GREGORY, Tom

GREGORY, KLECKNER

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/11/2014 at 02:14:10

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, September 21, 1940, Page 16

THEY STARTED HERE
No. 27 in a Mason City Series of Success Stories

TOM GREGORY on Road to Dramatic Fame

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"They Starte Here" has for the past year turned the spotlight on 26 sons and daughters of Mason City who have reached high positions in their chosen fields. In most instances they had reached the peak.

But in one or two instances, of which this is one, the subject was a person who has already attained eminence in his chosen field but whose future is such that "They Started Here" would much better be written about him five or 10 years hence.

One such is Tom Gregory, former Mason Cityan, who is now one of the most talended graduate students at the world famed school of the theater run in connection with the community theater at Pasadena, Cal.

* * *
The Pasadena institution is accorded world wide recognition in the theater field, for its graduates have gone forth to win fame in all branches. Among the well known actors and actresses who were formerly students at the Pasadena school are Jean Arthur, Victor Jory, Onslow Stevens, Douglass Montgomery, Robert Young and Wayne Morris.

Among the more recent graduates are Florence Bates, a character actress who gave a sterling performance as a rich American dowager, and Victor Mature and Robert Preston, both of whom have achieved stardom in the cinematic world and whom the former Mason Cityan knew well in school.

* * *
Tom Gregory was born at Osage 30 years ago, and started to school there. After living in South Dakota for a time, the Gregory family came in 1918 to Mason City, where Tom spent most of his school years. He graduated from Mason City high school in 1927.

Tom always had a strong liking for the theater. He took an active part in high school dramatics and after he left school was a familiar figure in the activities of the "Little Theater" group of his day. On one occasion he served as artistic director for an opera "Il Trovatore," presented here.

When he was graduated from high school, Tom had not yet decised on what he wanted to do in life. He tried several jobs around Mason City, including some work in the circulation department of the Globe-Gazette. He also was a member of an orchestra for a time, for he had learned to play the piano and was well grounded in music.

* * *
In 1935 Tom went to Yellowstone park to work for the summer. While there he landed an opportunity to work on the campus of Leland Sanford university at Palo Alto, Cal., and he accepted.

At Palo Alto, Cal., Tom attended classes at the university although he was not enrolled as a regular student.

And what is more important, the former Mason Cityan became prominently interested in Palo Alto's outstanding Little Theater group. He acted, directed, designed scenery and even helped carry it around, showing by his interest and his work that he had a real talent for the theater.

* * *
Finally someone closely identified with the Palo Alto group suggested to the young man that he consider enrolling in the unique Pasadena school. Interviews were arranged with the three leading figures of the school and the former Mason Cityan filled out an application for one of the 16 scholarships given at the school each year.

The school's chieftains are outstanding in their field and all enjoy national and world recognition. Head of the organization is Gilmore Brown, whose name is known to legitimate theater people everywhere. General manager is Charles Prickett and the director of the school is Mrs. Fairfax P. Walkup, both of whom are outstanding and especially qualified for the work they do.

So when such a distinguished triumvirate deemed Tom Gregory worth of a scholarship, it was a real honor, not to say something of a pleasant surprise to the former Mason Cityan. He entered the school in 1937.

* * *
The first year at the Pasadena school the former Mason Cityan worked out his scholarship. In his first year of study, he was given background instruction in the history and other liberal and cultural aspects of the theater.

In his second year, Tom and his fellow classmates began working on actual theatrical productions on one of the other of the four stages in which the Pasadena playhouse plays are presented. They got experience and instruction in setting, designing stage scenery, directing, acting as stage managers, shifting scnenery, and generally learning the theatrical business backward and forward. And of course the informal work was augmented by formal classroom studies.

Last year Tom was stage manager for the production of Clifford Odet's "Rocket to the Moon," and acted an important role in "Lost Horizons," in additoin to being associated with other playhouse productions including "Ulyesses Sailed By," "Not With Dreams," "Kiss the Boys Goodbye," "Texas Nightingale," and others.

Currently visiting at the home of his sister, Mrs. W. J. Kleckner, 317 Fifth street nrthwest, Tom expects to leave soon for Pasadena, where he will begin his final graduate year of study at the playhouse school.

The coming year, will see him specializing, concentrating his efforts on the most difficult and exacting job in the theater, that of a director.

A director's job is difficult because he must be a jack of all trades. He must know how to act, e something of a playwright in order to detect weaknesses in his manuscript and make strenthening suggestions. He must be able to design his own scenery and to be creative in interpreting the roles to be played. In fact, he must be all things.

* * *
So Tom Gregory has cut out a piced of goods for himself. His is no snap, but if he can show he is worthy of the confidence of his tutors and of the work and study he has put into his chosen career, he will be sitting pretty for he will be successful in a difficult and highly respected field.

When asked who the comers are in the Pasadena school - whose who in the near future will be making themselves known to a theater going public, the former Mason Cityan says to look for the names of Jimmy Scay, Buck Buchanan and Laird Gregare, the last named already having attracted considerable attention for his acting in the "Life of Oscar Wilde" as successor to the famed English actor, Robert Morley.

But this list is incomplete. It needs the name of Tom Gregory as most of his associates at Pasadena will testify.

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2014

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