The Spotlight

Actors Paul and Grace Hartman, a husband and wife performing duo, eloped over 100 years ago. He was 18 and she was 16. 

You might remember Paul Hartman as Emmett Clark in the Andy Griffith Show, and a character actor on television in the 50s and 60s. 

Together they had a long career on the stage, and were the first to win a Tony award for Best Actor and Actress in a Musical in 1948. 

They divorced in 1951. Grace Hartman re-married and died of cancer in 1955. Paul Hartman died in 1973. 

I discovered the Hartman’s in the 1944 movie Higher and Higher, and in doing background research of the movie became slightly obsessed over them.  

Did some digging online and found Mike Farrell’s yearbook photo! He went to Hollywood High School and Graduated in 1956. Below is the only other photo I could find of him in the yearbook, it’s from the Class Council photograph. Mike is in the first row, third from the left. 

I’ve only watched like 2 episodes of Dallas, but this Oral History published in Texas Monthly in 2018 is a fantastic read and gives you a great peak into the glamour of the 80s.  

Excerpt: 

“From 1978 to 1991, the world capital of mergers and acquisitions, greed, champagne consumption, cuckoldry, and plot twists was a midsized horse farm east of Plano. Behind its wood rail fence stood a white frame house that wouldn’t have looked out of place in any luxury cul-de-sac. Three generations of billionaires shared that home, and for a long stretch of the eighties, they were the most popular television family in the country.

If you thought Gordon Jump did a lot of things in high school, just wait. Because nothing rivals how many clubs Gary Sandy was it! Buckle in folks, we have a lot to get though. 

Lets start with his yearbook photo: 

Gary Sandy graduated in 1964 from Fairmont West High School in Kettering, Ohio (Now Kettering Fairmont High School) I’m going to pause and give some history of the school because it’s quite fascinating. 

First off, this school is huge. Today there’s an enrollment of about 2,500 students. As someone who went to a High School with max of about 300 students, this is crazy for me to imagine. 

The enrollment numbers were about the same in the early 60s. In fact, there were so many students that they needed to build an entirely new High School. In 1963 the new school opened as Fairmont East, and the old school was re-named Fairmont West. This is where Gary Sandy went to High School. 

In fact, Fairmont West wasn’t that old of a school either. It was build in 1957 because the previous school (build in 1929) was becoming to small for the growing student population. 

In 1983 the High Schools would be consolidated again, with the east campus becoming the Middle School. 

I don’t even live in Ohio, I don’t know why this is so interesting to me. Anyway lets take a look at Gary Sandy’s extraocular activities. 

Gary Sandy playing Ben Ezra, the play that year was Esther. 

Gary Sandy is 5 from the bottom right 

Adorable

Varsity Club: Easy to spot here. Bottom left corner in the front row. 

Now that you know what High School era Gary Sandy looks like, lets play a game of Where’s Waldo Gary? Can you spot Gary in this picture?