We've Done This Twice Before

As we gather this coming weekend at the Millenium Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville (Friday evening, March 25 & Saturday, March 26), it will mark only the third time there has been a Reunion of the cast since Sing-Out South ended its 5-year run back in 1971.

The first Reunion was held Saturday, December 29, 1989, also at the Maxwell House Hotel,(see the group shot above being taken by Alan Mayor). My wife Betty Lee, actually took all the Reunion photos seen in this posting, although Alan will take some again this time around at the Reunion this weekend.

The idea of a reunion started with a small group of us (Wendy Jones Sisson and I first discussed it over lunch when she was in Nashville visiting her folks that summer). More people got involved (Patsy Hankins Kemper, Ann Garrett Clay, Gene Nolan, Alan and others) and we thought doing the Reunion during the holiday season might make sense as it appeared a number of former cast people would either be in town to visit family for the holidays or already lived in the area.

While we started from almost zero in putting together contact lists and other information (no one had e-mail addresses or blogs or Facebook and only Al Gore had the Internet in those days), nevertheless using old cast rosters, letters and phone-a-thons, we gathered over 80 people from 20 different states to come. Some are coming back again this year!

One thing we will have more of for this 45th Reunion is memorabilia. The photo above shows about all we had then, along with a slide show Gene, Alan and I crafted together.

This time, Alan has put together a 30-minute DVD with photos from all eras of the cast along with the audio track music from our half-hour "Memorial for Tomorrow" TV show we did for Memorial Day weekend in 1967. It aired on then WSIX-TV, Channel 8 (now WKRN-TV, Channel 2). A photo from that show can be seen below.

The DVD will be shown to begin our Saturday afternoon session at 1:00 p.m. at the hotel. It will replace the SMILE 'TIL IT HURTS documentary. That's unfortunate in a way, because I know several people really want to see it. The problem is the film has not yet been released on DVD and we faced possibly having to pay a $250 performance fee for showing it. While the producer Lee Storey was very gracious in trying to work something out, it still appeared someone would have to pay the fee and it could NOT be us (there is no money in our budget for it).

Nevertheless, Alan's DVD will do a great job in getting us in the mood Saturday afternoon to look back and reflect on our time in Sing-Out and Up With People from the perspective of 40 years plus! So be thinking about your best stories, especially the funny ones or the ones that still stick out in your mind so many years later.

Here's a brief re-cap of our schedule of events. I will try and e-mail this to everyone coming (about 50 folks) as well as post this again here on the blog several more times before the weekend!

Also if you have your own memorabilia, please feel free to bring it as well. The more the merrier. Just mark your name on it so it won't get lost or confused for someone's special stuff.

ALL EVENTS AT THE MILLENIUM MAXWELL HOUSE HOTEL ON ROSA PARKS BLVD NEAR METRO CENTER


FRIDAY, MARCH 25,2011

7:30---9:30 P.M.....An opening dessert reception, come get back in touch your former cast members (pick up those conversations again in mid-sentence) and see all our memorabilia. It will take you all weekend to see everyone (and everything). This will be a great beginning!


SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2011

1:00 P.M.........Our look back at our time in Sing-Out and Up With People from a perspective of 40 years plus. Bring your best and funniest stories, then watch our 30-minute DVD that will bring back even more memories.

3:00---5:00 P.M......Time for those performing in the evening's talent show to practice and prepare! Will do our practicing somewhere in the hotel, maybe even the hallways if we don't disturb too many people. Don't forget, if you want to perform, please contact David Cannon (and he has a NEW E-MAIL address) rdavidcannon3@comcast.net.


6:30-----9:30 P.M....a buffet dinner and one last chance to see everyone, look back at the memorabilia (and try to remember again exactly who that person standing next to you in that picture really was back in the day), and then enjoy our talent show!

ONE LAST IMPORTANT NOTE: NAMETAGS WILL BE PROVIDED AND IT IS MANDITORY THAT EVERYONE WEAR THEM AT ALL TIMES AT THE EVENTS THIS WEEKEND!

It is going to be a special time! We will take time to remember our departed cast members. And we will take special note of the original SOS cast members who are with us. It was on this very weekend, 45 years ago to the day, that they performed in Sing-Out South premiere shows at Hillsboro High School.

We'll talk more about that in a future posting here, as well as look back on our second Sing-Out South reunion held five years ago this weekend in 2005.