March 18, 2024 • 15 mins
Eric Mosley sits down with Marion Native Julia Hansen ahead of her special lecture at the Marion Palace Theatre about the famous Andrea Doria sea disaster and her work with Ohio State - Marion.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
So there's been a lot of peoplethat have been from Marion that are well
known or have done some really coolthings, and I have one of them
sitting here with me right now.Julia Hanson is an Mary and I someone
that has gone on and spend alot of your time, as far as
I understand, in the acting worldin New York, in different places.
(00:25):
And you've come back here specifically thisweek to be able to talk about another
really cool story in your life,as you were a survivor of the Andrea
Doria shipwreck. And you're going tobe at the Palace Theater on Wednesday,
March twentieth at seven point thirty.So, first off, Julia, welcome
(00:47):
back to Marion. Well, I'mhonored to be back and thrilled. It's
wonderful to be what we call homewhere I had my beginnings informative years before
I my father died and then Iwent away to boarding school and then to
college and came back a little untilwe sold the house and then I'm an
(01:11):
only child. So and my fatherhad died in fifty two and we went
to Europe in fifty six. SoI have the joy of coming back due
to someone who was here first ofall to Carl Hughes, who, as
you know, is head of theFayee Bank, and our families were friends,
(01:32):
and he said, if you comeback, I'll have a cocktail party
for you. I came back andadded, I've never been to a cocktail
party where the mayor was invited.I said I'd help him. He ran
for a bigger office. I don'tremember who that was, but the person
who said let's do something was DavidClaiborne at Ohio State. And I said,
(01:53):
I would love to do that.And the first year I came back
and I said, oh, Ihave a much better idea. I'll bring
this extraordinary man from England, RichardDigby Day, who taught Shakespeare classes at
the school and at the high school. And they were mesmerized. He's an
absolute renaissance man and historian. Andthey said, what shall we do next
(02:15):
year? And a wonderful person inNew York called Robert James has said,
you know, I think theater isimportant, no doubt, but I think
there are things that are much moreimportant than the world. But if you
can figure out a way to maketheater important, I'll give you seed money.
I said, give me twenty fourhours, I asked Dave. He
(02:37):
said he'd said, what would youlike to do? And I said,
I have an idea. That nightI pondered how to make theater important and
I for these kinds for everybody,and I came up with the idea of
this to teach young people how towrite a short play about a social issue
(02:57):
so that they could open their mindsand think more about all the different sides
to the issue. And David Clayboynesaid, I'll find a teacher. Stuart
Lashawn was the teacher who said yes, and that program was born. And
with the joy of doing it,Dave Pevorn said, you know this is
really good, Let's endow it.And so with the help of this man,
(03:23):
with Robert James and the James Foundation, with the help of some of
my friends and some of Ohio State'sfriends, it was endowed. And now
after all these years, I getto come back every year and teach in
this program, and we get tomeet wonderful people like Lindsey Gail and her
(03:44):
mother Sharon, who have arranged forthis interview. So that'll take you full
circle on how I get to comehome. That is so great, and
yes, that is an important partof it. All. You are working
with these Ohio State students and teaching, you know, how to take a
story that was very truthful whatever itis, or a social issue or or
(04:05):
whatever, and turning that into ascript that can be performed. And I'm
my background is in theater and allof that, so the interpretation of anything
to me is really really cool.And I actually at one point at Ohio
State, Marion had Stuart Lashawn.So I know how, I'm gonna invite
(04:27):
you to come be a reader ifyou and you would have a lot of
fun. And I'm not an actor. I'm a catalyst. I love creating
things and making things happen. Sothat's my answer to that. So think
about being a reader. There wego, it's Friday night at the Women's
Club. Who were okay to MargaretSummers is partnering with on these stories of
(04:55):
you know, history of women.And I would love to tell about the
one that I touches my heart deeplywhen the man who said I'll fund it
if you can deal with things likeimmigration and prison reform, and we took
prison reform and it was extrapolated tomean incarceration and they were writing about the
(05:20):
prison system and whether the penalties aretoo hard and this one young girl I
started to read and it begins thatshe's waiting at the bus stop and for
her brother, and we're thinking,I wonder how that's going to deal with
prison reform. But it turned outand I said, did she really get
the memo? But it taps,it touches my heart. She was waiting
(05:43):
at the bus stop because she waslegally blind and she couldn't get on the
bus. She didn't know which busto get on or where to go without
her brother's showing up. And ittalked about being incarcerated in her own body
and how much we had to relyupon others. And it was so touching
and how rendering that the class actuallychanged their opinion of this young lady.
(06:08):
Oh wow, as she would bendover within an inch of her writing.
So you never know what's going tocome out of it. And so it
wasn't incarceration, but it wasn't whatwe were thinking about, but very touched.
That is amazing. Well, thatjust sounds like it's going to be
a wonderful evening. That's this Fridayright at the women's home. Now,
(06:28):
one thing I wanted to ask youis your early time in marrying and we
kind of spent some time off air. You explained that you had been here
to WMRN as a youth when theytaught me how they made clipperty clop with
box yeah, with these wood boxwhere planks, and I thought that was
fabulous. And we don't get touse those sound effects anymore. It's all
(06:50):
on the computer now. But Ijust want to ask what was it like
or what are your memories of marryingback then and was there anything that you
kind of took with you for therest of your life from that time.
Well, I grew up on thecorner of Mount Vernon Avenue and Merchant Street,
(07:13):
and I would get to the cornerand then I would meet this wonderful
young woman who became my friend.I was trying to find her Nancy Tower,
Birchville, and we would walk thelast fifty yards to school. My
family had actually given the land sothat there could be a school on the
(07:33):
eastern side of Marion. But Ithink what I remember other than that,
and I remember wanting to well,I was asked if I would like to
play the violin when I was inMount Vernon junior high school and that sounded
fun. And then I got wentto one year or to Harding, and
(07:55):
it turned out that I played thepiano, and here I was, I
played the violin, and I couldn'tbe one to be in the marching band,
and I couldn't none of those wouldgo with me. So somebody suggested
and gave me a glockenspiel, andso I could march on the marching band
for one year before I went awayto boarding school. But the I think
(08:15):
what was terribly significant is the yearthat they built I think it was Big
Bertha, which was the major,the largest shovel that had ever been built.
And that and then there was thatit was also involved with married Metal
(08:35):
Product company and they had these bigcontainers and I think going out and getting
to see those when they were shinyand bright colored where it was an extraordinary
and I can remember feeling what funit was because in those days they had
a picnic for the I think forthe Sour Shovel Company, and that's why
(08:56):
I learned it. You know thathopping and bag and racing to pull and
all the fun games that children play, and it was for the employees and
getting to go to That was funand what was wonderful, but I wasn't
allowed to do too much when Iwent. There was going out to the
quarry and swimming in the quarry,and that was before they built a pool
(09:20):
at the country club, and Iwas allowed to go only on one side
and be very careful. We sunnedon the rocks and that was great fun.
And can I tell a story aboutin this town that I simply love.
A great friend of my family withsomeone called Oliver Hamilton and lived not
too far from here. And OliverHamilton took over the responsibility kindly of being
(09:46):
in touch with me when I wasyoung, to make sure that I was
okay. And one year he calledme. His brother Meryl Hamilton, that
lived in the Heights, decided theywanted to sell their quarry, and Oliar
Hamilton called and said, you'll neverguess what happened. I've been asked.
(10:09):
Well, first of all, theysold the quarry, and the children decided
that they were worried what their fatherwould do. So he said he wanted
to go back to college. Andhe went back to college because he said,
I'd never really understood the vietname besewar, so he went to God
took one year for Ohio State tofind his records, but once they found
his records, he enrolled and hegraduated, and he was the oldest living
(10:33):
graduate of a university of the UnitedStates. And sixty minutes called him and
said would you be on And hesaid, oh, that's not what I
want to do. But he said, I was called Judy instead of Julie.
He said, I've got a storyfor you. He said, I
said to them know and you knowwhat they did. They gave me two
tickets for the rest of my lifeon the fifty yard line. Oh wow,
(10:56):
And that's a lovely story about Amrit. Yeah, mariandam remember again going
to Ohio State Mary and hearing aboutOliver Hamilton and what he did there.
And I believe he has a scholarshipor endowment there as well, and I
think I was a recipient of oneof those. So again, the way
(11:18):
that Marian has touched many people throughthe people that have come through here,
I think it speaks to what you'redoing as well, and coming back and
giving back your time and your talentsand your motivations. It's a joy to
do and absolute joy. Absolutely everyyear. I think do I really want
to go back to a Best Westernor ratitson ode And I get here and
(11:41):
I get so excited and so enthusiasticbecause the students are so willing and so
engaged and so happy. And oneof the students we had I do this
also at University Nebraska and Baylor,and one of the students the University of
RASCA kindly said, if all myclasses were like this, I'd be willing
(12:05):
to go in debt for life.This is the only one that I feel
it's worth going into debt for Wow, that's amazing. Well, I read
a little bit about your bio.You spent time, you know, you
have passion for theater, and youwere head of the Drama League of New
York. You founded the Director's Project. But I kind of want to transition
(12:28):
into what you're doing on Wednesday.It's a very famous sea disaster, the
Andrea Doria, and you were asurvivor of that. So, like my
first question would be where were youat at that time that made you be
on that ship? What were youdoing? Was it just a trip?
(12:48):
Was it something that it was atrip? My father had died and I
said in fifty two and my motherdecided to take me to Europe that summer,
so it was just the two ofus, okay, and and of
course the newest and most beautiful supposedship was the Andrea Dooria, and we
were returning from Europe on the Andreadoria. The talk on Wednesday Night is not
(13:11):
only about the Andrew Dooria and mypersonal tail of survival, but it also
talks about the development of transatlantic passengertravel and how this grew, and the
absolute amazement and romantic and remarkableness offirst class travel, which was never It's
(13:35):
never been mashed maybe in a greathotel, but then you don't get to
arrive at a different destination. Butthe transit, sumptuousness the first class was
truly remarkable. Now have you beenback to Europe since then? Many times?
Yes. Do you have a favoriteplace or favorite places? Well,
(13:56):
I love London and I lived inParis with my husband, so I love
that, and I love travel.I wish I could say I've been to
Europe. Someday I definitely want togo. Well, I want to make
sure everybody knows. On Wednesday,March twentieth, seven point thirty at the
Palace Theater, Julia Hanson will bethere to talk about the Andrey Doria disaster.
(14:20):
And I will tell you that oneof the most frightening moments in this
whole disaster is when all the lightswent off in the ship. Only the
emergency lights were left. And nowI hope that till that's a teas have
you come, Yeah, that's atease. The great thing about this and
this has been sponsored by Ralph andKathy Hill and the only admission is a
(14:46):
donation cover charge. So this isa chance to come see a Marian native
not only talk about her story inthis situation, but also have a chance
to meet her and maybe carry ona conversation one on one. Would love
that. I would love that.Thank you so much. Oh, no
problem, Julia Hanson, thank youfor coming in and again Wednesday March twenty
(15:09):
at seven point thirty at the PalaceTheater come and see her speak on the
Andrea Doria, a famous sea disasterin a survivor's story,
So there's been a lot of peoplethat have been from Marion that are well
known or have done some really coolthings, and I have one of them
sitting here with me right now.Julia Hanson is an Mary and I someone
that has gone on and spend alot of your time, as far as
I understand, in the acting worldin New York, in different places.
(00:25):
And you've come back here specifically thisweek to be able to talk about another
really cool story in your life,as you were a survivor of the Andrea
Doria shipwreck. And you're going tobe at the Palace Theater on Wednesday,
March twentieth at seven point thirty.So, first off, Julia, welcome
(00:47):
back to Marion. Well, I'mhonored to be back and thrilled. It's
wonderful to be what we call homewhere I had my beginnings informative years before
I my father died and then Iwent away to boarding school and then to
college and came back a little untilwe sold the house and then I'm an
(01:11):
only child. So and my fatherhad died in fifty two and we went
to Europe in fifty six. SoI have the joy of coming back due
to someone who was here first ofall to Carl Hughes, who, as
you know, is head of theFayee Bank, and our families were friends,
(01:32):
and he said, if you comeback, I'll have a cocktail party
for you. I came back andadded, I've never been to a cocktail
party where the mayor was invited.I said I'd help him. He ran
for a bigger office. I don'tremember who that was, but the person
who said let's do something was DavidClaiborne at Ohio State. And I said,
(01:53):
I would love to do that.And the first year I came back
and I said, oh, Ihave a much better idea. I'll bring
this extraordinary man from England, RichardDigby Day, who taught Shakespeare classes at
the school and at the high school. And they were mesmerized. He's an
absolute renaissance man and historian. Andthey said, what shall we do next
(02:15):
year? And a wonderful person inNew York called Robert James has said,
you know, I think theater isimportant, no doubt, but I think
there are things that are much moreimportant than the world. But if you
can figure out a way to maketheater important, I'll give you seed money.
I said, give me twenty fourhours, I asked Dave. He
(02:37):
said he'd said, what would youlike to do? And I said,
I have an idea. That nightI pondered how to make theater important and
I for these kinds for everybody,and I came up with the idea of
this to teach young people how towrite a short play about a social issue
(02:57):
so that they could open their mindsand think more about all the different sides
to the issue. And David Clayboynesaid, I'll find a teacher. Stuart
Lashawn was the teacher who said yes, and that program was born. And
with the joy of doing it,Dave Pevorn said, you know this is
really good, Let's endow it.And so with the help of this man,
(03:23):
with Robert James and the James Foundation, with the help of some of
my friends and some of Ohio State'sfriends, it was endowed. And now
after all these years, I getto come back every year and teach in
this program, and we get tomeet wonderful people like Lindsey Gail and her
(03:44):
mother Sharon, who have arranged forthis interview. So that'll take you full
circle on how I get to comehome. That is so great, and
yes, that is an important partof it. All. You are working
with these Ohio State students and teaching, you know, how to take a
story that was very truthful whatever itis, or a social issue or or
(04:05):
whatever, and turning that into ascript that can be performed. And I'm
my background is in theater and allof that, so the interpretation of anything
to me is really really cool.And I actually at one point at Ohio
State, Marion had Stuart Lashawn.So I know how, I'm gonna invite
(04:27):
you to come be a reader ifyou and you would have a lot of
fun. And I'm not an actor. I'm a catalyst. I love creating
things and making things happen. Sothat's my answer to that. So think
about being a reader. There wego, it's Friday night at the Women's
Club. Who were okay to MargaretSummers is partnering with on these stories of
(04:55):
you know, history of women.And I would love to tell about the
one that I touches my heart deeplywhen the man who said I'll fund it
if you can deal with things likeimmigration and prison reform, and we took
prison reform and it was extrapolated tomean incarceration and they were writing about the
(05:20):
prison system and whether the penalties aretoo hard and this one young girl I
started to read and it begins thatshe's waiting at the bus stop and for
her brother, and we're thinking,I wonder how that's going to deal with
prison reform. But it turned outand I said, did she really get
the memo? But it taps,it touches my heart. She was waiting
(05:43):
at the bus stop because she waslegally blind and she couldn't get on the
bus. She didn't know which busto get on or where to go without
her brother's showing up. And ittalked about being incarcerated in her own body
and how much we had to relyupon others. And it was so touching
and how rendering that the class actuallychanged their opinion of this young lady.
(06:08):
Oh wow, as she would bendover within an inch of her writing.
So you never know what's going tocome out of it. And so it
wasn't incarceration, but it wasn't whatwe were thinking about, but very touched.
That is amazing. Well, thatjust sounds like it's going to be
a wonderful evening. That's this Fridayright at the women's home. Now,
(06:28):
one thing I wanted to ask youis your early time in marrying and we
kind of spent some time off air. You explained that you had been here
to WMRN as a youth when theytaught me how they made clipperty clop with
box yeah, with these wood boxwhere planks, and I thought that was
fabulous. And we don't get touse those sound effects anymore. It's all
(06:50):
on the computer now. But Ijust want to ask what was it like
or what are your memories of marryingback then and was there anything that you
kind of took with you for therest of your life from that time.
Well, I grew up on thecorner of Mount Vernon Avenue and Merchant Street,
(07:13):
and I would get to the cornerand then I would meet this wonderful
young woman who became my friend.I was trying to find her Nancy Tower,
Birchville, and we would walk thelast fifty yards to school. My
family had actually given the land sothat there could be a school on the
(07:33):
eastern side of Marion. But Ithink what I remember other than that,
and I remember wanting to well,I was asked if I would like to
play the violin when I was inMount Vernon junior high school and that sounded
fun. And then I got wentto one year or to Harding, and
(07:55):
it turned out that I played thepiano, and here I was, I
played the violin, and I couldn'tbe one to be in the marching band,
and I couldn't none of those wouldgo with me. So somebody suggested
and gave me a glockenspiel, andso I could march on the marching band
for one year before I went awayto boarding school. But the I think
(08:15):
what was terribly significant is the yearthat they built I think it was Big
Bertha, which was the major,the largest shovel that had ever been built.
And that and then there was thatit was also involved with married Metal
(08:35):
Product company and they had these bigcontainers and I think going out and getting
to see those when they were shinyand bright colored where it was an extraordinary
and I can remember feeling what funit was because in those days they had
a picnic for the I think forthe Sour Shovel Company, and that's why
(08:56):
I learned it. You know thathopping and bag and racing to pull and
all the fun games that children play, and it was for the employees and
getting to go to That was funand what was wonderful, but I wasn't
allowed to do too much when Iwent. There was going out to the
quarry and swimming in the quarry,and that was before they built a pool
(09:20):
at the country club, and Iwas allowed to go only on one side
and be very careful. We sunnedon the rocks and that was great fun.
And can I tell a story aboutin this town that I simply love.
A great friend of my family withsomeone called Oliver Hamilton and lived not
too far from here. And OliverHamilton took over the responsibility kindly of being
(09:46):
in touch with me when I wasyoung, to make sure that I was
okay. And one year he calledme. His brother Meryl Hamilton, that
lived in the Heights, decided theywanted to sell their quarry, and Oliar
Hamilton called and said, you'll neverguess what happened. I've been asked.
(10:09):
Well, first of all, theysold the quarry, and the children decided
that they were worried what their fatherwould do. So he said he wanted
to go back to college. Andhe went back to college because he said,
I'd never really understood the vietname besewar, so he went to God
took one year for Ohio State tofind his records, but once they found
his records, he enrolled and hegraduated, and he was the oldest living
(10:33):
graduate of a university of the UnitedStates. And sixty minutes called him and
said would you be on And hesaid, oh, that's not what I
want to do. But he said, I was called Judy instead of Julie.
He said, I've got a storyfor you. He said, I
said to them know and you knowwhat they did. They gave me two
tickets for the rest of my lifeon the fifty yard line. Oh wow,
(10:56):
And that's a lovely story about Amrit. Yeah, mariandam remember again going
to Ohio State Mary and hearing aboutOliver Hamilton and what he did there.
And I believe he has a scholarshipor endowment there as well, and I
think I was a recipient of oneof those. So again, the way
(11:18):
that Marian has touched many people throughthe people that have come through here,
I think it speaks to what you'redoing as well, and coming back and
giving back your time and your talentsand your motivations. It's a joy to
do and absolute joy. Absolutely everyyear. I think do I really want
to go back to a Best Westernor ratitson ode And I get here and
(11:41):
I get so excited and so enthusiasticbecause the students are so willing and so
engaged and so happy. And oneof the students we had I do this
also at University Nebraska and Baylor,and one of the students the University of
RASCA kindly said, if all myclasses were like this, I'd be willing
(12:05):
to go in debt for life.This is the only one that I feel
it's worth going into debt for Wow, that's amazing. Well, I read
a little bit about your bio.You spent time, you know, you
have passion for theater, and youwere head of the Drama League of New
York. You founded the Director's Project. But I kind of want to transition
(12:28):
into what you're doing on Wednesday.It's a very famous sea disaster, the
Andrea Doria, and you were asurvivor of that. So, like my
first question would be where were youat at that time that made you be
on that ship? What were youdoing? Was it just a trip?
(12:48):
Was it something that it was atrip? My father had died and I
said in fifty two and my motherdecided to take me to Europe that summer,
so it was just the two ofus, okay, and and of
course the newest and most beautiful supposedship was the Andrea Dooria, and we
were returning from Europe on the Andreadoria. The talk on Wednesday Night is not
(13:11):
only about the Andrew Dooria and mypersonal tail of survival, but it also
talks about the development of transatlantic passengertravel and how this grew, and the
absolute amazement and romantic and remarkableness offirst class travel, which was never It's
(13:35):
never been mashed maybe in a greathotel, but then you don't get to
arrive at a different destination. Butthe transit, sumptuousness the first class was
truly remarkable. Now have you beenback to Europe since then? Many times?
Yes. Do you have a favoriteplace or favorite places? Well,
(13:56):
I love London and I lived inParis with my husband, so I love
that, and I love travel.I wish I could say I've been to
Europe. Someday I definitely want togo. Well, I want to make
sure everybody knows. On Wednesday,March twentieth, seven point thirty at the
Palace Theater, Julia Hanson will bethere to talk about the Andrey Doria disaster.
(14:20):
And I will tell you that oneof the most frightening moments in this
whole disaster is when all the lightswent off in the ship. Only the
emergency lights were left. And nowI hope that till that's a teas have
you come, Yeah, that's atease. The great thing about this and
this has been sponsored by Ralph andKathy Hill and the only admission is a
(14:46):
donation cover charge. So this isa chance to come see a Marian native
not only talk about her story inthis situation, but also have a chance
to meet her and maybe carry ona conversation one on one. Would love
that. I would love that.Thank you so much. Oh, no
problem, Julia Hanson, thank youfor coming in and again Wednesday March twenty
(15:09):
at seven point thirty at the PalaceTheater come and see her speak on the
Andrea Doria, a famous sea disasterin a survivor's story,
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