Munsel Stops For A Quick Spokane Visit
One of Spokane’s most famous products, Patrice Munsel, breezed into town last weekend to attend a formal dinner, so I thought this would be a good time to answer the following question:
What’s Patrice up to these days?
At age 70, she no longer sings opera, although she still does some concerts, as she told Barry Watkins of KAQQ-AM on Sept. 22 in an on-air interview. She lives in New York and spends most of her time with her husband, various children and grandchildren.
The last time she appeared professionally in Spokane was in 1990 with a touring version of “Mame.” She told Watkins that she was impressed with all of the new improvements in Spokane. She was particularly impressed with the new Spokane Arena.
However, she must have been a little nostalgic for the now-demolished Spokane Coliseum. She was the opening act at the old Barn’s gala grand opening in December 1954.
Munsel was at the height of her career in those days.
She was born in Spokane and attended school here; but, after Munsel’s parents recognized her gifts, she left Lewis and Clark High School after only a year and a half and went to New York.
While still a teenager, she won a Metropolitan Opera audition, and debuted at The Met when she was 18, thus becoming its youngest leading singer ever.
She remained with The Met through 1958, and sang many memorable roles. Meanwhile, she branched out into Broadway, appearing in such shows as “Kiss Me Kate,” “The Song of Norway,” and “Can-Can.”
She also had her own ABC-TV variety show, “The Patrice Munsel Show,” from 1957 through 1958.
She was in Spokane last weekend to attend a Navy League dinner commemorating the anniversary of launching the USS Spokane, a light cruiser. It was launched in 1945, and Munsel had the honor of sending the ship sliding into the sea with the traditional bottle of champagne.
The Kentucky Waltz
Here’s why the Kentucky HeadHunters had to cancel their show at the Opera House last Sunday: They sold exactly 140 tickets.
When the 10 a.m. money deadline rolled around that day, the promoters couldn’t put up enough cash to cover the Opera House’s expenses. That’s when the show was canceled.
However, when the HeadHunters arrived in town at about noon, they said they wanted to play for those 140 fans anyway. In fact, according to Opera House manager Mike Kobluk, they put up $2,000 of their own cash to cover the Opera House’s overhead.
Unfortunately, by this time it was too late to get a crew together to set up the show.
Doin’ the ‘Jerk
Shoveljerk, the Coeur d’Alene band that rose out of the ashes of Blackhappy, has a song on the “National Lampoon’s Senior Trip” soundtrack album on Capricorn Records.
Granted, the movie is a bomb, but that doesn’t mean the soundtrack is. This is good national exposure for this band.
The song is called “Killing My Buzz.” Other bands on the soundtrack include Matthew Sweet, Morphine and the Jayhawks.
Fabio’s other gig
Fabio Mechetti, Spokane Symphony music director (a title that translates as “conductor” to the layperson), has received some good news from his other job.
The Syracuse Symphony Orchestra has given Mechetti a three-year renewal as its music director. Mechetti has been the music director in Syracuse since 1993.
How can a conductor handle two jobs at opposite ends of the country? The answer isn’t that complicated: lots of Frequent Flyer miles.
Many conductors these days have two regular gigs, and sometimes three or four.
Spokane Emmy-winner
Ferris High School grad Diana Pokorny received an Emmy on Sept. 10 for producing the best made-for-TV movie of the year, HBO’s “Indictment: The McMartin Trial,” the story of the L.A. preschool abuse case.
Pokorny graduated from Ferris in 1975, and for the past 15 years, has lived in New York and L.A. (and on various movie locations). She served as production director on such movies as “Matewan” and “She-Devil.”
She is currently on an island off Cape Cod, serving as producer of a new version of Arthur Miller’s classic, “The Crucible.”
She is the daughter of Richard and Vivian Pokorny of Spokane.
Local bestseller
“Every Knee Shall Bow,” by Spokane author and Spokesman-Review reporter Jess Walter, is at No. 36 on the New York Times bestseller list for non-fiction.
However, it’s doing much better in the Northwest. It’s at No. 8 on the Northwest non-fiction bestseller list compiled by Pacific Pipeline, one of the Northwest’s major book distributors. The book is about the Ruby Ridge incident.
Depressing fact of the day
Here’s a depressing statistic I ran across while looking up something else:
Spokane is the No. 140 book market in the country, just below Flint, Mich., and just above Waterloo-Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Even noted literary hotbed Tacoma comes in 49 places higher, at No. 91.
Hail to The Herricks
Congratulations to The Herricks, the country trio out of Cheney. They won the Washington state competition in the 1995 True Value/ Jimmy Dean Country Showdown.
They won $1,000 and will represent the state in the regional contest in Jackson, Calif., later this month.
KAGU, back on the air
Good news for radio channel surfers. KAGU-FM, 88.7, came back on the air as of Tuesday, with its eclectic mix of college alternative music, jazz, blues, metal and classical.
KAGU-FM, Gonzaga University’s student-operated radio station, was off the air most of the summer.
ACT burglarized
The ACT, one of the Valley’s community theaters, was burglarized early last week.
Thieves took $4,000 worth of equipment, including the theater’s light board and sound system. This is a serious blow for this small theater.
If you want to help out, you can do it in several ways. One, you can attend their show, “The Nerd” which runs through Oct. 14. Two, you can send a donation to The ACT, 425 N. Evergreen, Spokane, WA 99216. Call 921-1706 for tickets, or for information on how you can help.
, DataTimes