A war story
When I was just out of the service, I played with a group organized by one Doug Major, the contractor, who supplied music for all of the shows put on by Catholic girl's high schools in the city of Saint Louis. None of them had a decent music program, so Doug saw a niche and filled it well. They scheduled their musical performances accordingly, so for a two month period we were all well employed and very busy.
(Doug had the very first personalized checks that I had ever saw. On his checks was the standard music "clip art" from Deluxe or whoever. The clip art just happened to be a staff with the key of D indicated and a major chord shown as the notes. Most appropriately, he had his name printed upon them as "D Major"...)
In the instant case, the show was Hello Dolly!, the scenery and production values were first rate, and we actually had an orchestra pit built in the middle of a huge thrust/catwalk for the two big production numbers ("Put On Your Sunday Clothes" and "Hello Dolly") Very impressive, with a full roster including strings.
Unfortunately, the cast wasn't quite up to the rest of the setup. Non-attendance at rehearsals by many of the cast members made the "Waiter's Gallop" a real hodgepodge, and we spent most of the dress rehearsal time running same to get the guys on their marks.
While all of this was going on, the main cast members (Dolly, Horace Van De Gelder, the three male juveniles and Irene Malloy and the other two female juveniles) were seated at tables in the restaurant, doing nothing.
So, we are running the "Gallop" for what seems like the fifteenth time, when suddenly, without any warning at all, the "Irene Malloy" girl keels over and falls to the stage. We played on for about ten bars before she was noticed.
Much confusion resulted, an ambulance was called, and the young lady (very attractive, by the way) was wheeled off to hospital, where my cousin's wife just happened to be working in Admissions when she arrived. She was DOA at the hospital, apparently of a heroin overdose (according to Sharon), and was cold as a fish once artificial respiration was discontinued.
After about an hour, we were released to go home, with opening night only a day or so away. They brought in a ringer from a local college who had played the role before (and who was much better than the original Irene in the bargain).
We all knew something was wrong when the production was not dedicated to the dead girl. Instead, there was an insertion in the program to the effect that "The role of Irene Malloy will be played by Suzy Creamcheese" - nothing more. (My cousin's wife filled me in on what happened at the hospital a week or so later.)
Other than my time in RVN (where death was not exactly rare, to put it mildly), and one time at a staff meeting at the Veteran's Administration (where a guy notorious for falling asleep in such meetings appeared to do so again, and was only found to be dead when the meeting broke up), this was the only time where I witnessed a death up close and personal.
Too bad, too. She was cute above her years and obviously more into adult entertainments than most high school seniors.
The moral of the story is "Don't Use Drugs". But, you all knew that already anyway...