Graduating from School and Departure

We are standing by Munken, the town’s cultural centre for the last hundred years, since 1921. The magnificent building is today known as Munken Playhouse and houses Larvik’s Children and Youth Theatre, but also played a role in Heyerdahl’s time as a young man. The last time he lived in Larvik on a permanent basis was the spring of 1933. He turned 18 the previous autumn and was preparing to graduate from school. Unlike most young people of his day, owning a car and getting a driving licence was not this nature enthusiast’s goal. In fact, he never did own a driver’s licence. He didn’t spend his free time on driving lessons when he should have been preparing for exams. However, he put his heart into the graduate’s review. It played to a full house here in Munken on the 9th of March 1933 and the title was, “Even in Times Like These”. It was made up of two acts and 26 different numbers. The orchestra gave themselves the name “Funny Fellows” and the review made several references to local people and events, including, “Gyldenløve’s Water Reservoir”. Heyerdahl had a link to this place. It was about the Herrgård Pond, which was filled in the following year. Heyerdahl was an enthusiastic participant on the stage, together with his friend Arnold. Arnold danced to “The Dying Swan” and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Should we believe Mossen Thaulow, a member of the audience, it was a hilarious show. Thor, who had learned to dance with Arnold at Miss Dødelein’s school of dance, danced in the ballet number, “Jumping Pigs”. He also played the balloonist Piccard in the number entitled “Piccard’s Last Flight from Mother Earth.” Jean Felix (1884-1963) was a Swiss/American chemist who was known in the beginning of the 1930’s for his experiments with hot air balloons. He reached a height of 17 kilometres up in the stratosphere on a flight from Detroit. Heyerdahl didn’t achieve such heights with his balloon in Munken. A beer barrel and an elevator-like contraption were meant to send him all the way up to St. Peter. Jacoby was in costume for the occasion with wings and a key to the pearly gates. “The first act took place down on earth. I played the absent-minded Piccard and was supposed to get into the basket in an elegant manner. We never had a dress rehearsal for that number, but everything was well prepared, so we expected it to go according to plan. But it didn’t”, ‘Thor Piccard’ told Østlands-Posten in an interview when he was crowned as honorary graduate in Larvik on the 17th of May 2000. “When I was supposed to dive through the hole we had made in the basket, it spun around and the result was me banging my head on the side of the barrel. I did indeed see stars, but not in the sky,” he ensured the newspaper. The Pacific Ocean with its thousands of islands would later become Thor’s heaven. Ironically, while the “balloonist” is swatting for his exams, a film is being shown at Munken which must have triggered his vision of paradise. The manager of the cinema screened the film “One Way Passage” with Kay Francis and William Powell in the main roles on Wednesday the 24th of May 1933. It was a very entertaining film with scenes of the sea, the sun and romance, according to the review. It is more than likely that the wide-eyed student from Steingata sat in the dark in the cinema and saw himself paddling at the water’s edge on white sandy beaches and listening to the palms waving in the breeze. He met his Kay a short time later at a pre-graduation party at the Kronprinsen restaurant in Stavern and three years later, Thor and his chosen partner, Liv Coucheron of Brevik, say goodbye to Thor Senior at Larvik Railway Station and head for Oslo and on to Fatuhiva in the Pacific Ocean. We are not going that far today. We continue on to our next stop, Festiviteten.