The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 15 with Leif Green

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

Welcome back to Community Connections and Commerce. I'm Drake Watson along with Wendy Anderson. Hello, Drake. Good morning. Good morning. And we've got a very special morning with our special guest, Leif Green. Leif, it's great to have you on. We appreciate you taking the time out of your day to come speak to us. Oh, I'm happy to be here. I am so excited for this. So I was at a grand opening for Chef Adam's restaurant. Are they still calling you the Italian-American Club?

Yeah, I think they are. I think it's, but he's the chef there. And I walked in and there you were. And I haven't seen you for years. Decades. Yeah, decades. That makes me feel really old. But anyways, so I love your story.

Because I'm your friend on Facebook. And we went to school together. Although I was a year older than you, so I was cooler. You were cooler. You were cooler. Yeah, I was not as cool. But we could talk about you walking down the steps to the pool. Oh, yeah.

Okay, we won't do that. NSFW, not suitable for work. Okay, there won't do that. NSFW. Not suitable for work. Okay. There you go. All right. So anyway. But I'm sure lots and lots of listeners went to Richie and know exactly what the boys had to do for swim class.

Yes. And the stairs. Well, Drake's probably like what. I know. We were in public school. We had an indoor pool and the boys had to swim without swimsuits oh okay we were naked yeah so we as girls we had we had little bathing suits on but we didn't swim together no no no it was separate you know like the boys had a certain day the girls had a certain day but where they they went down the stairs and they went into the

back end which is the pool in the back of the gym. But someone would ultimately open up the door to the gym that you could see the little naked butts walking, running, getting into the pool. Yeah, that was, that was. Yeah, because there was only one door separating the nude boys and the gym class girls in there. Yeah. Rompers. A lot of fun.

Anyways. Aside from that, tell us a little bit about your story and kind of who you are and where you got to where you are now. Well, my name is Leaf Green. I think you already said that. And I was born and raised here in Wheeling. I actually, we lived in Marshall County when I was born and raised here in Wheeling. I actually, we lived in Marshall County when I was first born. Bogs Run Road, you know Bogs Run Road? And then we moved to Bethlehem when I was five and that's where I grew up. That's where most

of my memories come from and went to Bethlehem Elementary School. Then in fifth grade, went down to Ritchie and was at Ritchie Junior High. Then I was part of that group that was in the consolidation of the three high schools that only very old people will remember now. But I went one year to Wheeling High School and then we all went to Wheeling Park High School. So my junior and senior year were at Wheeling Park. I guess the first interesting story about me is my name. Tell us about your name. I will.

My dad was Milton Green, and when he proposed to my mother, he said to her, I just feel like Green is a very common name and kind of boring. So our firstborn, whether it's a boy or a girl, is going to be named Kelly Green, which people don't really hear that much anymore. But that was a shade of green. And he said, that's a deal breaker. So if you don't want to have a child named Kelly Green, then you should probably not accept my marriage proposal. One of the best shades of green. Right.

And so my mom said, yes, of course. And then the first was born my sister, and they named her Kelly Green. And then two years later, they found themselves having a baby again, and it was a boy. So they named him Forest Green. That was my next guess. And then I came along, and I was scheduled for Christmas,

and so they were going to name me Holly Green if I was a girl. But they made no provisions if I was a boy, which was very strange to me. And this gives you a good idea of how my dad used to think. So now they have a little boy who was born on December 31st. I wasn't even born on Christmas Day, which is what they were hoping for. And my mom said, well, we'll name him after my brother, my Uncle John.

And my dad said, you can't have Kelly Green, Forest Green,, and John Green because then John will feel left out of all the fun. So that gives you a good sense of how my dad was. And so the guy that writes Baby Born to Mr. and Mrs. Green of Benwood, West Virginia, he wrote a little story. And I still have a little story of that. I don't have a name. And so it must have gone on to the AP wires because people started sending letters to my family with name suggestions and telling their stories of their interesting names and stuff like that.

And so I wish my mom had them all in a box. I don't know where that ended up, but that would be really fun to see now. So the guy who was the sports writer at Wheeling Intelligencer suggested Leaf. And that's what stuck. That's what stuck. And that's what they did. And that's how I got my name. So Kelly Forrest and Leaf Green.

That's, you know. That is neat. That's been the story of all three of us for 64 years at least. Oh my God, that's awesome. I did not know that story. Yeah. And my father had Green's Donut Shop, which I hope lots of people remember and have lots of fond memories of.

I do. Best donuts ever. Yeah. Honestly. Maple rolls. Yeah. That's my favorite. Yeah.

That was my favorite. I like those with the white icing instead of the maple icing. Okay. But most people like the maple icing. I like the maple icing. Yeah. And my grandfather, Romeo Green, started the donut shop first. And then my dad took it over probably before I was born.

I don't know exactly when. So we were talking. You said you have eight great-grandparents? Oh, everybody does. Well, yeah. But yours were local. I've done some ancestry. I've done a lot of ancestry work on Ancestry.com.

So it's pretty casual. But I thought it was very interesting that all eight of my great-grandparents. Everybody can say, well, my parents were from Wheeling. My grandparents were from Wheeling. But to then go to the next generation and say all eight of your great-grandparents were in the Ohio Valley somewhere is pretty remarkable. That really is. Yeah. Oh, also I have to tell you another ancestry thing.

Okay. So I've gone back and back and found some credible lines, and one of them, the last name is Ward, and one of my great-great-great great grandfathers was named sylvester ward and when we were at um fort henry days last summer okay that should be coming up again really soon yeah um i saw a list of everybody who they know was at fort henry fighting against the British and the Native Americans. And Sylvester Ward, who's like my 10th great-grandfather, was there. Wow. So it's kind of like, okay, that's really deep in the Ohio Valley.

You've got deep roots. We're up to our chin in DNA here in the Ohio Valley. Yeah. So you graduated from William Park High School? Yes. Okay. And then tell me what you did afterwards. Okay, well, it actually wasn't even afterwards.

Oh. So when I was a junior in high school, we came to see the Young Americans, which is a singing, non-profit singing and performing group. And they were doing, excuse me, the play Oklahomalahoma here right here at the capitol okay and they said if you want to audition um stay afterwards and so my friend

debbie birch whose father was david birch who was the minister at first presbyterian up here on chaplain street where my parents got married and my great-grandparents got married in 1847. Wow. On Valentine's Day today. That's awesome. Yeah. Isn't that crazy?

That's super good. Okay. All right. I love that. Love is in the air. Anyway, so we were here. We auditioned we both made

their summer stock theater went up to Michigan and then we got cast in the touring show which was West Side Story and then for West Side Story

if you got cast in that show then you went on the eight month tour so my senior year I did all my work through correspondence, mailing it back and forth to my teachers,

and wasn't really even at park for my senior year. So I came back like a month before the school year ended. I had already earned all my points to graduate and just went to school for a month, got to go to graduation and prom. Okay. Wow. And then Young Americans was waiting for me right after high school. So I was doing Young Americans while I was in high school.

So when did you know that you had the acting bug? Oh, that happened much earlier than that. Yeah. You probably remember this because he went to all the Ohio County schools. Ogilby Institute's Hal O'Leary, he started the Towngate Theater, and he was very involved in performing arts and theater in the Ohio Valley through Oglebay. And he used to come to all the schools and do one day a week or one day a month, I don't remember which, or just one day when he was scheduled to, and do little drama exercises

with us. I remember he would put us all in a circle around him and then he would pretend to be a deer and then we'd have to creep up on him but not make any noise because then he would jerk his head like a deer would. Or we did the snowman game where we were all snowmen and it was winter and we were happy but then it was March and the sun came out and what happened and we all had to melt away. And so he was doing a play, which was a version of the O. Henry story, The Ransom of Red Chief. And it's about these two bumbling crooks that kidnapped this little boy who's so bad that they eventually have to pay the father to take the kid back. And so they needed a little boy. Yeah, I know.

And so Mr. O'Leary called my parents and asked if I could do the part. And I was really tickled because I was in second grade and I would get to get out of school to go do these plays because we did them at all the high schools, Warwood, Wheeling, and Triadelphia, for the older kids. So I felt like something pretty special. And so we rehearsed that play, and then we performed that play. What I remember the most is,

it all takes place inside a cave where they're hiding the little boy waiting to deliver ransom notes and stuff and they had an artificial fire with that they made with you know they put like stones around to make a fire and then they had a light in there and then celluloid paper yeah so it looked like a real fire yeah yeah and i thought that was the coolest thing when i was seven years old because it really looked like well that is that is probably really cool the magic of theater yeah so i was bit and then i started doing plays whenever they needed little boys i west liberty was doing sound of music so i played one of the von traps then i was a workhouse boy in oliver when

they did that in 1969 i think and my brother was in that too and then my brother and i went on to be in the very first play ever put on the stage at town gate no way yeah because um parcel players No way. Yeah, because Parcel Players, which still exists, they rehearsed, I think, at the Old Wharf. I think that's how they got their name, because they were in the Parcel Room. Okay. Oh, I hit the microphone. I'm sorry, Drake.

Oh, no, you're fine. And their place burnt down, And so they needed a theater and Towngate was under construction at the time. It wasn't exactly, there were still pews where the audience sat. They didn't have the audience chairs yet. And my brother and I played Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. And we had such a good time.

Oh my gosh. So now I'm very involved at Towngate. Yeah. Then did a play out at Wheeling College. Okay. And then did Winnie the Pooh at West Liberty again, directed by Dr. Kelly, who the theater is now named for. So I had done lots. Then I got too old to be a little boy,

and so I would just be in the chorus and dancing and singing and did everything at the amphitheater each summer. There was Show Boat. There was Lufidian's Rainbow. And then they did a musical that was written by a local here about the history of wheeling called Time Steals Softly.

Oh. Yeah. Okay. I don't think it went over very well as a musical. Well, I'd have to Google that and look at it. Good luck, Wendy! Okay. So you were bit at an early early age yes so you kind of knew what you wanted to do and that's um for kids in school today some of them have no idea right

what they want to do yeah i was i was my path was set yeah now um so after call or after school high school you went to California. Because that's where the Young Americans were home-based. So what did you do out there? I performed with the Young Americans first. But the Young Americans was a nonprofit organization that was teaching kids how to become performers. So it was like one step closer to professional work, but not, you know, there was still room to make, to make mistakes and stuff like that.

And lots of teaching about how to perform on a stage, you know, how to hold a microphone, how to dance, how to sing, how to read music, all that kind of stuff. And so once I was out there, then I searched for an agent and then got some commercial work. I remember my first commercial was for Burger Chef. And so I was so excited because there was a Burger Chef right down the street. Have you heard of Burger Chef?

No. Burger Chef and Jeff? Oh, the Mariner was my favorite. I used to work there. It's the bottom of 29th Street Hill. I did. Yeah. Oh, I love it.

So it was like a McDonald's, but it was Burger Chef. Right. I think it was regional. I don't think it was ever completely national. Just like on the East Coast or something. But there were two or three here, so they were very popular. When did they fall out?

When did they leave? The 80s, early 80s. I wasn't quite allowed to. After I did their commercial, they fell apart. You weren't born then? Long from it.-huh drake leave no but this is good for i mean because there's a lot of our listeners that will and that will remember burger chef because there was one in bridgeport too yeah so yeah all right so after you did that so tell me about your big break well then so then i I started working, as most actors do, getting little parts here and there.

Commercials were first. Then I started getting like little guest spots on weekly TV shows. Okay. And this is the story of auditioning. I had auditioned for a stage play that they were doing out on the West Coast. It was called The Runaways. And it was the West Coast premiere of this musical that had done really well in New York. And I didn't get the part.

But then the same guy who was working on Grease 2 remembered me from Runaways and brought me in for Grease 2. And so I auditioned for that, I think like seven times. Really? Yeah. Yep. And then got the part. And so that was the big deal. I mean, I had done some other things, but nothing like that.

First of all- That was huge. It was a movie at Paramount Studios. It was going to be four months worth of work, steady work, and actors are always looking for something steady. And a musical that takes place in the 1950s, I mean, it doesn't get much better than that. And everybody in the movie,

other than the people who played teachers and older people all the high school students it was either their first movie or they maybe done one small movie or something so everybody was just so i dialed up and happy oh my god it was so much fun and um so we've worked on that for four months. And then right after that, then I did another movie called Joysticks, where I played the nerd of all nerds, you know, a la Jerry Lewis or something like that. And that came out, I think the year after Grease 2,

I don't exactly remember the timing. And that came out, I think, the year after Grease 2. I don't exactly remember the timing. But then I also did an after-school special with Cloris Leachman. Do you remember Cloris Leachman? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Yes. And it was called The Woman Who Willed a Miracle. Yes.

And it was really a remarkable story based on a real-life guy named Leslie Lemke, who was born blind, cerebral palsy, lots of disabilities. The prognosis was he wouldn't live past six months. And the story is really about Cloris' character, May Lemke, his foster mother, who just refused to let this little baby die. And her faith in God and her just complete tenacity and stubbornness. She just wouldn't listen to anybody, and she just did it her way and raised this little boy. And literally, when he couldn't walk walk strapped him on her back okay so

to have him walk and eventually not only did he walk but he was classified as i don't know if they use this term anymore so if it's offensive i'm sorry idiot savant because he could he woke up one day and just started playing the piano oh having not only not ever had a piano lesson, but barely showing signs of taking it all in. Nice. Just he was very, not vegetable, but very, very unresponsive. Okay. And then playing the piano brought him to singing, and then singing brought him to talking. And so he became pretty much a completely communicative person because of her dedication.

Nice. And the show won an Emmy. Okay. Cloris won an Emmy. Okay. I did not win an Emmy. You did not? You were part of it?

I was part of it, and that was all I needed. And so that was really, as far as acting goes, the biggest feather in my acting cap. Oh, that's awesome. Then I did different television shows that nobody's heard of now because they're all old, but Facts of Life, I think, still resonates a little bit. Oh my goodness, yes.

I remember that one. And then there was this TV show called Simon and Simon. Yeah. Remember that? Yeah, I do. Trauma Center. Just different stuff.

Okay. And then I was 24 and I remember very distinctly I had auditioned and screen tested for a TV pilot. And I had done another pilot. And so I knew what pilots were about, a little bit anyway. And it was for a show called Mr. Belvedere. And they had three kids.

And I was auditioning for the teenage son and um they had three sets there were three kids in the show and so they had one set that looked like the mother and one set that looked like the father and Bob Euchre who Drake you don't know but he was a sportscaster right stuff like that was the father okay and so uh and he kind of had a big schnoz. And so the kid who was up against me also kind of had a big nose. I thought he was handsome, but my agent, when they, this is before,

Drake, you're gonna love this. Before they even had answering machines inside your phones, they used to have answering machines outside your phone. Which was another unit that you plugged in and stuff. But even before that, this was before that, they had what they called phone services, message centers. And you would call that number and say, hi, this is Leaf Green, do you have any messages for me?

And they said, yes, call your agent. And I was in a phone booth. And I remember the first thing my agent said, I said, do we hear anything? Because I was waiting to hear whether I got Mr. Belvedere because that would be a big thing. If it sold, then you'd be on TV every week, you blah, blah, blah, you know what I'm talking about and she said they went with the ugly one meaning the guy with the bigger

nose which I didn't think was very nice because he was handsome in my opinion yeah but nevertheless I didn't get it and I remember her I hung up the phone and I said in my head I'm done yeah I I 24. This is probably the last time I can pass for a teenager. Oh, yeah. And I still acted for probably about another year after that, but I was really starting to look at other opportunities. Okay. So let me ask you, since we have probably about three more minutes.

No way! Yeah, way! I didn't even tell you anything i know well my question to you is why did you come back to the ohio valley oh well i think in my head somewhere and in my heart i was always gonna come back here okay you know i always used to come visit my family sure two three times a year when I lived out in California. And when I lived in New York, we'll have to do part two and I can talk about what happened after. I think, but I'm teasing.

But, you know, like I said, my roots are deep here. They are. And I remember my dad used to say the hills lift you up when you're down at the river and all you're surrounded by hills. It keeps you supported. It keeps... Well, that's

really... That's kind of cool, isn't it? Yeah. It's kind of like it holds you up. It's like your fortress. Even when you feel like crawling, you're going to walk. It holds you up. It's like your fortress. Even when you feel like crawling, you're going to walk. It holds you up. And so I took that to heart, I guess. But I have family here.

I have super duper friends here. You know, I'm back involved with Town Gates again. I'm directing a play there this fall. Good. Oh, that's all right. I directed a play there this fall. Good. Oh, that's all right. I directed a play. Love it. And it was very successful.

It was very successful. Oh, my God. And I loved it. I went to see it. Yes. Standing ovations every night. Okay. But, yes.

Well, I. I just, I really love the community here. I always have. I mean, I've been since community here. I always have. I mean, I've been, since I was a little kid, so active in community theater. But, you know, I always tell people whose children are active in community theater and they're like, they really want to be an actor when they grow up. And I always say, well, here's the thing you have to ask yourself. Being involved in community theater, is it the community you love or the theater you love? Because if it's the community you love, don't go pursue a professional career.

If it's theater you love, then go right ahead. But you really have to be honest with yourself and look deep in yourself. Because most people, it's the community. It's the sense of putting something together and that's different yeah it is because let me tell you when you're an actor out there professionally there ain't much community you're doing it on your own you're going to dance classes action classes singing classes you know all different auditions and it's just you and your car well that is a great way to end this interview

i'm sorry i thought we were gonna be talking for like six hours i know i'm sorry we'll have lunch yay richie go burn it all right well we appreciate your time thank you you didn't get to say much yeah yeah i I mean, I let you steal the show. You know, you've got all the thunder. I always do. But I will like to remind the listeners that if there's any suggestions or feedback you have, you can reach us at ouepodcasts at ohio.edu. Once again, that is ouepodcasts at ohio.edu.

For Leaf Green, thank you so much once again. Thank you, thank you you I'm Drake Watson this has been Community Connections and Commerce