Appleton, WI - Tour Week #66

Tuesday, May 13th

By all indications, I love Wisconsin. Appleton was another great stop!

While Appleton is a small town (72,085 according to the "Welcome to Appleton" sign), it is the biggest city in and the center of the Fox Cities: 14 towns arranged around the Fox River. As such, it has a vibrant downtown. The Fox Cities are one of the top 50 manufacturing areas in the country due, in large part, to the paper-making industry. It is also home to Wisconsin's second largest mall and has recently become a shopping destination advertised across the state.

Smaller towns often afford us the warmest welcomes

TVFMHRW - Appleton

The Fox Cities PAC is a recent addition to the community - it opened in 2002. The auditorium seats 2,100 and has an intimate feeling as no seat is more than 108 feet from the stage. The stage spaces are modern and were more than adequate for our needs. The crew was great. They were friendly and on top of their game. Turns out I know lots of stagehands who have come out of the IA Local #470 of Northeast Wisconsin: Ryan DeQuaine (one of our deck carpenters), Eric Swanson (our former - and now sub - front light man), Erica Aldeson (our wardrobe sub) and Paul Sonnleitner (moving light programmer, husband to Kari Thompson and father to Master William and Dame Sydney).

The Fox Cities PAC

The loading dock was big enough to play basketball!

Terry launches a fade-away jumper

One of the local stagehands brought in homemade jerkey and fresh (still squeaky) cheese curds

I slept in on Monday, having arrived late the night before on the sleeper bus. After I ran errands and paid bills, I met up with Karl and Suzanne for a Cinco de Mayo dinner. We went to Solea Mexican Grill in Menasha just upstream from Appleton. The place was packed and there was a bit of a wait. We had a few margaritas while we waited. Once we were seated and served, the food was terrific and the atmosphere was quite festive.

Load-in and our first show dominated, as they always do, Tuesday. We did get to walk around downtown Appleton on our lunch break. There were plenty of restaurants with many ethnicity's represented. Several different coffee options and lots of drinking establishments also lined College Avenue. Named for Lawrence University, College Avenue is Appleton's main drag. The University sits to the east of downtown. Lawrence is a liberal arts school founded in 1847 as one of the first coed colleges in the country. Today, the University enrolls about 1,400 students and their presence can be felt all over Appleton.

Lawrence University's Main Hall

On Wednesday, I took advantage of the kitchen in my studio at the Candlewood to try out a culinary experiment. Sheila Marie tears out articles of interest from New York magazine and sends them along to me. One of the recipes she sent recently was for a cocktail that involved bacon infused bourbon. I'll repeat: BACON INFUSED BOURBON. I had to try this heavenly sounding elixir. I had a good time making a stab at cocktail perfection, but - alas - after infusing with bacon fat for 8 hours, my Maker's Mark came out tasting like Maker's Mark. Still and all, it was a good excuse to have Ben Davis over after the show for a couple of Manhattans...

Bacon bourbon in process - the bacon fat is meant to infuse the bourbon with a smoky flavour...

I walked along the Fox River after rehearsal on Thursday. The Fox was once known as the hardest working river in America both for the concentration of industry along its banks as well as the number of dams, turbines and mills it passed over, through and around. The river was home to the first central hydroelectric station in the world. In 1882 the Vulcan Street Plant went into operation. Thanks, in large part, to the development of hydroelectric power generation, Appleton was also home to the first successful electric street car company and among the first cities to install electric street lights. In the short stretch of the river that I walked along, there were several retired paper mills (now home to loft apartments) and one working mill. Some 20 paper mills still operate along the river, as evidenced by the train car loads of lumber that rumbled past the stage door all the time.

The Fox River Paper Company - still making paper in Appleton

The Vulcan Street Plant, since decommissioned and relocated

One of the trains that went by the stage door all the time.

Cars from the Wisconsin Central and the old Milwaukee Road were hitched up to CN engines along with load after load of lumber.

The Spamalot Cigar Enthusiasts convened on Thursday night after the show. Right across the avenue from the theatre was the Appleton Souvenir and Cigar Shop. I don't know what souvenirs they sold, but they had an impressive assortment of cigars on offer as well as a comfortable smoking lounge and bar. The man working Thursday evening was friendly and very knowledgeable; he made us feel right at home.

Cuz relaxing with a cigar

Berg fires up

On Friday, I visited the Outagamie Museum. Housed in a castle-looking building that used to be the city's Masonic Temple, the museum houses a collection on the history of industry in the area, an exhibit about Appleton's most famous son: Harry Houdini and an exhibit exploring the Appleton of the 1960's. I went to the museum specifically to see the Houdini exhibit, but wound up enjoying both of the other exhibits a lot. I learned quite a bit about paper-making and the other related industries (for example, the Appleton Wire Company grew with the paper industry as every grade of paper is made on a varying gauge of screen). I also enjoyed the inherent conflict in a community that is both host to a liberal arts college full of students pushing for social change and the hometown of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Both of the these groups were brought together by the Packers team's victory in the legendary "Ice Bowl" of 1967.

Senator McCarthy's grave above the Fox River

Houdini was born in Hungary, but moved to Appleton at a young age when his father was hired as the Cantor of the temple in Appleton. Harry's given name was Erich Weiss . He only lived in Appleton for five years (his father was fired) before the family moved to New York, but he adopted Appleton as his hometown. He even went so far as to list it as his birthplace in later life. He chose Houdini as his stage name in honor of the French illusionist Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin and anglicized Erich to Harry. He began his stage career as a trapeze artist at age ten, but quickly moved into magic with little success until Martin Beck (later the president of the Orpheum organization and owner of the Palace and Martin Beck theatres in New York)encouraged him to focus on his escape act and booked him on the Orpheum circuit. The exhibit at the Outagamie Museum detailed not only his life, but how he accomplished many of his magical effects. As when any magic trick is revealed, it is such a disappointment to see how simply the illusion is created. For many of his escapes, Houdini simply used an accomplish to get him a key he could copy and hide on his person. Of course, the simplest solution is almost always the one employed, but it's still a let down...

Between shows on Saturday, the theatre hosted a cook-out for us. This being Wisconsin, of course there were bratwurst on the grill! They also cooked up some boca-burgers and hamburgers for us and served it all up with a big plate of cheese curds. A free meal between shows is always welcome and I enjoy it that much more when someone goes to the trouble of cooking up a local specialty.

The Spamily lines up for brats off the grill

Francesca and Ryan hosted Shot Night on Saturday evening. They created a shot known as the "Jamaican Bobsled". The shot itself was a fruity concoction, but it was how we drank the shot that made it especially cool. They created a frozen luge out of block of ice and poured the shot down the icy track into our waiting mouths. Hilarious.

Ryan pours a shot for Gary (King Arthur)

I left Appleton on the sleeper bus late Sunday night bound for Madison (the tour of state capitols continues!) arriving early on Monday morning. I enjoyed everything about my visit to Appleton. The Candlewood made me fee immediately at home and cooked several meals for myself. Appleton maintained a small town feeling while still offering plenty to see, do and eat. I think, though, the single thing that made me enjoy Appleton (and Milwaukee, too) so much is the people. I'm so very comfortable with these folks. While others might laugh at their Wisconsin accents, they make me feel at home. I get these people. They're hospitality seems to come from a very genuine place. They're a lot like the folks I grew up with. I guess you can take the boy out the Midwest, but you can't take the Midwest out of the boy.

The customary album of photos is here.

JV