IF WALLS COULD TALK, Week of April 6, 2017
by Katie Ouilette
WALLS, I looked out the lakeside window and saw the book he had written about Lakewood on the small table there. Then, I turned to the obituaries in the Morning Sentinel and, lo and behold, there was the photo and write-up of his life, which included his involvement with our own Maine Lakewood Theatre. Yes, it was one and the same John Oblak that had visited his family in Little Falls, New York. Wow! We really had walked in each-others moccasins, as Lew and I had just moved into our house in Little Falls. Needless to say, I called John’s family immediately, but he and his wife had just left after their visit.
Now, our faithful readers may want to ‘fast forward’ to today and learn that Lakewood was a mere drop in John Oblak’s theatrical life. Yes, he was technical director at Lakewood from 1965-1967, he pursued his theatrical education and, even in retirement, he continued to work with theatrical presentations as recently as 2016.
Yes, I have the book that he wrote entitled Bringing Broadway to Maine and the listings of presentations and performers bring wonderful memories every time I thumb through it. Oh, yes, I have a copy of the first play ever performed at Lakewood in 1901 entitled Private Secretary, thanks to an actor who told me he would find it so that we, who owned the theater would be able to produce it for the centennial year of 1975. Yes, and Grandma Zelia Valliere is listed among the performers as Celia Vallier. How many times she told me about her experience of acting at the Lakewood Theatre after getting excused from school and taking the trolley to Lakewood for rehearsals. Yes, she was a sailor-boy in the 1901 play, but grew up for another part in 1903. Oh, WALLS, the ‘we’ I spoke of was Joe Denis and I who owned all of Lakewood from ‘1971 through 1975’.
Yes, WALLS, those who have had Lakewood in their lives over the years will get surprised by the changes there, but a bit ago there was a notice that auditions are being planned for the 2017 season of the theater.
Well, WALLS, you’ve told folks a little bit about Lakewood on Lake Wesserunsett, but surely there will be more as summer gets in full bloom. You will surely tell more about Lakewood’s growth from an Abnaki Indian Reservation to what has become known as one of the oldest summer theaters in our USA. Surely, there are changes that, frankly, happened when Herbert Swett would visit his Bowdoin classmates in New York City and they would all sit at the Lakewood table at the hotel where they met and reminisced and, yes, planned for a dreamed-of theater season. With a trolley line that had just been introduced, of course, the theater would become an attraction for folks far and near.
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What a lovely mention of my late husband, Dr. John B. Oblak. I met him there in the summer of 1965; we fell in love and the rest is history I grew up in Mercer, Maine, graduated from Skowhegan High School in 1961 and the University of Maine in 1965. During the summers of 1960-67 I worked at Lakewood, starting the summer before my junior year in high school. Initially Iworked in the Shanty and then “graduated” to the Inn as a waitress and finally became hostess there. Over my eight year tenure, I even appeared in a couple productions as a “walk-on.”
When Jack decided to write the early history of the Lakewood Theatre as his PhD dissertation, I became the research assistant. Over the next three years, I helped him organize the materials and read AND REREAD the draft untiil he was comfortable with the final product. It was a labor of love in more ways than one.
He was a good man and lived his philosophy that if one obtains a higher education, one is obliged to give back to the community. He will be missed by many former students, colleagues, friends, and especially by his children and grandchildren. Thanks for the memories, Jack Oblak!