Mike Scelsi

In June of 1957 about 25 of us, all members of the St Mel HS Meldramatic Club, traveled over 400 miles each way to Kansas City, MO on the luxurious St Mel bus.

We did a repeat performance of the one act play "The Boy with a Cart" for the National Catholic Theater Convention held at the Municipal Auditorium June 13 to 15. Our original performance was done to 'Superior' critical acclaim at the Loyola Chicago Drama Festival on Thanksgiving weekend of 1956.

The Kansas City critics were also impressed with our performance. Our Director also was a critic of other school's plays with our assistance. Four of my favorite performances were done by Immaculate HS on Chicago's north side, and other girl's schools from Cleveland, St. Louis, and Los Angeles.

We spent four nights at a nice hotel about a block from the theater. We met a lot of girls from those four schools and the guys from a school in the Twin Cities that were all staying at our hotel. The New York Yankees were also in KC to play a series against the Athletics and staying in the Muehlbach Hotel across the street from us. However, Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin were staying in our hotel and we met them on the elevator. They asked if we were going to watch them play, so a bunch of us went to Municipal Stadium which was a short walk from our hotel for the Saturday afternoon game. We also took an afternoon trip to the amusement park and a long walk across the bridge into the state of Kansas. Incidentally, I think we also had a dress rehearsal of our play!

We don't have a list of us actors from 64 years ago. We were all from the graduating classes of 1957-1960, however. Please let us know if you were with us on this trip, and if you have anything to add to this stroll down memory lane. -- Mike Scelsi, St. Mel Class of 1958