By the time the Beaux Arts Ball began following the Presentations of Awards on Saturday night, we were sold and committed to making the Centre work. We had laughed and cried together and we had, almost all of us, seen Mrs. Keith Rogers walk out of "The Taste Of Honey" in disgust, because she perceived that the brass bed she had loaned for the performance was being sinned upon! Oh, the innocence of the time.

The local committee under the chairmanship of Randy Manning and Beth McGowan had worked so hard for months. Lillian Duchemin, as secretary, kept everyone in line. There were so many details. For instance Gwen Fichaud, who was in charge of tickets with the help of her group, sold that house out -in advance - for every performance! With Bill Hancoxs and Betty Large in charge of publicity it was assured that matter was well looked after.

There were accommodations to be found in the pre-Prince Edward Hotel days, and there were the props to find. So many more things than the brass bed. City Hall's Mary McQuaid with the help of the Little Theatre Group looked after that.

Daphne MacKinnon and her crew looked after the registration and yours truly and Alf looked after Entertainment and Hospitality. Eileen McMillan, Art McInnis, Sterling Walker and others helped us there. We even hired Jim McNutt to take the delegates on a Island tour. I still remember them coming off the bus with minutes to spare to curtain time. If you think Jim is blustery now, you should have seen him then.

Now the building. It was no mean chore to have that theatre ready for that night. When the lights dimmed it was as much of a big show as the play itself. Even the concourse was not finished until the Saturday of the Ball. Gordon White had worked with the contractors etc. to hurry it along. It was exciting and the fashions were great. Mavor Moore was there, Mary Jolliffe, Bob Dubberly and, yes, Ron Irving. One wonders what happened to all the performers and how many stayed in theatre.

There were so many wonderful people. And we proved that when Islanders work together we can accomplish wonders. The budget for the week was $17,901 less than was budgeted. That covered theatre rental, stage crew, competitors' allowances, adjudicator etc. Not bad, eh.