In your Travel Adventures to Pigeon Forge, TN, one of the events you’ll want to see is the Louise Mandrell Show, which is all new every season, with elegant new costumes, fabulous singing and dancing, and is a delightful event for everyone who goes. The show is famous for the gorgeous costumes and the many, many costume changes…this spring season has sixteen changes in one performance! But the best kept secret, which you’ll only learn if you ask a lot of questions as I do, is that the creator of all the costumes is one small but dymanic seventy-four year old lady the entire cast knows fondly as “Mama.”
Yolanda Peschetti, the modest, behind-the-scenes “star” of the show, is responsible for all the glitz and glamour which help make the Louise Mandrell Show so spectacular. When I met Yolanda, I guessed her to be about fifty at the oldest, and I truly did not believe it when I was told she is 74 and makes all the costumes by herself! I had to know the secret of her amazing energy, talent, and stamina.
Yolanda’s primary home is with her husband Matt in West New York, NJ, on the west bank of the Hudson River accross from the island of Manhattan, where her sons grew up in the town and went to school in New York City. But for about three months in winter and again in the fall she comes to Tennessee to stay in the home of her son Pedro Tomas, who is the choreographer and lead dancer in the Louise Mandrell Show.
During each off-season, Louise and Pedro go to New York to select costumes and fabrics for the upcoming show. About half of the costumes begin as ready-mades, which Yolanda’s magic transforms into fabulous creations, according to the collaborative designs of Louise, Pedro, and Director of Wardrobe, Roger Roark. But at least fifty percent of the costumes are “made from scratch” by Yolanda. When I asked about her staff, she replied, “No staff. I do it all myself!”
At a very young 74 years of age, she spends the better part of nearly three months, prior to the beginning of the two new shows each year, sewing from ten to thirteen hours a day! This is both machine and hand sewing. She alone hand stitches all the beads, bugles, and bangles for all the costumes. There are 10 dancers plus Louise and all have 16 costume changes in the show plus 8 musicians who change 4 times and the drummer changes 5 times! That is 209 costumes!
When I wondered aloud how Yolanda physically stands up to the demands of so much sewing and eye strain, she replied, “My friends my age are staying in a rocking chair and thinking about their pains, but that only makes you depressed. I won’t do that. I have a lot of pains too, like everyone else my age, but you have to put the pains aside and enjoy the life. I admit the age is there, but my heart and my mind are joined, and I love what I do. I do not complain. I forget about my pains because I stay busy. I enjoy my life and my work. “
I asked Yolanda how she feels when it is close to the beginning of the show season. “I have red eyes sometimes. Tension makes me tired when I’m on deadline, but I trust myself. I’m a very organized person and know how to organize my job. Sometimes people ask me if I can get it done on time, but I always know I can. My boss, Roger, is a wonderful person and he loves and respects me, and for me this is very important.”
Yolanda loves to watch singing and dancing, and that is what brought her here, when her son Pedro first started with the show. She came to watch proudly and enjoy the experience. But soon they learned of her talents and she found herself with a job of sewing beads on by hand. It wasn’t long before she became the primary seamstress for the show.
Pedro explained, ” Mom started to work for us when I asked her to make Louise a poodle skirt back in 1986 for a new 50’s section of the show. She tried it, and it was a success. She was then asked to make some western shirts for us the following year, and they turned out beautiful. As the years progressed she became more and more involved. It was when we started working in Branson, MO at the Grand Palace in 1992 that she became a permanent fixture everytime we opened a new show. Since we moved to a permanent home here in Pigeon Forge, she lives with us about 50% of the year.”
When asked how she learned her skills she replied, “I was never trained in school. I learned everything from my mother, who had a seamstress business. She always had people help her at our big home in Cuba. There were always at least four girls there sewing. I liked to be involved in everything with my hands. Mother always said, `You must learn; you never know when you may need to do something in your life.’ My mother is in a nursing home, and she has never seen one of these shows, but my other relatives who live far away can see the shows on video tape, which we send to them.
When a new show starts Yolanda’s work is not complete yet. There are always more fittings and alterations to do. But when everything is in order and she has seen the new show running smoothly, with all its glamorous costume changes successfully in place, she looks forward to returning to her husband who has to remain in New Jersey where he is a crossing guard at a local school. Her cocker spaniel, “Bo,” always happily welcomes her home, too. During the half year she is back home in New Jersey she loves being with her other two sons, Juan and Carlos, their wives, and her grandson 13 and granddaughter 8. She enjoys sewing for the girls some, but her favorite occupation and hobby when she is in her home is cleaning and cooking. She loves being a homemaker. She spends several hours a day with her mother in the nursing home, and in the evenings she and her husband enjoy walking in the malls to see the sights and get exercise.
I asked if she is ready to return to New Jersey and she replied, “Of course, but I am happy in my work. I work around people who love and respect me and they all call me `Mama.’ I am so fully loved in this place. I am so happy here. Even my boss tells me, `Mama, I miss you when you’re gone. I’m a lucky person, I can say Louise Mandrell and her complete crew…the band, dancers, all the people who work here… are great. I hope I have the good health to work many more years here because I’m so happy!”
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