“Ya gotta have a gimmick!”
These words of advice performer Hugo Immediato passed down to his daughter Vicki Immediato Winton 35 years ago.
In fact, Hugo and brothers Nick and Al had two gimmicks: one was in the business of their father, a first generation Italian immigrant who passed through Ellis Island and established a bakery in Little Italy. The other: their athleticism.
The trio hungered for the heat of Broadway lights over that of their father's bakery ovens, and soon became accomplished acrobats who toured on the post-vaudeville circuit and appeared with multitudinous celebrities like Kirk Douglas and Bob Hope before injury brought them back to Wilmington.
Once home, the three, undaunted, proved they weren't done with show business, nor making the most of their gimmicks, and so The Three Little Bakers became the stuff of local legend.
In 1972, theatre, food and their "patented desserts" were mixed together in an entertainment souflee with the opening of Three Bakers Dinner Theatre in Kennett Square, Pa. Vicki, then a college student and part of the growing second generation, was conscripted into service as a hat check girl, bookkeeper and hostess – every night.
The move to Pike Creek Valley and a custom building followed in 1983. For more than 15 years it was almost impossible for locals to book in the 900-seat theatre. Bakers did not advertise locally. Why bother? Five nights a week there were a dozen tour buses in the parking lot with license plates from New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
But by the late 1990s, the market was changing. The entertainment pie was being cut into several slices as casinos opened. The entire mission of Three Bakers was based on family shows, but Broadway was not churning out thematic clones of The Sound of Music.
For their guests -- travelers who had visited Delaware destinations for years with their tour guides -- they thought the show would go on forever. When the theatre closed two years ago, the second and third generation Immediato family members, for the most part, went their own ways.
But Vicki, who was president of the business when it closed, is making sure the show goes on, this time, at the Baby Grand in Wilmington.
She has a fervent and unequivocal belief that the public still wants family fare.
For the second year, her new company, VR Hospitality (under the Three Bakers' banner), is presenting "Home For The Holidays.” Jim Weber, creator of the first Bakers Christmas show in 1990, is both director and music director.
This month's production is not dissimilar from years past, and it is one to bring the entire brood, even the aunt you don't really like. (She will appreciate your sacrifice and speak more highly of you.)
“The Christmas show,” says Weber, “was consistently our most popular. All of the leads this year performed for years at Bakers and are experienced professionals. We're all family.”
Tiffany Christopher, returning from last year's show, lights up the stage any time she is featured. Her “Santa Baby” song and dance with eight rollicking and saucy Santas is absolutely merrymaking. Eight-year-old Lexi Saunders has been an attentive student to choreographer and mom Vicki Saunders' instructions.
In one scene, a child queries the existence of Santa. An adult then reads the classic 1897 "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus." Part of the message to Virginia reads “He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas, how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Viriginias.”
A thought occurred at the moment I heard those lines again: the world would be more dreary if there were no Vicki Immediato Wintons.
Home For The Holidays runs through Dec. 27. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be in attendance one hour before each show for pictures. Many performances are grandkid-friendly matinées, and group discounts are available. For more information, call (302) 652-5577 or visit www.TicketsAtTheGrand.org.
