Jay Leno goes green

During the “Headlines” segment on “The Tonight with Jay Leno” on Monday, October 18, 2007 Jay Leno held up a newspaper ad for Amish Acres. He waxed on about the nostalgic nature of the historic attraction, and then found reference to Broadway Musicals which gave him his usual chuckle when he finds what he considers inconsistencies.

Friends called from across the country to tell us that Amish Acres was on “The Tonight Show.” Because we were doing our usual surfing among Leno, Letterman, and Charlie Rose, we missed the Amish Acres headline; I reran the show on the Internet at NBC.com. To my surprise the advertisement Jay referred to was from an earlier "Headline" in which he used an ad from the Chicago Tribune in 1993!

I found the letter NBC sent to us in 1993 issuing permission to use that clip in our orientation film at Amish Acres. Here is the beginning of the letter:

NBC
Law Department
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112

July 26, 1993

Re: NBC Permission – The Tonight show With Jay Leno/July 7, 1993

Dear Ms. Harman:

You have requested permission on behalf of the Amish Acres, to use a segment from the Tonight show with Jay Leno broadcast on July 7, 1993 in which Jay Leno mentioned the Amish Acres in Nappanee, Indiana in his “Headline”piece (the “Clip”). The Clip will be used in conjunction with an in-house eight minute promotional film.

NBC hereby grants you permission to use the Clip in the manner requested subject to the following terms and conditions:

1. You agree that the clip will be used only for the above-mentioned purpose, and for no other purpose whatsoever without NBC’ prior written consent.

We have now made the same request we made in fourteen years ago. During that period The Round Barn Theatre has added another 1,500 performances of Plain and Fancy plus over 80 productions of Broadway classic musicals. Perhaps this recycled “Headline” will insure another decade or so of musical theatre at Amish Acres. Then we hope Conan pulls it out of the archives again after he is settled into Johnny’s chair.