First appearance in The Saline Reporter?

With a hat tip to the late Sydney J Harris, here’s something that I learned en route to looking up other things — by way of the Central Michigan University “Digital Michigan Newspapers” collection.

Someone apparently thought it important enough to contemporaneously document the time I stepped-up to direct a Saline High School fall drama, “The Night of January 16th,” by Ayn Rand. Here’s a snippet of what Anne Tull Kirvan wrote in her December 24, 1980, article for The Saline Reporter, titled “Murder Trial A Tribute To Students’ Efforts.”

‘The Night of Jan 16’ had faltered and almost died in rehearsal, weeks ago, when the student teacher-director withdrew. But the students — aided by Nancy Fisher — refused to quit. Dell Deaton, a senior SHS student with no previous experience in directing, took over the job of whipping the production into shape ….

For the best look at this article, and certainly accompanying photography, at least one original print edition is maintained as part of the local history section in the Saline District Library.

Materials from the work of Sydney Harris are available elsewhere.