Shhhhh, don’t tell George Wilson. This is a secret. And, George, if you find out, act like you don’t know.
If Boyden (now Salisbury) High’s Class of ’61 doesn’t get something in the paper about surprising you with a “Mr. Holland’s Opus” evening Friday at 7 o’clock at the Salisbury High School Auditorium, how will anybody know to come?
You remember the movie about that high school music teacher, don’t you? He didn’t know what he’d meant to his students until ...
Well, says Wilson’s son, Alfred, who still lives here, Dad’s eyes aren’t what they used to be, and he won’t see the Post in Forsyth County, where he lives now, if you don’t tell him.
But tell everyone else you know who took part in one of those legendary Wilson musicals to call Gene Mitchell and get on the program.
You can sing a song, do a dance or share a memory of one of the shows that started when George Wilson produced Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” in 1960 as a gimmick to get people in the music program.
A surprisingly good production led to “Oklahoma” the next year, and Wilson’s Broadway musicals were firmly established after that, drawing critical praise from Winston-Salem and Charlotte newspapers and standing-room-only crowds for three-day runs for a decade.
Among them:“South Pacific,” “West Side Story,” “Guys and Dolls,” “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” “Carousel,” “Bye, Bye Birdie,” “Camelot,” “All-American” and “Wildcat.”
Or come and tell a tale on Wilson, a teacher with one commandment — “Thou shalt do the best thee can and then some!”
He made that happen. He screamed, screeched, badgered, jumped, pummeled, pulled, pushed, babied, soothed, showed you how — and loved you.
You couldn’t tell it by listening, but you discovered it, students said. He believed people could do things right, and he helped them by getting them the most professional help he could find anywhere. Mostly for free but sometimes for money. Local unnamed citizens underwrote the cost of a first-class orchestra he gathered largely from the North Carolina Symphony — but never had to spend a penny because the shows were always sold out.
So his students went from hate to love to memory.
That’s what made Gene Mitchell, who’d seen Richard Dreyfuss in “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” think Boyden had its own Mr. Holland and should surprise and honor him because his teaching and his music made such an impact on so many lives.
Karl Rimer, who was Curly in “Oklahoma,” agreed. So did others, including Salisbury High Principal Windsor Eagle, who reserved the high school auditorium for this Friday night before Class of ’61’s 40th reunion on Saturday.
They’re inviting class members and everybody else who remembers to gather about 6 on the circular drive on the right side of the building — and be inside by 7.
His family will get him there at 7:15, and the show will begin — without a live orchestra, but with Charles Rivers, a member of the class who was in “Oklahoma,” who now has a DJ business and will provide musical accompaniment. Rehearsals will take place at his home at 985 Clark Road off Bringle Ferry Road on Wednesday and Thursday nights after 5.
Jimmy Carter will “play a few tunes” for his old music teacher on his violin, the same violin he played for 26 years in the National Symphony Orchestra at Kennedy Center in Washington and nine years with the American Symphony at Carnegie Hall.
And everybody who gets there — on stage or in the audience — will tell him they love and remember him and are forever grateful.
Alfred promises he’ll get his dad there on time but not how because he hasn’t figured it out yet.
For more information about getting on the program, rehearsals, and anything else, call Gene Mitchell at 704-636-7720.
Contact Rose Post at 704-797-4251 or rpost@salisburypost.com
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