FINDING JERRY

A family mystery was recently fleshed out when through some minor luck, I found online a copy of the playbook “Jerry of Jericho Road. An Operetta in Two Acts” by Estelle Merrymon Clark and Palmer John Clark. This author/composer couple were kind of like the Rogers and Hammerstein of 1930’s and 40’s high school musicals, specializing in two act operettas. They were full of bizarre plots, simultaneous subplots, convolution and confusion. The Clark operettas were perfect for high school productions though, because their large casts ensured a part for everyone and lots of chorus and ensemble songs. 

Mary Jane Casteel, 1936

My mother, Mary Jane Casteel Doherty, was called “Jerry” for all of her adult life. One wonders how such a name exchange came about. How, one asks, did one trade the beautiful name “Mary” for “Jerry”? 

Aha! The answer is right here. Jerry of Jericho Road, which first saw the light of day, or probably the light of night, sometime in the 1920s, was presented by the Battle Ground High School (Washington) in 1939. My mother had the lead role, which somehow conferred on her a type of thespian baptism and christening of  “Jerry” which name she bore until the day she died. Growing up in the fifties and Sixties, my siblings and I were aware of her part in the play and the origin of her lifelong nickname, but knew nothing else about this mysterious production.

The playbook was a very interesting read, bringing memories of my own participation in a high school production in which I, in my brother’s suit, was stranded onstage somewhere in the second act after another erstwhile thespian skipped about two pages of dialogue during which I was supposed to have exited, stage right. I was in a panic, looking in all directions for help while vast numbers of stagehands in the wings were gesturing and pointing in a fruitless effort to guide me offstage. I finally announced, “I guess I’ll duck out for a cup of coffee and see you all later” and rushed as fast as I could for the nearest exit. In the aftermath, no one told me what an ingeniously clever recovery that was. In fact, no one spoke to me for days.

Cover art for Jerry of Jericho Road. Many
playbooks of this era had much more attractive
cover art.

But back to the musical and its plot:  Jerry (in the play) owns some ranch (Jericho) and oil land somewhere in the West. She is joined by her aunt and cousin, who are chasing the wealthy adjoining rancher (enter Alan) with matrimony for the cousin in mind. Comes now John, Alan’s cousin, trying to buy Jerry’s oil rights. Jerry and John develop an attachment, but Jerry comes to believe that John and another woman are trying to get her land underhandedly. Jerry, her cousin, and John disappear. The cousin reappears and tells a story of kidnapping. Jerry reappears with a Mr Bean from Boston (I kid you not!) There are some shenanigans about options and sale of the oil, but in the end all are happy, with the pairing of the cousin and Alan, and Jerry and John. There’s a lot of corn in this thing. Here’s part of the Finale:

            I'm Jerry of Jericho Road,

Proclaiming my place of abode

And chasing the tumbleweed flurries,

On pony am  I

Passing them by,

            Shouting I fly  Hi! Hi! 

They’ll tell you that when the wind blows.

I follow it wherever it goes,

With laughter as gay as their dancing,

So merry am I,

For Jerry am I

Of Jericho Road.

 Well, maybe its better with the music. The only information I can find online about this little operetta and its authors are in a blog entitled “High School Musicals – The Origins”. This blogger, Sean Martin, reviewed four of the Clarks’ operettas  (but not this one) and used words like rambunctious, convoluted, bizarre, twisted, surreal, overdone, awful, relentless, outlandish, inane, and on and on. Martin is not kind to the Clarks. He does seem, however, to like the artwork on some of the covers of the plays he reviews.

One can see the evolution of these musicals from productions of the twenties, and earlier. They were products for their time, full of corny gags and plot twists …. and they worked. Remember that before the days of television and netflex, productions such as high school drama were important community events. And on a more personal note, I know more now about my mother’s youth and her times. 

Roger Doherty