|
 I’ve
been wanting to write about
performer Jilline Ringle for
three years. But how do you put
a self-proclaimed “Six-Foot
Amazon from Hell Whom All Men
Desire” into a couple of
paragraphs? So I put it off
again last year, vowing I would
thrust my all into trying to
capture this comedic actress and
cabaret singer with my pen –
more accurately my keyboard,
this summer. I would follow her
around while she prepared for
this summer’s cabaret show at
the Chalfonte Hotel where she
developed her “concept cabaret”
style 10 years years ago.
I have seen two of her shows
“Come Fly With Me” and "La Dolce
Vita: Movie Songs of the 1960s"
at least twice. The one I really
wanted to see was “Mondo Mangia”
a show in which she
reminisces about her life
growing up
Italian. The audience, in
addition to being treated to the
words and wisdom handed down to
Jilline from her mother and
grandmother – both fabulous
cooks – also gets fed. Jilline
would cook the entire audience a
dinner of macaroni, (that’s
spaghetti to non-Italians) gravy
(that’s spaghetti sauce to us
non-paisanos) and meatballs,
(that’s meatballs to the rest of
us).
Every night! To sold out
audiences! That’s a lot a balls
– I mean meatballs wiseguys.
 What
I did not know until late last
summer is that Jilline had been
struggling with breast cancer
since 2003.
“That’s not possible,” I told
Debra Donahue, Public Relations
Director for the
Chalfonte Hotel, and a good
friend of Jilline’s. “I saw her
perform. She wasn’t sick. She
didn’t act sick. She was funny.
Like always.”
Jilline died March 1st
of this year. And I might add,
she had just finished a gig in
Philadelphia with her
collaborator, co-star and “body
double” Jen Childs Always A
Lady –A Celebration of Funny
Women for the Holidays
presented by 1812 Productions
which ran from October 2004 to
the first week in January 2005.
So, this isn’t the piece I had
planned to write but don’t go
away because it isn’t a sad
piece either. Debra Donahue
invited me to this celebration
and I want to tell you about it.
On a beautiful Sunday in June,
1812 Productions sponsored a
show to benefit solo
 performers
started by Jilline prior to her
death. A Celebration Jilline
Ringle: Words and Songs was
held in the Magnolia Room at the
Chalfonte Hotel where she
performed for more than 10
years. On hand were her many
friends from Cape May and
Philadelphia as well as her
father, aunt and other family
members.
People are already gathered on
the large Southern-style porch
of the Chalfonte Hotel when I
arrive. I wander into the hotel
lobby. Food! Fabulous food.
Apparently all of Jilline’s
favorite foods.
Pasta Putenesca- “The essence of
Jilline & her culinary skills –
flavorful, rich, and saucy.”
Lucille’s Seafood Salad, Dot’s
Southern Fried Chicken,
Meatballs & Sauce – “Not a
Chalfonte item but a homage for
the 1000s of meatballs rolled
for Monda Mangia.”
 And
the food melts in my mouth. I’m
so busy stuffing my face, that I
don’t realize it’s time to go
into the Magnolia Room. I
haven’t even taken one picture.
I snap away.
Debra gives me clues as to who’s
who. I take one picture of four
Jilline’s pals – Jen, Murph
Henderson, Suzanne O’Donnell,
and Suzanne’s sister Mimi
O’Donnell.
“You’ll notice,” said Debra,
“All of Jilline’s closest
friends have waistlines about
this big,” and she makes a very
tiny “O” with her thumb and
index finger.
I take another picture. The
show’s M.C. Todd Waddington is
holding his daughter Maya up in
the air. Jilline stayed with
Todd, Maya and his partner
Steven when she performed in
Philadelphia. Jilline was Maya’s
godmother. And fittingly, Todd
is performing his cabaret act –
Harriet Levy: Before the
Parade Passes By! at the
Chalfonte from June 29 to August
7.
The show begins. Owen Robbins,
Jilline’s accompanist and
accomplice in Philadelphia and
at the Chalfonte is at the
piano. Her longtime
collaborator/ songwriter Michael
Ogborn co-wrote the script for
the show along with her Bryn
Mawr College chum Murph
Henderson. Ogborn and Henderson
also cast the show. Jilline had
quite a correspondence with her
girlfriends over the years.
Ogborn and Henderson used the
correspondences to create the
script. Songs were taken from
Jilline’s cabaret shows, many of
which Ogborn had written.
They chose five performers –
Jen, Grace Gonglewski, Suzanne,
Ann Simko, and Drucie McDaniel.
The show was funny. The show was
Jilline. And it makes perfect
sense that it would take five
actresses, two collaborators,
one piano guy and an M.C. to sum
up one Jilline.
 Each
actress captured a different
quality of Jilline’s
personality. Jen and Suzanne
captured her sense of humor.
Grace, captured the “6-foot
Amazon from hell whom all men
desire” part. Ann – well, what a
voice. She captured the “I’m
gonna belt this song out with
all I got and you’re gonna like
it. And when I’m done? You’re
gonna love me and ask me to do
it all over again” part. Drucie,
is Philadelphia actress who has
appeared in Law and Order
as well as movies like Twelve
Monkies, and Girl
Interrupted. She was cast to
play the - well - the heavy – or
as Debra explained “the parts in
which weight and body issues”
occupy Jilline’s thoughts.
“A skinny girl couldn’t get away
with saying those things,” said
Debra afterwards. “She was the
perfect choice.”
As I sit back and listen, I can
almost hear Jilline saying and singing all
the funny things that she chose
to sing and kibitz about in her
performances. Her Aunt Ruthie
comes up on stage after the
performance to read to us a
little something she has
written. It’s hard to capture
someone in a couple of
paragraphs, Aunt Ruthie does a
pretty good job of it. By the
way, Aunt Ruthie is very
slender. That must have driven
her niece mad.
 And
afterwards, I have a chat with
two of Jilline’s close friends –
Susan Platt, friends since
seventh grade and Jen, friends
since 1998. And here’s the
question – is there one story,
one incident that stands above
all the others when you think of
Jilline?
Susan remembers Jilline as
“always very maternal. She’d
always sign her letters in a
motherly way and called us her
chics in high school.”
Susan and Jilline were roommates
after college and it was during
that time that Jilline was cast
in the musical Godspell
playing at the Arden Theater in
Philadelphia.
What she remembers most about
Jilline is that “she always gave
100% and beyond. Sometimes there
would only be seven people in
the room when she did her
cabaret act and she never let
down her guard. She never said
‘Oh I’ll just give them half a
performance.”
Susan came to the Chalfonte
every summer to see Jilline
perform and brought her two
children now 5 and 7, to see
their “aunt” perform.
Jen Childs is sitting on the
side porch with her husband and
daughter, Lily Greer. “Everybody
who saw her thought they knew
her. What I’ll remember most
about Jilline, is what she gave
of herself on stage as well as
what she gave of herself off
stage.
"In December we were finishing up
Always a Lady – A Celebration
of Funny Women for the Holidays
which we created together.
After the show, people would
always want to come up to us. I
was exhausted and felt I needed
to sleep and to take care of
myself. I would want to get out
of there but Jilline gave her
full attention to each person
whether she knew them or not.
She was selfless in her
performance and selfless in what
she gave to people.”
I can hear the video playing in
the Magnolia Room. It’s a ten
minute segment on Jilline. A
large screen is set up so people
can stop and watch at their
leisure.
Well, I take a deep breath and
move to the front porch to sit
and rock and chat about nonsense
for a while. And I’m wondering,
how did Jilline Ringle end up
performing in Cape May for 12
summers? So I ask Debra.
Michael Laird is the connection.
Laird, who also died of cancer
back in January 2001,
founded Cape May Stage in 1988.
In 1993 he wandered into the
Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia
and discovered a cabaret singer
by the name of Jilline Ringle.
He asked Ann LeDuc, owner of the
Chalfonte Hotel to come see her.
She did and they hired her on
the spot to do cabaret in Cape
May. She also did a couple of
stints for Cape May Stage. In
1997 she decided to create her
own body of work and developed
the idea of “concept cabaret.”
From this came Mondo Mangia
and that started the ball
rolling.
Like I said before, It’s hard to
cram a whole life into a couple
of paragraphs. There’s really
only one thing you need to know
about Jilline Ringle. She was
larger than life in body and in
spirit and she lived life to the
fullest.
Oh, yeah. One more thing - she
knew how to leave ‘em laughin’
and wantin’ more.
Jillinisms
Jilline’s opening line as she
takes the stage for the first
time at the Chalfonte: “I’m
Jilline Ringle the six-foot
Amazon from Hell whom all men
desire and by the end of the
show you’ll either want to do me
or be me.”
Mondo Mangia -Jilline
tweaked her opening line and
comes out carrying a huge
butcher’s knife. “I’m Jilline
Ringle the six-foot Amazon from
Hell whom all men desire and by
the end of the show you’ll
either want to do me or be me.”
She points the knife at a member
of the audience “And if you
think I’m kidding…try me.”
Come Fly With Me - Jilline is putting on a “little” blouse that doesn’t quite button
properly over her enormous
boobs. Her accompanist starts
playing “The hills are alive
with the sound of music.”
La Dolce Vita: Movie
Songs of the 60s – Jilline is
behind a panel changing clothes.
The vampy accompanist is playing
the theme song from the movie “A
Man and A Woman.” Jilline takes
out a tiny sports car and starts
driving it up and down her arms
and boobs like the scene in the
movie while humming the theme
song.
Go home and think funny
thoughts.
~Susan
Tischler |
