Hank! You're still wandering around in my withered old brain-- and you do come to the forefront whenever I pass your typewriter. It is at my house if you ever need it to say hello!

Well Hank another year has passed and we miss you dearly! You will be pleased to see your weeping cherry in full bloom. And we made some changes to the gardens, hope you approve!

Can’t believe it’s been 2 years! How the time has flown by. There is not a day goes by that I am reminded of you especially in the yard. All your trees and spring flowers are blooming.

Happy Belated birthday Hank. May the fourth be with you as you always said! Hope you get to celebrate wherever you are❤️

Dearest Hank,
You have no idea how much you are missed. I have planted all your favorite flowers under your beautiful cherry tree along side you. You know there was an easier way of getting out of pulling weeds!!! Miss you my friend

Hey! Hank! Just exactly where are you? You are indeed missed. . . today and many other days. Maybe I'll visit a theater today in your honor: which one do you suggest?

Hank was very keen to show me the Roebling bridge that crosses your Ohio river, and to point out that it was a try-out for Mr Roeblings’  much larger Brooklyn bridge. He sent me occasionally, pictures of your RUBBER DUCK REGATTA,an annual event I believe which takes place on your Ohio river. When I first saw the pictures I said to him: “man,you can’t be serious."

Paul Chadwick

Hank as you know relished our DOWNTON ABBEY but he also relished UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS shown originally in black and white.

Hank loved making things,so he would have loved a series of programmes on our BBC called: THE REPAIR SHOP. Known as the antidote to our throwaway society. People bring in once loved treasured objects in their lives that have seen better days, to begin a new lease of life by using the varied skills that the people in the shop have to make them as good as new. It is all about kindness, skill and love. Do see it if you can in the US. There are at least 15 programmes in the series. Another programme which is relatively new, is called ALL THAT GLITTERS,all about making jewellery. Fascinating for me because like Hank, I love making things,however I’ve never dabbled in jewellery,but I’m learning techniques from it and the use of tools that I never knew existed and all done in such a small space. Hope you can get this one too.

Paul Chadwick

WORDS AND PICTURES FOR HANK FROM HIS FRIEND FOR 27 YEARS IN ENGLAND:

21st Feb 2021,spoke to Hank,on the telephone,but he gave no indication to me that he was so poorly. He said that he got his delayed Christmas present from me,a book called LIKE FATHER LIKE SON, re.our now veteran TV chat show host, Michael Parkinson. He said it made him cry. I have his last message to me on my phone.I spoke to him from his hospital bed on the 14th March,he died 6 days later. I find it hard to believe that I will never speak to him again,nor be able to send him fat envelopes full of news, gossip and pictures culled from many UK papers and magazines. Like-wise his "fat package" always came to me with a wealth of assorted stamps from the US,most of them mini works of art. How he got them to add up to the correct postage cost without causing a riot at the post office counter I’ll never know now!

I met Hank in1994,in Toronto,at the Royal York hotel which was being used as a base for the American Theatre Historical Society’s Conclave that year.

In 1996, Hank played host to me in his "Queen City,” and introduced me to his "second home”: your superb library, a concert at your Music Hall, then to your Emery Theatre to hear the organ and see THE SOUND OF MUSIC,or as Hank would have it: THE SOUND OF MUCAS. Again,he regarded the Emery as his second home.He made scenery there,even slept there. I gazed at your spectacular Union Station, had lovely breakfasts at Hathaways,a brunch at your Netherland Hotel,dined at your Rockwood pottery. I have a piece of said pottery close to me as type, that Hank bought for me, alongside a teacup and mug from Tiffany’s in Cincy,which I believe is now closed.

In 1997,Hank paid his first visit to England staying in my city: Derby. Hank had a photographic memory,so I can only hint at the places we visited.PIC: the photo shows him in red baseball cap, outside my newsagents’ shop.PIC: the photo shows Hank in the Derbyshire town of Buxton. He is filling bottles with water from St Annes’ well which runs 24/7 and is always tepid. Now Buxton water is available nationwide. From Buxton to another county in the north,Yorkshire. The place is Grassington which he insisted in calling Grass LING ton! He always roared when I insisted in calling some of our historic houses and villages: QUAINT deliberately! His library friends may well know how much a fan he was of our DOWNTON ABBEY,and especially ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL,which before Christmas was revised with a new cast. I remember saying to him that it was a “must see’,especially as it was located in Grass LING ton! From there it was onwards north to the Lake District,then to Edinburgh,Scotland.

We visited our Theatre Royal Nottingham ( no Robin Hood!) to see “Tap Dogs”,a high energy very loud show featuring Australian men dancing in tap boots.The real reason I took him to the theatre there was for him to see the interior,all green and gold, designed by our foremost theatre architect, Frank Matcham.

In 1998 I took him to Chatsworth house in Derbyshire. He never let me forget that he could have had his picture taken with a real live English Duchess of Devonshire whilst exercising her lurcher dog.Later to London sites and the City,then,a Eurostar train to Paris. A boat trip on the Seine,Sacre Coeur,Musee D'Orsay which he loved because it was once a railway station,L’Opera,Galleries Lafayette,Music Museum,tour of the Rex cinema.Evening, dined in Montmartre at a restaurant called L’Homme Tranquille. Afterwards outside, a transvestite tried to pick up Hank! True to form, he never forgot that encounter.

1999,to Liverpool,Blackpool, then York for a “quaint” tea in the famous Betty’s tea rooms. Later to see a play at the York Theatre Royal. Next day to
JORVICK where you sit in a chair that takes you backwards in time, then forwards, to experience the sounds, sights and smells of an England devoid of roads, railways and street lighting.

Hank joined my theatre group for a four day stay in Berlin.

In 2000 I met Hank in Detroit. In 1995, the THS Conclave visited that sorry city, and we toured the Opera House which was being refurbished.Hard hats essential. Five years later, we returned the the Opera House to see it in all its superb glory.Later,we took a bus to visit the Henry Ford museum at Dearebourn. A wonderful place to visit with Thomas Eddison too! We visited the Little Gem Theatre to see a show about Patsy Kline. She died aged 30 in a plane crash.I knew little about her then. I know much more about her now, and salute the wonderful actress in Detroit who re-created her songs. A train to Chicago to see Hanks favourite 4,000 plus theatre,the Uptown.Later, to the Museum of Science and Industry, where we were able to sit inside a 1934 Silvertreck Pioneer Zepyr train. PIC.Later, we were to see the ultra claustrophobic interior of a submarine. Took a train to Ravinia to hear an open air concert given by your Chicago symphony orchestra. We heard most of the music from our 4 foot square of pic-nic grass that we had managed to commandere from the hoards of people surrounding us.

From Chicago we took the train to Cleveland to join the THS Conclave there.

In Loving Memory,
Paul Chadwick

I am so happy to see that Hank finally got his name in lights on the 20th Century marquee...very fitting for a lover of motion picture cinemas.  Hank and I were both members of the Theatre Historical Society, originally headquartered in Elmhurst, Illinois.  We hadn't talked for years...and one day he called.  We talked for over 4 hours just catching up.  We called each other at least once a week for movie and cinema updates.  His vast knowledge on theatres in Cincinnati was mid-boggling.  He will be greatly missed by myself.