Class Note 1979
Issue
January-February 2023
Phil Olson shares about his life after Dartmouth as follows.
“After majoring in math at Dartmouth, playing football, and throwing the shot and discus on the track team, I tried out for the Chicago Bears, hoping for a career in the NFL. I joined the Bears in the summer of 1979 and was with the team for several hours. At that point they suggested that I pursue another career. So off I went to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, an M.B.A., and a career in business.
“I was with a commercial real estate developer in Tampa when one of my tenants, an industrial film producer, asked me if I would be an actor in a training film for the police department. When I arrived on the set, not having a single day of acting experience, they told me I would play a husband who would argue with his wife and the wife would pull out a gun and shoot me—blood packs and everything. They didn’t have a script and asked me to ‘just wing it,’ so I improvised. They kept asking me back to do more industrial films. They even paid me. I think they liked not having to hire a writer.
“From that experience, I moved to Los Angeles to write while keeping a day job. At 40 I wrote my first play. Better late than never.
“I follow the advice, ‘Write what you know.’ I grew up in a Scandinavian household in the Twin Cities. My great-grandparents on both sides came over from Norway. My parents were actually related to each other before they were married. That was truly disturbing to hear until I found out they were second cousins removed, so not Deliverance related. Big sigh of relief, but still.
“Being 100-percent Norwegian, my plays tend to be about emotionally reserved families. My play, A Nice Family Gathering, is a story about a man who loved his wife so much he almost told her. I never heard my parents say they loved each other or us kids. I’m sure they thought it, they just didn’t say it out loud. It was understood. In one of my Don’t Hug Me musicals, I wrote the following exchange. Clara: ‘Gunner, tell me you love me.’ Gunner: ‘Oh, of crying in the beer nuts, I told you I loved you when we got married. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.’ That was my life and I liked it. Saying or hearing the ‘L’ word is uncomfortable.
“Apparently, the emotionally reserved theme resonates with audiences. Since I was 40 I’ve written 18 published plays that have had 450 productions in seven countries. Two of my plays were optioned to be made into feature films and I sold two screenplays, script-doctored three that were produced, and have never been in therapy. I’m still waiting for my ship to come in, but I gave up my day job in 2009. Check out philolson.com.”
Share with me your experiences since graduation.
—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com
“After majoring in math at Dartmouth, playing football, and throwing the shot and discus on the track team, I tried out for the Chicago Bears, hoping for a career in the NFL. I joined the Bears in the summer of 1979 and was with the team for several hours. At that point they suggested that I pursue another career. So off I went to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, an M.B.A., and a career in business.
“I was with a commercial real estate developer in Tampa when one of my tenants, an industrial film producer, asked me if I would be an actor in a training film for the police department. When I arrived on the set, not having a single day of acting experience, they told me I would play a husband who would argue with his wife and the wife would pull out a gun and shoot me—blood packs and everything. They didn’t have a script and asked me to ‘just wing it,’ so I improvised. They kept asking me back to do more industrial films. They even paid me. I think they liked not having to hire a writer.
“From that experience, I moved to Los Angeles to write while keeping a day job. At 40 I wrote my first play. Better late than never.
“I follow the advice, ‘Write what you know.’ I grew up in a Scandinavian household in the Twin Cities. My great-grandparents on both sides came over from Norway. My parents were actually related to each other before they were married. That was truly disturbing to hear until I found out they were second cousins removed, so not Deliverance related. Big sigh of relief, but still.
“Being 100-percent Norwegian, my plays tend to be about emotionally reserved families. My play, A Nice Family Gathering, is a story about a man who loved his wife so much he almost told her. I never heard my parents say they loved each other or us kids. I’m sure they thought it, they just didn’t say it out loud. It was understood. In one of my Don’t Hug Me musicals, I wrote the following exchange. Clara: ‘Gunner, tell me you love me.’ Gunner: ‘Oh, of crying in the beer nuts, I told you I loved you when we got married. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.’ That was my life and I liked it. Saying or hearing the ‘L’ word is uncomfortable.
“Apparently, the emotionally reserved theme resonates with audiences. Since I was 40 I’ve written 18 published plays that have had 450 productions in seven countries. Two of my plays were optioned to be made into feature films and I sold two screenplays, script-doctored three that were produced, and have never been in therapy. I’m still waiting for my ship to come in, but I gave up my day job in 2009. Check out philolson.com.”
Share with me your experiences since graduation.
—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com