The LCHS Class of 1960 held its 45th reunion in Lincoln, Illinois, at the American Legion on 9-30-05 and 10-1-05. The main entertainment, presented on the second day, was a variety-talent show produced by a select group of classmates, relatives, and friends. The host-emcee was Producer-Director Jeff Fults, pictured here (he has come a long way since I persuaded him to be my best man in my first wedding, 6-10-69. Do you think he is wearing the same tux? Do you suppose his alter ego, Jon Diers, has ever worn one?).

Reunion committee member Judy Lohrenz Perkins and J.E. Fults (JEF) have agreed to allow the show to be available here (see links below). When you consider that some high school classes do not have enough interested members even to have a reunion, why, this show testifies to the most remarkable folks who compose the truly noble LCHS Class of 1960.
Judy provides the following info:

Host-emcee-master of ceremonies= Jeff "Jocko" Fults
Cast in order of appearance:
Comedian= Cliff Perkins
Big Bopper= Mark "Zeke" Zurkammer
Patsy Cline= Diane Caplinger Farmer
Gretchen Wilson= Angie Fults (Jeff's Daughter)
Elvis=Cliff Perkins
Elton John= Dick Logan
Brenda Lee= Bess Sparks Newhouse
Righteous Brothers= Dick George and John Coombs
Louis Armstrong = Mark "Zeke" Zurkammer (in his own voice)

Photographers were Luanne Froschauer, Gary Liesman, and Susie Mills Fults
Film editor was Cliff Perkins
Band members= Lead guitar = Pete Ritchhart Smiley, Keyboard =Shirley Sparks Conaway, Drums= Kathy Mitchell Liesman, Saxaphone=Angie Fults
Prop Crew= Donna Gereits Miles and Judy Lohrenz Perkins
Lighting=Bob Gordon and Russell Wright
SOUND= Judith Heinzel Gordon
Scarfs, underwear and flowers for Elvis presented by: Barb Geary Cicci, Susie Mills Fults, Eva Harris Hill, Carol Coombs, Joanne Gipson, Liz Stringer Lolling, Pat Sahs Zgaga, Bonnie Cecil Farmer (sorry if I missed any of these people).

The faster your Internet connection, the smoother the results will be (forget about dial-up). Also, use the comments feature below.

Part 1: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1393343863984327074

Part 2: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3016867333329280350

Part 3: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8574242516932581746

Hi, Jerry Gibson, Best Cousin and Fellow Member of the LCHS Noble Class of 1960,

I wanted to follow up on the message that I sent to various former Lincolnites. The reference I made to your family concerns a point about 20 minutes into the movie when it shows an Optimist Club picnic (hamburger cook-out) in somebody's backyard (Dick Blick or one of the Chaits?). The narrator seems to refer to a family at a table in the back when he says something like the "Ted Givenses, er, the Ted Gibsons." I could swear its YOUR family! At that time there is a man who holds up a young girl, and they certainly look like they could be your dad and Jill to me! I have carefully frozen screen shots from the crude video that supports my interpretation and have attached them here.

There is a theory that the voices of the past are out there in outer space, and if we had the technology, we could track them down and re-capture them--including the voice of the Great Emancipator. The early 1950s movie of Lincoln leads me to wish there could be a way to preserve the best of the past. We try through memory, but as Fred has said, memory is an imperfect tool. Thus, we are left with the ways and means of art--our best magic to preserve the wonder and mystery of life. In this crude film, have we found your family in happy moment if only for a few seconds some time in the early 1950s? I would like to think so.

Best,

Leigh

Dear All Lincolnites at Heart,

Some time way back, Fred Blanford sent me a 30-minute video of a movie shot in Lincoln very early in the 1950s (Don Splain in the movie mentions a Mr. Yung, who was the Illinois Sec. of Ag. during the one-and-only administraion of Adlai Stevenson as governor). I suspect the movie had been taken with 8mm film. With the able assistance of my high-tech and very patient wife, Pat, I have uploaded this movie to the Web, where you can view it.

This movie is technically very rough because it has gone through several file-format conversions to get it on the Web. Yet, I believe this video is quite amazing for its window into the Lincoln many of us knew as we grew up there.

Please view this movie and consider posting responses using the the blog comment feature. How many places do you recall, and how many people can you identify (is the Ted Gibson family at the Optimist Club picnic?)? And do you have any stories to tell about these places and people?

Enjoy: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8658355030875007694

Feel free to visit the Web site of the noble LCHS Class of 1960 at http://www.geocities.com/lincolnhigh1960/ and respond to it here.