Gary Smith knows the Capitol Theater like the back of his work-calloused hand.
His official title is Trade Specialist I, a fancy designation for the do-it-all go-to guy who handles everything from lights and sound to running the sweeper when the footlights dim.
A fixture at the iconic 104-year-old theater since West Virginia State College bought it in 1991 and a campus theater tech at State before that, the 51-year-old Nitro resident is a lifelong organist who once dreamed of traveling and demonstrating for the Lowry Organ Company. Instead, as a backstage tech worker in college, he discovered a role he loved more than music.
He's unfailingly cheerful (he smiles when he talks), and that positive attitude helped immensely in childhood. A birth defect paralyzed his legs, but with braces and a can-do spirit, he didn't miss much. Surgery at age 12 corrected the paralysis. Today he walks with a barely discernible limp.
He enjoys showing off his beloved show place, especially the dressing room area in the bowels of the theater where thousands of signatures from performers cover every inch of wall space.
He's heard the ghost stories. He hasn't seen one himself, mind you. But one scary night....well, let's just say he couldn't get out of there fast enough.
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"I grew up in Nitro starting on the Putnam County side. In '71, we moved on the Kanawha County end and I have lived there ever since in the same neighborhood.
"My dad worked for the Post Office and my mom was a meat cutter at Kroger for 37 years.
"I wanted to be a musician. I wanted to go on the road for the Lowry Organ Company, demonstrating their organs. Mom and dad had an organ at the house and I sat down one day and started tinkering with it. I couldn't play sports, so decided to do that and started taking lessons at Guthrie-Beane Music Company, on Quarrier Street.
"I've been playing music since I was 7. I still play organ and piano.
"I wore braces. You can't tell it, but I am legally paralyzed below my knees. I was born like that. My back leg was turned completely backwards and ran up on my chest, and for 14 days they twisted it this way and that way and got it straightened back around.
"I could walk, but for a long time I couldn't feel anything in my feet. If you would stick me with pins, I couldn't feel anything. Now if you step on my foot, I'm going to let you know about it.
"I played like any normal kid. I climbed trees. I ran and rode bikes. I just wasn't good at sports because of the braces. I don't let anything stop me. If I want to do something, I do it.
"People would call my mom at work and say, 'Do you know your son is up in a tree?' She'd say, 'Did he fall out of the tree? Did he get hurt climbing the tree? No? Leave him alone then. If he's not hurt, I don't need to know he's in a tree.'
"I was 12 when I had the surgery. They broke all the bones in my feet and ankles and fused them back together with staples. I like to tell people I have half of Raleigh Junk in my feet. But I'm good to go.
"It helped my feet positioning. Braces kept my feet straight and level and when they broke everything and put it back together, it leveled everything out. The only difference now is I have a slight limp where one leg is shorter than the other.
"Soon after the surgery, the New River Gorge Bridge was opening and I was going to walk it, and my mom called the paper and they said it would be a wonderful story, so they came down and took pictures. I probably walked three-quarters across the bridge and back and then went over and met the governor.
"There was a contest to see who would ride with the governor in the first car to cross the new bridge. The reporter said I would have been a shoo-in. I didn't enter because I didn't see anything special in that.
"Four months ago, I threw my braces in the trash. I kept them all those years.
"I graduated from Nitro in 1983. I went straight to West Virginia State to be a music ed teacher. I ended up getting my degree through the Board of Regents program. Because of outside field experiences where I had to be with kids for so many hours, I realized I didn't have the patience to work in a class setting for eight or so hours a day.
"I was in a couple of plays in high school just because I was short and I could portray a kid and sing, but I wasn't interested in the tech side of it.
"In college, I got started doing theater stuff through my piano teacher. One night after a show, she said, 'Come on down here on stage. I need your help.' I helped load the show up and she said, 'Do you want to make money at this?' I said sure, and I'm still making money doing it.
"I learned everything on the job. I was fascinated with it. I was technical director on campus at State for two or three years, both for the university and the Charleston Stage Company.
"After I graduated from State, I was still working for them when the opportunity came for me to move up here after the university got the building in '91. I graduated Saturday morning, and we did a show here that night. I worked back and forth between campus and here, and they needed someone to take care of the building and they asked if I wanted the job.
"I moved up here in '93 and I've been here ever since. It's a full-time job. Most days I'm here 8 to 4. If there's an event, it could be 8 to midnight or 2 in the morning.
"You have glitches every now and then. The concert we had here in March, the group from Scotland, we got ready to do a sound check and some of my equalizers started going bad. I couldn't fix them. So we had to switch out parts out to get them to work and finally got it going and got the concert over with. Sometimes a light goes out in the middle of a show and you have to run up and replace the lamp.
"We rent out the theater. Our big clients are the Contemporary Youth Arts Company with Dan Kehde and Mark Scarpelli and the Limelight Theater Company with Kelly and Dennis Strom. FOOTMAD rents us a couple of times a year.
"A kid fell off the stage one time, my former boss' son. We had a platform built off the stage. He was probably 4 years old and wasn't paying attention and fell off. Ponk! He hit his head. But he was fine.
"The building is 104 years old. It was built in 1912. I came here in 1977 and saw the opening of 'Star Wars' when it was still a movie theater. I sat in the balcony with my dad and about four or five other kids.
"I love my job. When it's quiet like on days like today, I'm running the vacuum cleaner or cleaning bathrooms or fixing stuff that breaks down. My actual job title is Trade Specialist I. But I do everything.
"It involves everything from lights to sound to building sets, tearing them down and moving them in and out.
"When there's a show on, I'm either backstage or behind the sound board or light boards.
"I've heard people talk about seeing the ghosts. I haven't seen anything, but I've heard noises. One night I heard footsteps on the stage. I came running up from under the stage. I knew I was the only one in the building. I jumped off the stage and ran out the door and locked it. I don't even know if I turned off the lights. I wasn't waiting around, man.
"Everyone writes their name in the dressing rooms. Now we got people using spray paint and ruining some really good signatures. I've signed the wall and I probably couldn't find it myself.
"I feel pretty good about things. I'm married, three kids. I still play music every Sunday for Kings Way Christian Church in Nitro. I'm on their praise team and I'm a deacon in the church.
"I really enjoy my job here. And I get calls to help with shows in other places. I've helped on the levee with different events. I've worked with Children's Theater, Charleston Light Opera Guild, Kanawha Players, all the local theater companies. I've worked with Danny Boyd on his three major feature films. Most of the older people in theater around here know who I am.
"Along with this, I do construction work and I have my electrician's license and do odd jobs if somebody needs me.
"Sometimes I think it would be nice to be on the road with a band as a musician. But then I'd be in a different city every night and living on a bus. I'm happy with what I'm doing."
Reach Sandy Wells at sandyw@wvgazettemail.com or 304-342-5027.