When Your Number's Up

Neal Matthews as Johnny Chastain and Della Cole as Katharine Hartgrove dramatically reaffirm their affection for one another.

At one of the Air Bases we played in Germany Letters From the Front was staged in the base community center.  Like most such facilities it contained recreation rooms, gift shops, and a very large and very active snack bar - located in the room adjoining the hall where the play was being presented.

It was inevitable that sounds from the snack bar would penetrate the walls and provide an unwanted and distracting background noise during the play.  The audience successfully ignored it, as did the actors - until the Third Act.

At the beginning of the second scene of Act III the lead female character, Katharine Hartgrove, is on her knees praying for her son's life.  It is the most moving moment of the play and just as actress Della Cole was reaching an emotional peak, a voice could be heard clearly over the loudspeaker: "Number 47, your pizza is ready."

It was not until the play was over that Della's co-star Neal Matthews disclosed, somewhat hesitantly, that number 47 was the pizza he had ordered during intermission.