Many people were treated to stories and reminiscences of Shenandoah on Thursday as the Greater Shenandoah Area Historical Society and Schuylkill County Council for the Arts, Pottsville, hosted author and screenwriter Darryl Ponicsan.
The Shenandoah native is well-known for his novels and many movies and television productions for which he wrote screenplays. His first novel, “The Last Detail,” was made into a movie starring Jack Nicholson, and his fourth novel, “Cinderella Liberty,” became a movie starring James Caan, and on which he was also screenwriter.
At a local level, Ponicsan is also known for third novel about his hometown called “Andoshen, Pa.” that delves into stories about the unique residents who live in an anthracite coal region town in Pennsylvania.
Ponicsan arrived at the historical society museum after having lunch about a block away at Vernalis Restaurant. He was introduced to the crowd by Shenandoah native Anne Chaikowsky La Voie, who made first contact with him and has been a companion and tour guide around the area.
“This is wonderful that we’re having this today,” she said. “A few months ago I started an email conversation and I found myself talking to someone via email who had written the most wonderful books, wonderful movies, talented writer recognized, celebrated, of international fame. And I just found out a couple of days ago that deep down in his heart he’s just a Shenandoah boy.”
Chaikowsky La Voie read a piece written by Ponicsan about the borough where he was born in 1938. A small portion read, “I tell my readers that Shenandoah may have look impoverished, but no one had felt deprived and no one was alone. On a summer morning from the age of about seven, I would go outside and meet my friends and not return until mothers stood on their porches and shouted for us to come to supper. It was a unique town where every day brought scenes rich in drama and comedy. A boy with dreams of becoming a writer couldn’t ask for more.”
Ponicsan came front and before taking the microphone, he was presented with a black and white photograph with coal-like frame that showed the east side of the 100 block of North Main Street where the family-owned K&K Auto Parts store was located. The framed photo was presented on behalf of the historical society and Downtown Shenandoah Inc. by Vice President Sandy Grutza and Executive Director Mary Luscavage, respectively.
“I’ll try to reproduce a little bit about the first 10 years of my life,” Ponicsan began. “If someone asked me to pick the 10 years of my life, a decade when I was most happy, it would have been when I was at 27 E. Coal St. in Shenandoah. Every morning I would wake up to the sound of a spring and muffler factory on the corner. I would hit the streets. I was a latch-key kid. My mother and father worked, but the neighborhood took care of me.”
He spoke of a few local businesses that included a bar and a corner store.
“I know the store has some Redman chewing tobacco because I got some,” Ponicsan said. “It was the first time I chewed tobacco and probably the last time. There was a kiosk run by an old Italian man on Centre Street that was sticking out from the building.”
“Dominic Fersullo,” Andy Ulicny said.
“Dominic. He sold everything there,” Ponicsan said. “To me he sold Crackerjacks and at one point he sold a crooked Italian cigar that I smoked. I was a typical Shenandoah kid.”
During World War II, the family had a Victory Garden, saved tin foil and newspaper, he said.
“I can recall seeing young Shenandoah men in uniform marching down the street getting on a train to go off to war,” Ponicsan said. “I remember the end of the war when we all ran into the street with pots and pans and spoons and beat them. What a wonderful joyous time. We didn’t understand all that, but we knew there was a war.”
He remembered attending the Wilson School, located across the street from the J.W. Cooper High School. One day there was news that something terrible was happening when WWII was still going on.
“There’s smoke in the air and there was a major fire,” he said. “Of course, Shenandoah I think is sometimes the capital of fires. They just seem to ignite around here. It was during the war and we thought somebody had bombed Shenandoah. It was the Capitol Theatre on fire. It was a very special place for me.”
Ponicsan said the first movie he went to was when his mother was pregnant with him.
“I went to movies with my mother, and I went with her to a movie while she was pregnant with me, and it was the only movie my father ever went to that I didn’t like,” Ponicsan said. “As it turned out the movie was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The deal with that is my mother got to name the first baby, and she gave him a reasonable name — Ronald George. My father got to name the second one, and he saw ‘Darryl F. Zanuck’ and said he liked it, and so he named me Darryl. He also named me after his mother, so my middle name is Giselle. So I carry around the name of Darryl Giselle Ponicsan my whole life. It’s a hard name to remember, a hard name to spell, a hard name to pronounce.”
He said there were three movie houses, the other two being the Strand and Lyric.
At the time, the Capitol Theatre was destroyed, though eventually rebuilt. Ponicsan said there was a concern that the area could be a target of enemy bombers because of the importance of anthracite coal to the war effort.
“There was a fear of being bombed, but my mom would say don’t worry because if the planes would look down on us, they’ll think we’ve already been bombed,” Ponicsan said.
Ponicsan fielded some questions, during which he met some old friends: Ron Yodis, Shenandoah, and Edward Baskeyfield and Nancy Terry, both of Ringtown. He smiled when he was reintroduced to his friends and remembered childhood experiences.
Ponicsan signed books and spoke individually with people. Grutza brought a hardcover copy of “Andoshen, Pa.” from the society’s collection and asked that he autograph it, which he did.
Before Ponicsan’s presentation, two of the winning students in the sesquicentennial committee’s essay contest ready their compositions to the crowd. Brian Dempster was a winner in the fourth grade category with his essay on his interview with grandfather, Blair Dempster, Salt Springs, New Brunswick, Canada. The second winning student to read was Valentina Rodriquez, who won in the ninth grade division by writing about a neighbor, Donal Wishing, McAdoo.
In the evening, the Upper Schuylkill Marching Band performed a concert at Veterans Memorial Garden that included a recognition ceremony for Ponicsan. The Shenandoah Sesquicentennial Committee gave a certificate of recognition to him as “Shenandoah’s Foremost Author, Internationally Acclaimed Novelist and Screenwriter, with appreciation for his hometown,” and was presented by Chaikowsky La Voie. Ulicny gave Ponicsan a large throw with images of historic buildings in the borough.
Ponicsan had been introduced as Shenandoah’s “most famous living citizen” by Ulicny, which Ponicsan commented on.
“If I’m the most famous person to come out of Shenandoah, I think you forgot Tommy Dorsey, and if there had not been a Tommy Dorsey, there wouldn’t be any Frank Sinatra,” he said. “I’m happy to take second place. It’s a pleasure to be here, and please have a good time.”
At 8 p.m. Thursday, Ponicsan and his son, Dylan, arrived at the historic Frank D. Yuengling Home at 1440 Mahantongo St., Pottsville, the headquarters of Schuylkill County Council for the Arts.
There, before a crowd of more than 50 people, he was inducted into the SCCA Arts Hall of Fame.
Previous inductees include water colorist Howard Watson; Pulitzer Prize winner Conrad Richter; National Book Award winner John O’Hara; Big Band musicians Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey; Oscar winner Victor Schertzinger; and the rock ‘n’ roll band The Jordan Brothers.
Ponicsan also received a proclamation from the Schuylkill County Commissioners and certificates of recognition from officials including U.S. Rep Matt Cartwright, D-17, state Sen. David G. Argall, R-29, and state Rep. Neal P. Goodman, D-123.
“This is very nice, being part of this hall of fame,” Ponicsan said during the presentation in the Braun Music Room. “And I just can’t resist telling you that just today I got news that I may have another movie going,” he said.
He kept details to a minimum, but said his fingers are crossed.
While developing his writing skills in his youth, Ponicsan said he read novels by O’Hara, who was a Pottsville native.
“I started writing very seriously when I was about age 18. When I did read in those days, I read like an apprentice cobbler looking over the shoulder of a master cobbler. And one of the guys I studied was John O’Hara. And it gave me a great deal of drive to know that his life wasn’t that much different 14 miles away. I looked at what he did that I really liked, including some dialog, and stuff that I didn’t like. All of this is in the process of becoming a writer,” Ponicsan said.
“It took me 12 years to find my own voice, which was ‘The Last Detail.’ And when that was published, and very quickly sold to the movies, I was on my way,” Ponicsan said.
In the crowd was one of the teachers he had at Ringtown High School, where he graduated in 1955.
“Mr. Stein!” Ponicsan said as he reached over to shake hands with Norm Stein, 89, of Orwigsburg.
“I haven’t seen him for 61 years. But he was a good student and he came from wonderful parents,” Stein said of Ponicsan.
“Norman was a science teacher and then he became principal. That’s what so special about coming home again after being away for so many years, seeing people like my old science teacher. We’re only 11 years apart. But when you were my teacher, I thought you were 30 years older,” Ponicsan said.
“You’re not the first one to say that either. All the sciences that I knew I tried to convey to him, but I didn’t get to read these books to see if there was anything about science in them,” Stein said, referring to Ponicsan’s novels.
“Not a bit,” Ponicsan said.
School Spirit Day
Friday in Shenandoah is “SV School Spirit Day” as the seventh day of the borough’s 150th anniversary celebration. Residents were asked to decorate their homes in blue and white for the Blue Devils.
In the afternoon, the Greater Shenandoah Area Historical Society will open at 1 p.m. for student essay readings, followed by a presentation by Schuylkill Sesquicentennial Committee member Andy Ulicny on “A Look Back at Shenandoah Schools.”
At 4 p.m., a townwide pep rally will be held near Main and Oak streets to send of the Shenandoah Valley Blue Devils football team for their first game of the season, which will be against the North Schuylkill Spartans at Spartans Stadium in Fountain Springs.