Column: The first tribute for the music man of Wells
Published 12:00 am Friday, May 7, 2004
By Tribune, Ed Shannon, feature writer
Harry L. Gillam may have died in August 1929, however, his memory was really revived for the people of the Wells area again in 1978. This was done with the world premiere of the musical play, &uot;A Common Feeling.&uot;
This play resulted in part as an educational project at the Wells Public School. At the suggestion of James (Jim) Ramaker, then a teacher in the school system, a script was prepared and based on a part of local history. Several people suggested that a prime theme should be Harry and his significant contributions to music in the area years earlier.
&uot;A Common Feeling&uot; was based on the year of 1917 and during World War I when the nation became involved in the conflict with Germany. The play had three themes. One was the musical activities of Harry Gillam. The second featured a fictionalized character named Carl Burt, a Wells resident of German descent, who had very mixed emotions about the war with the nation of his ancestors. A third theme had as its focus the suffragette movement; equal civil and voting rights for women.
This proposed play was made possible in part by a grant of funds from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Rehearsals stated on Jan. 30, 1978. The play was presented in the Wells High School Auditorium on March 9, 10 and 11, 1978.
The original script for the play was written by Mark Lynch. He was a M.A. graduate of the University of Missouri. His previous experience included being a film and television commercials actor, film and play writer, counselor and teacher. Michael Lenzen of Brainerd revised (adapted) the script. Music, orchestration and lyrics for the songs were by Paul Goldstaub, a music professor at Mankato State University. Additions to the script and lyrics were made by Vickie Askildson, a former teacher in Wells and a resident of Mason City, Iowa, and Jim Ramaker, who was also the play’s producer.
Joyce Matthies of Albert Lea was the choreographer for the dance portions of the 1978 production. One of the actors was Les Schroader of Alden.
Adding an authentic touch to this play was actor/singer/dancer Danny Clark from the Twin Cities. Clark happened to be a black person. And as I have tried to emphasize in the last two columns, Harry Gillam was a black person. However, for the 1978 production the play’s main character was given the name of Harry Gilbert.
This play actually had a pit orchestra (14 members), and a replica of Gillam’s Joyful Juveniles (11 members), a kid band Harry organized in January 1909. There was also a choir consisting of Wells High School students.
One detail on the program for the first presentation of &uot;A Common Feeling&uot; was based on a group of farm animal puppets. Maybe they were part of a rural fantasy scene.
What was certainly a really unusual local reference in this play production was a well known area landmark known as &uot;The Tree in the Middle of the Road.&uot; For many years a large cottonwood was right in the center of a township roadway a few miles north of Wells. The road just went around the lonely tree, one lane on each side of the cottonwood which had fencing or guard rails as protection.
Incidentally, I made a special trip in the mid-1980s to see this outstanding landmark.
This tree received special attention with its own song in Scene 9, and a part of the dialog in Scene 10 of Act One.
In the program for the 1978 production of this play, loaned to me by Jim Ramaker, there’s a rather odd saying of, &uot;You can be a flower in a weedpatch.&uot; That saying fits in as a part of the play’s plot.
Also, this saying reminds me of an odd novelty song I’ve heard several times in the past. The words in part were, &uot; I’m just a lonely little petunia in an onion patch.&uot;
For the next column we’ll have information about the second version of &uot;A Common
Feeling&uot; which was presented in July 1994.
(Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears each Friday.)