INSIDE BOB FOREMAN'S BRAIN PART 2

MEMORABLE FAXES I HAVE RECEIVED FROM CHARLIE GRIECO

October 13, 1995 Soon before I left QTIP.

Undated.

January 8, 1996 I was unemployed but apparently I had a home fax machine. I asked you to send me a fax.

August 11, 1996 Sent to me at the Shakespeare Festival.

August 27, 1996 I guess you got a machine of your own so you could stay up all night faxing the Farducci's.

Same day, in reply. My boss got fired and I got a $14,000 raise! I could hardly live on what I was making, it was about five grand less than I got at QTIP, and I was actively seeking another job. To which "ho" I refer I cannot recall.

Same day, in reply.

September, 2025

For a master index of all of Bob Foreman's photo-essays, click here.

MY FRIEND GARRY AND THE SNELVILLE PLAYERS

Saturday, March 8, 2025

According to Garry, "a strange man" sent him this email.

SNELVILLE PLAYERS Wants you! To design lights for this 1968 B'way musical comedy----

Sunday, March 9, 2025

EXCERPT FROM REVIEW -- SNELVILLE

...But the real star of the evening in this fantastic production is the lighting by our neighbor Garry Motter, who came out of lighting retirement especially for "Kaplan." Not since Mr. Motter lit "The River Neeger" for Chris Manos (pronounced MAIN-us) thirty-seven years ago have we seen such virtuoso manipulation of the backstage control levers. And the colors used! His colors are every bit as good as those used on the Tonight Show-- and that's about the best in the business. Students at Stone Mountain Junior College were fascinated to watch him conduct the lighting focus session, for which he wore a special cone. Mr. Motter is certain to capture the Snellville"Snelly" award come this spring.

Monday, March 10, 2025
Garry Motter, lighting designer for Snelville Players' "Kaplan" is credited with making that show a hit. Besides his award-winning lighting, that is.

Previously, Snelville shows have run three performances to poultry crowds. "Kaplan" is in its 32nd week and is now playing eight times weekly to capacity audiences.

He came up with the idea to have a loud gunshot heard through the theatre just before the houselights come up for intermission. This frightens the audience of course, and when the lights do come up they find a lifelike, full-size effigy of a well-known civil rights leader, hanging from a you-know-what right in front of the stage!

To find out more, purchase a ticket! Below, Motter relaxing at home after a performance.

Sunday, March 11, 2025
TONY AWARD FOR SNELVILLE
Except for a cone he wears at a jaunty angle, you couldn't tell Garry Motter from any of the other fine, upstanding citizens you might meet on the main streets of Snelville. But today perhaps his cone stands a trifle prouder because he has won a Tony Award for his lighting and special dead man effects in "Kaplan."

"It's unheard of," said Mary Kuntzell of the New York Times, "for a play not running on Broadway in New York to win a Tony. But when Dick Coxx of the Shuberts saw the production, he paid out of his own pocket for all 327 Tomy voters to take the bus down and see the production. The vote was unanimous."

"One aspect that sets this show apart from all others," said Coxx, "are the colors. Motter had saved rolls of color from fifty years ago when he was still actively designing lights for such shows as 'The River Neegar.' When political correctness came in," explained Coxx, "these colors went out. For example, no one on Broadway has dared to use 'Chocolate' for decades. Motter pours it on like syrup for the intermission surprise."

"Experts from around the country gathered at a recent symposium where Motter, who is very shy and retiring, described the primary colors he is using in the musical. "That there is what we call 'red,' that un's 'blue' and the t'other's 'green.' Combine them and you get white. This un here, well I call it Bastard Amber and this un, Follies Pink. Thems are my main colors."

"So long as you has them there uncorrected colors, why a smart dog could light any show," said Motter, adjusting his cone for the photographers.

Friday March 14, 2025

SNELVILLE SNIPPETS
Train Service reinstated.

Direct passenger train service from Snelville to New York City and Boston was reinstated yesterday for the first time since it was discontinued in 1955. Amtrack now provides six express Pullman trains, three each direction, daily including weekends. "We had to do it," said Amtrack president Bill Train. "The demand was terrific and all because of your little theatre program." He warned the public to book early because of the tremendous demand. Receipts from this new stop are expected to erase Amtrack's operating deficit.

Cones Downtown.

Tourists coming to Snelville hoping to catch a glimpse of G. Motter in his Cone may be disappointed. As of last count, six hundred and twenty-eight of Snelville's leading male citizens have taken to wearing cones as "the newest trend."

No more incompetence.

Snelville McDonald's manager Katie Jorgan announced today that due to the huge after-theatre crush, they would no longer be hiring incompetent employees. "If you can't take seventy orders a minute, you're out!" she laughed. The town's three other fast food chains have followed suit and yesterday a huge group of low-life incompetents were spotted leaving the city limits as fast as possible, with the assistance of the sheriff's department.

Friday March 14, 2025 DATE

"CAR AND DRIVER" MAGAZINE OCTOBER 1969 -- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

For a master index of all of Bob Foreman's photo-essays, click here.

March 2025.

JIM RAY-JAMES -- DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER

Jim Ray-James, whose real name was Jim Ray, appeared off-B'way under the name of "Ray James" as Yellow Feather in the original cast of "Little Mary Sunshine" beginning in 1959; appeared in a dozen off-B'way shows under the name of "James Ray"; and as Jim Ray-James, he choreographed "New Girl in Town" at the Equity Library Theatre and was U/S for the part of Eddie Ryan in "Funny Girl" on Broadway. "New Girl" was directed by Jay Broad, later the manager of Theatre Atlanta, but there is no evidence that Broad brought Jim Ray-James to Atlanta. Jim Ray-James' first known Atlanta show was "Johnny Moonbeam" for the Atlanta Children's Theatre (Actor's Equity) which he directed.

In 1974 he was named Set Builder for Chris Manos' Theatre of the Stars which played at the Civic Center.

Following the 1974 summer season, he began teaching dramatics for Carolyn Fleetwood.

Probably through Miss Fleetwood, he began directing for the Children's Civic Theater, founded by Edith Russell and Herschel Harrington. Here he explains his name.

A history of the Children's Civic Theater for whom Jim Ray-James directed "Oliver!" in 1976.

Later that same year, he opened his own drama and dance studio in north Atlanta, in an ad where he lists his credentials.

He freelanced non-stop as director of school productions.

In 1979, Jim Ray-James began his association with Doraville which continued for almost twenty years. This 1994 article states his age as sixty-seven, meaning he was born in 1927.

His last mention in the Atlanta papers was in 1996 for a production of "Guys and Dolls."

For a master index of all of Bob Foreman's photo-essays, click here.

January, 2025

HERSCHEL HARRINGTON AND EDITH RUSSELL

Herschel Harrington and his wife Edith Russell moved to Atlanta in 1942.

They lived at 229 Ponce de Leon.

His shop was on Exchange Place, downtown.

His shop was then on West Paces Ferry, located relatively close to, and behind, the Buckhead Theatre building.

From 1950 until 1958 -- nine years-- his studio was located in the old Rhodes Hall carriage house.

Unfortunately no photos of the carriage house survive. In this aerial shot, it would have been to the left of the stable.

I remember this "permanent" switchboard at Chastain. It was an eight dimmer Ward Leonard, inoperable in 1967.

In 1959, he relocated to 132 10th Street rear, at the intersection of Juniper, and Herschel Harrington Studios remained at that location for forty-four years-- until 2002.