Farewell to a friend whose star never faded
Working in the theater community produces a variety of friendships. Some last for the length of the production, some for a year or so until someone, perhaps, moves to a new city. Then there are the special ones. The kind that survive distance and difficult disagreements, whether personal or over production issues; they last a lifetime.
In late May, the theater community lost a very special friend. Lee Feldman came upon the scene along with her husband, Ken, in the early ’80s. Her knowledge, though known to very few, came from a lifetime of performing.
If anyone would’ve wanted to swap stories about child acting, they’d have a difficult time matching her. Born Eva Lee Kuney in Hollywood, her father worked in the film industry. Her acting career began at the tender age of 18 months, playing Spanky McFarland’s baby sister in the short film comedies called “Our Gang,” which later ran on television as the series “The Little Rascals.”
I often told her she was one of the forgotten Munchkins, because the studio hired a bunch of children whose efforts were ignored over the years to fill out Munchkinland for “The Wizard of Oz.” Her career moved forward with “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and bumped to credited, co-star status playing the ill-fated daughter of Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in the box-of-Kleenex drama “Penny Serenade.”
In her teens, she became a contract player, dancing in films, many of them now considered classics; two of them, “Holiday Inn,” and “White Christmas,” working with family friend Bing Crosby. But Lee hated working in movies.
At age 18, free to make her own choices, she got a gig with some guy named Donn Arden in San Francisco. Not long after, he called to ask if she’d take a temporary job in his latest production show in Las Vegas at Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn. She accepted, and never left.
Patty Paige, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, those are only a few of the big entertainers of the time she worked with. Google images of Arden and chances are good Lee will be in many of the early photographs. There’s one of her with Dean Martin, hanging in a store at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
When she retired from dancing, Lee earned her living as a draftswoman with the Clark County transportation department and found an outlet for her creativity with local theaters. She worked on many award-winning productions, and with all of the early companies such as Theatre Exposed, Playwright’s Horizons and the Rainbow Company.
But most often she could be found at Las Vegas Little Theatre, though always behind the scenes. She would assistant direct, stage manage, even do props or costumes. She’d choreograph, or play dance captain. But you couldn’t entice her to step in front of the footlights for a million dollars.
Las Vegas Little Theatre had evidently won her heart, because eventually that was where she stayed. The constant brilliance of her smile, and quick, easy laughter won her so many friends over the years. Even the patrons grew to know and love her as she greeted them at the box office, or as she doled out refreshments during intermissions.
Lee, forgotten Munchkin, my talented and special friend, your theater family will miss you. But we’ll remember you and your radiant smile, and your laughter will ring in our ears always. Paul Atreides is one of the theater critics at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His Offstage column appears on the first Thursday of the month.