The Gold Fever Follies: A Rossland Tradition for Over 30 Years!
Written by Apollo Johnston (2021 Winter Digital Archives Assistant) in collaboration with Lisa Henderson and Ray Furlotte.
The “Early Years”
Original Follies logo 1987
The summer tradition that all Rosslanders know and love began as an idea in 1986. This story is a testament to one man’s devotion to live theatre and local communities: this man is Ray Furlotte. Furlotte, who had studied at the Douglas Burns Theatre at Concordia University in Montreal before moving to the Trail area to work as a teacher, had done a 6-month maternity leave that year for Lisa Henderson, the Drama teacher at Rossland Secondary School (RSS).
During his time at RSS, Furlotte put together a production of the musical, “You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” It quickly became apparent that there was untapped musical talent in the community that Furlotte was eager to harness. So, with Furlotte - armed with a whole lot of community spirit - the story begins. With Ray Furlotte’s new-found initiative for a Historical Community Theatre program, there was also a need for the founding source of any community program - money. Jackie Drysdale, City Mayor at the time the Follies was conceived, would be instrumental in aiding Furlotte in the direction of grants to develop the “Gold Fever Follies.” With Drysdale’s support, the City accessed a Federal Challenge ‘87 local initiative program, and was awarded a hefty $10,000 grant to put the Follies on its feet.
At first, Furlotte’s plan for the Follies was regionally driven. His plan was to create a musical theatre program dedicated to the history of Rossland, Trail, and other surrounding areas. However, the local supporters involved in the birth of the Follies ultimately opted for a Rossland-specific project, and named it the Rossland Gold Fever Follies. With that decision made, the group pushed forward, and on July 12th 1987, the first production of the newly founded Rossland Gold Fever Follies began. Cast members were often sourced from surrounding communities such as Trail, Nelson, and Salmo, in addition to Rossland, and stories often included the histories of these areas too.
Michael Honeyman & Lindsay Fraser from the 1987 cast. Photo from the Gold Fever Follies
With the exception of the 2016 season, when the traditional home of the Follies was closed for major renovations and the show was shifted to the old Bank of Montreal building, the Follies has always performed in the historic Rossland Miners’ Union Hall (fitting for a show regarding Rossland’s early gold rush mining days). However, the Follies' first summer run was a bit different from what is now the traditional Follies show. Lisa Henderson, current president of the Follies board, recalled the first performances from 1987: that first year the show was much shorter, a little over half an hour in length, and ran three times a day versus the 60-90 minute shows performed twice daily ever since. It also ran Wednesday through Sunday, and in the year 1989, it ran Sunday through Thursday. Since the early 1990s it has consistently run Tuesday through Saturday. When the Follies first opened, the show also didn’t open until the end of the second week of July, allowing for the high school students to have enough time to rehearse once school was out for the summer. Sometime in the early 1990s July 1 became the opening date, unless that date happened to fall on the non-work days of Sunday or Monday, in which case it would open on the Saturday before July 1.
Another note of interest was the ticket price in the opening year. In order to encourage people to come see the show, tickets were priced at $2 for adults, $1 for kids, and free for seniors and kids under 6. While prices have increased since then, the Follies has continued to work hard at keeping prices affordable.
Cast members were local students as young as 14, with the cancan dancing (choreographed by Lindsay Fraser, founder of the Boomtown Garter Girls, a Rossland dance troupe) supervised by Gina Petrakos (Turner), another Garter Girl. Petrakos was the only adult who performed on stage daily; Fraser acted as a “swing” who filled in for any dancers who might have sustained an injury. Otherwise, the cast was made up entirely of youth.
The 1987 script, originally written by Bev McEwan, and based on a diary of a banker from that era, was further adapted into a musical by Mary Linklater (Howard) who, at that time, created the original opening and closing theme songs of the Follies. The play opens after closing time of the present-day museum. The museum janitor, played by Geoff McLellan, is seen dusting several mannequins dressed in Victorian-era costumes, and after “chatting” with each, he leaves, at which time these mannequins “come alive” to tell and sing their stories of Rossland's early days. The mannequin characters included a high society lady (Kim Harris), a banker (Clint Kniss), a miner (Daryl Jolly), a card shark (Michael Honeyman), and a saloon girl (Tina Moore). Rounding out the cancan dancers were Christine McConnachie (DeRosa), and Gina Turner. The play was short, but was so clearly loved by the surrounding communities that it became clear that Furlotte had created a valuable form of historical entertainment for the community that was too good to let go.
And so the tradition of the Follies began!
Dawn of a “New Era”
The Follies was not yet an “official” organization, but Furlotte’s group of dedicated volunteers were keen to help him with this community theatrical project. During the next three years, Furlotte was still overseeing all aspects of running the summer production, from grant writing, to supervising the writing of the musical, to casting... you name it, Furlotte was doing it. But after four very demanding years, Follies founder Ray Furlotte had almost completely run out of steam. It became obvious that he would have to pass on the torch to others, and in 1991, the Gold Fever Follies Society was formed to keep the Follies alive. Following in Furlotte’s spirit, this new society was also made up completely of unpaid volunteers sharing the workload. Furlotte took a brief break from the Follies after the formation of the board; being a father of two young girls meant it was time for a well-deserved “rest.”
During the next few years, there were a handful of local youth who truly shone as triple-threat performers. Over the course of the next ten years, some of these local “Follies youth” finished high school, pursued theatre at the post-secondary level, and continued to return to the Follies for their summer employment, bringing with them, at times, other post-secondary theatre classmates. Once the Follies began to get this “taste” of post-secondary students, it didn’t take long to notice that these more experienced, more mature theatre students gave a greater degree of professionalism to the summer shows. By 2008, the Follies began to actively pursue the hiring of post-secondary theatre students, with, of course, local talent still being given special consideration. These post-secondary theatre students also made perfect “mentors” to the local youth keen on pursuing acting as a career.
Follies performers in 2015. Photo by Dave Cornelius, from the Gold Fever Follies.
However, as the Follies expanded from an amateur youth group to the professional theatre group that it has become, even the group of volunteers began to tucker out with the workload. As a result, more and more tasks had to be hired out. Directors were hired to work with the cast for the month of rehearsals, and script and music writers could be paid for their creative materials. All this added to production costs. As costs to produce the Follies each summer continued to increase year after year, grants that had previously been available started to disappear. By 2009, despite the popularity of the shows, the Follies found themselves in dire financial straits, to the point that they almost had to fold. At the same time, it lost most of its board members for various reasons: work, moving away, health issues, and simply exhaustion. Somehow, then Vice President Lisa Henderson and costume mistress Shirley McLim, along with her set-building husband, Larry McLim, still managed to keep the Follies afloat and alive to this day.
Special Mentions
When talking about the Follies, one cannot fail to acknowledge Maurice Samuelson, the “Father of the Follies.” A dedicated volunteer and familiar face in the local community, Samuelson, who served as President of the Follies Society from 2002 until his death in 2006, contributed his all to the Gold Fever Follies. In fact, from the Follies very first show on July 12th, 1987, and every show until his death in 2006, Samuelson volunteered as the front of house person, greeting the public, selling tickets and running the concession. Whether it was opening his home as a welcoming “drop-in” centre to cast members each summer, or selling homemade jam on the sidewalks of downtown Rossland as a Follies fundraiser in the Follies off-seasons, his year-round dedication to the Follies was unquestionable. The hole that his passing left in the Follies family was huge, and in 2007, the year after his death, the Follies created in his honour “The Maurice Samuelson Award,” which is given to a volunteer or cast member who, in the same spirit as Maurice, has gone above and beyond in their contributions to the season.
Another Follies volunteer whose name cannot be missed is Babs Bourchier. She served as President for the Follies Society for almost 10 years, until her death in 2001. During her time on the Follies board, she did much of the historical research upon which she based many of the Follies scripts. In addition, she wrote the lyrics of many of the early songs, usually put to old-time music. Bourchier also helped with the audition process and did her share of directing.
Lisa Henderson is as much the “Mother” of the Follies as Maurice was the “Father.” Having joined the Follies in 1990 to volunteer her casting experience, it’s been impossible to recall a year when Henderson hasn't been involved. She held the position of Vice President of the Follies Society since its conception until 2013, when she became President and Artistic Director of the Follies board. She continues to conduct the auditions each year, has co-written several of the Follies scripts, and regularly supervises and edits the scripts submitted by others. She has assisted with the directing, the lighting of the set, grant writing, and just about everything else that the Follies gets up to.
There are many excellent community members volunteering their time and talents to keep this Rossland treasure alive to this day!
Find a whole photo album of past and present executive members and cast members on the Follies website!
Cancan, can you... sew a cancan?
The 2008 Follies cast from the show “49 Bars and a Funeral.” From the Gold Fever Follies website.
Initially, many of the costumes were borrowed from the Rossland Light Opera Players. RLOP seamstresses who lent their talents were Shirley Mendoza and Penny Smith. However, the Follies soon began to make their own costumes. Over the years, the Follies have built what can only be described as one of the greatest historical costume vaults in the Kootenays. From cancan dresses to the dashing, dapper suits, to everything else in between, these fantastic eye-catching costumes can be accredited to one Shirley McLim. Her talents with the sewing machine are matched by the skills of her husband, Larry McLim, who builds many of the amazing set pieces and props. (Yes, he even built a “replica” of the flying steamshovel, and made it “fly” on stage!). Each year, the McLims continue to impress audiences and Follies board members with their vivid imaginations for historical interpretation regarding both props and costumes alike.
Other past board members and volunteers worthy of mention include (but are not limited to) Rae Wellock (first President of the Follies Society), Pat McNulty (first secretary/treasurer), Charles Bailey and Garry Bock (first set builders), Ted Milner, Bob Ross, Jack Fisher, Rita Szekely (composer of the current opening & closing Follies theme songs which she gifted to the Follies in 1994), Lindsay Fraser, Kathy Wallace, Lorren Culley (built the oleo), Louise Drescher (painted the oleo backdrop of downtown Rossland), Adam Sander, Jason Whitley, Louise Lessard, Almeda Miller, Tanya Williams, Colleen Bay, Joseph S. Fuoco, and Sarah MacPherson Markvardsen. The Follies Society has been joined by Mary LeRose (who took over the finances as Treasurer, and has kept the books neat and tidy ever since), Marnie Jacobsen (a retired doctor and seasoned actor in her own rights who has lent her skills in helping to write some of the scripts), Margot Wright (who took charge of program advertising), Terry Brinson (who currently oversees the show’s concession, and who has been invaluable to the many fundraising efforts), and Joanne Tench (another hard worker in the fundraising department). Other current volunteers are Mary Ann Davies, Erik Pistner, Kimberley Harris, and Apollo Johnston. Also invaluable to the group is Cassandra De Git, the Follies webmaster. It is this group of active volunteers who make up the Follies Society that have managed to weather the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21.
The Follies today
Current Follies logo est. 2011
The Gold Fever Follies’ show has typically drawn over 2600 visitors to their shows each summer. It is a treasured part of Rossland’s cultural and heritage scene.
The Follies brings awareness to our rich heritage in an engaging way that excites both young and old alike. With support from the community, the Gold Fever Follies hopes to continue telling the stories of Rossland 100 years ago…
Go see the show!
Learn more at the Gold Fever Follies website.
Thank you to Lisa Henderson, Ray Furlotte, and Apollo Johnston for helping create this historical picture!