Climbing
Volume 3 Book 5 Part 1 of
Living in the Bonus Round
(The Big Voice Chronicles)


Christina Aguilera sings "Beautiful" at the 14th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.
(This is the picture that almost got my camera confiscated.
See lower entry.)

[ Book 3-4 ] -- [ Pt 1 ] [ Pt 2 ] [ Pt 3 ] [ Pt 4 ] [ Pt 5 ]
[ Pt 6 ] [ Pt 7 ] [ Pt 8 ] [ Pt 9 ] [ Pt 10 ]
[ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ]
April 24-May 8, 2003.
Marilyn Laskey.
It was a phone call out of the clear blue sky. One of those things that happens so quickly and so quietly that you don't realize until what it means until the next day. Marilyn Laskey was not a person who drew attention to herself. She and her husband Stan were "volunteer ushers" at all the theatres in Los Angeles. A quiet, unassuming retired couple who spent every single night of the week ushering and seeing new shows.

It was Stan who called us, who quietly told Jimmy that Marilyn had "expired" a couple of days ago and that she'd want us there. That we were considered "family."

Wait a minute. Had she been sick? Was this sudden?

No. Not Marilyn. Marilyn knew every director, writer, producer, usher, single actor (old and new), and audience member of Los Angeles theatre. She was its spine. If you needed to know anything about anything or anyone going on in town, Marilyn could tell you. No, she wasn't a hire-powered agent. She wasn't a happening personal manager. She was a volunteer usher.

It's as if someone reached into the main fusebox and pulled out all the wires. No one knew more than she did.


Mount Sinai Mortuary in Burbank, CA

At the little interment today, a touching sentiment came from Barbara at the Colony. She said Marilyn, aside from ushering every night of the year at every theatre in town, would not hesitate to take a stack of a couple of thousand mail-outs and stuff 'em into envelopes. "And then she thanked ME for asking her to do the stuffing."



 
 
[ Book 3-4 ] -- [ Pt 1 ] [ Pt 2 ] [ Pt 3 ] [ Pt 4 ] [ Pt 5 ]
[ Pt 6 ] [ Pt 7 ] [ Pt 8 ] [ Pt 9 ] [ Pt 10 ]
© 1996-2003 by Steve Schalchlin.
You have permission to print from this diary and distribute for use in support groups, schools, or to just give to a friend. You do not have permission to sell it.