ONLY ONE HOUR FROM BROADWAY
by Mickey Maloney ('48)
George M. Cohan wrote "Only 45 Minutes from Broadway". If he had lived in
Saint Albans and attended Saint Pascal's, he would have written "One Hour from
Broadway". Each spring every class put on a musical extravaganza. Although I attended
Saint Pascal's for four years, I can only remember two shows I participated in. One was
the "Hollis Hay Ride", which was a local adaptation of a Broadway show called
"Louisiana Hay Ride". Other than the title number, I don't recollect the songs
we sang in this spectacle, but do have fond memories of our dance steps. I can do them
today. The choreographer designed the dances so that every child was brought to stage
front at least once. Thus our doting parents and relatives could view close ups of their
budding stars. Since Hollis was considered a better area than Saint Albans, the play was
not called "Saint Albans Hay Ride".
The other musical that comes to mind is "Showboat". Michael Barbera sang
"Old man River" in a white formal tailcoat with a white high hat just like Frank
Sinatra in the movies, only Frank did not have a high hat. The other difference was that
Michael Barbera's clothes were made of paper. Frankie's were probably tailored to fit. All
the supporting male players had white tails and a high hat. All of our costumes were made
of paper. I recall wearing my costume to Sunday dress rehearsal and my father hooting at
me for being such a sissified fashion plate. Since Daddy didn't go to the movies, he
didn't know that Frank Sinatra wore a similar outfit. Maybe he did know, now that I think
of it. Daddy didn't care for Frank Sinatra and preferred Bing Crosby.
John Gibbons was Showboat's lead male singer. The ever-lovely blonde bombshell Dorothy
Daly was the female lead singer. At one of the two performances, she and John were to
enter stage left and stage right, respectively. The duet they were to sing as they entered
was "We Could Make Believe". Dorothy entered singing, but John Gibbons never
made it. He was answering nature's call. It was probably stage fright. Dorothy sang the
duet as a solo. She received a great ovation. A few years later John Gibbons entered the
Golden Gloves and lost. He told me that the winner was so cool, his boxing trunks were
pegged. Rather than get beat up in the ring, John should have gotten stage fright then
too.
We performed three shows. The first was a dress rehearsal on Sunday afternoon. The
other two shows were at night during the week. After closing night, the school gave us an
ice cream bar. By closing night, our paper costumes were primarily in shatters. We
practiced during school hours for what seemed an eternity. The choreographer had to be a
nun, so the steps were probably not that difficult or raucous. Of course, the young
dancers presumably could not handle difficult steps. In "Show Boat", the opening
scene was the male chorus line strutting out on the stage singing "Here Comes the
Showboat". Years later Broadway replayed this scene for the finale of "A Chorus
Line". However, Saint Pascal’s was first. The audience paid one dollar to see
the show. Our Uncle Walter and Aunt Helen usually attended with my parents. The Maloney
side of the family was probably smart enough not to show up.
Maloney family legend states that we were forbidden to sing but had to mouth the words.
I don't recall this happening to me. This myth probably started with Bob and Jack, who no
doubt were told to keep their vocal chords closed. My memory is clear of me belting out
"Here Comes the Show Boat". Another rebuttal to this silence myth is that one
year George was the star of his class show. He played the lead in Pinocchio. For some
reason the director had him falling down repeatedly. George did it well and won several
curtain calls. The rest of the Maloneys were merely chorus boys missing our chance to
star. To us it was just another opening of another show. MGM
(Note: Mickey had four brothers who graduated from SPB: Bob '45, Jack '46, George '50,
Bill mid 50's)
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