Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 15 with Leif Green

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Welcome back to Unity Connections and Commerce. I'm Drake Watson
along with Twenny Innted.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello Drake, good morning, good morning, and we've got it
here Stuffle morning with our special guest.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Leaf Leif it's it's great to have you on. We
appreciate you taking the time out of your data come
speak to us. Oh i'mpy to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I'm so excited for this. So I was at a
grand opening for Chef Adams.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Are they still calling you the Italian American Club?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, I think they are. I think it's but he's
the chef there. And I walked in and there you were,
and I haven't seen.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
You for years decades Yeah decade.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
That makes me feel really old. But anyways, so I
love your story because i'm your friend on Facebook and
we went to school together and you have.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yes, you was cooler. You were cooler. You were cooler.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, I was not as cool, but we could talk
about you walking down the steps to the pool.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Okay, n s f w O not suitable for work?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Okay, there you go. All right, So anyways, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Sure lots of lots of listeners once you're richie, and
and you know what the boys had to do for
swim class.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yes, and the stairs.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Well, Drake's probably like what I know. Yes, we were
in public school. We had an indoor pool and the
boys had to swim without swimsuits.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
We were naked.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, so we as girls, we had we had little
bathing suits on, but.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
We didn't swim.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
No, no, no, it was separate.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
You know. The boys had a certain certain day but.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Where they went down the stairs and they went into
the back end, which is the pool in the back
of the gym. But someone would ultimately open up the
door to the gym that you could see the little
naked butts.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Walking running getting into the pool.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, that was that was.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Tough, Yeah, because there was only one door separating the
the nude boys and the gym class girls.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
In America, Yeah, a lot of fun. Anyways, Aside from
that us a little bit, a little bit about your
story and kind of who you are and where you
got to where you are now.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Well, my name is Leif Green. I think you already
said that, And I was born and raised here and Wheeling.
I actually we lived in Marshall County when I was
first born bogs Run Road, you know, Bob Road, and
then we moved to Bethlehem when I was five, and

(02:57):
that's where I grew up. That's where most of my
memory he's come from. And went to Bethlehem Elementary School.
Then in fifth grade went down to Richie and was
at Richie Junior High Then I was part of that
group that was in the consolidation of the three high
schools that only very old people will remember now. But

(03:20):
I went one year to Wheeling High School and then
we all went to Wheeling Park High School.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
So my junior and senior year were at Wheeling Park.
I guess the first interesting story about me is my name?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Tell us about your name?

Speaker 1 (03:36):
I will.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
My dad was Milton Green, and he when he proposed
to my mother, he said to her, I just feel
like Green is a very common name and kind of boring.
So our first born, whether it's a boy or a girl,
is going to be named Kelly Green, which people don't

(04:00):
really hear that much anymore.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
But that was a shade of green. And he said,
that's a deal breaker.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
So if you don't wanted to have a child named
Kelly Green, then you should probably not accept my marriage proposal.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
One of the best shades of green, And so my
mom said yes, of course.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
And then the first was born my sister, and they
named her Kelly Green. And then two years later they
found themselves having a baby again and it was a boy,
so they named him Forrest Green.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
And then I came along.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
And I was scheduled for Christmas, and so they were
gonna name me Holly Green if I was a girl,
but they made no provisions if I was a boy,
which was very strange to me. So and this gives
you a good idea of how my dad used to think.
So now they have a little boy who was born
on December thirty. First, I wasn't even born on Christmas Day,

(04:53):
which is what they were hoping for. And they my
dad said, Mom said, well, we'll name him after my uncle,
my brother, my uncle John. And my dad said, you
can't have Kelly Green, Forrest Green and John Green, because
then John will feel left out of all the fun.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
So that's because your good sense of how my dad was.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
And so the guy that writes baby born to mister
and missus Green of ben Wood, cal West, Virginia, he
wrote a little story and I still have a little
story of that. I don't have a name, and so
it must have gone onto the ap wires because people
started sending letters to my family with name suggestions and

(05:38):
telling their stories of their interesting names and stuff like that,
and so I wish my mom had them on a box.
I don't know where that ended up, but that would
be really fun to see now. So the guy who
was the sportswriter at Wheeling Intelligencer suggested Leif and that's

(05:58):
that's what's stuck. And that's what they did, and that's
how I got my name. So Kelly Forrest and Leaf
Green that's you know, that is neat. That's been the
story of all three of us for sixty four years
at least.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
My god, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
I did not know that story.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
And and my father had Green's donut Shop, which I
hope lots of people remember and have lots of fond
memories of.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
I do best donuts ever? Yeah, huh honestly, Yeah, that's
my favorite. That was my favorite.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
I like those with the white icing instead of the
maple icing, but most people like that I like. And
my grandfather, Romeo Green, started the donut shop first, and
then my dad took it over, probably before I was born.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
I don't know exactly when.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
So we were talking. You have you said you have
eight great grandparents?

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Oh, everybody does every well, yeah, yours were. I've done
some ancestry. I've done a lot of it ancestry work
on ancestry dot Com, so.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
It's pretty casual.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
But I thought it was very interesting that all eight
of my great grandparents. Everybody can say, well, my parents
were from Wheeling, my grandparents were willing. But to then
go the next generation and say you're great all eight
of a great grandparents were in the Hio Valley somewhere.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Is that is pretty remarkable?

Speaker 2 (07:27):
That really is?

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Now you also, I.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Have to tell you another ancestry thing. So we I've
gone back and back and found some credible lines and
one of them, the last name is Ward, and one
of my great great great grandfathers was named Sylvester Ward.
And when we were at Fort Henry Days last summer,

(07:53):
that should be coming up again. Really yes, yeah, I
saw a list of everybody who they know, oh was
at Fort Henry fighting against the British and the Native Americans.
And Sylvester Ward, who's like my tenth grade grandfather, was there.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
So it's kind of like, Okay, that's really deep in
the High Valley.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
We're up to our chin. Yeah in DNA here. Yeah,
so you were.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
You what you graduated from Willia Park High School? Yes, okay,
and then tell me what you did afterwards.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Okay, Well, actually wasn't even afterwards.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
So when I was a junior in high school, we
came to see the Young Americans, which is a singing
nonprofit singing and performing group, and they were doing, excuse me,
the play Oklahoma here right here at the Capitol, and
they said, if you want an audition, stay afterwards. And

(08:53):
so my friend Debbie Birch, whose father was David Birch,
who was the minister at First Presbyterian up here on
Chaplain Street where my parents got married and my great
grandparents got married in eighteen forty seven on Valentine's Day today.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
That's awesome. Yeah, that is crazy, super good. Okay, right
the air.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Anyway, so we were here, we auditioned, we both made
their summerstock theater, went up to Michigan, and then we
got cast in the touring show, which was West Side Story.
And then for West Side Story, if you got cast
in that show, then you went on the eight month tour.
So my senior year I did all my work through correspondence,

(09:46):
mailing it back and forth to my teachers, and wasn't
really even at park for my senior year. Oh so
I came back like a month before the school year ended.
I had already earned all my points to graduate and
just went to school for a month, got to go
to graduation and prom and wow. And then then Young

(10:13):
Americans was waiting for me right after high school. So
I was doing Young Americans while I was in high school.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
So did when did you know when you that you
had the acting bug?

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Oh, that happened much earlier than that. Yeah, you probably
remember this because he went to all the Ohio County schools,
Ogilby institutes. How O'Leary was a he started the town
Gate Theater and he was very involved in performing arts
and theater in the Ohio Valley through Ogilby. And he

(10:48):
used to come to all the schools and do one
day a week or one day a month, I don't
remember which, or just one day when he was scheduled
to and do little drama exercises with I remember.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
He would put.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Us all in a circle around him and then he
would pretend to be a deer and then we'd have
to creep up on him but not make any noise
because then he.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Would jerk his head like the deer would.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Or we did the Snowman game where we were all
snowmen and it was winter and we were happy, but
then it was March and the sun came out and
what happened and we all had to melt away. And
so he was doing a play which was a version
of the o Henry story, The Ransom of Red Chief,

(11:36):
and it's about these two bumbling crooks that kidnapped this
little boy who's so bad that they eventually have to
pay the father to take the kid back, and so
they needed a little boy. And so mister O'Leary called
my parents and asked if I could do the part.
And I was really tickled because I was in second

(11:57):
grade and I would get to get out of school
to go do these plays because we did them at
all the high schools werewood Wheeling and Triadelphia for the
older kids. So I felt like something pretty special, yea.
And so we rehearsed that play and then we performed
that play. What I remember the most is they most

(12:22):
It all takes place inside a cave where they're hiding
the Little Boy when it was still ever ransom notes
and stuff, and they had an artificial fire that they
made with you know, they put like stones around to
make a fire, and then they had a light in
there and then celluloid paper.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
It looked like a real fire.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah, And I thought that was the coolest thing when
I was seven years old because it.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Really looked like it is probably really cool the magic
of theater.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, So I was bit and then I started doing
plays whenever they needed little boys.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
West Liberty was doing sound of music, so I played
one of the Von Traps. Then I was a workhouse.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Boy in Oliver when they did that in nineteen sixty nine,
I think, and my brother was in that too, And
then my brother and I went on to be in
the very first play ever put on the stage at
town Gate no Way, Yeah, because Parcel Players, which still exists.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yes, they rehearsed. I think it's the old wharf that
I think.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
That's how they got their name because they were in
the parcel room and I hit the microphone.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
I'm sorry, Drake. Oh, And.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Their place burnt down and so they needed a theater
and town Gate was under construction at the time. It
wasn't exactly where. There were still pews where the audience sat.
They didn't have the audience chairs yet. And my brother
and I played Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and we
had such a good time. So now I'm very involved

(14:05):
at town Gate. Then did play out at Wheeling College,
and then did another did Winnie the Pooh at West
Liberty again directed by.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Doctor Kelly, who the theater is now named for.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
So I would done lots, and then then I got
too old to be a little boy, and so I
would just be in the chorus and dancing and singing
and did everything at the Amphitheater each summer. So there
was show Boat, there was Fidean's Rainbow, and then they
did a musical that was written by a local here

(14:48):
about the history of Wheeling called Time Steel Softly. Yeah, okay,
I don't think it went over very well.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Google then look at it, but good luck.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah good.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
So you were a bit at an early early age, yes,
so you kind of knew what you wanted to do.
And that's for kids in school today, some of them
have no idea what they want to do.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, I was, I was. My path was set.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah. Now, so after call or after school high school,
you went to Calgar.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Because that's where the Young Americans were home base.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
So what did you do out there?

Speaker 3 (15:31):
I performed with the Young Americans first and then but
the Young Americans was a non profit organization that was
teaching kids how to become performers. So it was like
one step closer to professional work, but not you know,
there was still room to make sure to make mistakes
and stuff like that, and lots of teaching about how

(15:55):
to perform on a stage. You know, how to hold
a microphone, how to dance, how to sing, how to
read music, all that kind of stuff. And so once
I was out there, then I searched for an agent
and then got some commercial work. I remember my first
commercial was for Burger Chef, and so I was so

(16:18):
excited because.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
There was a Burger Chef right down the street. Chef
no Burger Chef and Jeff.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Oh the Mariner was my favorite. I used to work there.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
At the bottom of twenty ninth Street Hill.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yeah, so it was it was like it was like
a McDonald's, but it was Burger Chef, right.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
I think it was regional. I don't think it was
ever completely national. It was like on the East Coast or.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Something, but it was there was there were two or
three here, so they were very popular.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Where did they fall out? When did they leave the eighties?
The early eighties was after I did their commercial.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
You Were Born.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Then long from it, Drake leave.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
But this is good for I mean, because there's a
lot of our listeners that will that will remember barbershop
because there was one in Bridgeport too. Yeah so yeah,
all right, so after you did that, so tell me
about your big break.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Well then, so then I started working, as most actors do,
getting little parts here and there.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Commercials were first.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Then I started getting like little guest spots on.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
A weekly TV shows.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
And then and this is this is the story of auditioning.
I had auditioned for a stage play that they were
doing out on the West Coast. It was called The Runaways,
and it was the West Coast premiere of this musical
that had done really well in New York.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
And I didn't get the part.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
But then when they the same guy who was working
on Greece Too remembered me from Runaways and brought me
in for Greece Too, And so I auditioned for that
I think like seven times, really yep, yep, and then
got the part, and so that was the big deal.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
I mean I had done some other things, but nothing
like that.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
First of all, it was a movie at Paramount Studios.
It was going to be four months worth of work,
steady work, and actors are always looking for something steady,
sure and so and a musical that takes place in
the nineteen fifties.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
I mean, it doesn't get much better than that.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
And everybody in the movie, other than the people who
played teachers and older people, all the high school students
it was either their first movie or they had maybe
done one small movie or something. So everybody was just
so dialed up and happy. It was so much And

(19:01):
so we've worked on that for four months. And then
right after that, then I did another movie called Joysticks,
where I played the nerd of all nerds, you know,
I like Jerry Lewis or something like that, and that
came out I think the year after Grease too. I

(19:25):
don't exactly remember the timing. But then I also did
an after.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
School special with Chloris Leachman. Do you remember, Claus?

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yes, I do yes, I do yes.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
And it was called The Woman who Held a Miracle
and it was really a remarkable story based on a
real life guy named Leslie Lempke who was born blind,
cerebral palsick, lots of disabilities, and the prognosis was he
wouldn't live.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Past six months. And the story is really about.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Cloris's character may his foster mother, who just refused to
let this little baby die, and her faith in God
and her just complete tenacity and you know, stubbornness.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
She just wouldn't listen.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
To anybody, and she just did it her way and
raised this little boy and literally, when he couldn't walk,
strapped him on her back to have him walk, and
eventually not only did he walk, but he was classified
as I don't know if they use this term anymore,
so if it's offensive, I'm sorry, idiot savant, because he could.
He woke up one day and just started playing the piano,

(20:40):
having not only not ever had a piano lesson, but
barely showing signs of taking it all in, you know,
nice just he was very not vegetable, but you know,
very very unresponsive. And then the mute playing the piano
brought him to and then singing brought him to talking,

(21:02):
and so he became pretty much a completely communicative person
because of her dedication, and the.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Show won an Emmy. Chlorus won an Emmy. I did
not win an Emmy. He did not. I was part
of it, and that was all I needed.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
And so that was really, as far as acting goes,
the biggest feather in my acting.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Then I did after I did different television shows that
nobody has heard of now because they're all old, but
facts of life, I.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Think, yes, I remember that one. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
And then there was a TV show called Simon and Simon,
remember that Trauma Center?

Speaker 1 (21:54):
Just different stuff.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
And then I was twenty four and and I remember
very distinctly I had auditioned and screen tested for a
TV pilot and I had done another pilot, and so
I knew what pilots were about a little bit anyway.

(22:17):
And it was for a show called Mister Belvedere. And
they had three kids, and I was auditioning for the
teenage son, and they had three sets. There were three
kids in the show, and so they had one set
that looked like the mother and one set that looked
like the father. And Bob Yucker who Drake you don't know,
but he was a sportscaster and stuff like that was

(22:40):
the father so and he kind of had a big chenase.
And so the kid who was up against.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Me also kind of had a big nas. I thought
he was handsome.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
But my agent when they this is before Drake, You're
gonna love this. Before they even had answering machines inside
your phones. I used to have answering machines outside your phone,
which was it was another unit that you plugged in
and stuff. But even before that, this, before that, they
had what they called phone services message censers, and you

(23:18):
would call that number and say, Hi, this is Leif Green.
Do you have any messages for me? And they said, yes,
call your agent. And I was in a phone booth
and I remember my first thing my agent said is
I said, do we hear anything? Because I was waiting
to hear whether I got mister bellad here, because that
would be a big thing. You know, if it's sold,

(23:40):
then you'd be on TV every week. You blah blah blah.
You know what I'm talking about. And she said they
went with the ugly one meeting the guy with the
bigger nuns, which I didn't think was very nice because
he was handsome in my opinion, but Nevertheless, I didn't
get it, and I remember I hunt up the phone
and I said, in my head, I'm done. Yeah, I'm

(24:02):
twenty four. This is probably the last time I can
pass for a teenager.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Oh yeah. And I still acted for.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
Probably about another year after that, but I was really
starting to look at other opportunities.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Okay, so let me ask you, since we have probably
about probably three more minutes the way.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, way, I didn't even tell you anything.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
I know. Well, my question to you is why did
you come back to the Ohio Valley.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Oh well, I think in my head, somewhere in my heart,
I was always going to come back here. Okay, you
know I always used to come visit my family two
three times a year when I lived out in California
and when I lived in New York. We'll have to
do part two and I can talk about what happened after.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
I think, but I'm teasing. But you know, like I said,
my roots are deep here they are.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
And I remember my dad used to say, the hills
lift you up.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
When when you're down.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
You know, when you're down at the at the river
all you're surrounded by hills.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
It keeps you supported, It keeps oh that's really that's
kind of cool.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Is it. It's kind of like it, yeah, hold you
up even even when even when you feel like crawling,
and and so I took that to heart, I guess.
But I have family here. I have super duper friends here.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
You know.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
I'm back involved with Town Gates again. I'm directing a
play there this fall. Good I directed a play and
it was it was very successful, very successful. Yes, standing
ovations every okay. But yeah, well, I I just I

(26:01):
really love the community here.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
I always have.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
I mean, I've been since I was a little kid
so active in community theater. But you know, I always
tell people whose children are active in creat theater and
they're like, they really want to be an actor when
they grow up.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
And I always say, well, here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
You have to ask yourself being involved in community theater.
Is it the community you love or the theater you love?
Because if it's the community.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
You love, don't go pursue a professional career. If it's theater,
that's great advice, and go right ahead.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
But if you really have to be honest with yourself
and look deep in yourself, because most people it's the community.
It's the sense of putting something together. And that's different because,
let me tell you, when you're an actor out there professionally,
there ain't much community.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
You're doing it on your own. You're going to.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Dance classes, action classes, singing classes, you know, all different
auditions and it's just you and your car.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Well, that is a great way to end this interview.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
I thought we were gonna be talking for like six hours,
you know.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
I'm sorry. We'll have munch, yeah, Richie, all right, Well
we appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Thanks, Drake. You getting much. Yeah, yeah, I meant you.
I'll let you steal the show. You know, you've got
all the fund always. But I would like to remind the.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
You of the listeners that if there's any suggestions or
feedback you have, you can reach us out OUE podcast.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
At Ohio dot edu.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
Once again, that is oh U E Podcast at Ohio
dot edu for leaf Green.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Thank you so much. Once again, I'm Drake Watson. This
has been Community Connections and Commerce

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Bank Bank Bank ban