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A Visit With Eleanor Beecroft |
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Page 2 of 3
Actress Valerie Boyle took over Eleanor's PAL apartment and
keeps a picture of Eleanor frolicking at the PAL Celebrity Club on her
door, with the caption "Eleanor Beecroft lived here". PAL "PALS" Kenny
Wickes and David Cargill are helping Eleanor with plans for her 100th
Birthday Celebration. Can it possibly be more fun than her 90th? (Kenny
and Vern Chapman promise an updated version of their singing tribute to
Eleanor that brought the house down at the 90th!
Kenny's first
appearance in Canada, coming from England after the war, was in "She
Stoops to Conquer" with Eleanor shining as "Mrs. Hardcastle". Later
they played together in New Brunswick for Walter Learning in "The
Incredible Murder of Cardinal Tosca". Eleanor played a housekeeper in
the first act and a Madame (Mother Midnight who runs a brothel) in the
second act. Kenny says " she played both parts to the hilt".
Eleanor
recalls the terror of doing her first live TV Drama around 1955. She
played Mom to Kate Reid and me. Kate played a blind girl who had fallen
in love with a black man (the handsome and imposing William Marshall)
but in true 1950‘s fashion, her uptight and prejudiced sister broke up
the relationship. Barbara Chilcott and Charmion King recall looking up
to Eleanor when they were all early "Straw Hat" players and she
performed regularly with the Alumnae Theatre through the years.
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