When Ernie, Bob and Gus came to visit Rooftop in 2012, as special guests for the world premiere of“On The Rooftop,” an opera created in celebration of Rooftop’s 40th Birthday, we had a chance to ask the founders about the origins of the school mascot Kong. When interviewed about the beginnings of Rooftop School, they shared a silly story involving Rooftop teacher Jim Nice, who was a former test pilot who flew plans for the movie King Kong, Ernie’s hairy arms, and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.
Ernie sweetly brought his mimeographed copy of the school’s first yearbook, complete with autobiographies of students born in ’60, ’61 & ’62 and the simple gifts of expressed affection – pencils and puppets, cubicles, brains, love, happiness, memories left behind for friends and teachers in the Sixth Grade Wills.
On March 9, 2014, we received this lovely email with the subject line: “I was there the first day.” from former Rooftoper Yvette Weeks who ‘designed’ King Kong and the Rooftop Rainbow.
