By Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – Sixty years ago, a tour boat carrying two millionaires, a farm girl, a movie star, a professor, the boat’s captain and his first mate ran into a storm and ended up on a tropical island that’s now as iconic as the starship Enterprise and a king’s Iron Throne.
On Sept. 26, 1964, a show called “Gilligan’s Island” premiered on television. The show ran until 1967 and continued to live on in syndication, TV movies and even cartoon shows. This year is the show’s 60th anniversary, so Dreama Denver of Princeton, wife of the show’s late star Bob Denver, is hosting a beach party luau July 19 at Bowen Field in Bluefield to celebrate 60 years of Gilligan, Mary Ann, Ginger, Mr. and Mrs. Howell, the Professor and the Skipper. Gates at Bowen Field will open at 5 p.m. that day. A Ridge Runners baseball game will start at 6 p.m.
“It’s really great,” Dreama Denver said Wednesday about the upcoming celebration. “It occurred to me when 2024 happened. I did the math in my head and said, ‘Oh wow! It’s been 60 years and that’s a big deal.’”
Back in the early days of television, new shows premiered in September, Denver recalled. Now it’s time to remember the comedy’s longevity.
“It just seems to me that since Bob isn’t here, but I still am, that I should do this milestone,” she said. “A huge milestone, I think.”
