Pillow Talk


PILLOW TALK * CineMasterpieces DORIS DAY ROCK HUDSON ...

My junior year in high school we put on a play appropriately named the Junior Class Play. The cast was supposed to be made up of only juniors. Some years that was possible and some years performers were borrowed from other classes. That year we put on Pillow Talk a stage play previously turned into a classic movie starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day.

The story is a of a playboy composer and a single neighbor who share a party line. In 1959 when this film was made party lines were quite common. The home I grew up in had a party line until my teens. When your phone is on a party line multiple neighbors share the same line and you have to learn how to make sure someone isn't already on a call before starting to dial.

In this play the 2 main characters don't like each other face-to-face but when Brad Allen, the Rock Hudson character, catches her on the party line he disguises his voice and has some fun romancing her.

For reasons that are probably a mystery to you, I was cast as the Rock Hudson character and Sandy Thomas, a blonde girl in our class, was cast as Jann Morrow, the Doris Day role. It was my first time on stage in something like this so I'm not sure how I did, but I fooled at least 2 people. You see my character, as a composer, played the piano. I do not know how to play the piano so one of the seniors in the music department played some riff, it was recorded, and during the scene or two when I was supposedly playing the piano I would pretend to play his melody. To make sure no one could tell, the piano was at a slight angle and newspapers were placed inside so that I couldn't accidentally strike a chord. After the 1st performance my parents seemed genuinely surprised when they asked about when I had learned to play that piece.

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The yearbook photos.
One of the main reasons I was cast, I believe, is that the play called for Brad to pick up Jan, carry her off stage left, back onstage. walk the whole way across the stage, back offstage and then re-enter, stage right, into his apartment. I'm probably the only guy, who tried out, who was strong enough to do it.

The show went on for 2 nights and was a lot of fun. Below is a newspaper article about it.

One sad part of this story is that Warren Thompson, seen in the center of the back row, died a few days after graduation. I wonder how many others are no longer alive. Probably several.

Pillow Talk Cast Member

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