forthright. But it should be said…the King Theater, which is a marvelous venue with the scarlet seats and gold trim matching the curtain warmers, you know, making it a little emperor among the greater monarchial theaters the world over. It’s not a big stage, but the majesty of the acoustics are so well crafted that the whole place really booms. You know? Monologues are especially fun there, you can kind of see the reaction put upon newcomers. When the shock of the place really hits them. You can feel the jolt of things in that space. But yes, we’ll do a little production to help in the way that actors can. By playing hard. Friday night I’ll put on the tyrant for an evening and then Saturday we’re going to try something else, a little two player show I’ve been noodling with.

Jack: Oh, that’s exciting. Now, people may not know, but you wrote many of those old Mystery Theater Radio shows–

Jonah: Yes, quite a few. However, it certainly wasn’t all me, we had several writers who were coming up with all those creepy and dangerous scenarios. So I can’t take too much credit. Albert Camden, Gloria Sheen, and Melvin Nesser of course did a great bulk of the work. Each of them criminally underrated now, unfairly anonymous. 

Jack: Well, my point being, you’re no stranger to composition. Can you tell us what this one-night play is? Without giving too much away–

Jonah: Yes, yes. Of course. It’s a little bit of a ghost story. I play a man who has gone to a psychic–or well, medium is the better word, in an attempt to speak with his younger sister he tragically lost during his childhood. Sandra Gerhart plays both the medium and the disembodied voice of the sister. Truly wonderful. In any case, the brother and sister were very close, and her death haunts him. And so (Hallivand’s voice becomes jokingly sinister) he delves into the occult…

(Jonah laughs)

(Audience laughs)

Jonah: …to try and communicate with the person who he misses the most. Either to great success or great folly, depending upon what you, the audience member, bring to the play.

Jack: Sandra is wonderful, isn’t she?

Jonah: Oh, yes. Always the first off-book. Fastest memory I’ve ever seen.

Jack: I saw her as Lady Anne in a production of Richard III, and the rage she brought to the piece was incredibly authentic.

Jonah: Well, it’s easy for her because she’s such an angry person.

(Jack and audience laugh)

Jonah: No, no. I mean it. I’ve always said she’s got all that big, poofy hair to hide the bullhorns she’ll gore you with.

(Jack and audience laugh louder)

Jack: You know, I always find it interesting when writer’s write about grief. It makes me wonder, are they actually writing about themselves? Processing things internally. Do you do that, or think that’s what writers– 

Jonah: I think sometimes, certainly, they are. But this little show is nothing like that. The writing comes from a more experimental place. The script calls for audience participation, and it’ll be our first attempt at putting the play on. We’re ready. I’m very excited to see how it goes over. And if it flops at the King, well, the place will go under and I’ll owe a deep apology to my friend.

(Jonah laughs)

(Audience laughs)

Jack: Making you more like MacBeth than ever before.

(Jonah laughs)

Jonah: Yes. Yes, I suppose it would. Killing a ‘King’ like that.