Eagles get a sold-out house for lively lesson in American history

There was sex and violence and several assassinations as part of Saturday’s American history lesson at Van Buren Eagles #3996. It was a sold-out house.
“First Ladies of the White House” featured costumed women playing 32 First Ladies, 17 men playing presidents, and 13 speakers taking turns reading details of the lives of the First Ladies. The two-hour, lively show ended with everybody holding hands and singing “God Bless America.”
Ginger Bruder, a Willis resident, said she has always loved history and Ohio is her home state. She said she’d been thinking about doing a presentation on the First Ladies of the United States and last November she got serious about it.
A lot of presidents had lived in Ohio, so she and her husband Keith Bruder visited several presidential homes, libraries, and museums in Ohio to get fresh information for the show. They even had a private tour of the home of President Warren G. Harding in Marion, Ohio.
Many of the facts shared at the show were new to history buffs, with one infidelity being recently confirmed with DNA testing, Bruder said.
“People thought Bill Clinton was bad,” said Bruder, pointing out several of the presidents were womanizers.
“Martha Washington” was played by Gayle Bellamy and her story included information that George Washington had a “wandering eye.”
“It got a little bit sordid,” Bruder said of her script. On the program, Ginger Bruder is listed as the producer, with co-producers Barb Tomlinson and Maria Kasten.
There was a long, long list of women named in President Kennedy’s life. Jackie Kennedy was played by Joyce Rochowiak. Joyce also played Caroline Harrison and Joyce’s husband Walt Rochowiak stood behind her as President Benjamin Harrison, another womanizer.
At the beginning of the show, the emcee stated: “Many of these women were more risqué and more naughty than the men.”
The actors in the presentations were in costume and some had speaking parts. Much of the format had costumed speakers at the podium telling the stories of the First Ladies who appeared with their presidents or without.
Each costumed actor, after walking around and greeting guests, settled on a park bench near the podium – and that was where several presidents were shot.
Ginger Bruder said they got special permission from the Eagles to use a gun with blanks for the show.
Keith Bruder played the part of John Wilkes Booth and threw himself to the floor after shooting the President Lincoln character (Eric Kozlowski). While some guests were worried Bruder had hurt himself because he got up and limped away, he said later that it was part of the play. That’s what happened after the real Booth jumped to the stage after shooting the president.
Ginger Bruder said the volunteer actors could pick who they wanted to play. When they ran out of Eagles members, they reached out for volunteers from outside the organization. Bruder said that is a good way to get people interested in becoming a member. They participate with Eagles members, have a good time, and then consider joining, she said.
When the First Lady progressed from Virginia Truran as Barbara Bush to Kay Pickup as Laura Bush, members of the audience wondered what happened to Hillary Clinton.
One said she asked a member of the cast where Hillary was and was told nobody wanted to play Hillary.
Ginger Bruder said that was pretty much the case.
The parade of First Ladies ended with Michelle and Barack Obama (Omana West and Jeff Welcome) and Melania and Donald Trump (Tela and Tom Fountain, with Tom in a bright yellow wig).
The show was a successful fund raiser for the Eagles and throughout the evening as they got to presidents who were Eagles, it was announced with lots of thumbs up.
To promote the event, flyers said: “They may have lived in the shadows, but that doesn’t mean their lives were drama-free or boring. If you’re a history buff, you’ll love this.”