Curtain call for a life in city theaters; Union honors oldest stagehand at Hanover party.

Byline: Donna Boynton

WORCESTER - Thomas McGauley is used to working in the background. He has staged performances for the likes of Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra, and handled thousands of spools of film. He's spent his life working in Worcester theater, and now, after more than 70 years on the job, the most senior member of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees Local 96 is formally retiring at the age of 90.

This weekend, though, he took center stage at the site where his career began, the former Loews Poli's Palace Theater where the Hanover Theatre now stands. Celebrated was a career that has spanned films from "Gone with the Wind" in 1939 to "Little Miss Sunshine" in 2007, vaudeville shows and performing legends, use of reel-to-reel projections and automated systems, and patrons flocking to one-screen theaters, then drive-ins and now multiplexes.

Mr. McGauley has witnessed the evolution of theater and stage in and around Worcester.

"Everybody here - we all learned from Tom," said John Zona, president of IATSE Local 96, as more than 70 members of the union gathered Saturday on the Hanover

stage for the party and presentation to Mr. McGauley of a gold card signifying his union dues are paid for life. "Every stagehand here - Tom was their mentor," Mr. Zona said.

Ed Chrostowski, a projectionist and member of Local 96, was trained by Mr. McGauley.

"Tom was always the last guy to sweep the stage, put the ghost light out (a bare light bulb on a pole that is placed on the stage) and only then could we all go home," Mr. Chrostowski said.

Mr. McGauley has worked in every theater in Worcester, starting his career as an usher at Loews Poli's Palace in 1937 after graduating from Commerce High School. He worked his way up the ranks to doorman, became a licensed motion picture operator and joined the union in 1943, later becoming a stagehand.

In 1942, he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces and was stationed stateside during World War II. He returned to Worcester to work at locations ranging from the Capitol Theater (most recently known as Paris Cinema), the Plymouth Theater (now the Palladium), the Worcester Centrum (now the DCU Center), the Greendale Theater and Worcester Memorial Auditorium. His work included operating the spotlight and setting up for trade shows.

"The Loews Poli was the classiest theater," Mr. McGauley said. "They would put plants in the orchestra pit and then illuminate them. It was beautiful.

"The `Andy Hardy' movies with Mickey Rooney would jam them in," he recalled. "We used to put two kids to a seat in the balcony" of the theater, which had 2,400 seats. Admission was 50 cents.

Mr. McGauley also served as the business agent and recording secretary for Local 96, and worked at drive-ins in West Boylston, Auburn and Oxford, as well as the Edgemere in Shrewsbury.

"Sometimes you would work the theater during the day, and then you went to the drive-in until midnight," recalled Mr. McGauley. He said he often worked at funerals in the morning, reported to work at the theaters in the afternoon and then finished his day at a drive-in.

He worked as a stagehand during the Big Band Era for performances that included the Glenn Miller and Dorsey Brothers orchestras and Frank Sinatra. Mr. McGauley said he first met Sinatra in 1942 in Indiana, where the singer autographed a photo.

He got that same photo autographed by Sinatra two more times - at his 1984 and 1994 performances at the Centrum.

Mr. McGauley recalled that one of the most popular - and frustrating - acts to work was pianist-comedian Victor Borge when he performed at Memorial Auditorium.

"It was a hard place to cover sound because it was so big. The sound would just bounce off the walls," said Mr. McGauley. "(Mr. Borge) would play and talk, and just as he would get to the punch line, he would turn his head away from the microphone, and you couldn't hear a thing! That's just the way he was."

Mr. McGauley continued to work steadily until he became ill two years ago. His most recent job was projectionist at the Leicester Drive-in, where he trained his two grandsons - Brian and Sean McGauley.

He also worked a single event last year at the DCU Center.

Saturday was the first time he'd been to the Hanover Theatre in Federal Square.

"It seems like it was only yesterday," said Mr. McGauley, looking around the theater where he first started as an usher 72 years ago. Off to one side of the stage was a photo of him with a group of uniformed ushers taken in the late 1930s.

"I'd do it all over again for nothing," said Mr. McGauley.

Contact Donna Boynton at [e-mail]

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: (1) Thomas McGauley, above, (2) and with friends at the Hanover Theatre at his retirement party. With him are Ann Crum and her husband, Raymond Crum, both of Westfield.

PHOTOG: (1) T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR (2) T&G Staff/MARK C. IDE