JOANE HUMPHREY, 71: CBC PRODUCER

Broadcaster and writer conceived off-Broadway musical, Menopositive!

Known professionally as J. J. McColl, she was a writer and TV host who co-wrote and produced a madcap musical that flopped spectacularly in New York but remains in production in Canada.

MOIRA DANN
Special to The Globe and Mail
October 20, 2008

VICTORIA -- Joane Humphrey was a CBC producer, writer, actor and television-show co-host who conceived and produced the Broadway musical, Menopositive! The Musical - all without ever learning a note of music.Known professionally as J. J. McColl, and single most of her life, she also liked to refer to herself as "the ancient bridesmaid."

She once put in a call to her friend, B.C. artist Deirdre Roberts. "Helloooo, it's me, the ancient bridesmaid."

Delivered dramatically, with a faux quaver in her voice, this was how she identified herself. From her perspective, she had every right, because, in her seventh decade, she had been Ms. Roberts's maid of honour at her wedding - but more about that later.

Joan Elizabeth Humphrey (she signed herself "Joane" only later, in adulthood) was born in Vancouver toward the end of the Depression; she was the third of three children and the only girl. She was raised in Vancouver's Kerrisdale neighbourhood. Her parents' marriage was described as "estranged" and Joane's mother, Isabella, worked to support the family.

"Here we were, growing up in an affluent area, going to an upper middle-class school and both our mothers worked," said school friend Ann Geddes. "It gave [Joane] a different perspective."

While at Magee High School, the road to Ms. Humphrey's creative destiny was clear: She worked for the school newspaper, was active in operetta, was noted for her "comical" turn in the year's drama club production and was involved in the creation of the 53-54 yearbook in which she noted her desired future: Writer. Meanwhile, she was not the only one in her family with theatrical aspirations. Her brother, Jack, grew up to become a producer of such television shows as King of Kensington and Seeing Things.

There weren't many beaux in high school, said Ms. Geddes, although Ms. Humphrey "had eyes" for a few, noting that they both were tall girls and back then "you felt your height."

Ms. Humphrey was, indeed, tall (she hated being called "statuesque") and blonde and striking (she did some modelling in her 20s), with glittering sapphire eyes. She had a distinctive, deep timbre to her voice and an easy laugh full of crystalline tones. Her dramatic flair was already evident in high school and "sometimes others didn't understand it, and mocked," Ms. Geddes says. (Ms. Humphrey renewed her passion for acting later in life. A highlight: playing a real-estate agent in the 2001 film The Pledge, starring Jack Nicholson and directed by Sean Penn.)

After high school, Ms. Humphrey started to create her eclectic resume: Vancouver's first female DJ, hosting her own talk show on CJOR and another show later on CBC; secretary (to Shogun author and Great Escape screenplay writer, James Clavell); and assistant producer and co-host with New York chef James Beard of his 1960s show on CTV, an experience she said soured her on both cooking and Mr. Beard.

Ms. Humphrey spent a number of years freelancing for radio and TV, from both overseas in London and from a cottage on Hornby Island, B.C. She also carved a distinctive niche creating radio documentaries for CBC.

In the early 1980s, she further broadened her creative range by writing radio drama, many for CBC Radio's Morningside. She also made time to paint, sculpt and take some tap-dancing lessons.

During this time, she was also caring for her mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Ms. Humphrey drew on this for an award-winning 10-part drama called Mothering; it generated a huge response and was declared one of the best radio dramas of that decade. She returned to CBC-TV in 1993, as host of 50 UP, a weekly half-hour that ran for several years.

In the mid-1990s, she travelled on her own to Ireland where she had a profound experience: She heard beautiful, fully orchestrated music in her mind's ear yet had no way of setting it down. When she got home, she remembered fragments, and asked Vancouver musician Rueben Gurr for help in transcribing what she sang into a tape recorder. It was to be the genesis of their work together on Menopositive! The Musical, a show about a group of fiftysomething women at their high-school reunion who swap notes on "the change."

She later wrote to a friend, citing the Oliver Sacks book Musicophelia: Tales of Music and the Brain, " ... about people who have odd experiences ... with music. As you know, I had such an experience in Ireland, an epiphany, which led me to writing music for the first time, the music for my musical. ... Before, telling people ... I had a psychic experience in Ireland and started to write songs by singing them always vaguely embarrassed me. (I wonder why?) Now ... the book by Sacks makes me feel like a weird little link to the music makers of earliest times, playing in the Paleozoic ooze, thrilling to every note blown through a shell."

Moyra Rodger worked with Ms. Humphrey on 50 UP; it was her company that became the agent and manager of Menopositive! The Musical.

"Joane's authenticity, I think, came because she heeded the call to be creative. Many of us have responsible jobs and do anything creative on the side but for Joan there was no discrepancy. Her creativity was her calling," Ms. Rodger said. "And she stayed true to that, even through lean times ... and there were lean times, early in her career."

The show opened at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver in 1998 and, after performances in centres across Canada - between March, 2003, and August, 2004, it was staged in Calgary, Petrolia, Ont., Port Dover, Ont., and Orangeville, Ont. - the chance came to take the show to New York.

"It was a disaster," Ms. Rodger said.

There were unauthorized script changes and the theatre wasn't really finished, all of which delayed the opening until early 2005. Because of another show called Menopause: The Musical, even the show's name had to change from Menopositive! to J. J. McColl's We're Still Hot! The Musical.

And then came the audition of Victoria Gotti, daughter of the "Teflon Don" John Gotti, who was then starring in her own reality TV show, Growing Up Gotti.

There we were, half a block from Times Square, in an alley near the theatre," Ms. Rodger said. "It was twilight and a black Escalade pulls up. Security staff got out before Gotti emerged ... It was all very dramatic and odd."

Even being thrown a curve, Ms. Humphrey proved to be the embodiment of human grace, Ms. Rodger said. For one thing, she spoke with concern about how "vulnerable" Ms. Gotti had appeared at the audition. In the end, the show's New York producers cast Ms. Gotti in the part, but the run ended before she could take her place on stage.

By that time, Ms. Humprey could no longer claim to be the ancient bridesmaid. She became a sixtysomething bride, marrying on June 22, 2002.

"If anyone of 'that certain age' believes that romantic love is, for them, a thing of the past, remember me," she wrote. "I'd never been married before. My life is proof that the most gloriously unexpected things can happen. Love can be a moment away."

The lucky man was Frank Howard, whom she met while working on a story. He was an NDP politician who had served as the MP for Skeena from 1957-1974, and MLA for Skeena from 1979-1986. He was 77 and she was 65.

"Joane showed me clearly what love is: Do what you can to make the other person feel happy, adored and respected," he said.

"Every morning we repeated part of our wedding ceremony. We asked each other 'Will you marry me?' We would then place our wedding necklaces around each other's neck and, in unison and while hugging, repeat, 'And we will live this day as if it is the first, the last, and the only day we will have with each other.' "

Not long ago, Ms. Humphrey became seriously ill. She was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). It was nasty, brutish and mercifully short.

I'm just glad," Ms. Geddes said, "that she was so surrounded by the love of her family and friends. For she had given so much for so long."

Her characteristically zany sense of humour remained with her to the end.

"During her last few days in the hospital," Mr. Howard said, "she decided that her body should go to University of British Columbia's medical research facility so that they could examine the ALS factor. The UBC advised that they didn't accept patients with a neurological ailment.

"Her immediate comment was, 'And they haven't even seen me with my makeup on.' "

JOANE HUMPREY

Joane Elizabeth Humphrey was born Dec. 24, 1936, in Vancouver. She died Sept. 23, 2008, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in White Rock, B.C. She was 71. She leaves her husband, Frank Howard. She also leaves her brother Lawrence, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her brother, Jack, in 1987, and by her mother, Isabella, in 1992.