By Crin Robert Krouse, MHS 1955  

What do Herb McEvilly, Herman Gluck, Lou Fishman, Wally Wallaby, Gun Pontine, Feldzeig, Fezziwig, and Lou Fishman all have in common?

 Answer: Gerry Vichy, MHS ‘55.

 Among other roles, our classmate has played a mobster, a producer, a shoe-store owner, Santa, a diner owner, and an ambulance driver on TV and in movies. His most recent film appearances have been in Spike Lee’s “Inside Man” and Sidney Lumet’s “Find Me Guilty.” In 2006 alone, he was in four films and one TV episode. He has appeared in numerous off-Broadway productions and in at least six on-Broadway plays, most recently in “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

 And that is where several other MHS ‘55’ers found him on September 29, 2007, when they took the Metro North from New Haven to Grand Central and ambled over to the Marquis Theater to watch the show and meet with Gerry afterward.

 Jackie Mirtl wrote, “After the show and when we finally found the stage door….ok, now imagine this…..a bunch of women all having their own idea where the stage door is….finally asked directions, (it’s a ‘thing’ women do) anyway, the stage door guy was told to expect us…Lots of hugs etc. Gerry introduced us to some of the other actors, tech folks, etc….He seemed generally happy to see us….either that or he is really a very good actor J We were with him for about ½ hour.”

 When I first arrived at Manchester High in 1953, I found the camaraderie and fondness that classmates had for one another strikingly different from what I had witnessed at the two high schools I attended before Manchester. My new classmates showed a warmth and respect for one another as if they were close family members rather than disparate students in high school. They were this way toward both those they had known since kindergarten and newcomers to their ranks. Those feelings are just as alive today. You can see it working on this web site. You can see it in the numbers who come to reunions and in the hugs and laughter that fill the air when classmates get together. And you can see it in the delight of ‘55’ers, traveling to see a fellow classmate on stage and to meet him afterward. You can’t explain this bond. You can just feel lucky that you’re part of it.