In South’s first yearbook from 1976, nestled between pages for the extracurricular activities and clubs offered at our school, lies an oddity: the Millard Fillmore Fan Club. Surrounded by clubs like National Honor Society and Chess Club, a fanclub for some random guy seems out of place!
There must be a story behind its existence. Could it be a cover for something? Or was it really made up of die-hard Fillmore Fangirls? Who were its members? And besides, who is Millard Fillmore anyway?
“[Fillmore] was the 13th President of the United States,”said Chuck Musciano (‘78), a South alumnus who currently lives in Georgia. “He introduced toilets to the White House, so he’s got his place in history,” Musciano was one of the members of the Millard Fillmore Fan Club.
Another member of the club, Joe Wilcox (‘78), currently residing in Virginia, said that the club wasn’t a regular commitment. “It was, for the most part, just so that we could say that we had established the club as part of our high school years on our college applications,” he said.
The end of that year was not the end of the fan clubs. A Gilda Radner Fan Club was formed and featured in the 1977 yearbook (although she is temporarily renamed Radnor thanks to a typo), with three of the Millard Fillmore Fan Club’s original members staying on: Musciano, Laurel Holaday Tiemens (‘78), and Don Holloway (‘78), and one new member, the club president Amy Snedeker (‘78).
According to imdb.com, Gilda Radner was a comedian for “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) from 1975 to 1980.
“[SNL] was a groundbreaking television show. We liked it in general, but we really liked Gilda,” said Musciano. “We said we should form a Gilda Radner fan club, so we did.”
During that year, Musciano wrote a letter to Radner for Snedeker’s birthday. Unexpectedly, they received a reply. “Gilda had actually taken her official NBC headshot, that was the intro video for the show, torn it off the wall, and signed it to Amy,” said Musciano.
Following the tradition of the previous two years, the Steve Martin Fan Club was formed in 1978 with all new members. According to britannica.com, Steve Martin is a famous American comedian and actor, also known for hosting SNL in its early years.
“The year before in ‘77, they had a Gilda Radner Fan Club. So we were trying to one-up them, I guess,” said Joy Holman (‘78), an alumna who still lives in New Jersey.
So what’s the common denominator of all of these fan clubs? “You’re going to get a kick out of this,” said Holman about the Steve Martin Fan Club. “It was all a joke.”
“It was more of a joke than anything else, because we were sort of jerks,” said Wilcox, regarding the Millard Fillmore Fan Club.
We don’t see this kind of joke being played anytime after the first three years of the yearbook’s existence. In its first years, South administration and students were still finding their footing as a school, and students were experimenting with the kind of clubs they could form.
“The teachers allowed us space for creativity and for thinking outside of the box,” said Holman.
“It was a really cool time to be in a school that was new, with teachers that understood that, and let us have a tremendous amount of leeway in what we could do. It was fun. It really was a bit special,” said Musciano.
