Alpha Omega M.D. – Episode #234
…an Atlantic Ocean away from those snippily cruel London critics, who would not blink twice at the opportunity to carve up the performance of these rank amateur Americans…
Indeed, they will be able to deliver their lines in front of assembled loved ones in what is billed as “Tallahassee Night” for A Kiss for Cinderella. Every single local talent, from extras to actors, is to be front and center, stage one, in the glare of the spotlight. Some of the provincials never thought they would get a chance to appear in this immensely popular production, but Sir James is a consummate professional and an Atlantic Ocean away from those snippily cruel London critics, who would not blink twice at the opportunity to carve up the performance of these rank amateur Americans.
So committed is Barrie in this whimsical tale of fantasy and live theater that he even puts his own son on the shelf, in favor of James Ferrell, who is to be surreptitiously inserted during the play, at the second appearance of the nameless, nonetheless, handsome Prince. Fresh off his celebrated victory for the women’s rights movement, it should be easy to fit a glittery shoe on his own real-life wife, while looking the part of dashing royalty.
The front two rows of spectator boxes at Florida State University’s Lewis Auditorium are dominated by a who’s who of these life and times:
Row One
George Lewis and wife
Martha Ferrell
George Eastman
Harv Pearson and Judith Eastman
Cinderella Author C.S. Evans
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks
Row two
A.O. and Maggie Lou
Laura Bell
Sheriff Cyril Odz
Jacques Francoise and Jacob Haley
Colonel Billy Mitchell
Tallahasse Mayor Holmes
Most everybody else in town can, if only briefly, be seen on stage, including the ever popular Flying Bleaker Brothers, who don’t jump as high as they used to, don’t travel as much as they used to, but as court jesters to Cinderella’s Prince’s kingdom, they fit the bill to a tee.
Fairy tale backdrop aside, that was truly a magical evening, one well earned. It had been a long couple of decades, fraught with good and bad, tragedy and triumph, honesty and deception. And for the people of the panhandle of Florida and those they have touched, the world will never be the same. The times in which they live seem to changing so quickly, especially when you compare 1920 to the second half of the 19th century, when they were borne.
Addition by subtraction may be the best way to describe it. The automobile has altogether replaced the horse and buggy. The airplane has supplanted the dream of flying. Regional skirmishes now become world wars…
Worldliness has taken the place of sound moral innocence. When innocence is collectively lost, it can only be recovered a little bit at a time, one soul at a time.
For Alpha Omega Campbell, the times that he knows and places he goes, have gone from purely clear and simple to a 180 degree turn that leads to a future changing before his very eyes. In November of 1920, he learns that Camille Diaz has given birth to a daughter, Angela Ophelia. He had to have been really overwhelmed.
Just one month earlier, his dear Maggie Lou gave birth to a daughter, named for her mother Laura Bell. This beautiful little child is curiously light skinned, beyond what one would ascribe to the Cherokee influence of his wife. He was overwhelmed then.
Listen closely and you can hear the careless whispers.
Alpha Omega M.D.