Out And About In Puerto Vallarta
 Twila Crawford - PVNN
This week, Vallarta Writers' Group President Don Gallery heads for Hollywood to participate in a number of events in recognition of his late Mother, Barbara La Marr, who was a famous silent film star in the 1920's. She died at age 29 when Don Gallery was four-years-old, and he was adopted by actress ZaSu Pitts and her husband, Tom Gallery. The Screen Actors Guild and other organizations are hosting Don in Hollywood.
A Play, A Walk Through Time - Channelling Hollywood: The Vamp, The Impressario, Superman, and..., including recognition of Don's Mother, will be presented at the Pasadena Playhouse. Barbara La Marr was a colorful woman, to put it mildly. Don, who says he has all of his Mother`s papers, is writing a screenplay about her. We wish him a lot of fun on his trip, and we know we'll hear more when Don returns after a couple of weeks in Hollywood.
The new Curtain Call Community Theater, according to Eileen O'Leary and T.J. Hartung, "will bring to the community live musical and theatrical experiences, performed by members of the community, for the enjoyment of the community. As a non-profit organization, our profits will be donated to local charities to benefit the needy and less fortunate members of our community."
The first production, a rock `n`roll show, opens November 28th at Augustin Flores Contreras Cultural Auditorium (formerly called Cecatur Theater,) near the main plaza. At Santa Barbara Theater on Olas Altas, last year's popular Always, Patsy Cline, opens November 10th.
Be sure to put these dates on your calendar. The Vallarta Chamber Orchestra, according to director, Mary MacLachlan, will perform a holiday concert on December 16th, and the yearly concert on March 16th will feature orchestra soloists and a prominent guest violinist. Performances will be at the American School. Hundreds turn out for these concerts.
A celebration of the opening of Cassandra Shaw Jewelry, Basilio Badillo 276, will be held from 7-10 p.m. on November 17th. Wine and goodies, including chocolate, will be served.
We wish Sergio Rojas well as he pursues new options. Bay Vallarta turned into a popular and dynamic magazine guide to Vallarta and the Banderas Bay area under his direction.
The blues-rock show of Ron Thompson, who brought a blues cruise to Vallarta, had a standing-room enthusiastic audience at Cuates y Cuetes on the beach. Local musician Steve York tours with Thompson on national U.S. tours and provided bass guitar. Tom Colvin rocked us with his harmonica playing, much experienced from Asian big venue tours with his band. Tom heads back to Singapore this Spring for a concert. This was one of the best musical times in Vallarta for a lot of us in quite some time.
Travel & Leisure's (October 2007) cover features "Mexico's Next Great Beach Towns." Focus by writer Christopher Petkanas primarily is on Sayulita, Punta Mita and Yelapa, with not particularly flattering comments about Puerto Vallarta. Hacienda San Angel is portrayed positively by the writer and photographed beautifully by Anne Menke.
The 1964 film, Night of the Iguana, is mentioned in regards to Vallarta's development. The writer then points out for international readers, "PV's 'lengendary' Malecón or promenade, has a vaguely threatening honky-tonk atmosphere." Describing Hacienda San Angel in beautiful terms, he says, "The hotel is only a couple of blocks behind the Malecón but feels like it's on another planet." The writer continues, "The scruffy chain extends across the Cuale River to the Zona Romantica, the neighborhood that earned PV its reputation for maybe being the gayest town in Mexico."
Petkanas further says, "Two nights were all I had budgeted in PV. Any longer and its allure starts to thin. The town gets on your nerves. All those trinket peddlers and serenading Los Ponchos wannabes. But it's a great gateway. The Bay of Banderas sweeps through the states of Jalisco and Nayarit in a 27-mile arc from Villela in the north to Corrales in the south. Its secret beaches and tangled hills hold all the clues to what PV was like 40 years ago."
Whew! The local tourism department has its work cut out for it! Maybe the town's rehab unit, too! Some of us who live here and have spent more than two days getting to know Vallarta and its people, undoubtedly have more positive views, even with our own knowledge of some of the town's flaws. So what do you think?
 An award-winning journalist, Twila Crawford lives in Puerto Vallarta, where, in addition to contributing articles to the Vallarta Tribune and other local and international publications, she writes Out and About in Puerto Vallarta, a weekly column that offers inside information about who, what, why, where and when it's happening around Banderas Bay.
Click HERE to read more of Twila's "Out and About" articles |
Vallarta Weddings
Vallarta Living | November 2007 
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