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WALTZ TIME — With hoop skirts flaring, five dancers in The girls are Margaret Channel!, Arrinda Miller and Betsy the “Birth of Dixie” cast circle on stage during rehearsals. Snider of Mansfield, Carol Jessup and Yovet Courson of Mt.Vernon‘Birth of Dixie’ Becoming Institution for Mt. VernonBy RON SIMON MT. VERNON — Daniel Decatur Emmett, Mt. Vernon’s most famous son, is rapidly becoming an institution, a tour-1st attraction and a business.The author of “Dixie,” “Old Dan Tucker.” and “Turkey In the Straw,” died 66 years ago in Mt. Vernon.Three years ago, interest in Emmett’s career was rekindled and resulted In Lee Durieux of Mt. Vernon writing the “Birth of Dixie,” a historical, musical drama based on Emmett’s life.Now in its third year, “Birth of Dixie” is an expanding product of the Mt. Vernon Dixie Assn., whose members hope the production, already an annual event, will be the cornerstone for an annual festival to match any other festival in the state.★ ★ ★The show itself, held in the Knox County Memorial Theater, has a cast of 52 actors, singers and dancers coming from Mt. Vernon, Mansfield, Delaware, Mt. Gilead and now from Columbus.The fact that eight Columbus residents are taking part indicates how “Dixie” has grown. (Lee Harrison, Mt. Vernon, president of the Dixie Association, said the cast includes 52 persons. Last year there were 45. He said there will be 18 performances as compared to nine last year and four the first year. Another im-• provement came when the Association obtained the ser-vices of Lowell Riley, producer of the Columbus Vaud Villi-ties to do new arrangements for “Dixie’s” musical scores. The Association quickly bought the rights to the arrangements.*Another new twist will be a Dixie Queen pageant, with the finalists to be announced at the Memorial Theatre onAug. 6.ir'k'kMt. Vernon merchants are considering Dixie sales and somewhere in the future there may be a Dixie Festival. Bit by bit, Dixie grows on Mt. Vernon and the association sees a bright future ahead. Members hope that Dixie will grow into an event to rival, say the Pumpkin Festival at Circle-ville.To help things along, the association has set the night of July 29 aside as V.I.P. Preview Night with guest invitations going out to the press, Ohio mayors and other elected officials.Meanwhile, practice for the show itself has been underway since June 23. For the third year in a row, Mansfield Attorney James Buef will portray Dan Emmett and for the second year, Ruef is the producer and director.iThere have been a number of cast changes over the three short years, but some cast members, including Mans-fielders Edna Alexander, Jean Smith, Bob Herdman and choreographer, Jim Scheiber, are Dixie veterans.Aside from the V. I. P. night, productions will be held on six weekends from July 31 through Sept. 6, including Sunday matinees.*■*. -■t, - • lt;„ -lt;Photos hy Ron SimonDAN AND PROTOGE — Pictured by a portrait of the original Daniel Decatur Emmett is James Ruef, Mansfield attorney, who will portray the author of “Dixie” for the third straight summer at Mt. Vernon. Ruef is also director- producer of “Birth of Dixie.” Of course, Emmett had no chin whiskers in this portrait, but a cast member insisted he normally wore whiskersthat resembled Ruef's.
Newspaper Details
News Journal
Mansfield, Ohio, US
Sun, Jul 19, 1970
Page 17
Full Page
Clipped by
Oberlin C.
OH, USA 05 Aug 2019
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