By John Lyle Belden

We know from our American history classes that four United States Presidents were assassinated. Wikipedia conveniently lists plots and attempts against about a dozen others, and that two who died of natural causes were suspected to have been poisoned. While interesting – this not being a review of the musical “Assassins” – it’s mostly beside the point here.

In “Arlington, or, Your Forgotten American Hero,” a play by Andrew Kramer in its world premiere by American Lives Theatre at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, the focus is on one of two notable attempts on the life of President Gerald Ford in California in 1975, particularly on the man who stopped a would-be assassin in San Francisco.

Oliver “Billy” Sipple was out for a walk when he came upon a crowd outside a downtown hotel. People excitedly said the President was staying there. He waited with the throng for a chance at a glimpse of Ford, trying not to bump into a middle-aged woman. When the President appeared, that woman drew out a pistol, fired point-blank – and missed. Having been a U.S. Marine who served tours in Vietnam, Sipple’s well-trained instincts were likely awakened by the report of the gun. With barely a thought, before the woman could fire a second time, he knocked the firearm from her hand while others tackled her to deliver her to Secret Service agents. This single brief yet heroic action would affect Billy Sipple for the rest of his life.

Directed by ALT founder and artistic director Chris Saunders, the play presents Michael Hosp giving an earnest portrayal of Sipple. We first meet Billy years after that fateful encounter with history, alone in his apartment easy chair watching television with a nearly empty bottle of whiskey, lamenting his life.

Suddenly, dead San Francisco LGBT icons appear around him: Writer/publisher/organizers Del Martin (Suzanne Fleenor) and Wayne Friday (Jonathan Studdard); “dangerous” gay activist Rev. Ray Broshears (Rob Johansen); first out gay political convention delegate and community organizer Jim Foster (Evan Wolfgang); and legendary gay politician – and Sipple’s close friend – Harvey Milk (Jay Hemphill). They alert a bewildered Billy that this is “a ritual of reclamation.” What follows recounts the story of one man’s undesired fame and the infamy he feared which followed.

Need I mention that Sipple was gay? This shouldn’t have mattered, except that this was the mid-1970s, which meant it very much did.

Hosp is outstanding as an ordinary guy not just thrust into extraordinary circumstances, but also seeing that story taken and told by others for their benefit, leaving him feeling used on all sides. His moment of respite with “the guy at the end of the bar” (Wolfgang) gives limited relief as it is that aspect of his life that makes what happens to him worse.

Seeing it as more of a boost to their cause than a betrayal, his well-meaning friends out him to Chronicle columnist Herb Caen (Studdard). Suddenly, Sipple transforms in the national press from anonymous to oddity: the “gay ex-Marine.” This will not go down well with his parents (Fleenor and Johansen) back in Detroit.  

Fleenor also plays his friendly and empathetic neighbor. Wolfgang nicely portrays Billy’s brother George, who eventually comes to his own understanding.

Hemphill has a gift for playing larger-than-life characters, and so makes a believable Harvey Milk, complete with activist fire and celebrity charisma. His presence almost seems too convenient to the plot to be real, but was indeed based on fact. Milk and Sipple, two men who each had their own moment involving a political assassination, were long-time friends.

Hero? Gay icon? Just a guy who did what was needed at the time? Billy Sipple was never sure. Today, him having his wish of being left alone (in the Golden Gate National Cemetery) leaves him nearly forgotten. At the end of the play, we get a perspective on its title, which provides us a more suitable memorial.

Get to know this more than ordinary man in “Arlington,” through June 7 at 705 N. Illinois St., downtown Indianapolis. For tickets, go to phoenixtheatre.org, info at americanlivestheatre.org.