Jed Ellis

 The recent passing of Jed Ellis came as a shock to me.

Jed at the English Oak Room in Cleveland Union Terminal, from Tower City Times, Spring, 1982.

I first met Jed when Todd Reeves brought him up to the RKO Palace projection room, where I was living in the summer of 1974. He was in town for the summer visiting his sister who happened to be dating our PR guy and got him a summer job at the theatres.

And did we have the task for him. In the basement of the Loew Building was a large pool of slime, caused by the overflowing grease trap from the kitchen in the former restaurant space we were using for the run of Brel. It was pretty grotty down there, a rather unpleasant aroma filled the area, plus the rats were getting sick off the slime pool, a really nasty problem none of us had the stomach to deal with. Luckily a new guy just showed up, so we sent poor Jed down there with a bucket and a shovel, and he did a great job. Welcome to Show Biz.

He was around for the rest of the summer, when he left to go return to Connecticut to finish school, he vowed to be back the following summer, and he was. Over the next several years we did all sorts of tasks together, including pumping ice water off the roof of Loew's Ohio during the spring thaws after those nasty late 1970's winters. He was one of the few people who would go the extra mile on a project that didn't pay much but would do anything to help move it forward. Saving those theatres was quite the thankless task. The people who did the actual work got none of the glory and are forgotten by the people there now. When Playhouse Square kicked us all to the curb at the end of the 70's, we both ended up at the RKO Palace in Columbus along with Ray Shepardson and some of the Cleveland gang, including Jed's mother Joan, a great lady who was Ray's secretary for a number of years. In 'Lumbus Jed, along with his future/former wife Vickie and myself rebuilt all the light fixtures there, including the large chandeliers on the mezzanine, and in the auditorium. Great to work on a project that was properly funded, unlike Playhouse Square where it was a hand-to-mouth operation.

Later we'd go our separate ways, Jed was with Ray in Louisville, before coming back to Cleveland where he worked on the English Oak Room in the Union Terminal.  Jed was a great guy, liked by everyone he met, God Bless Him.

The old theatre gang on my wedding night, Tom Bindernagel, Jed Ellis, me, Bob Bindernagel.