Editor’s Note:
The idea for this story came during San Juan’s PRIDE month as a way to celebrate the history and contributions of members of the island’s gay community that might be lost were they not recorded. H.S. Teddy Soares passed away Aug. 6.
Every morning, it’s the same.
“How are you feeling today?” Deanna Osborn, the caretaker, asks.
“Grateful,” the 99-year-old answers. “Grateful.”
From his modest home above the hills in Beaverton Valley, Teddy Soares makes it a point to acknowledge and appreciate his life, even as he recovers from a nasty fall.
“I was walking along, minding my own business and this potted plant just jumped out and tripped me,” he joked. The accident resulted in complications that have left him bed-bound, and missing from the full life he’s enjoyed since moving to the island in 1989.
Born in Maui in 1925, Soares spent much of his childhood enjoying classic Hollywood movies in a small movie theatre next door to his father’s dry-goods store, a habit he credits with creating a love of the entertainment world.
After a stint in the US Army, an invitation from a family member to join her in San Francisco.Since he always wondered about life on the mainland, he accepted. One day, while perusing one of the many movie magazines of the day, Soares noticed an ad offering scholarships to service members interested in attending the local performing arts school. While he’d never given much thought to a career in the arts, he nonetheless applied, and was accepted at the famed Pasadena Playhouse. For the next three years, the young Hawaiian-born military veteran immersed himself in acting, singing and dancing.
“It was a wonderful experience and I learned so much! One of the biggest things I learned was that being in front of the audience wasn’t for me,” he shared. Instead, Soares was intrigued with the workings of an old Prop Master and, when he graduated, the Playhouse’s technical director asked him if might be interested in replacing the retiring gentleman.
“It was meant to be, I guess, and one of the best decisions I could have made.”
At the time, Pasadena Playhouse was a hotbed of creativity. In addition to the countless theatrical productions it hosted, the Playhouse was a thriving venue for TV and film productions. Often, the young apprentice was asked to pull props for TV shows. It was to change his life.
In 1955, NBC produced Matinee Theatre, the Playhouses’s groundbreaking series of five, live hour-long dramas. Soares was brought in as the prop man and, over time, worked with Hollywood legends such as Zsa Zsa Gabor, Cloris Leachman, James Whitmore and Vincent Price. The show won a Golden Globe in 1957 and maintained an audience of seven-million viewers. However, it was an unknown talent that was to have the biggest impact on the young prop master’s life.
As Soares became increasingly integral to the production of some of the network’s most popular shows of the time – Dinah Shore, Andy Williams and Laugh-In! among them – he needed to vacate his position role as prop man for the Playhouse. At about the same time, a talented family of touring vaudeville puppeteers arrived in Hollywood. The father knew the stage manager at the Playhouse and hoped there might be a job for his son, Stan.
“I suggested Stan take the job I had as Playhouse prop man, and I offered to train him. And that’s how I meant Stan Kramer.” They became inseparable.
The Kramer family’s vaudevillian puppet show was a sophisticated production, Soares recounts.
“Stan’s father was a top-notch mechanical engineer and, his mother a fabulous seamstress. They had created an incredible assortment of beautiful puppets. When the family’s prop man had to ‘retire’ (too many hidden canisters of whiskey, apparently), Soares stepped in, and learned first-hand the business of puppetry.
During one particular studio slowdown, Kramer and Soares got wind of a puppeteer in Las Vegas who decided to produce a rather risqué puppet show at a club that featured nude dancers.
“Before we knew it, we were in Vegas working on an “adult puppet show.” The club was the ground-breaking PJ’s, the puppet show creators were Sid and Marty Kroft; the show was called Les Poupees de Paris and Soares and Kramer were instrumental in creating an array of 128 three-foot tall scantily-clad marionettes, some with costumes costing thousands of dollars.
Soares and Kramer created their own brand of puppets and a traveling road show called Le Jolie Poupees using a totally self-contained, mobile stage with a mechanical curtain that Kramer’s father created.
While working on the TV show “Punky Brewster,” and contemplating retirement, the talented two-some ran into an old friend who extolled the merits of her new home on San Juan Island.
“After four visits to the island, we bought a beautiful piece of property … and became sheep farmers!” Though the sheep have gone, a sign warning drivers to ‘watch out for sheep shit,’ remains.
After several years of crafting ceramic dolls and filling their home with colorful artwork they painted themselves, Kramer took ill and passed in 2001.
Reflecting on their lives on the island, Soares is proud of what he and his life-partner were able to accomplish.
“We were able to spread a few new ideas and bring something unique to the emerging theatre scene on San Juan. High-end revues, like “Bye Bye Bishou” contributed to an atmosphere of high-end creativity which SJI Community Theatre maintains.”
At 99, Soares stays active with SJICT most recently working props on “Hallelujah Girls,” the 2023 production directed by Joy Van Camp.
Navigating a gay relationship in the 1950s couldn’t have been easy, yet Soares has no unpleasant recollection of homophobia.
“When we were’t working, we stayed to ourselves. We didn’t frequent gay bars or make a big deal of being gay. Oh, we socialized, but usually in small groups with people we knew were like us. Our social life was private. That’s how it was, then.
“Of course, now it’s much different.
“It’s wonderful.”
Looking back on his amazing life, Soares was asked if was a favorite memory.
He thought for a brief moment, turned to Osborn and asked if he should mention the visit from “the girls?”
“Go for it!”
As a surprise for the bedridden Soares, Osborn had arranged for a surprise visit by the four performing drag queens at the PRIDE celebration at Brickworks the day before.
“I was blown away. They came through one of those doors (in his room). I see a smiling face, and then all four of these gorgeous glam girls came through. There was lots of laughing; it was a fun night. Beautiful energy, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Perfection, all of them. Great costumes, makeup, no drag ‘hoohaa.’ They deserve all the love they receive. It’s my greatest memory at the moment.”
“I’m so lucky,” Soares added. “So lucky, and so humbled to be appreciated for the contributions I’ve been able to make to this community. God bless all the people who have helped me contribute to the creative spirit of the island.
Contributed photo A promotional flyer for “Les Jolie Poupettes,” featuring Stan’s father, Stan and Teddy in top left photo.
Contributed photo The mobile theater created by Stan’s father.
