The Marcellus Area Historical Society loaned the use of the historic G. W. Jones House, 188 W. Main, to Luke Slattery, center, and (one of!) Marcellus’s favorite sons, John Mooy, right, to record the first installments of a potential podcast featuring John’s stories. With the duo is MAHS Vice President Kay Schten McAdam.
“Wow! That’s a really cool story. Who’s reading that?” asked children’s book illustrator Wendy Anderson Halperin.
The question, directed to Halperin’s husband, News columnist John Mooy, was in reference to a birthday present Mooy received from son-in-law, and actor and director Luke Slattery.
As a gift to Mooy, Slattery recorded himself reading, “Spring,” one of the over 600 articles Mooy’s written for The News in the past 12 years.
A friend of Mooy’s, after listening to “Spring,” suggested that “you guys need to do a podcast. It’s so wholesome and there’s a lot to be learned from it especially in the world we live in today.”
That’s why and how Mooy and Slattery – or is that Slattery and Mooy? – ended up in Marcellus on Wednesday, July 3.
The duo was seeking a quiet spot to record two to three of Mooy’s articles published in The News under the title, The True Book of Mostly Unrelated Stories (see page 3). What better spot to record than a big old lonely house deserving of attention and recognition?
Enter the historic G. W. Jones house at 188 W. Main. The Marcellus Area Historical Society, which houses the archives of The Marcellus News, was happy to offer the house as a venue. And lucky for us all, when Slattery asked if there was a “room with clothes,” which helps deaden background sound, the Wardrobe Room fit the bill. And, yes, there was a moment of successful needle-in-the-haystack digging for a story Mooy wrote in 2020 in memory of his childhood friend, Richard Kahler.
“I’m a ‘yes and’ guy and John is a deep deep well writing these stories for the past 12 years,” Slattery says. “Why not read them out loud?
“The hope is for people to be able to hear it, but we’ve got to dot our ‘I’s’ and cross our ‘T’s’ and try to make it happen.”
While Slattery was ensconced in the Wardrobe Room among G.W.’s top hat, Emma’s bicycling pantaloons, D. V.’s very jazzy flapper dress, and Abby’s wedding dress, Mooy gave Slattery’s parents, Dan and Parry, a grand tour of a portion of his dad Nat Mooy’s mail route along Dutch Settlement Street.
“And did you know,” Mooy says, “that Patty Kahler Swartz is the president of Luke’s fan club? After hearing the cost of a week-long rental for Luke and his wife Lane to attend the Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City, she helped arrange affordable accommodations through her daughter, Karen. It couldn’t have happened without her.”
The recordings went smoothly, the tour was a hit, and while this wasn’t Slattery’s first visit to Marcellus, he does report that each time it “exceeded expectations.”
So, who knows? Marcellus may yet achieve a bit more recognition for its fine people, excellent school system, and rural/small town character or should that be rural/small town characters?
“And there you have it,” Mooy says, “The small town Marcellus effect.”
Slattery, originally from Denver, Colorado, most recently appeared in the 2023 film, The Boys in the Boat, directed by George Clooney, New Amsterdam (2018), and The Post (2017).
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