Marty Benoff

Marty’s reputation as a real character has always followed him. From his WWII days as a gunner in the famous “Widow Maker,” to later rescuing the finances of his Synagogue by running a Bingo game, Marty prefers to write his own script. But, that hasn’t stopped him from considering other story lines. When Marty moved to Shannondell, he quickly found himself on stage with both The Actors’ Studio and King of Prussia Players. Today, the spotlight’s found Marty, once again, in the Shannondell Performing Arts Theater. Encore, Marty, encore.

Q:
You’re a Philadelphia native, I hear.

Marty:
Yep. Grew up in South Philly … about as native as it gets.

Q:
I also hear that you enlisted in 1940, before the WWII draft began.

Marty:
I knew there was a draft coming, and I wanted to be able to choose my branch of service. So, I signed up for the Air Force and was a radio operator and gunner in a B26 – the famous “Widow Maker.” We flew to England for the invasion of North Africa and bombed the shipping lanes to Greece.

Q:
And you’ve been involved in Veteran’s groups since.

Marty:
I have. I chair the Veteran’s group at Shannondell – about 250 veterans, including a bunch of Marines. Don’t get them started at Happy Hour. I’ve also hosted a WWII Wing (16 squadrons) convention at Valley Forge. And, about four years ago, I started a clothing drive for a nearby veteran’s hospital.

Q:
You don’t mind grabbing the bull by the horns, do you?

Marty:
(laughing) Always wanted to run with those bulls – maybe next year. I guess I’ve never shied away from a challenge.

Q:
Including your Synagogue?

Marty:
Yeah, they were in financial straights. This other guy was running a Bingo game and losing money, so I said let me run it. I told them to give me $2,500 to give away on the first night (they did reluctantly), and we took off from there. I made $400,000 working 40 nights a year for four years. It literally saved the place.

Q:
If I were writing a script, you would’ve moved to Vegas after that.

Marty:
Nope … lived in the same house with my wife in Flourtown for almost 40 years, until I moved to Shannondell.

Q:
And what brought you to Shannondell?

Marty:
After my wife passed away, my daughter who is a clinical psychologist decided to do some practicing on me. She’d say, “Tell me about your day Dad,” and I would. And she’d say, “That’s not you Dad. You need a bigger stage.”

Q:
And she was right.

Marty:
She was, but don’t tell her. Shrinks love it when they’re right. I went to look at a bunch of communities. Some were okay. Some gave me the “willies.” But Shannondell was different.

Q:
How so?

Marty:
It’s just a feeling you get when you come here. For starters, the grounds and architecture are much nicer. The staff remembers you. The residents are sincerely friendly. And the place is financially secure. That’s huge peace of mind these days. But the kicker, for me, was all the stuff there is to do here. I started gardening and acting from Day One.

Q:
Why am I not surprised that you act?

Marty:
I was a Mason, and we’d put on skits, but I had never done anything more. When I moved to Shannondell, I joined the King of Prussia Players and the Actor’s Studio at Shannondell. We have a blast. I’ve been cast in Mack & Mabel, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to The Forum, Guys & Dolls and Oliver.

Q:
And you sing and dance, of course.

Marty:
Of course! We just finished Guys & Dolls, and I was in the number where the guys throwing craps dance and sing “Luck Be A Lady Tonight.”

Q:
Have you ever considered getting an agent?

Marty:
Actually, the director from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum was from Hollywood, and he asked me to do a commercial. We shot it at a local fire station.

Q:
I give up. What’s your secret?

Marty:
Hot peppers!

Q:
Okay, I’ll bite.

Marty:
I garden three plots in our resident gardens and, among other things, I grow hot peppers … jalapenos, habaneras, poblanos … the hotter, the better. I eat them every day. Keeps the fire burning. Keeps you young. That’s why you move here. Ask anybody.

We are Marty, thanks.

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