This is a website for remembering a series of musical productions by students from A.C. Flora High School in the spring of the years 1967, 1968, and 1969. It was a thrilling experience for the hundreds of students each year who took part in every aspect of the performances: singing, dancing, acting, playing in the orchestra, doing lighting, building sets, manning the stage crew, handling props, producing programs, making costumes, applying makeup, painting scenery, getting publicity, selling tickets, taking photos, running sound, and recording shows.
Join us now, as we conjure up the audio recordings, photos, and newspaper articles that will help us turn back the clock and relive a wonderful time in our lives. We’ll also say hello again to the wonderful teachers and administrators (some sadly departed) who made all this possible.
In the February 17, 1967, issue of Flora’s Winged Press newspaper, a front-page story touted Guys and Dolls as setting several records for Flora and the Columbia area: It was the school’s first production of a Broadway musical, it was the first time an area high school had used its own band as the orchestra for a musical, and the show would boast a longer run than any other high school production in the Columbia area.
When opening night at last arrived, an energized cast and crew faced that first audience at Columbia College’s Cottingham Theatre and through five performances delivered the laughs and sparkling song hits of Guys and Dolls with panache. Flora’s first Broadway baby was born to audience acclaim, and the next two years would see the birth of two more show business progeny under the leadership of director Gene Gatlin. On with the show!
The Story
“Set in Depression-era Times Square, Guys and Dolls is about a couple of big-city gamblers and the women who love them. It tells the overlapping stories of high-roller Sky Masterson, who falls in love with mission worker Sarah Brown, and lovable rapscallion Nathan Detroit, engaged for 14 years to Miss Adelaide, a headliner at the Hot Box Club.
Nathan runs a famous floating crap game, and an ongoing plot line involves his quest for a safe place for the game as Adelaide continues her quest to convince him to marry her. Meanwhile, Sarah, mistakenly believing that Sky set up an illegal game at the mission, tries to fight her affection for the charismatic crapshooter.” (From Broadway.com; for a longer plot summary, visit the Guys and Dolls Wikipedia page.)
All ends happily, with both couples tying the knot.
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By the time director Gene Gatlin posted a Bye Bye Birdie audition notice, Flora’s theatrical troops were hyped. The school’s junior and senior thespians, recalling the fun of 1967’s Guys and Dolls, prepared for tryouts with gusto, and their excitement spread to the newly fledged sophomores. Months of rehearsals produced capacity houses and enthusiastic reviews, represented here by an excerpt from Christie Fant’s State newspaper review of May 1, 1968.
“Not often have we been part of an audience that rose to give a standing ovation, through numerous encores, to a high school theatrical production. But then, not often have we seen a show so deserving of such appreciation as this one — A. C. Flora High School’s Bye Bye Birdie…
“The musical comedy packed ’em in for five nights last week at Ft. Jackson’s Theater Number Four, and it reflected the greatest credit on everybody involved. We spent a good part of the next day recommending it to friends. If you missed Birdie, you missed one of Columbia’s most entertaining and refreshing evenings this year.”
The Story
Bye Bye Birdie tells the saga of rock-and-roll star Conrad Birdie, who is facing induction into the army. Conrad’s manager, Albert Peterson, fears it will mean the end of his music company, so Albert’s secretary/love interest, Rose Alvarez, concocts one final publicity stunt to make Albert a fortune. Albert will use the money to go back to college and become an English teacher—and marry Rosie. The plan: Conrad will bid a typical American teenager, Kim MacAfee, goodbye with a kiss on national television and record a hit song. Kim’s steady, Hugo, is jealous, and the frustrated Rosie goes on the town to make up for eight years wasted on Albert. Eventually Kim and Hugo reconcile, and Albert wins Rosie and marries her. (For more, visit the tamswitmark.com Birdie page.)
Composer Richard Rodgers said in his autobiography, Musical Stages, that “the chief influence of Oklahoma! was simply to serve notice that when writers came up with something different, and if it had merit, there would be a large and receptive audience waiting for it.” A.C. Flora’s Gene Gatlin agreed, choosing to direct this evergreen favorite as the school’s third musical, and it did indeed win a large and receptive audience in Columbia.
What was the “something different” about Oklahoma!? Instead of showcasing the usual series of loosely related songs and dances sprinkled throughout a thin plot, Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein used everything in the score (and dance numbers, as well) to develop character and advance the action.
Ready for Oklahoma!’s dramatic and musical challenges, Flora’s exuberant thespians moved into Ft. Jackson Theater # 4 and produced a show worthy of being numbered with the school’s previous two musicals, Guys and Dolls (1967) and Bye Bye Birdie (1968). Places, everyone! Curtain up!
The Story
The show is set in Indian territory at the turn of the century, when cattlemen and farmers were fighting over fences and water rights. In the middle of that controversy are two more rivalries, one between a cowboy called Curly and a hired hand named Jud, both in love with Laurey, both wanting to take her to a box social, and the other involving Ado Annie, Will, and Ali Hakim, a trio that provides plenty of laughs. In the end, with Annie and Will headed for the altar, Laurey and Curly marry and ride off for a honeymoon in their surrey with the fringe on top. (Adapted from Festivalplayers.org; for a longer plot summary, visit the Wikipedia Oklahoma! article.)
Curtain Call, Mr. Gatlin!
In the curtain call for teachers who leave profound, lasting imprints on their students’ lives, applause bursts out enthusiastically for Eugene S. Gatlin, Jr., A.C. Flora High School English teacher and director of Flora’s productions of Guys and Dolls, Bye Bye Birdie, and Oklahoma! in the successive springs of 1967, 1968, and 1969. Mr. Gatlin eventually earned his doctorate and taught at Midlands Technical College, but not before he had created a legacy of musical and theatrical excellence at A.C. Flora.
Among the many fun things I remember about our esteemed director, this one is a favorite: In Act II, scene 4, of Bye Bye Birdie, Mr. Gatlin (on high tenor), Mr. Santiago, Mr. Summer, and Mr. Stokes sang the men’s quartet backing up Tommy Burns (as Albert) in “Talk to Me.” Who knew these faculty members could sing? The audience loved it; you could tell by their laughter at all the right moments! As I recall, this was the only time Mr. Gatlin cast himself, or any other faculty members, for that matter, in one of his Flora musicals.
Personally, I owe Gene Gatlin much for my degree in voice, my eleven-year New York City performing career, and my current performing, most of which probably never would have happened if I hadn’t participated in his Flora musicals—especially Bye Bye Birdie, in which I had the privilege of playing Rose Alvarez. To this day, I remember dancing in the hall in front of Mr. Stokes’s office right after Mr. Gatlin told me I had the part!
Steve Lafferty, Class of ’70 (early grad in ’69), made an audio recording of Birdie as a mere sophomore stripling; a year later, as an experienced junior, he did the same for Oklahoma! (Unfortunately, Guys and Dolls was not recorded.) You’ll have a marvelous time listening to his excellent restorations of these recordings, as well as checking out the paper memorabilia posted from all three musicals. It’s past amazing that the recordings have survived all these years and that Steve (a retired electronics engineer) has been able to bring them into the 21st century. Do I hear Gene Gatlin applauding?
Enjoy!
A.C. Flora High School, Class of 1969
Tribute to the Educators
While we cannot recognize all the wonderful Flora staff who supported these productions, we did want to thank the key educators who, along with Mr. Gatlin, had the vision, guts, and stamina to make them happen.
Mr. Mitch Santiago was orchestra director for all three shows. Under his direction, for the first time in Columbia a high school musical (Guys and Dolls) was produced with the school’s own band serving as the orchestra. The amount of effort it took to train all the student musicians and provide orchestral direction for rehearsals and performances must have been immense. As you can tell from the recordings, Mr. Santiago and his orchestras of gifted student musicians succeeded magnificently!
Mrs. Barbara Frazier was the producer for Oklahoma! and a committee supervisor for Bye Bye Birdie, though she took little of the limelight. The production staff was fortunate to have such a capable associate as Mrs. Frazier to manage much of the student committees’ huge amount of unglamorous work, including art, costumes, set construction, publicity, makeup, program, and other aspects of production. As the success of the shows demonstrates, she and her student members did it all so brilliantly!
Mr. C.B. Harvey was principal of A.C. Flora for all three musicals, with 1967 being his first year at the school. He knew that an extensive interdepartmental undertaking like mounting a theatrical production would require a tremendous amount of support and leniency from the administration. The fact that he was willing to take the risk of producing a musical in his first year shows extraordinary courage and vision. Even with mature hindsight, it’s easy for us to miss the “butterflies” he must have felt as a new principal when asked to support that initial venture. Subsequent years revealed his dedicated commitment.
Mrs. Valree Evans was the choral director for all three productions. While we tend to notice mainly the lead singers, much of the vocal magic that stirs emotion, particularly in a high school musical, depends on the chorus and smaller choral groups that sing and dance. For much of the beautiful music that made these shows great, we thank Mrs. Evans and her talented choral students.
Acknowledgments
Many folks have generously provided their time, expertise, and treasured memorabilia to make this website what it is. First and foremost, Rosanne McDowell’s contributions of the lion’s share of the prose (so elegantly written!), highly detailed and intriguing captions, photo sequencing, extensive and bountifully fruitful content research, diligent proofing with countless corrections, public relations, and helpful suggestions have been a godsend to this project. Her handling of almost all the outside contacts needed was truly invaluable. I must say, personally, that having her encouragement and camaraderie has been a major boon to me, as well.
We have Mrs. Carolyn Gatlin to thank for graciously providing all the photos, clippings, programs, and other memorabilia that her late husband, Gene, had collected from the three productions. She had carefully preserved them through the years, and I am especially grateful to her for trusting us with these treasures. Since we were unable to locate the long-lost original recording (loaned out long ago) that I’d made of Flora’s Oklahoma!, the copy she provided was precious indeed!
A heartfelt thank-you goes to the kind folks who helped by providing photos, locating people, pursuing the Oklahoma! recording, and getting the word out: Bonnie de Montmollin Boland, Tommy Burns, Deborah Dunn Fite Calvo, Debbie Daniel, Jane Garrick Dyke, Kathy Martin Elmore, Karen Humphries, Rickey Isbell, Teri Solomon Mitze, Charles Reynolds, Bobby Stepp, Mary Williford Walters, Michael Yarborough, and Alison Young.
While some of the names may have been lost, we are most grateful to the photographers who captured on film these cherished memories from so long ago. Among them were Cleo Brown, John Dieterman, Elliott Hermann, Andy Huie, Rickey Isbell, Charles Keefer, Tom Nolte, and Dorie Zuk. (Please let us know if you can add to this list!)
I have thoroughly enjoyed this delightful journey down memory lane. Scanning and restoring long-faded photos, transcribing and restoring the recordings, and building the website have restored my own somewhat-faded memories of those thrilling times. I just hope this website brings to others some of the pleasure I’ve had in helping create it.
Your humble webmeister,
Stephen H. Lafferty
A.C. Flora High School, Class of 1970 (graduated 1969)
Contact Us
Won’t you please help us improve the website? You probably have photos and stories that could add so much! We hope you’ll share them with us. Also, we need some help in identifying people in the photos! Postings are most welcome in the Reader Comments section below. You can email us at 
Plus, if you know of a copy of the reel-to-reel recording of Oklahoma!, please let us know. The only copy we’ve found so far is monaural and was recorded at slower speed. (We are very happy to have it, though!)
 "Talk to me")
