Robert Conte, Greenbrier Resort Historian,

to play Late Editor of The Pocahontas Times

Robert Conte, resident historian at the world-famous Greenbrier Resort, will come to the stage as Calvin W. Price in a one-man show at the Marlinton Opera House on August 29 and 30.   Conte will bring the late editor of The Pocahontas Times to life in  the Patchwork Films production, “AN EVENING WITH CAL PRICE.”

Calvin Wells Price.  Father, sportsman, speaker, historian, philosopher, church leader, scout leader, community leader, arrowhead collector, conservationist, naturalist and friend.  An editor whose number one rule was to never intentionally print something that would hurt someone – unless there was a principle involved.  A friend whose life touched the lives and hearts of many.  A man who, though soft-spoken and small in stature, was almost bigger than life itself.

Price’s editorials appeared in many of the big city daily newspapers around the country. His down-to-earth outlook on the world around him endeared him to readers, fellow journalists, government leaders and his people of the endless mountains, both young and old.  In a fast-changing world of typesetting machines and fancy automobiles, he continued to live the simple life of his forefathers.  He hand-set his Pocahontas Times and printed it on the flat-bed press until he died in 1957.  In the tradition of his pioneering spirit, his paper became the last weekly publication in America to be hand-set and was the first in West Virginia to be laid out using a computer.    He never did learn to drive a car.

“I can understand why Cal Price loved these mountains,” says Conte, as he drives the roads that wind along the river through the Greenbrier Valley. “It seems that he knew his people well and he shared their concerns.”  More importantly, he wrote about them.  His observations of the world around him, his weekly “Field Notes,” and the news of occasional panther sightings were reprinted in the large daily newspapers from Cleveland to Pittsburgh. 

People across the country knew him as the “typical country editor” after he was so named by the National Editorial Association in 1939 and had his day on the “big air” appearing on Gabriel Heatter’s “We the People” radio broadcast in New York City.  Fellow journalists sang his praise in their columns, using descriptions such as “the living embodiment of a man with plenty of simple dignity and honest pride;” “a bright and shining star;”  and, “we just like to be in his presence!”   In 1942 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from West Virginia University and in 1954 the dedication of  The Calvin W. Price State Forest made him the only person in West Virginia to have a state park named for him.

Dr. Conte has been the full-time professional historian at The Greenbrier for 24 years.  After working at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., Conte moved to the Greenbrier Valley in 1980 to “see what it was like to live in rural West Virginia.”  What started out as a temporary job of organizing the resorts historical archives eventually evolved into a permanent position.  He now fills multiple roles as archivist, curator of the President’s Cottage Museum, tour guide, lecturer and author of the most recent book on the resort’s history, “The History of The Greenbrier, America’s Resort.”

Cal Price’s ties to The Greenbrier  run deep as he was often called upon to lead guests on tours of the Cranberry Glades.  For years his portrait hung in the resort’s “Hall of Distinguished Guests.”   One of the most widely reprinted “news” items from his Times read,  “Woodrow Wilson Sundayed recently  on Howard’s Creek,” which meant the President had spent the weekend at the White Sulphur Springs.

“AN EVENING WITH CAL PRICE,” a play presented in two acts, is directed and produced by Pocahontas County native, B.J. Sharp-Gudmundsson.  Using the text of Price’s editorials and speeches over the years, writers Gudmundsson and Paul Rose, joined by co-producer, Doug Chadwick, present the highlights of this editor’s colorful contribution to West Virginia’s history from 1901 to 1954 by bringing a single actor to the stage.  The Marlinton Opera House serves up a double helping as it not only hosts this one-man show but is also the actual setting for Scene Two of the play.                              

“AN EVENING WITH CAL PRICE” is  the first item on the historical smorgasbord, entitled “SALVE ON THE GREENS,”  a collection that includes a play, a movie, and books,  rooted in the history of  Pocahontas County and the lives of its people.  The play sets the stage for the upcoming film documentary, “30 – Cal Price and The Pocahontas Times,” which will expand upon the life of the famous editor, documenting the history of Pocahontas County’s oldest and only surviving weekly newspaper and the contributions it has made to our history for over 100 years.  The film, scheduled for release in the spring of 2003, will be followed by a published collection of Price’s writings presented in “Field Notes” and “From the Editor’s Desk.”

The stage production is sponsored by the Marlinton Opera House Foundation and funded by the Pocahontas County Arts Council.  Showtimes are at 7:30 PM on Thursday, Aug. 29 and Friday, Aug. 30, 2002.  For more information call B.J. Gudmundsson at 304-645-4998 or visit our websit at  www.CalPriceThirty.com

 

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