Old vs. New - Woodstock: Hollywood of the county
By TIM KANE – tkane@nwherald.com
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| Caryl Lemanski, who was born in Woodstock in 1941, stands in the Woodstock Square. Lemanski lived at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, where her father was a teacher, as a child, and moved back to the area after retiring. (Sandy Bressner — sbressner@nwherald.com) |
WOODSTOCK – This town has show-business ties, old and new.
First the old: In Orson Welles’ 1946 film “The Stranger,” Edward G. Robinson portrays a Nazi hunter sent by the United Nations War Crimes Commission to find fugitive Franz Kindler, portrayed by Welles.
Early in the movie, Robinson’s character chases one of Kindler’s cronies through a school’s gymnasium past a sign on a door that warns students to use equipment at their own risk, and it’s signed “Coach Roskie.”
“That was Orson’s tribute to my dad,” said Woodstock resident Caryl Lemanski, daughter of Tony Roskie, a coach at Todd School for Boys who later became athletic director at Woodstock High School.
Coach Roskie also was the summer program director at Camp Tosebo – the summer extension of the Todd School – from 1930 until 1971. That same scene also has a sign mentioning Miss Collins and Clover Hall, both real people and places from Orson’s days at Todd School, according to NationMaster.com, an online encyclopedia.
Lemanski is the daughter of Tony and Kay Roskie, both of whom had taught at Todd School when Welles was a student there. Kay Roskie taught Spanish and typing.
Lemanski was born in 1941 and spent the first 13 years of her life living in Todd School’s Grace Hall, when it was a dormitory with classrooms on the Todd School campus.
Grace Hall was built in 1921. Its current owner, Woodstock Christian Life Services, is planning to demolish the building this spring to make room for more senior housing, but has offered to sell the building for a nominal fee to anyone willing to move it off Christian Life’s property.
Lemanski is leading an effort to have the building declared a historic place so it can remain standing.
“I think Woodstock is a great community filled with history that we hope we can save,” Lemanski said.
From Welles, considered by some to be the world’s greatest filmmaker, the camera pans to “Groundhog Day,” one of the most frequently shown movies on cable TV.
Filmed mostly in Woodstock, the movie was released in 1993.
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| Karla and Everton Martin are renovating the house featured in "Groundhogs Day" in Woodstock on January 24, 2009. The Martin's are renovating the house to be a bed and breakfast. (Lauren M. Anderson - landerson@nwherald.com) |
Everton Martin and Karla Stewart-Martin bought the home on Fremont Street that was used in the film as “The Cherry Street Inn,” a bed-and-breakfast where Bill Murray’s weatherman character awakes every morning on Groundhog Day.
The Martins bought the place last March and are hoping to convert the home into a real bed- and-breakfast. Everton Martin said he hoped it could be open for business this fall.
“We were looking all over for an old Victorian house with the wraparound porch,” Martin said. “We wanted an apple-pie place. We wanted a close-knit community. We were looking for a place unhurried and neighborly, a place we could retire.
“We hit the jackpot when we found Woodstock. People have been bending over backward trying to help us. They’re so warm and friendly. This community is exactly what we wanted. You’ve got the old-fashioned town square, knitting clubs, craft stores. My wife and I have been pinching ourselves to make sure this is real. If there is anything wrong with this place, we haven’t found it yet.”
Martin said they wanted to turn the home into an upscale, gentile establishment.
“But if you want to call it the ‘Groundhog Day’ house, we’ll answer to that, too,” Martin said. “We’ll even ask Bill Murray over for the grand opening.”
