Origins

This is my origin story, edited from an introduction of my comedy sketches that is no longer in print, which, after all these years, sums my beginnings in all three acts of my life thus far.

My favorite TV show of all time is The Dick Van Dyke Show. Other than the fact that the show is an acknowledged classic, one of the things that always appealed to me was Rob Petrie’s job as a comedy writer. Now, that seemed to be a perfect profession for me. Not only would I be able to create comedy all day long, but I’d have a lot of laughs in the process. Of course, the icing on Rob’s cake was that he was able to go home every night to the young Mary Tyler Moore. Woof!

I was able to live part of that dream during my time at a magical land called Pollardville, the kingdom that fried chicken built. Located just outside Stockton, California on Highway 99, Pollardville began as the Chicken Kitchen, a take-out restaurant specializing in deep fried poultry. Years later, the Pollards acquired some buildings and sets from the William Wyler film The Big Country starring Gregory Peck, which had been filmed in the area. They schlepped these down the road virtually intact and stuck them behind the Chicken Kitchen to create the Pollardville Ghost Town, a roadside attraction complete with western stunt shows and train ride. Another building they purchased later was part of an old warehouse from a nearby cannery, which they converted into the Pollardville Palace, a dinner theater that served chicken (naturally) for audiences to munch on while watching stage shows consisting of old time melodramas and vaudeville. A few years down the road, the outside of the building had an entire makeover when it was remodeled into a riverboat facade to became the Palace Showboat Dinner Theater.

Cast of original production of LA RUE'S RETURN

My own saga began in my teenage years out in the Ghost Town. I was a full-fledged weekend cowboy, robbing the not-quite-full-scale train and performing in the aforementioned western stunt shows and gunfights on Main Street. It was a great comedic training ground for I was able to create and perform several different characters, test the improvisational waters and even write my own material.

After many seasons, I finally hung up my spurs and graduated to the college course known as Palace Showboat 101, which I attacked with a vengeance. It was within those hallowed halls that I was able to do everything I ever wanted to do in show business-act, write, direct, stand-up comedy-EVERYTHING! (Well, everything except make a decent living wage, but that’s another story) If Disneyland hadn’t already claimed it, I would have dubbed Pollardville at that influential point in my life “the happiest place on the face of the earth”.

Now the Pollardville show formula was quite simple. First up was the melodrama, a modernized version of the archaic theater form. These were your basic audience participatory CHEER the Handsome Hero, BOO the Dastardly Villain and AWWWW with pathos with the Helpless Heroine scenarios. Following intermission was the olio or vaudeville section, basically a mini-revue with song and dance numbers and lotsa comedy.

Many of the sketches and blackouts (quick gags) in the Palace Showboat productions were rehashes of classic old bits from vaudeville and burlesque shows from what seemed to be from the Dawn of Time. One could never argue their effect on audiences because they ate ‘em up with a spoon. But, being young, impetuous and thinking that I knew it all, I had to try to come up with new material to call my own. After all, I had co-authored an original melodrama for the Palace Showboat a couple of years before entitled La Rue’s Return or How’s a Bayou? with my best friend, Edward Thorpe. It was pretty well received and good enough to be revived a few years later.

So, I dove in head first, hitting my head on the bottom of the pool a few times, but eventually able to write and direct my own show within a year’s time. In fact, I almost pulled an Orson Welles by writing an original melodrama, The Legend of the Rogue and writing/directing the second half of that production entitled Life is a Cabaret. That would have been quite a feat if I didn’t get in so far over my head that I couldn’t even call for help. Of course, pride had a lot to do with that near debacle. I thought I could do it all. Ah, the arrogance of youth. The show went on despite of me, but it soured me on the experience for a couple of years before I tried it again. I thought I knew it all, though the opposite was actually true. After stuffing myself full of humble pie, I came back with a vengeance, writing and directing three shows in a row, penning a new melodrama Song of the Lone Prairie which turned out to be my biggest hit down the road and finishing up a decade of Palace Showboat productions before I finally moved on.

In March of 2007, Pollardville closed its doors for good. Cowpokes engaged in a final gunfight in the Ghost Town before riding off into the sunset. The Palace Showboat, long since dormant, held one last show on its stage, a grand finale reunion revue featuring Palace Showboat Players from its 25 year history. Needless to say, a good time was had by all, just as we always had at the magical place we called Home. Three years later in April of 2010, Pollardville was torn down. For all intents and purposes, it is now gone forever except for those who keep its memory alive in their hearts and minds including the patron saint of comedy itself, the chicken.

Forever may it cluck.

What I learned from those halcyon days of yore also helped me in my creation of murder mysteries as well since I realized that the melodramas and vaudeville sketches I wrote were as at least second cousins-big, broad characters, goofy names, outlandish plots. There even may be a future murder mystery set in a Pollardville type setting just to complete the circle of life.

My other blog, SCOTT CHERNEY'S ETC., contains several stories from my Pollardville years, gathered together on a page called TALES FROM THE VILLE.