Old Missoula

Nelson Welch

Convo Headlines ‘Wolfe’ By Welch

With three monologues from the writings of Thomas Wolfe in tomorrow’s convo, Nelson Welch, special student in English, intends to show the student body the “unquestioned genius” of the writer.

Welch will present his monologues in a split program before and after violin solos by Prof. Eugene Andrie of the music school. Andrie will play “Nocturne” by Boulanger, “Prelude” by Valle, “Estrallita,” by Ponce, and “Caprice Viennoise” by Kreisler.

“Wolfe’s writings are based on facts,” Welch believes. “He absorbed life and transmuted it by his genius into a kind of fiction truer than the reality he knew.”

Welch gave a Wolfe recital during the summer session. He said that tomorrow he will recite a little more monologue and a little less of Wolfe’s history.

Welch was born and educated in England. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatics in London before coming to the U. S. in 1930.

Before coming to MSU, he worked in the theater in New York, appearing in comedy roles in such productions as “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Cherry Orchard,” and “L’Aiglon.” He has appeared with such well known people as Eva Le Gallienne, Ethel Barrymore, Joseph Schildkraut, and Alla Lazimova.

He recited before Wolfe’s mother a few days before she died.

The above article appeared in The Montana Kaimin on October 9, 1947. It included a photo of Nelson Welch.

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3307&context=studentnewspaper

 

Euterpians Will Present Nelson Welch

New Campus Group Plans May 23 Debut With British Humor

The Euterpians, newest organization on campus, will make their debut Sunday, May 23, when they present Nelson Welch in “An Evening of British Humor,” featuring adaptations from Saki, Kipling, and Dickens. Organized formally this spring, the group is an honorary musical society for women. Under the sponsorship of Mrs. Bernice Ramskill, professor in the music school, Donna Harlan was recently elected president, Nancy Critelli, secretary, and Kay Warnke, treasurer.

Mr. Welch is a special student on campus, where he has been connected with the English department. His program will include humorous cuttings from Gunga Din, Tommy Atkins, and the Road to Mandalay with an organ accompaniment.

Before coming to MSU, he was with the theater in New York, appearing with Eva Le Gallienne and Ethel Barrymore in comedy roles in such productions as Alice in Wonderland, The Cherry Orchard and L’Aiglon. He is leaving at the end of this quarter for La Jolla, Calif., where he will continue his studies.

Other artists featured on the program are Joyce Dagenhart, soprano; Floyd Chapman, baritone; Madison Vick, violinist; Florence Adams, piano; Ross Farabaugh, organ and R. Don Lichtwardt, master of ceremonies. Dawson Oppenheimer is managing the show.

The above article appeared in The Montana Kaimin on May 14, 1948.

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3398&context=studentnewspaper

 

Thomas Wolfe and Nelson Welch

Nelson Welch was successful in the acting world after he left Missoula, not only on the stage but in T. V. and movies. A list of his appearances is a long one. He appeared in such early T.V. productions as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “General Electric Theater,” and “The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse,” (1950’s). In the 60’s he appeared in such things as “Dr. Kildare,” and “My Three Sons,” “The Wild Wild West.” From the 70’s – “Trapper John, M.D.,” “Days of Our Lives,” and “All in the Family.” Still active in the 1980’s he was in “The Twilight Zone,” “Remington Steele,” “Taxi,” and many others.

Nelson Welch died in California in 1991. It’s curious that he was drawn to U of M in the 1940’s when he had already had success acting on much bigger stages around the world. His interest in the literary world was obvious, but again, the attraction to Missoula was never made clear.

One possible motivation may have had something to do with the author Thomas Wolfe, who was cited above. This brilliant author trekked across the Western United States in 1938 and wrote a piece entitled “A Western Journey,” that was published in the summer of 1939 in VQR. He visited several national parks, including Glacier and Yellowstone, and described his visits in his matchless prose which is available on the internet. This journey, described in his article, no doubt spawned many others to see these beautiful sites. I can quickly think of two other prominent authors that also wrote about their Western journeys not too many years following Wolfe’s article. Sadly, Thomas Wolfe died not long after this trip across the continent, in 1938.

 

Here’s Thomas Wolfe’s short description of his trip through the Missoula area:

Excerpt from “A Western Journey,” by Thomas Wolfe – VQR Issue Summer 1939

https://www.vqronline.org/essay/western-journey

 

Thursday, June 30. Day of the lakes.

Slept late and soundly, woke at eight, dressed, and to hotel for breakfast. Women are feeding deer and laughing before the hotel. The lake is most blue in morning light, most marvelous in morning shadow, and over everything soars the Alpine sheerness of the granite peaks. So away and down along a pleasant stream and around the loveliness of Flathead Lake, with the granite masses of the Continental Divide rising on the other side and cedar hills on the right. So we leave the lake at Poison (sic), and so down into the Missoula Valley—the valley widening, the district of Flathead Indians, opened as late as 1910 for white settlement—the river somewhere away to the right, told by a line of trees, but out of sight. So by the bison camp at Flathead Reservation, and now we pick up the stream again (now known as Clark’s Fork of the Columbia River), this time a glorious viscous emerald green, and for 200 miles we follow along this stream, which constantly enlarges and grows deeper. The scenery is often almost Appalachian (save for the darkness of the trees); this is a land of mighty screenings scrupulously intimate, and narrow now, very sparsely settled, but breaking out now and then into wealths and sweeps of green fertility. The green glacial stream is constantly being fed by others, drawing all the water from the hills into itself, being widened and thickened but muddied by the confluence of the Bitter Root River—a strange sight now—the left side of the river glacial green, the right side muddy brown.