About John

The following is from a souvenir program from the production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (circa 1965 or so) and so is the picture: John H. Beaumont (Associate Producer) started his theatrical career at the age of 17 as Property Master for the Sacramento Music Circus in California, his home state. The following season he was their Assistant Stage Manager. During that winter season he was hired as Lighting Designer with the Sombrero Playhouse in Phoenix, Arizona and returned to Sacramento the next summer to head the Music Circus staff as Production Stage Manager as well as Lighting Designer. Mr. Beaumont joined the Meadowbrook in 1959, soon after its opening, as Assistant Stage Manager and except for two excursions with the Army has been with the organization every since. He has served as Production Stage Manager and Production Supervisor for Dinner Theatre, Inc., a subsidiary of the Meadowbrook, which produced Dinner Theatre from coast to coast. Since that time John has over 125 productions to his credit. His gadget oriented mind has been responsible for most of the technical and theatrical improvements that have been made at the Meadowbrook in the last five years. John was recently married to actress Jeri Barto and they reside in New York City. Never one to be idle, John is a avid photographer who works in his own darkroom and if you hear a click over your head it is probably John, precariously leaning over the balcony, to get one of his marvelous production pictures. Much more recent: Well, that was 1965 or so and we went on for another 9 years and I became Producer in 1968. In between there were a couple of Off-Broadway shows, 18 months in the army, a couple of productions for Dinner Theatre, Inc., but the Meadowbrook closed in 1973 and my theatrical career had ended. Jeri and I had already moved to New Jersey where we were raising our son John Franklin. I began a new career as owner of a Quick Printing company which I ran for the next 23 years until I closed that in 1997. During that period I was a founder of the New Jersey Association of Quick Printers which had several hundred members state-wide and was active in education for its members as well as the states only annual printing trade show. I was also an instructor and the program director of Cycle Safety Consultants, a New Jersey based not for profit corporation, which taught motorcycle safety to hundreds of students. It ceased operation in 1994 and donated $11,000 to the National Motorcycle Safety Fund, then the largest single donation received by the organization. After the closure of Copyrite Press in 1997 I had to recreate myself again by accepting a position with a international pharmaceutical company, Organon, which merged with Schering-Plough and merged again finally becoming Merck. During one of those mergers my department was let go. I did accept a contract position with Schering-Plough but when the contract ran out I thought it might be time to retire. And so, here we are today. You can check out my blog to see if I think anything is important enough to post.

Photo Credit: Len Leonards, Howill Studios