ACT. Abilene Community Theater. The name we chose back in the 1960s when we organized local thespians.
For our first performance, we called on Harley Sadler to revive and direct one of his tent-show melodramas. Harley’s shows entertained families across Texas during the depression. Everybody loved Harley. He was even elected a state Senator.
I remember, around harvest time when folks had a little money in their overalls, my parents took me to the tent show. And yes, there was a prize in every box of corn candy that the cast sold at intermission.
On the night he was going to audition us ACT actors for his melodrama, Harley died. But the show had to go on. We decided our first play would be a ‘Harley Sadler Memorial.’
Nina Peebles, an oilman’s wife who had directed plays before Frank found oil outside Abilene, agreed to cast and direct. She found a melodrama about a fake robbery, many suspects…lots of roles…all confined to one room in the home. Anyone who entered the crime scene had to remain. I had a one-line role as an Irish cop. “You con come in, buts you kan’t go out.”
We decided to try out the play in nearby Stamford, much smaller than Abilene’s twenty-eight thousand throng. Stamford was a place where Harley always brought his tent show each fall.
Before the play began, an actor peeked from behind the curtain, reported: “S.R.O. Standing-room-only.” The High School auditorium was filled. In memory of Harley, the Stamford High band performed before the curtains opened.
But when we opened the curtains on ACT one, there were maybe twenty in the audience. All the parents had gone home after their kids in the band quit playing.
And the name of the melodrama? Oh yes, Full House.
