Longstreet

  I had not been to Longstreet Theatre on the University of South Carolina campus until I took in an event in 1980.  It was an appearance by two great actors:  Helen Hayes and Maurice Evans.  I had known her from one of my favorite movies called "Airport".  She was also known as the "First Lady of American Theatre" and had won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (EGOT).  Only a very few actors have done that.  He was an English actor I knew from the movie "Planet of the Apes" and the TV show "Bewitched".  Together, they were Theatre royalty.

 When one is an actor, one searches out for true talent.  Hayes and Evans fit that bill.  They performed some scenes together that night that were inspiring.  Even though both of them were up in age, they had not lost their magic of commanding an audience and their chemistry working together.  

 Another little story within this one is that I am a fan of Kevin Bacon's "Six Degrees of Separation".  The theory is that everyone can trace through their lives to linking everyone else living by tracing it back up to six times.  You don't have to know the person at the end of the tracing, but you know somebody that links you to that person.  So, in Helen Hayes's case, I worked with Burt Lancaster in "The Midnight Man", and he worked with her in "Airport".  In Maurice Evans's case, he worked with Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes", and I knew Chuck from a meeting in Texas in 1978.  So, I didn't know Hayes or Evans personally, but I knew people who knew them.  Try it for yourself.