Memories of Peter Pan

by Benedict Herrman

SICA-USA asked me to relate what memories I have about being in “Peter Pan,” the Mary Martin television show reprising the role she did on Broadway in the early 50’s, but before I do, a little background might be in order.

I had an unusual childhood by most people’s standards, though it certainly didn’t seem that way to me at the time. My parents were both theatre people, meeting in New York City when they were cast in the same show set to play the Catskills upstate in what was called the Borscht Circuit. They fell in love in the traditional manner, got married, and two years later I came along (also in the traditional manner), making my folks’ one bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village a bit more crowded. My father recalled having to direct my mother in plays while she was pregnant. he would have her stand behind furniture, so the audience didn’t notice a woman “in the family way” on stage. Though I don’t remember it, evidently my first on-stage appearances were pre-natal.

I’m the blond kid in front and to the right of Mary Martin. I think we’re singing, “I won’t Grow Up.”

Eventually my folks wound up with their own summer theatre in southern Ontario, Canada, not too far from Niagara Falls across the lake from Toronto. We’d drive up from New York every year in late May and spend the summer there. Dad produced and directed, Mom was the Business Manager and occasionally acted. Inevitably, my sister and I got put in shows as extras just to fill out the scene for better, more realistic crowd sequences. One day, an agent friend of theirs in Toronto asked them if we’d like to read for roles in a television show called “Cannonball” being shot locally. My folks drove us to Toronto, and we both auditioned. I read the lines easily, but my sister, much shyer than I, didn’t open her mouth. I got the part, and they cast another girl as my sister. A friend of my dad’s was also cast in the show — Louis Zorich, who was married to Olympia Dukakis. He taught me to blow bubbles with bubble gum, which, as I was only seven, elevated Louis to near god-like status.

Choreographer’s nightmare — the little Lost Boys in Neverland, including myself, were completely artless, stumbling through each dance routine with little awareness of timing, grace, or coordination. (Watch the ‘I Won’t Grow Up’ sequence and you’ll see it.) The Indians and Pirates where all professional dancers so were quite good, but we were all clueless as to the subtleties of dance. It was frustrating for the choreographer, I’m sure.

When Mary was first getting used to flying again, wearing the harness and being lifted from backstage by wire, she began swinging back and forth to get the feeling of how to navigate. Unfortunately, she slammed into the cement wall of where we were rehearsing and hurt her arm, forcing her to wear a sling during rehearsals until she had healed. What I found impressive was that she never complained but got right back
into rehearsal without a whimper.

One last memory of that show — the cameras. They were huge, almost like little Volkswagens. It took one person to operate the camera and its lenses, and another just to pull the thing around for a dolly shot. It might have been the Golden Age of Television, but it was the Dark Ages of television technology. The cables were thick and heavy, so you had to be careful stepping over them, and the picture quality was primitive by modern standards.

Remember, too, this was shot in 1959-60, and the mentality of the time (not far removed from live television) was to shoot a complete scene in one take, cutting only after the dance or song was done. If we had to do a scene again, we did the entire thing from the beginning, which meant long hours of shooting. I have memories of hanging out in the dressing room for ages and doing my homework until they were set up to shoot the next sequence and getting home from the studio way after dark.

You’ll find my role on “Peter Pan” on IMDb if you look… but truly, this isn’t a part of my life I talk much about anymore, as that was then and this is now. Yes, I continued acting for many years, and was one of the founding members of Fayra Teeters’ Masque Alfresco, (a SICA project) performing outdoors for several years around the Portland, Oregon area every summer. I’ve done indie films in Portland, too, as well as voice-overs, radio commercials, and lots of theatre. I’ll still get up at congresses and do a comedy bit occasionally, but honestly, I’ve retired from that world. I learned long ago that life isn’t about being a good actor, it’s about being a good human being. I’m still working on that role, and the audition seems to be never-ending…