Anna Wellington
(1920-1983)

Anna would spent the rest of the year in 1956 and almost all of 1957 mourning the death of her husband. Anna felt that she lost her soul mate, and when Liam died, in essence she died too.
After a long period of time Anna came to realize that the life she knew would never be the same, the person she was, the life she lead, and the person she loved most were gone.
Anna also came to realize that she had to continue on, she still had children to oversee, and a life to live on this earth, so if the life she knew was no more, then she would have to start a new one on her own, and she did just that.
Anna would never remarry, she never had a steady long term relationship again and she didnt want one, she felt the one true man she loved was gone for now; and she would unite with him someday again, but for this lifetime she would find a new life to live.
Anna's revival from depression would be found in her passion for the theater, it would be the theater that Anna would define her new role in life.
Lets take a step back...

The Cordaire Performing Arts Theater
The theater was initially opened in 1951 under the ownership of Robert deSaule. Mr. deSaule was a retired college professor of drama and literature and had a life long passion to open his own theater. The "fringe" theater evolved mostly since it was hard to hire actors on a regular basis and business wasnt enough to pay anyone to stick around, deSaule added a dining area with the hopes of creating a dinner theater atmosphere. The first actress hired at the theater was deSaule's neice Vivian Arnell. Vivian was an aspiring actress who had worked a bit in California and did some shows in LasVegas for a brief time. Vivian was also asked to oversee the dining area when not doing theater; however Vivian ended up serving drinks more than food, and in fact more than any acting as well.
There was a loyal following of the theater and of that group was Liam and Anna Wellington.
Mr. deSaule's health went on the decline around 1954 and he passed away in 1955. The property was inherited by Vivian, which for her was a dream come true, but also a challenge to keep up and running. Liam and Anna had been working with Vivian on the idea of being a business partner in the theater but that came to a halt with Liams sudden death in 1956.
The theater wasnt making any money under deSaule's ownership, and it was doing worse under Vivian to the extent that it had nearly become nothing more than a small pub during the years 1956-57.
Despite the tough times, there had been spurts where the theater seemed to hit on some popular themes that attracted people. Vivian learned a slogan that we take for granted as fact in the modern world, "sex sells." During one particular performance Vivian was acting out a particular skit when she encountered something similar to a "wardrobe malfunction" which amounted to a couple of buttons popping off of the top of her dress. Miss Arnell was a rather busty young woman and when the generous view was available, the crowd cheered vigorously. It was unfortunate that particular night there were a handful of children among the crowd and Vivian received some complaints however by the following weekend the theater attendance was nearly triple what it had been the night before. Sherry Glasone had been volunteering time at the theater with Vivian and with some quick thinking Vivian by design had Sherry "pop her buttons" during the skit and again the much larger crowd, overwhelmingly men, cheered with a roar.
Vivian visied with Anna on a regular basis during Anna's time of mourning and on one occasion was sharing the "button popping" incident with Anna.
Anna found the story hilarious and laughed quite openly about it, Vivian found this to be a significant event since she had hardly even seen Anna crack a smile since Liam's death.
Vivian started working hard in encouraging Anna to come down to the theater on the weekends and get involved, little by little Anna starting visiting more often and taking more of an interest in what was going on. Anna had found something new that gave her happiness, she was about to embark upon the world of performing arts theater.
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Anna and Vivian started working on a vision for the theater, Vivian wanted the theater to be a bit spicey, riske' to draw more people in, and she wanted to have a "cast" to work with on a regular basis. Anna loved the idea but also felt the restaurant and drinks ought be worked with more effort so as to make it an "evening of entertainment" which might bring in more dollars on food and drink since afterall, this is how Anna and Liam spent weekends at the theater before, she thought it was a good avenue for money and Vivian agreed.
Anna had developed a closer relationship in the past year or two with the Cottington family and by 1958 she trusted Cottington implicitly with all business decisions. Cottington did well for himself when Anna approached him with her intent on buying/investing in the theater.
The timing couldnt have been much better, Vivian owed back taxes on the building and the bank was 10 days from serving her with foreclosure. Cottington paid off the taxes, settled the loan with the bank and had Anna's name put on the deed .

A picture that launched a dinner theater. This is a photo of Anna taken at the theater in 1957.
Vivian took the photo of Anna during the holiday season of 1957 in a production the ladies put together called "all i want for christmas" and ironically, Anna ended up getting cold feet and didnt do the skit, instead they hired a young lady named Laura Burns to do the skit yet Vivian thought the picture of Anna captured the mood of the production so well that they used it to advertise.
The production was a huge hit, so much so that they had to run 3 days on the weekends to keep up with the crowd. The demand for the production continued to increase and they ran it every other week. Laura Burns played the role in the revealing see through nighty for the initial 2 weeks and then it became an advertising angle as to "who would be in the nighty" for the next production.
The skit would come to define the niche of the theater, an innocent storyline with satyrical bits and an underlying sexual tone.
Finally in early 1958 Anna played the "nighty" role herself, once she got the courage to do it, she did it well and loved every minute of it.
Anna played the "nighty" role 4 weeks in a row to a packed house and the innocent/sexy combination "blondie-blonde" was the main attraction of the theater.

Here's Anna all out in color in Sept 1958 in a new role for the theater production of "If a had a genie."

This role in 1959 nearly got Anna and Vivian arrested in the production of "DoctorDoctor" as Anna is the first theater actress to appear topless. What you see in the photo is also basically the same extent of what people saw in the production.

Another sassy part for Anna as she headlines another theater skit in "So tell me about your legs..life!"

Anna was having a blast in the theater, she felt as if she'd recaptured some sense of youth and the theater was an escape for her.
The theater was suddenly bringing in capacity crowds and quite a bit of money. Vivian and Sherry were endless in ideas for skits, parities, wardrobes and the like. Anna was developing more of an appetite to be in more skits, and experiment with more riske roles.
Vivian and Anna started hiring additional actors and actresses to run alternate productions on a more consistent basis.
Before the theater had taken off in popularity, Vivian had hoped to recruit aspiring actresses to work in and promote the theater through her contacts in California.
Vivian and Anna traveled to California and met up with some acquaintances of Vivians and the two were invited to a pool party.
Anna was shocked and yet impressed with the decadence of the whole atmosphere out west, she found it intriguing and wanted to bring some of that attitude back to the theater, and even her own home.
During the trip, Anna met an aspiring young actress named Stella. Stella had met Vivian nearly 2 years prior, the women were cordial but never really hit it off; however this time around with Anna, the situation was entirely different.
Anna and Stella seemed to hit it off instantly, Anna described Stella as the most beautiful woman she ever saw. Stella was sexy, attractive, cute, and a very heady young lady in her disposition.
Stella reminded Anna of... well, of herself when she was younger.
The trip was a success for the ladies in recruiting additional actresses for the theater however Stella was not initially part of that group. Anna kept in touch with Stella and in the summer of 1958 Anna planned a lavish Hollywood style pool party at the estate for all the performers at the theater and invited Stella to attend.
Stella attended the pool party in 1958 and made some special appearances in the theater which was now getting recognition throughout the state.
Anna and Stella would spend more and more time together and the two of them would create a decadance atmosphere that would be the center of attention around the Wellington Estate for a generation.

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