CELEBRITY
DINNER THEATER
BIRMINGHAM ALABAMA 1978
by Billy Ingram
BILLY INGRAM: Researching TV history for the last ten years, author of the book TVparty: Television's Untold Tales which has sold more than 10,000 copies.
Editor, Art Director, Project Manager for Dear John: The Alex Toth Book, nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Comics Related Book in 2007.
Designer of some of the most successful Academy Award campaigns, film trailers and movie posters for stars like Harrison Ford, Barbra Streisand, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and many others. 15 years in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles.
Performer and content contributor for the hit VH1 and Bravo series Supersecret TV Formulas, 100 Great Things About The Holidays, 100 Funniest Movies along with specials for Bravo, Trio and others.
Wrote a biweekly column covering LA's Punk Rock and music scene for three years.
An expert on the comic book industry and the colorful history of the medium.
Internet pioneer, the first to bring TV to the Net, first to broadcast clips from TV shows on the Internet!
Accomplished stage, TV and film actor.
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Celebrity Dinner Theater in Vestavia
Hills, Alabama / April - May, 1978
It's 30 years later so I guess that's why I'm thinking
about it.
I'm looking to reestablish contact with some actors I had the pleasure of working with. I did two shows at the Celebrity Dinner Theater in Vestavia (Birmingham) Alabama, my name is Billy Ingram, I was about 20 at the time and working as a actor.
The first Celebrity Dinner Theater show I was cast in was Send Me No Flowers - the Rock Hudson / Doris Day movie comedy.- in March of 1978. The director, a very nice gay gentleman for Indianapolis who's name escapes me, cast me from the SETC auditions in Atlanta a few months earlier.
I remember those times as truly wonderful, carefree days spent on the outskirts one of the biggest cities in the Deep South where old southern traditions - for better or worse - were still in effect. For example, you could not be openly gay in this community, I recall the one openly gay entertainer we knew in town was hassled by the police regularly.
With some casts you have tensions and ego flare ups but not with this group, we bonded immediately and quickly realized we were all equally full of shit - by that I mean, in it to have a great time and put on the best possible show.
Flowers was ending and the cast for the next show was rehearsing. The director of the show after that one, Dennis Metnick, was down from Atlanta to check out the theater and, to my shock, asked if I would like to be in the cast The Fantasticks. That soundtrack had one of my fave songs in it, Try To Remember.
I lost my virginity during Send Me No Flowers - and was bowled over when director Dennis Metnick cast me, based on my performance in that show, in The Fantasticks. It hadn't occurred to me that I would even be considered. So after 2 weeks off I was back in B'ham for rehearsals. I somehow managed to score a private room in the condo the theater used to house half the casts.
Deena Kaye-Lange from Atlanta (most of the cast was from Atlanta) was the musical director, I loved her! Everyone did. Debbie Webber as Luisa was wonderful and charming. Ron Woods was brilliant as Matt; he and I became friends and we corresponded for a short time.
Glenn Zeller had a thing for puppets, like Wayland Flowers & Madam. He was always moving his hand like he had a puppet on it and making cutting remarks in a Madam voice. I understand he committed suicide shortly after this summer, he did seem depressed in retrospect. Cindi Stratman played the Mute, she was dating Dennis.
We spent lazy days at the pool, took excursions to the park for paddle boat rides, watched Mary Tyler Moore & Bob Newhart reruns, and got high after the shows driving around the Vestavia Hills listening to Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments. They took me to my first gay bar (I still wasn't out) and gave me the nick-name "Disco Billy" because I could rarely sit still if music was playing.
I remember one evening during Fantasticks when Dennis was on stage as El Gallo and Lewis 'Chip' Latimer and I came out as the Indian and the Old Actor the audience howled for so long at our appearance (well, mostly my skinny legs in yellow tights) that it nearly stopped the show. Dennis said after the show he was "this close" to holding up his hands and asking the audience to compose themselves.
One night we were going to get busted by the Vestavia PD for smoking pot after hours backstage but I was involved w/ (REDACTED TO PROTECT THE GUILTY) who worked with the police department - he convinced the cops that we were cool and they called off the bust! I'm still friends with the guy.
It was an eventful run. The theater was flooded once and we had to do the show with 2 inches of mud and water backstage. We were terrified of water moccasins - and half of the cast lived backstage. It was no wonder we all came down with some form of flu (in 90 degree weather) so the management sent us to some demented doctor that cost us an arm and a leg.
I visited Chip Latimer & Debbie Weber at the Flat Rock Theater in the N.C. mountains in the summer of '78, they were living a pretty simple existence, as actors did, and were extremely happy it seemed. They were married some time later. I also visited w/ them at Chip's home in Columbia, SC. Googling Chip, I discovered he won a few acting awards, one in the mid-1980s.
For a young person just starting out his professional life I couldn't have asked for a better experience, what a bunch of great people. Ironically, this experience cemented the idea that I didn't want to be an actor and make good friends that I might likely not see again. It broke my heart. So I moved to LA and became a movie poster artist to have some degree of stability and continuity.
If you're one of the guys from back in the day, please get in touch! Or if you also worked the Celebrity Dinner Theater we'd love to hear your stories.
"I was thinking about my husband's (Richie Dye) dinner theatre days,
and I googled dinner theatre actors, and came across your link. My husband
performed a lot at the Celebrity in B'ham, but his first show was in '83.
Your experiences sounded a lot like ours--I traveled with him, and
we lived backstage. It was a great time, and a fun lifestyle."
- Katie Dye
