Column: Paramount superfan works to share his love of the Aurora theater with others

Bruce Grider’s voice mail ends with the phrase “May the horse be with you.”

I love it, considering he’s the owner of Valley View Farm, an Oswego horse stable that’s been around for nearly three decades.

When I got a chance to meet Grider, however, the 72-year-old man with the thick thatch of white hair and black wide-rimmed glasses looked more like the eccentric owner of a candy factory than equestrian entrepreneur.

That’s because we met on opening night of the Paramount Theatre’s visually spectacular holiday show, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” which is playing through Jan. 14 at the downtown Aurora venue.

And Grider was indeed dressed like Willie Wonka, sporting a purple velvet smoking jacket, purple-patterned vest and gold tie reminiscent of the outfit worn by Gene Wilder in the 1971 movie that turned oompa loompas into cultural icons.

Paramount officials were not the least bit surprised when Grider showed up in flamboyant style for opening night. As arguably the theater’s biggest fan, he does that a lot, I’m told.

Like the red sequined jacket worn for “Kinky Boots.”

Or the ripped jeans, green tennis shoes, rock band T-shirt and bandana he donned for “School of Rock.”

“We keep it simple,” says Linda, his wife of nearly 50 years who is “responsible for accessorizing” her husband with an assortment of colorful jackets and footwear they have on hand, including a pair of tap shoes he plans to step into for “Billy Elliott” when it comes to the Paramount in February.

But Grider is not just a theater buff who enjoys dressing for the show.

He also likes paying for it - over and over and over again.

And not just so he and Linda, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Pharmacy, can see each performance multiple times: Grider has also purchased so many tickets for others over the years that Paramount Director of Patron Services Marie Watson needed an afternoon to add them all up for me.

The latest count: 1,276. But hardly the final.

Heck, it’s only the fourth week of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” when we talked on Wednesday, and “Bruce already has 58 tickets” for that show alone in his account, Watson tells me.

That included a stack purchased for teachers at Ira Jones Middle School in Plainfield so they could enjoy the talents of their 12-year-old student Charlie Long, who is one of two youngsters playing the sweet kid wanting nothing more than to win a golden ticket to get his family out of poverty.

Unlike Mr. Wonka, also a colorful and magnetic character, Grider’s generosity does not come with an agenda. He simply loves the Paramount and wants to encourage others to get hooked on it as well, says Watson, who has worked with the couple over the last eight years.

“Every arts organization should be so lucky to have superfans like Bruce and Linda Grider,” she adds. “They’re bringing new people to the Broadway productions every couple of weeks, and a lot of times, those people end up being a part of our subscriber family.

“They just get so excited about all our shows, they will do anything they can to give others a chance to experience that same excitement.”

Turns out Grider also is a big supporter of the Paramount School of Arts. He not only has taken his two young grandsons there for many classes, he’s done his share of cold-calling to raise funding for the school. And he and Linda made a generous donation that purchased the equipment for the school’s recording studio and helped build a separate Grider Rehearsal Space.

Husband and wife have also developed a personal relationship with the actors and artistic team, Watson notes, which includes supporting them when they work at other theaters. And if all that’s not enough, the couple put together each year “Grider Goodies for the Holidays” – creative themed desserts that reflect the current production for everyone from volunteer ushers to the CEO.

Some 200 individually wrapped cookies and bags of Hershey’s kisses - with the message, “Oompa Loompa Doompety Do ... We so appreciate all of You” - will be dropped off on Tuesday, say the duo, who were putting the treats together when we chatted late Wednesday afternoon.

“Theater people are our favorite people,” insists Bruce, whose life has been as colorful as the clothing he dons to celebrate their shows.

Grider tells me his father was a Kentucky-born horseman who delivered Triple Crown winner Citation, and after moving to Chicago, continued to instill the love of horse racing in his son.

Grider can recall his first trip to the race track at age 3 and fond memories of visiting his grandparents’ farm in Cave City, Kentucky. But he also grew up around music: His dad played steel guitar, hung around Grand Ole Opry names and bought Bruce his first set of drums at age 9.

Grider also got to tag along with American Breed lead singer Gary Loizzo, who hit it big time in 1968 with “Bend Me Shape Me.” And in high school he “played in all the bands and orchestras,” which led to a music scholarship offer from the University of Texas.

But after “winning a bunch of science fairs” and touring Abbott Laboratory, Grider decided to study at UIC College of Pharmacy, where he fell in love with a fellow student whom he made his wife in 1974.

Grider went on to become a community pharmacist and 20-year college instructor, but gave up the career to devote his time to renovating the “run-down” horse property the couple had purchased in 1985.

In its earlier years Valley View Farm “foaled a lot of racehorses and non-racehorses,” he says, but after the industry left Illinois, it now mostly stables older and disabled horses with special needs.

The farm, by the way, has been used as backdrops in the “Wizard of Oz” and “Oklahoma” productions at the Paramount, which can only add to the Griders’ unofficial title as the Paramount’s “biggest fans,” insists Watson.

What makes the couple so special, she adds, is that they are not the kind of big-time donors with large bank accounts.

Hardly, says Linda, who notes that at their age, “we should be enjoying retirement” but instead are still working to stay ahead of the bills.

“We do stupid things with our money,” she chuckles.

Maybe … if stupid means giving to causes that brings pure happiness to not only your heart but countless others as well.

“As I get older I don’t need all the material things,” says Bruce, who has been known to buy tickets for families struggling with illness or other challenges, as well as retail employees he’s become familiar with who would not otherwise experience live theater.

“I want to give back to what brings joy and creates memories.”

Charismatic and caring, Bruce “does not know a stranger,” Watson and his wife both tell me. Which is yet another reason the couple share such a passion for the Paramount and its philosophy of promoting accessibility and diversity.

“It is truly a place where everybody fits in … a no-judgment zone,” says Linda, who lists “Kinky Boots” and “Les Miserables” as her favorite performances.

Her husband loved both shows too, but declares “Million Dollar Quartet” as his favorite, along with “Wizard of Oz,” with the latter show accounting for about 80 of the over 1,200 tickets he has purchased for others in the last nine years.

“But I really love them all,” he quickly adds, including the current production which he and Linda agree was “fabulous.”

“As Willie Wonka says, ‘We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams,’” Bruce Grider concludes. ”And the Paramount has given us a golden ticket to enjoy life.”

dcrosby@tribpub.com