She did her time on ‘The Rock’

Costa Mesa’s Joan Ellis spent a year living at Alcatraz. Don’t worry;

she was a voluntary resident of “The Rock.”

Ellis’ first husband, Fred Brisbois, served as a prison guard at

the island penitentiary for a year.

The couple bounced across the country during their early years

together, also making stops in Las Vegas, Miami and Salinas before

heading down to Los Angeles and later, Claremont.

After the end of her first marriage, Ellis found her way to Costa

Mesa.

Ellis, 75, suffered a heart attack and a broken shoulder in 2000

and credited exercise classes offered by the Costa Mesa Senior Center

with aiding her recovery.

A fan of the theater, Ellis has designed costumes for the Theatre

District, a Hollywood theater that formerly called Costa Mesa home.

She enjoys what she calls the real-life theater of the senior

center, where she has found friends and romance with her beau,

Richard Gonzales.

She took time to tell her stories to the Daily Pilot’s Andrew

Edwards.

What was it like living on Alcatraz?

That was a very interesting experience. I think they finally

closed it in 1960-something, but we’d been gone for some years by

then.

But when we lived on Alcatraz, I worked part-time in the city of

San Francisco for an insurance company, so the only way to get to the

mainland was by launch. And in the morning, all the kids, we had, I

don’t know how many families, 60, 70 families lived on the island and

maybe 150, 200 kids of all ages, and that’s how we would get to town,

was by the launch.

And if you missed the last launch back to the island by midnight,

then you got to stay overnight someplace in the city because there

wasn’t another one until morning.

Actually, I never saw an inmate. Well, maybe just a few, we did

come down to get on the launch and they would blow a whistle and all

of the inmates would have to get to the end of the dock.

And that was kind of eerie because you would come along Building

63, come along on this wooden walkway and down stairs, they’d just be

watching as you come down and that was a little disconcerting.

The ratio, I think, was two inmates to one guard, so we really

didn’t see them. We had one riot while we were there.

My husband at that time, he graduated from Boston College and he

was a social science major, and he just thought it would be a lark to

go out and see what it would be like to be a correctional officer on

Alcatraz Island.

What was there to do in Vegas?

There wasn’t anything and I couldn’t even drink, I wasn’t old

enough.

After we nearly starved after four months because there was

absolutely no work to be done, Fred worked for a short time as a

shill at the Golden Nugget.

Because they don’t want tables to look empty, he’d be sitting at a

blackjack table or whatever, and one time we were down to our last

dollar, so we got two dollars by throwing it on the red on the

roulette wheel, and then we bought a dog.

We were just kids. Well, he was older than I; he was back from the

service.

What kind of costume work did you do with the theater district?

Here’s something interesting I learned in working with costumes.

You don’t just pick out a costume you think that looks pretty on

whoever the performer is.

The costume itself has to move the story forward, it has to have

some meaning to what the person is portraying.

It’s like a visual cue as to what you should interpret from this

character.

Any favorite plays?

We did “Dracula” one year for Halloween, and that was the most

fun, because you can just really be outrageous.

What is it that drives you to the theater?

Color, costumes, expression. Whether it’s comedy or drama, I lose

myself totally in the theater, lose myself. I love performing arts, I

go when I can.

It’s just a world of imagination, I love theater. If I had a

little more guts, I’d be out there performing.

There’s some elements of theater right here in this center, you

see a different drama everyday, if you keep your eyes open.

People meet, they fall in love, they have a fight, they divorce --

not divorce, but you know what I mean.

I’ve had friends that I made, I have a circle of friends that

sustained me through some tough times.

I’ve made all these friendships here with women. So it’s women

here, activities supporting each other. I’ve got to give a plug for

my center.

This is just, really is, it’s a wonderful place to come make

friends, and be entertained, be educated, be informed.

You feel like you’re still contributing something.