JOHN HILLSBURY
www. https://jivetimerecords.com/northwest-category/1960s/
By the time The Fugitives started finding local success they met John Hillsbury, who offered to manage them. Hillsbury was a prominent figure in Portland’s arts and theater community. His association with acting went back to the days of WWII when he began entertaining with the USO. After leaving the military Hillsbury landed in New York City, where he crafted his trade and became an accomplished actor, director and costume designer. He returned to Portland in 1957 and joined the film department of a local television studio, KPTV, even though he spent most of his spare time as an actor and somewhat of an impresario.
“He was a wonderful actor,” according to Peggy West, a longtime friend, and fellow performer. “He had a wonderful background in New York City, but he also did a lot of theater in Portland”. Hillsbury was the founder and president of The Portland Playhouse, which opened in 1962 in the ballroom of the old Beaver Hotel on Northwest Glisan Street. According to West. “The Portland Playhouse’ put on some very good shows” she added. “He also did a lot of acting and directing for the Portland Civic Theatre.” Later Hillsbury founded Theatre A la Carte, a troupe that toured the northwest as a dinner theater. During the last decade of his life, John Hillsbury served as a clerk at the Arlington Club, a very exclusive gentlemen’s club that didn’t allow women as members until 1991. It was the kind of stuffy atmosphere one used to conjure up in the mind when the phrase ‘gentlemen’s club’ comes up. It was before the phrase evoked exotic dancers and a front for prostitution, but where important pillars of the community could hide-out from their wives, drink to excess, smoke cigars and fall asleep in huge chairs while reading the daily newspaper.
Hillsbury was also a Portland institution for his playing Santa Claus his grandniece Tracy Duerst of Silverton pointed out after his death from bladder cancer in 1998. “It was at Meier & Frank’s, the top department store in Portland where Hillsbury played Santa from the early 1970s to the 1990s, that he touched the most lives,” Duerst said.
John Hillsbury’s arts and civic connections, along with sheer hard work on the part of the band was a good mix. Hillsbury was an astute showman himself and he took every advantage he could to book or The Fugitives on the bills of Battles of The Bands across the northwest, important opening slots as well as sending the band up and down the West Coast and Canada. He also kept the band in the public eye through endorsements, whether they be local radio stations, the local Pepsi Cola bottler or appearances on local television and radio. For one brief year or two, The Fugitives were the most well-known band in the Portland area.
Below LEFT photo: The Fugitives with Ann and Rhonda. Manager John Hillsbury in front. Below photo RIGHT: David Hamilton/Mame, John, and Walter W Cole/Darcelle at Meier and Frank Department Store.
Below photo BOTTOM: John with Roxy/Roc Newuhardt in 1972.
Per John Burgess “Jack” Hillsbury (1921-1999) - Find a Grave Memorial
Actor John Burgess Hillsbury, who in his long-standing role as Santa Claus brought merriment to the lives of several generations of Portland-area children, died recently of bladder cancer. He was 77.
Mr. Hillsbury, who worked as Santa at the downtown Meier & Frank store for about 25 years, also was an accomplished actor, director, costume designer and the founder-president of two theater troupes.
He was born May 20, 1921, in Spokane. In 1925, he moved to Portland, where he graduated from Grant High School in 1939.
His lifelong interest in the theater started at Grant, where he performed in many stage productions. While serving in the U.S. Army, he was an entertainer in USO shows during World War II.
During the late 1950s, Mr. Hillsbury worked in the film department of KPTV (Channel 12). In his later years, he also worked as a desk clerk for about a decade at The Arlington Club, retiring in 1989.
But his first love was the theater, family and friends agreed.
"He was a wonderful actor," said Peggy West, a longtime friend and fellow thespian. "He had a wonderful background in New York City. But he also did a lot of theater in Portland. He had his own theater going here, called the Portland Playhouse, which put on some very good shows. He also did a lot of acting and directing for the Portland Civic Theatre."
In 1957, Mr. Hillsbury returned to Portland after living in New York City since the late 1940s.
He was the founder and president of the Portland Playhouse, which opened in 1962 in the ballroom of the old Beaver Hotel on Northwest Glisan Street, said grandniece Tracy Duerst of Silverton. He later formed the Theatre Ala Carte, billed as the region's only touring dinner theater.
In the late 1960s, Mr. Hillsbury joined the Lipman Wolfe & Co. department store, playing Santa Claus.
But it was as Meier & Frank's Santa Claus, from the early 1970s to the 1990s, that he touched the most lives.
"He was a good Santa," Duerst said. "He rode in many of the (Christmas) parades, and . . . he was the Santa that the TV stations would always come to."
West agreed. "He once said: 'Now, I am Santa for the children's children.' "
Survivors include his niece, Mary Ann Miles of Silverton; and grandnieces, Tracy Duerst of Silverton and Patricia Tischer of Monmouth; and grandnephew, Bill Miles of Silverton.
Disposition will be by cremation. The family suggests memorials to the Oregon Humane Society in Portland.