THE "REAL" PRINCE OF DARK CORNERS

The wonderful thing about the portrait of Mayor Lewis Redmond and his wife Adeline, is the "embellishments." Both have been given a full head of dark hair. The original, which I first saw in the Tinsley book that was published in Brevard is quite different. Lewis is partially bald and Adeline's hair is grey. I guess, eventually, if we qualify as "folklore figures," we will all be improved.


Kind Hearts, I just got back from Greenville, South Carolina where my play, "The Prince of Dark Corners" was performed twice in the Upcountry History Museum. Those folks pulled all the stops and did some first-class publicity. As you see, they even sold "Dark Corner" caps and I have a "Dark Corner" sticker to go on my car. I took a lot of photographs, up until the time that I used up my little computer chip film card. The pictures are mostly bad since everything was encased in plastic which reflected my flash. I was interested int he fact that these folks use a singular form "dark corner" instead of "dark corners."
Many of the exhibits were borrowed from other museums. For example, they had the "real" pardon that Redmond received from President Chester Arthur, and a reproduction of the actual "Hoghead Seal" that went on the end of the whiskey barrels when Redmond operated the government-owned distillery in Wallhalla.

I heard a lot of stories about the "real" Redmond in Greenville. Some illustrated his humanitarian virtues and some described incidents that suggested that he was capable of shocking cruelty. I learned a long time ago "legendary folks" usually acquire the personalities that we want them to have. Major Lewis R. Redmond is no exception.