I made $9 on the road’s wrong fork

It was my first — and last — paid acting gig.

But it prevented me from savoring what might have been the best summer of my life.

Remember Robert Frost’s immortal reflection?

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I / Took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference.”

I was 18 and took the wrong fork.

Though it didn’t impact my life to any significant degree, I now look back at the decision with a tinge of regret. I should have taken the less traveled road for the sheer joy of it. Instead, I opted for money.

I refer to it as my “summer stock” experience, though it wasn’t that at all. It was hardly educational and it wasn’t professional in any true sense of the word. The summer stock appellation gives it greater dignity than it deserved.

It was June of 1963. I’d just finished my freshman year as a drama student at Orange Coast College. I was studying under the college’s revered theater professors, John Ford and Luke Scott.

I spent the entire summer acting in a play staged at a “professional” playhouse, the Gaslight Theater on Placentia Avenue in Costa Mesa, next to Ed’s Hofbrau. We mounted 72 performances between early June and early September. A good friend of mine had done a show at the Gaslight the previous summer.

Sometime in the spring of ’63 — probably in mid-April or so — OCC’s theater department posted an intriguing announcement: “Actors Needed For Summer Production.”

The play was “Ten Nights in a Bar-Room.” Clearly not Tennessee Williams or Henrik Ibsen, it was a melodrama based on an 1854 temperance novel by T.S. … Eliot? No, T.S. Arthur.

The melodrama tells the story of a respected family man who throws his life away on alcohol. The best thing about the play was that it was 60 minutes in length, leaving time for an intermission and olios, a cluster of Vaudeville-type acts.

Sometime during the spring of ‘63, OCC announced its annual summer musical production: Meredith Willson’s 1957 Broadway hit, “The Music Man.”

As a rising high school senior in the summer of 1961, I appeared in OCC’s musical, “Li’l Abner” and had a blast! The thought of another OCC summer musical experience with my friends was highly appealing.

But “Ten Nights in a Bar-Room” beckoned with a salary of $50 a week. I’d purchased my used ’51 Ford for $250. Fifty bucks wasn’t chump change.

I chased the money.

I auditioned in May and won a role. That forced me to make a tough decision and I elected to follow the axiom: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” There were no guarantees I’d secure a role in “The Music Man.”

With stars in my eyes, I chose “summer stock.”

The predicted crowds never materialized. We averaged maybe 25 people per performance all summer. We’d get 75 on a Friday or Saturday night, and less than 10 for midweek performances. I remember one night we had three: a couple up front and a guy in the last row. We never canceled a performance.

Obviously, we couldn’t be paid the promised $50 per week, so we agreed to split the take. One week I made $9. I cashed the check. I wish I’d framed it!

Meanwhile, my friends were having the time of their lives in “Music Man.” I’d sneak over to watch rehearsals and, later, matinees.

Each performance was sold out: 1,200 people.

My classmate, Pete Ostling, starred as Professor Harold Hill in OCC’s production and was sensational. Pete’s performance was as engaging as Robert Preston’s Tony Award-winning turn on Broadway.

Pete, later known as Peter Jason, left OCC for New York the following year and went on to enjoy a successful career as a versatile stage, television and motion picture actor. He’s still performing.

When September 1963 rolled around I happily returned to the role of unemployed college student, savvier to the ways of the world.

JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.