1954

Who said it doesn't pay to advertise? My company's advertising must really work because just last week Joe and MaryMesics stopped in at Alperts all the way from San Francisco. As much as I would like to have you believe that they came all the way from San Francisco for a little of Alpert's furniture, it just wouldn't be true. They were visiting their daughter and son-in-law, Gretta and John Cross, in Providence, where John is serving a surgical residency after graduating from Brown Medical School. As you may know, the Mesics have bought a vineyard in California, and so they took time here to compare notes with Sakonnet Vineyards in Rhode Island.

Joe told me that Bob Woodberry has retired from Sutro and Company and left in September to escort a rugby team to international games in Argentina. Woodberry is going to make the Rugby Hall of Fame yet!

What a great gesture by Herb Hillman to put my name on the return card from his last newsletter. I am actually receiving current news as it is happening! Thanks, Herb, I really appreciate the help. In fact, the next three items are all the result of those cards.

Dutch Oudheusden from Westport, Conn., writes that he has started a new franchising organization to offer franchises in the Northeast selling and fabricating custom signs. Dutch's new company is named the Sign Stop. The Sign Stop store uses computer-generated graphic vinyl lettering requiring no paints and no brushes. Permanent letters can be applied directly to vehicles and boats; to signs of Plexiglas, foam board, or metal; or to banners. If you are tired of the corporate rat race, write Dutch at 191 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06880 or call him at 203/454-1313. Good luck Dutch.

Pete Barker, my übiquitous New York correspodent, sent a clipping from the September 5 New York Times featuring a Hirschfeld caricature of John Cunningham and the following, directly quoted from the New York Times:

"John Cunningham spent two years in the army in the mid-1950'5, and considers himself 'a living example of what the army has been saying for years that you can find your career there.'

"I was planning to go to Harvard Law School when I got out,' recalled Mr. Cunningham, who is co-starring in A. R.'Gurney Jr.'s Perfect Party. 'But practically the minute I got into the army I was in show business, first on a television show at Camp Gordon in Georgia and then as a touring actor in Europe. I knew then that was what I really wanted to do.'

"Mr. Cunningham, who says he believes that 'all important decisions should be made in your gut,' used his army benefits to spend three years in the Yale Drama School. From there, it was a short journey to New York, where his first audition, for Moss Hart, landed him the job of standby for the Henry Higgins role in the touring company of 'My Fair Lady.'

"Since then, Mr. Cunningham has played a number of leading roles on and Off Broadway (in, among others, Cabaret,Zorba, and Quartermaine's Terms, for which he received an Obie award.) He is one of the relatively few performers who doesn't resent auditioning, but rather welcomes it.

"It keeps you sharp,' he said. 'You can't sit back and believe that what you did before will carry you.'

" 'Once you're beyond rehearsal, when everything is flowing, there's a little person that is you watching impersonally,' he said. 'You find your body doing something you haven't planned. It's a remarkable high when a character takes over.' "

Don't miss John in The Perfect Party.John Pope writes that he and Ginny had the good fortune to go to the British Open this summer with Dick and JanePage. I say good fortune because Dick provided the chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce or "Roller," as I am told those in the know would call it, for the four of them to use to wheel their way around Britian. I guess there are certain advantages to being CEO of a large subsidiary of a larger British-owned insurance company. As you know, Dick is CEO of Fred S. James, Inc., a subsidiary of the Sedgewick Group. John, no slouch in his own right, owns and operates the F. W. Webb supply company with offices in Boston and Lebanon, N. H. Page may have the Rolls but Pope knows where to locate his branch offices.

Bill Mansfield has been named assist- ant secretary-general and deputy execu- tive director of the United Nations Environment Program, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Bill is a senior diplomatic officer at the State Department in Wash- ington, where he has been serving on a detail as deputy associate administrator for international activities in the U.S. En- vironmental Protection Agency. Bill's new position is with the U.N.'s principal envi- ronmental organization, which works with governments and other organiza- tions to identify, propose, and carry on activities around the world to protect the human environment from pollution and encourage environmentally sound development in Third World countries. Bill has been with the State Department since 1959 and has had a varied and obviously interesting career around the world. Congratulations, Bill, you well deserve your appointment.

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