How It All Began
Elson Irwin was born in a little log cabin (well, it actually was a well-equipped hospital), but
he was brought home to a frame house (the house was purchased by his great-grandfather, Jared Irwin, in 1857 and it
was located directly across the street from Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois.)
Elson first went on stage with his ventriloquist/minstrel father,
Oscar Raymond, at the age of two (1930). Irwin migrated to California at a very early age, and with the aid
of a relative who was already in the film industry, worked in film, theater and television in the Los Angeles area.
He attended high school with Marni Nixon and Coleen Townsend, and formed a friendship with actor James Coburn
at L.A. City College. He studied drama and journalism and worked in both occupations over a period of many years.
He is an actor, director and writer, a former newspaper columnist, theater critic and sports writer.
After a tour in Japan, he settled in San Diego where Seniors
On Stage was first formed (La Jolla in 1992). S.O.S. became a special course for adults at the San Diego Community
College with such personalities as the great Carl Herman and the most talented Flo Sommerville, along with Ed Shaffer,
Bruce Davis, Al "Superman" Hunsacker, Frieda Rosenberg, Tony James Dean, Joe Brown, "Tina" Guido, Elithe Belofsky,
Martin and Cheryl Baron, Gene Anselmo, Brett Weir and Selma Kaufman and many others. Irwin conducted
the San Diego workshop until 1999, at which time he moved to Hemet.
The Hemet troupe was organized shortly after Irwin's arrival in Hemet that year, first at
Golden Village, then moving to the Simpson Center where the "Follies" is staged annually. A number of performances were also
staged at Motte's Barn in Romoland.
The troupe, with performers ranging in age from 50 to over 90, is now well established in
the Inland Empire, having staged the Hemet Senior Follies for the past nine years. The troupe
includes singers, dancers, ventriloquists, and musicians of every discription.
There is no special prerequisite for joining the troupe, just a love of the theater and the
willingness to take on any task from backstage drudgery to performing before "live" audiences. See our list of performers
in the scene entitled "The Characters."
