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UPDATE
ON
ALLAN
SEGAL
by Howie Levy |
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Allan
B. Segal was a popular young music teacher during our time
at Oceanside High School when he either conducted or
prepared the orchestra for our fine high school productions
of
The King and I,
Paint Your Wagon
and Bells Are
Ringing in 1958, 1959 and 1960, respectively. He was
recruited to OHS by Principal Mosback the year
before we arrived to start a tradition of producing quality
Broadway musicals on the
OHS stage annually each spring. His
first OHS production was Brigadoon in 1957. The
spring musical tradition continues to this day.
(Click here
for a
complete history of over 50 years of OHS spring musicals
from 1957 through 2009.) |
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 Most of you are likely unaware that prior to joining the OHS
faculty, Allan, a graduate of the prestigious Juilliard
School of Music, was an accomplished Broadway musician where,
among others, he played first trumpet in the original Broadway production
of Peter Pan, which opened in 1954. If you happen to
own the original Broadway cast album from that show
(pictured at left), you can
hear Allan playing on it (as you can in the
selection from its introductory Overture that plays as you
open this page or click on the album cover at left).
Along with John Race, Allan directed OHS'
music program during
our time, teaching and leading its
outstanding bands and orchestras, for 10 years ending in
1966 when he became musical program director for the entire
Oceanside School District. He retired from that position 20
years later in 1986 and moved to southern California, where my wife,
Sue (Phillips, OHS class of '63),
 and
I visited him in 2006. On the wall, framed together with some
treasured photos, was the original cast album cover shown
above. Several
trumpets were also apparent in their home. |
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Since neither Sue nor I was ever involved
in any music program activities in high school, neither of
us had ever actually met Allan or Sarah.
Nevertheless, we had
covered a lot of common ground a long time ago,
and last Sunday, we all shared
a delightful afternoon reminiscing about our
home town and its schools and our many common
acquaintances from those times. We discovered that Allan and I
lived only 2 blocks from each other during my
high school days.
Allan Segal stumbled on our class website some months
ago while "Googling." He has become quite a fan
of it as is evident in his commentary e-mailed to
me after he discovered the site. You can click here to
read his
initial reaction.
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Howie and Allan,
February 5, 2006
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In
our resultant e-mail exchange,
Allan revealed
that he had a live audiotape recording of the music from
The King and I, made
on the OHS stage in 1958, which he made available to me, thus enabling
all of us to hear some of it again, and further sharpen our
fading memories with this, our sentimental journey home, our class
website. |
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Once again,
thanks for the memory, Allan. |
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Copyright ©
2006, 2009 by Howard B. Levy and
1960 Sailors
Association Inc. All rights reserved.
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