Bucks County Herald – January 19, 2006

Bidelman Lathrop Girls

Dear Friends,

Good morning. Today is important for my wife, Mighty Betsy, and me for two reasons. First, it’s her 70^th birthday. Bravo MB! And second, it’s my first column in the Bucks County Herald. I’m delighted to bring messages to you.

Last week, I walked into a luncheon at our home that focused on childhood memories. Betsy and her sister, Barbara, were entertaining the Lathrop sisters. These four grew up along the banks of the Delaware Canal in the New Hope area during the 1940’s and 1950’s. Betsy and Barbara were the daughters of Kay and Charles Bidelman.

Barbara’s dearest friend and classmate is Nora Lathrop Grimison. Her younger sister, Jillian Lathrop Karhumaa, was Betsy’s special pal. The Lathrop sisters are the daughters of Anne Goodell and Julian Lathrop. (Julian was one of the four founders of the Solebury School.) Their grandfather was William Lathrop, the famous artist and patron of the New Hope School [in the late 1800’s].

Art runs deeply in the Lathrop family. Nora and Jill are excellent artists as were their mother and grandfather. But the Bidelman and Lathrop girls spent more time on memory lane than discussing art.

During their high school days, Barbara and Nora worked afternoons and summers at Mel Reffuge’s Coffee House. “You could order breakfast throughout the day,” Nora began. Why? “Because the famous actors who starred at the Bucks County Play House demanded breakfast at any time of the morning or afternoon,” she explained. Betsy and Jill worked back stage at the playhouse, striking sets, and running errands. Jill remembers buying Jujubes for Arthur Treacher.

New Hope was only 90 minutes from New York City and the glittering lights of Broadway. Playwrights, actors, and composers lived in New Hope during the summer. The Play House attracted the best known actors: Helen Hayes (her son, James MacArthur starred in the TV show Hawaii Five O), Grace Kelly, the three Barrymores (Lionel, Ethel, and John), Betty Davis, Jose Ferrer, Tallulah Bankhead, and Claude Raines, just to name a few.

Local families knew these super stars by their first names. It was a casual, innocent time. Betsy remembers frequenting the homes of Oscar Hammerstein (who lived in Doylestown Township), Richard Rogers and Moss Hart (Aquetong Road) and George Kauffman (Route 202).

Jill told a funny story about writer Dorothy Parker who had a summer house in Tinicum Township. “She [Parker] told me to be careful driving after 5 PM because the local people are in their cups,” Jill reported.

“It was a fun place to grow up,” added Nora. “Earl Crooker was a local playwright who helped Lerner and Lowe create “Brigadoon. I remember his friend, Hanky Panky Sullivan playing piano at our grandfather’s home.”

The Lathrop and Bidelman girls could write a book about growing up in the New Hope area…like throwing apples at “Rasputin” the bull, or roller skating in Phillips Mill on rainy days, or pushing chairs while ice skating on the canal to New Hope. It must have been a grand, romantic time.

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith