Home Photo Galleries   • 2000-2009   • 1990-1999   • 1980-1989   • 1970-1979   • 1969   • 1968   • 1967   • 1966   • 1965   • 1964   • 1963   • 1962   • 1961   • 1960   • 1950-1959   • 1949   • 1948   1964 The Vanishing Verdugo Vase The Seventeenth Year: April 10 and 11, 1964 Producer: Jim Clark Director: Jim Gates Story and Script: Shirley Hess and Beverly Gates Musical Director: Bob Adolphe Choreographer: Doris Boyer Stagecraft and Props: Art Moore Poster/Program Art: Marge Hudson By Jill Benone: This was the first production of The Vanishing Verdugo Vase, written and staged after the five Cash scripts had their first runs. A newscaster, George Pullman (apparently voiced by George Putnam) relates how a Spanish ship carrying a priceless vase filled with jewels was lost to a pirate attack. Furious, the Spanish king placed a curse on the vase, decreeing that anyone who tried to unseal the vase and possess the treasure would fall into the hands of Neptuna, a horrible sea monster. In a related news story, famous movie director Eric von Strogonoff is starting a major production based on this legend. Several of the PTA ladies, notably Mmes. Plink, Plank, Plunk, and Wiffenwoo, decide to audition for the film, which will shoot in Pismo Beach. Horrified at the idea, Principal Fiske, and PTA President Mrs. Feefack rush to dissuade them. The kids become involved with a beauty contest, the sea monster, and a shipload of pirates who are burying the Verdugo Vase on a hidden island. (The pirates cannot decide whether their captives should walk the plank or the wiffenwoo.) At the end, of course, one of the kids breaks the curse, which leaves Neptuna with nothing to do. The kids decide to use the money to produce bigger and better Fathers’ Follies. As the show ends, Von Strogonoff is fleeing up the aisle chased by the entire cast who want to be in his film. The 1971 script is available. Judging from both programs, the characters and situations were the same.