ELLEN GEER

by Gwen Lord

September 25th 1987 was a special date on the calendar as Beauty and the Beast aired its pilot on USA TV for the first time. A few moments later, we in the UK were to have this unique series enter our homes and our hearts. Week by week, as the series unfolded, we were introduced to new characters, as life below Central Park came to mean so much to us all. Life in the tunnels and chambers became as much a refuge for us, as it was meant to be for them.

From the very beginning we got to know Vincent, Catherine and Father, these were the main stays of the series, with storylines built around them. But when I watched The Alchemist, the character of Mary emerged played by Ellen Geer (see photo on the left).

I knew we had now four characters which were the anchor of the series. So, I wrote to Ellen Geer at Republic Pictures and Ellen replied and further letters were exchanged.

Until in June 1992, Jacqui and I went to the USA for a months holiday to see Central Park and many other Beauty and the Beast famous sites like the Rockefeller Center, where Catherine took Vincent in Masques.

Kathy Bayne and her husband David acted as our guides, along with the girls from New Jersey: Sally and Liz Perkins, Roseann Buonadies and Roz Levinson. We hired an eight seater van and set off to take in as much of the USA as we could, from Kentucky to Los Angeles.

Once in Los Angeles, we stayed for a week with Jimmy and Wendy Doohan (Scotty) from Star Trek. We visited Griffiths Park and found Vincent's tunnel and the tree Catherine climbed after her father died. Visited Disneyland and then Malibu, where we saw from the road, the rolling estate of Edward Albert's home, who played Elliot Burch. Then to San Diego and on to Mexico for serious shopping.

The one place in Los Angeles though which stole the whole holiday was Topanga Canyon. It is here where Ellen Geer lives with her husband Peter and their children. Ellen's father was the grandfather in the TV series 'The Waltons' and he also founded 'The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum', set deep in the hills over looking California (see photo).

As we left the city behind, we seemed to be in another world, almost primitive in its way of life. A handmade wooden sign said we had arrived and we parked the van in the stony car park and collected our tickets from a tiny wooden cabin, very similar to our roadside stalls that sell strawberries in the summer here in the UK. We had to pull a piece of string to ring the bell for attention and then there was a short walk to the outside theatre. Once through the scenery style entrance we were in the theatre with the seats cut in rows out of the earth as it rose from the stage, reminding me very much of the outside theatres in Greece. Over the far side was the wooded area, where as the play needed new actors to appear so you could see them, coming in the distance.

It was such a unique experience. The theatre was packed, as always because of the quality of the plays Ellen Geer puts on. Her daughter Willow was in the play and Jacqui and I met them both afterwards. (See photo)

Then in 1993, Ellen Geer and husband Peter, were among the guests invited to our second Beauty and the Beast Convention in Birmingham, England and over that weekend we got to know Ellen more and more and love her. She is a truly lovely and gentle lady with a physiology of life worth listening to.

(Gwen, Ellen, Willow, Jackie)

Since then, Ellen has written to me many times and we keep in touch, I have since visited the theatre she inherited when her father died many times. Armin Shimerman from time to time teaches Shakespeare at the advanced actors school Ellen also runs close by. A night at The Theatricum Botanicum is as special socially in California as a night out in London's West End.

In 1995 the USA B&B Convention was held in Los Angeles and I was there. Among the guests were Jay and Fonda Acovone, Armin and Kitty Shimerman, Edward Albert, Ritch and Kathi Brinkley, David Greenlee, David Schwartz, Roy and Kay Dotrice, Ron Perlman, Ron Koslow and Ellen Geer and her sister. At the banquet Ellen and her sister were sat next to me and we were able to talk at great length on many things particularly her love of her part as Mary.

Since Beauty and the Beast days Ellen works at her theatre but also found time to be in the many plays and films listed here, which Ellen kindly sent me after your requests for what dear 'Mary' had done since she stole our hearts down in the tunnels below Central Park.

Thank you Ellen!