Here’s ……… Backstage!

The Backstage section will feature stories regarding experiences with various theatrical productions and films.

There will also be first-hand celebrity stories and photos based on several dozen well known performers that I had the pleasure of meeting over the years, including my time in Phoenix as the editor of a state entertainment magazine highlighting film, television, and theater. In many cases, there was a rarefied atmosphere around the famous but most of them, not all, remained grounded on the earth.

The goal is a couple Backstage posts per month. Hope you enjoy these memories.

Backstage

17 June 2016

Sitting in the Chapel with…Rhonda Fleming




Rhonda Fleming, the legendary movie star of several decades whose career peaked in the 1950s, was among my favorite interviews when I was editor of the entertainment magazine On The Arizona Set. I first became aware of Ms. Fleming when a high school coach spoke about going to the movies as a boy and falling […]

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29 January 2016

“Staged Lives” (1994) The First Masque Entertainment Production




This Masque-produced show at Planet Earth Theatre in Phoenix featured “Death Scene,” “Lili Marlene,” and “The Dressing Room.” It was billed as “a trilogy of one-act comedies about crazy people in the world of theater.” Arizona Republic columnist Kyle Lawson reported that “it’s by Phoenix playwright Greg Paxton, a crazy theater person himself.” He went […]

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24 November 2015

Robert Urich




In the autumn of 1997, I flew to Houston and met the actor Robert Urich at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. It was a basement meeting room, very rudimentary, populated with four journalists and my mother Patsy Paxton, author of the book C Notes: My Journey Through Breast Cancer. We had access to the film […]

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13 October 2015

Above The Fire – Myrtle Beach Premiere




We followed the screening with a panel discussion featuring community folk who offered insights into the 9-11 aftermath, plus two of our film actresses, Eileen Marie Davis (Adora Easton) and Sue Feeheley (Iona MacPhee). All had soulful thoughts to share and our verbal interaction with the audience was emotional and, ultimately, uplifting. Afterward, our group […]

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