By Rich Brown
rbrown@joplinglobe.com
MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — Joe Levanti was all smiles. It was time for another show at The Horseshoe Theatre, and he could hardly contain his excitement.
Scampering down the aisle as he has done two or three nights a week for the last two years, the 70-year-old retired Hollywood performer prepared to introduce another music group to his stage.
Next month will mark two years since the Ohio native opened the doors of his new venture in Mount Vernon, where he moved seven years ago after devoting much of his life and love to show business in California.
And though he is retired, the effervescent Levanti cannot bear to stray far from the stage, even if it means just running the weekly operations of a community theater.
Making a go of it
Levanti’s desire to be in front of an audience goes back to his days as a young boy in Cleveland, where he was born and raised.
“I was 5 years old and played the accordion with my dad, and when I heard the applause I was hooked on show business from then on,” said Levanti, who as a youngster not only played the accordion but also took piano and acrobatic lessons. “By the time I got to high school, I was doing ventriloquism and magic. As I grew older and was about to graduate from high school, I just knew I had to do something in show business or, at least, give it a try and if it didn’t work out that would be it.”
After taking acting lessons in his hometown, Levanti, at age 19, decided the time had come to head for Hollywood and make a go of it.
Realizing it might take longer than he wanted to break into the business, he took a job as a letter carrier.
“What was good about the post office was that I could work from 5 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon, which left the nights open to study acting,” he said. “So I would run home, take about an hour or two nap and then run up to the studio and take acting, tap dancing and acrobatic lessons.”
Determined to succeed, Levanti never flinched from his never-give-up attitude, and it wasn’t long before he got the opportunity to do shows at the Glendale (Calif.) Center Theater where he met Gordon Jump, who went on to be a television star on the weekly series “WKRP-Cincinnati.”
Jump’s face became instantly recognizable through another TV venue, the commercial in which he played the Maytag Appliance repairman.
Following the Glendale performances, Levanti estimated it was about 1969 when he heard of auditions being held at Disneyland.
“The auditions were at Disneyland but not for Disneyland,” he said. “They were for a touring arena show called ‘Disney on Parade.’” It was kind of like an ice show without the ice. It was dancing and character in costumes and that kind of stuff.”
Not only did the persistent Levanti get a part but he was with the show for the entire two years of its existence, touring throughout the nation.
It was not long after that when another touring show, “Peter Pan,” flew into the picture.
“That was seven months on the road and six and sometimes seven days a week,” he said. “It wasn’t a Disney production even though it was a similar show. Cathy Rigby (who achieved worldwide recognition as a champion U.S. and Olympic gymnast and later turned to acting) played Peter Pan. NBC produced it, and we played all the major cities.”
Levanti couldn’t suppress a smile as he recalled, “I played two parts. I was one of Captain Hook’s villainous pirates, and I was also Nanna the Family Dog.”
From California to Missouri
After “Peter Pan” and finally giving up on a year-long attempt at a combination book store/lecture hall business, Levanti’s show-business career did an about turn ... literally.
“Friends of mine who were in show business or connected with show business started telling me I really ought to be a stage hand,” he said. “They told me the work is steady, and it pays well. Even though I couldn’t visualize myself behind the camera or back stage, I was at the point where I needed money.
“A friend of mine from ‘Disney on Parade’ said, ’Hey, the stage hands union is taking applications so let’s go down.’ We both went down and filled out applications and about a month later they called me and they never called him.
“So I worked the next 23 years as a stage hand, 18 of those on the soap opera ’General Hospital.’”
Levanti retired at 63 after a stage-hand career which saw him rub elbows with many show-business personalities.
“I was an assistant prop man on a show called ‘I Am a Big Girl Now’ starring Diana Canova and Martin Short before Short was known as well as he is now,” he said. “I worked shows on ABC like ‘Family Feud.’ Although I wasn’t assigned to the shows, they put me where they needed me. Being on the Hollywood lot, you could be a prop man one day, an electrician the next and a carpenter the next, just wherever they needed you.”
It was during Levanti’s job with ‘General Hospital’ that the idea emerged for his Missouri move. The stage manager with the long-running soap opera, a Missouri native, returned from vacation in Kansas City and showed him pictures of his sister’s new Victorian home, which she had bought for much less than what the same home would cost in California.
“He showed me the pictures and it kept running through my mind that this would be a million-dollar house anywhere in L.A.,” said Levanti. “He added that his sister paid $180,000 for the house and Phyllis (Levanti’s wife, who died in 2005) and I were living in a $180,000 house in California that didn’t look anything like that.”
Taking their vacations in Missouri the next three years and looking over a big part of the state, the Levantis decided on the Mount Vernon area, guided by a real estate agent who lived there.
Levanti’s enthusiasm for his new home grew rapidly as he became involved in a variety of community projects. The theater idea came when he decided Mount Vernon needed more attractions to draw tourists.
He found a vacant building a block east of the Mount Vernon Post Office at 315 E. South St. which would serve his purpose. In addition to a couple of businesses, the building had been used for The Hope Center, which he described as similar to the Salvation Army.
The U-shaped building reminded him of a horseshoe, so that became the name of his new theater, plus, he said, the name implied a country feel.
Levanti said he gets lots of help, particularly with concessions, from Rexeane and Richard Carroll, who own the Ben Franklin store on the square, as well as his family, daughter Barbara and son-in-law Shawn Hardiman and grandchildren Jonathon and Joshua Centola.
Richard Carroll, calling Levanti a go-getter who is very enthusiastic about life, said, “I think the theater has increased awareness of the town and gives us an outlet for good, clean entertainment.”
The Horseshoe Theatre
Where: 315 E. South St., one block east of the post office in Mount Vernon.
When: Shows at 7 p.m. every Friday and Saturday.
Cost: $5 admission (age 10 and under $2.50)
Details: (417) 466-0343 or e-mail: levanti@mchsi.com. The Web site is: www.mvmohorseshoe.com.
Comments: Music ranges from country and other varieties on Friday nights to bluegrass on Saturdays, with gospel a possibility on either night. A concession stand is available. A fund-raiser will be held Saturday with 11 bands playing from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The event, which will include concessions, will be conducted on a donation-basis only with all proceeds to go toward the maintenance of the theater.
