JERRY verDORN'S 25TH
ANNIVERSARY PARTY
PAGE - 8
'Jerry's Speech'
Jerry at his party!
Family & Friends
I hope you’re not using me…as a flimsy excuse to drink alcohol and stay up
late on a week night – but then again, this group has never needed an excuse.
Before I continue I must get over this feeling that I’m attending my own
funeral, I mean that’s how I felt a little earlier, then I thought about it a
little more, then reality and fantasy started to blur and then I thought if I’m
at my funeral…why is everybody so freaking happy? Luckily, I’m of Scandinavian
descent and have the innate ability to suppress feelings like that. And so I
have, and now I can deliver my real speech. Which was written on the back of an
envelope, while I was traveling on a train. At midnight. In a thunderstorm:
One score and five years ago… Proctor and Gamble brought forth onto this
network, a new actor. Conceived in poverty and dedicated to the proposition
that all actors are children. While rehearsing this at home my
know-it-all-wife, who indeed does know it all, said that the structure may be
too formal for this event – so I never finished it. With that in mind, some
time ago I self diagnosed myself as having a mild form of Attention Deficit
Disorder – therefore I’m shocked that I could perform any activity – outside the
bedroom, of course – for 25 consecutive years. But apparently I have. In year
one - I must admit - GL was just another job in a long line of jobs I was
fortunate enough to get. But
soon after that – much too soon – I read the on-air eulogy for Charita Bauer who
had been the emotional center of Guiding Light for over 40 years. It was
difficult because I was not an actor, the audience was not an audience, the 4th
wall was obliterated and it was not another episode. It was life, and it made
me look at the show differently – and as bad biographers like to say: “Then
some other stuff happened.” And that included a health problem I had in 1993 and
again in 1995. The show – not contractually bound to do anything – said to me
and more importantly said to my wife and to Liz Keifer: “You tell us what you
want us to do. When he’s better we’ll get back together and pick up where we
left off.” That, too, changed the way I viewed the show. Then some other stuff
happened – and it turned me into the misty-eyed, puddle of goo you see before
you this evening. To be honest, I find 25 years on Guiding Light to be an
accidental achievement – and being of Scandinavian descent I feel tremendous
guilt for having had so much fun, for so many episodes with so many talented
people. So…thank you for honoring me… if indeed that’s what you’re doing. In
conclusion…being a teacher at heart, allow me to review: We’ve established this
is not my funeral…may I add: nor is it my retirement party. So I look forward
– in spite of all the guilt – to many more laughs, many more quality episodes
with all of you kind and wonderful people. Being of Scandinavian descent…here
is what they say in Norway: Dunka de Dunka. Deos unc Bloss. “Thanks upon
Thanks and God Bless”
Jerry verDorn--March 25, 2004