By Michael Buckley, Associate Publisher
Recently, a Windsor Community Playhouse show stepped back into the first half of the 20th century. It was a time when people traveled by railroad, listened to the radio, shopped using the Sears catalog, and applauded the hits of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.
The Rag Time world had become the Jazz Age. The world of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson had become the age of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. The nation was predominantly farmers but becoming a country of urban dwellers.
Then the Great Depression hit in 1929. People who had been dancing the Charleston found themselves standing in bread lines. Stocks fell, jobs evaporated and the Dust Bowl made farming a discouraging, back-breaking life. Enter Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, an optimistic man unable to walk on his own because of polio, was elected president. Franklin was hated by the privileged, loved by the working man, and listened to as a man of hope with his “Fire Side Chats.” He led the country through the Great Depression and World War II. FDR was elected president four times.
Richard Marold portraying FDR
The WCP audience was introduced to Franklin Delano Roosevelt portrayed by Colorado Springs resident, Richard Marold, who spoke as FDR himself about his presidency, wife Eleanor, the New Deal, the depression, the Pacific and European theatres of World War II, personal antidotes, meetings with Winston Churchill and a variety of other topics. The sow included a Press Conference for the audience to pose questions of the time which were answered with accuracy, conviction and knowledge about the life and times of FDR.
The performance by Richard Marold was truly a step back in time, the audience deeply engaged, listened intently and for many a cause to remember their own experiences.