It was the last place in the world I would have expected to run across a photo of Gene Gatlin, but there it was. As I watched my car roll through Constan Car Wash in Columbia, I noticed on a nearby lobby wall a striking black-and-white print of “Luck Be a Lady” from Guys and Dolls. No identification was on the 16x20 photo, but I knew without doubt it was from that musical. In studying the picture, to my complete amazement I saw what had to be a young Gene Gatlin among the actors, and I was curious enough to ask Constan owner Chip Smith (Class of 1968) about the origin of the photo. It turned out to be connected with the family history of Mardi Graham Smith (Class of 1970), Chip’s wife.

“The photo belonged to Mardi’s uncle, Christian Thee, the artist who created the trompe l’oeil back drop in the scene,” Chip obligingly told me. “Christian is retired now and in his eighties, and he has passed along a lot of his professional memorabilia to other family members. The picture comes from a 1950s Town Theatre production, and several people who recognized actors in it have asked to copy it.”

Chip kindly allowed Steve Lafferty to digitize and restore the print while I tracked down more information about it. Sandra Willis, executive director of Town Theatre, dug out the Guys and Dolls playbill that goes with the photo and verified that Gene Gatlin was in the chorus of that production, which was the 1959 season opener. Sandra also offered to scan other stashed publicity pieces from the show, including another photo of Mr. Gatlin. (You will see it here eventually.) Mrs. Carolyn Gatlin also identified her husband in the “Luck Be a Lady” picture and now has a copy of it.

One wonders if Gene Gatlin had any idea he’d be conducting auditions for this same show at A.C. Flora High School seven years later.

Next time you see a show at Town Theatre, you can view a print of this iconic Guys and Dolls photo on the wall outside Sandra Willis’s upstairs office. Or, of course, you can take a look at the print at Constan while getting your car washed!

Rosanne McDowell
A.C. Flora High School, Class of 1969

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