Catching up with Palm Springs Follies alums
Lisette Haigler is still the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies uberfan. She almost sets a record for attending the gala production — close to 40 times.
Rather an honorary Follies person, she counts many of the super-fit senior performers as dear friends. She and her husband, Boyd Haigler, often entertained the entire cast at their Palm Springs home. So it was inevitable they hosted the last Follies party.
It is not overstating it to say that Lisette Haigler is working on sort of a shrine to the Follies. Her guest room, for 10 years featuring a Frida Kahlo theme, is in conversion. She loaded up on memorabilia at the Follies blowout sale mid-June and is redecorating like mad.
Of course she has no intention of forsaking her colorful buddies now that the Follies has closed after 23 seasons. She put us in touch with the show folks, and we caught up with some of them over the telephone. Unless otherwise specified, all live in Palm Springs.
Varied new careers
Not all were leapfrogging into a new job like Greg Purdy. His last day as publicist for the Follies was May 30. On June 2 he started working as communication manager for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.
Singer Judy Bell, who set an upbeat tone at the closing matinee May 18, with “We’ll Meet Again,” was taking her ease on the patio when we called. She was literally in a rocking chair, a relic of a Follies Western number. After 20 years in the show, she said, “I’m going to sit here and exhale. And fix a big fat martini.”
She was enjoying being “amongst the flowers and elves and things…a picture of Riff (Markowitz, the entrepreneur) on the wall.” But the lively septuagenarian had in hand her legal pad. She’s writing each day to recreate her act, once a prize-winning Las Vegas favorite. She has her eye on the Purple Room in Palm Springs.
Randy Doney, 74, is not ready to hang it up. In fact, he’s already had a gig swing dancing and the like advertising a medical product for TV and print media to be out in the fall. It was a profitable four-day excursion to L.A.
“Now I’m relaxing. It’s normal vacation time for us, anyway. August to September (former rehearsal time) may feel a little weird.”
“Things are looking good,” Joni Naber, almost 78, says.
Things are also looking busy. She’s constantly volunteering. As a docent for the local historical society, she’ll do a walking tour, probably by the Plaza Theatre. She can really tell the tourists about the Follies’ old home.
And in October Naber starts as ambassador at the airport who meets and greets and directs people that deplane. Then there’s the International Film Festival…
Robert Neil, at 55 just a kid in Follies years, says he will probably not go back into show business although he dances ballet, jazz, tap and sings solos. You bet he’ll keep in shape, going to Gold’s Gym.
And “I’ll always keep up with my dancing, go to ballet class.”
The Rancho Mirage resident thinks he’ll work part time at the furniture store, the Charles Townsend Collection.
Jill Owens, 71, sometimes can be seen at the VillageFest helping her husband, a wood sculptor. They keep a place in Iowa, where they re-met at a 30th high school reunion. But Owens says, “I don’t think I could take the cold anymore.”
She bought some costumes at the Follies blowout sale and may revive the club act she used to have with a partner who now lives in L.A. “We were compared to Laverne & Shirley,” she said.
Stages in other states
Her sister, Jane Owens, who boasted of being 65 in Follies days, says, “Now I can go back to lying.” That may be expedient as she auditions for acting roles. She’s heading back to her home base in Florida, the Fort Lauderdale area, where “there are more theaters than there used to be.”
Karrie and Richard France, the youngest lady (50s) and the oldest gentleman (80s) in the troupe, are already settled in the home they’ve maintained in Tucson.
Karrie says, “I’m going to keep on singing and dancing.”
Richard says, “After close to 70 years in show business, there’s a time to wrap it up. I’ll paint — not walls, but canvases. I may teach, but on an easy basis…like guest teaching.”
He’s not opening a school again; he’s done that.
Anyway, “My wife is much younger than me so I won’t be bored.” Right. “Women always have a honey-do list.”