by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, April, 29, 2022.
1938 was Exeter’s Tercentenary year – 300 years as an organized town. People lined the streets in February to watch dog sled races and they lined up again in July for the mammoth anniversary parade. In September, mother nature unleashed the great Hurricane of ’38, bringing down most of the trees on Front Street. People would certainly remember 1938 as a great rush of excitement, and as a time before the reality of World War II set in.
Of all the excitement that year, one of the most memorable events for the town’s teenagers was a school musical called “The Fountain of Youth.” Written in 1936, it was a simple musical comedy written by two long-forgotten composers, Charles & Keith Brown. The plot was simple and silly: “a burlesque of the search for the Fountain of Youth by Ponce de Leon,” recounted the Exeter High School yearbook. “The play began in the Spain of the Conquistadors and ended with the bottom falling out in the midst of a scheme to exploit the fountain in true twentieth century fashion.” On the surface, it seems like any other school musical. But Exeter didn’t have a typical school system.
Boys attended Exeter High School, often called the Tuck High School in honor of the building’s benefactor, Edward Tuck. The girls went to the Robinson Female Seminary. The two schools were within spitting distance of one another – maybe a quarter mile if you took the long way. Yet it might have been in a different time-zone for all the contact the students had during the day. Each school would hold its own events throughout the year, always careful to keep the other sex off the stage even if the audience was ‘mixed.’
Mrs. Marguerite Johnson was hired in 1935 to serve as the supervisor of music for the entire Exeter school district. She arrived, separated from her husband, with extensive teaching experience and a graduate of the Maine Conservatory of Music. Like the art teacher, Johnson had to travel between the many elementary schools to reach her pupils. Still, she was able to pull enough of the younger kids together to present “The Toymaker” – a musical aspirationally referred to as an “operetta” in the 1937 school report. We’ve all seen grade school performances. They are charming and funny, but we don’t think of them as high art. The inclusion of both boys and girls in the show, however, got Mrs. Johnson thinking. “It is thought to be desirable that our boys and girls from grade seven on should have many opportunities for combined efforts in music. Sharing this opinion and ready to meet the difficulties of rehearsals at times to suit the daily programs of both the High School and the Seminary, Mrs. Johnson has met with a considerable degree of success.” She tried to merge, or at least co-mingle, the students in the two orchestras with some success.
By 1938, with three solid years under her belt, Mrs. Johnson was ready to launch her great experiment. In November it was announced that “Mrs. Johnson and a group of Seminary and high school pupils are rehearsing an operatta, which will be put on in December.” The senior class at the Seminary was already busily rehearsing their own play, which would be performed earlier in the month. This meant that it would mostly be the younger singers from the schools that got to perform in the musical. The boys didn’t even have a glee club. Imagine being 15 or 16 years old and allowed to rehearse, perform and just plain hang out with the opposite sex – for school? No more girls playing boys or boys playing girls, this was the real thing.
The rehearsals took place at Exeter High School, much to the chagrin of the athletics program. “Last Tuesday,” announced the Exeter News-Letter in early December, “Coach George Knox called for candidates to report for basketball practice. Practice can be held only at odd times, as the auditorium is being used for rehearsals for the operetta and Christmas plays.” Alma Hall, who played one of the leads, later remarked, “We worked real hard. Formed at Town Hall – that’s where we put it on. I enjoyed it very much!” It was one of the few times she laughed while recalling the Depression era during an oral history session 81 years after the fact. Seminary principal, James Pirnie, was enthusiastic in his report. “The value of this project was evident to all who participated in the production, as it was a challenge to the young people, the music being more difficult than any attempted in previous entertainments.”
“The Fountain of Youth” had two performances on December 16th & 17th at the Exeter Town Hall. By all accounts it was a stirring success. Mrs. Johnson, who by this time had been elected President of the New Hampshire Music Festival, resolved to bring the combined chorus to the competition in May. The boys, who discovered they liked singing, quickly formed a glee club of their own. After the performance, the two schools combined their musical talents with great frequency. Mr. Pirnie commenting, “a large orchestra in the schools could easily become a source of great civic pride.” Indeed, it did, and the music program, more than any other thing, nudged the two schools toward the final move to co-education in 1955.
Alma Hall provided the photograph of the cast of “The Fountain of Youth” for this article. The singers look as youthful as ever. Within just a few years, the Depression would be a memory as they became active participants in World War II, which would mark their introduction into maturity.
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Image: (courtesy of Alma Hall) The cast of “The Fountain of Youth” poses at the end of the performance, held at Town Hall, in 1938. This was the first theatrical featuring the combined efforts of Exeter High School and the Robinson Female Seminary.