THE LIARS BENCH ON FEBRUARY 16TH: A NIGHT OF MUSIC, STORYTELLING AND DRAMA.....AND WE ARE GOING TO DO IT AGAIN NEXT WEEK ON THE 23RD!

KIND HEARTS, IT WAS A FANTASTIC NIGHT! KAREN BARENS SANG ABOUT MURDER IN KNOXVILLE AND DID A CROWD-PLEASING RENDITION OF STEPHEN FOSTER'S "HARD TIMES." LLOYD ARNEACH, THE CHEROKEE STORYTELLER TOLD A FEARSOME TALE ABOUT "THE GREAT LEECH," AND PAUL ARUSSI DID "THE GRANDFATHER CLOCK" WHICH I HAD NOT HEARD SINCE MY CHILDHOOD. WILLIAM RITTER SANG A STIRRING OLD BALLAD CALLED "LADY MARGARET" AND ERIC YOUNG DID A SERIES OF MEMORABLE MANDOLIN PIECES. BUT THE CENTERPIECE OF THE EVENING WAS TOM DEWEES, AN ACTOR FROM HAYWOOD COUNTY'S HART, WHO PERFORMED A DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE ENTITLED "COY," THE STORY OF A BOY WHO MAKES A DECISION ABOUT HIS DYING GRANDFATHER. IF YOU HAVEN'T COME, PLEASE DO. TICKETS ARE ON SALE ON CITY LIGHTS (AND AT THE DOOR ON THE 26TH. PERFORMANCE AT 7:00.) FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CALL THE MOUNGTAIN HERITAGE CENTER OR GARY CARDEN: 399-9653.

"NANCE DUDE" COMING TO RICKMAN'S STORE, NOVEMBER 4TH AT 6:00

In case you don't know, the story of Nancy Curlee, the Haywood County grandmother who was imprisoned a century ago for sealing her granddaughter up in a cave on Utah mountain in Haywood County,this dark bit of history is a popular Appalachian tale. Based on a true event, the play/monologue allows Nance to speak for herself. "I'm going to tell it, now," she says. "I'm going to tell you what really happened."

For the past decade this story has been consistently popular with audiences in western North Carolina. Based on a book by Maurice Stanley, extensive research into actual events and personal accounts (I saw her as a child walking the roads near Wilmot with a load of kindling on her back), this dramatization has been performed hundreds of times in libraries and community theaters in this region. The actress, Elizabeth Westall has gained a following from devoted fans. In recent years, she has repeatedly said, "This is my final performance as Nance Dude." Each time, we have been able to lure her out again, but this performance could well be the last one.

SPONSORED BY CHEROKEE RUBY MINE AND FRIENDS OF RICKMAN'S STORE
TICKETS: $15.00
TELEPHONE: 828-369-5595

CASEY AND THE FURIES

One night last week, when I was watching what must have been the 500th recounting of the Casey Anthony trial, I suddenly recalled my favorite subject to teach in college -Greek mythology. At first, I wasn’t certain about the connection, but as I listened to Nancy Grace and her tribunal of experts rage and whine while images of luckless little Caylee and her foolish mother flowed across the screen, I suddenly remembered the Furies.

If I remember my Edith Hamilton’s Mythology correctly, the Furies were a host of invisible tormentors that the gods sent to torment mortals who had committed unforgivable crimes ... patricide or infanticide, for example. The immortal Furies pursued their victims for the remainder of their mortal lives lashing them with whips and relentlessly whispering their sins in their ears. The marks of the whip caused the victim to age rapidly, and, they were troubled by sleepless nights. Of course, this “divine punishment” was an imaginative way of describing the torments of a guilty conscious.

Now, as I watch Casey Anthony flee the Orange County courthouse (again), amid shouts of “Baby Killer” and “Justice for Caylee,” I am struck by similarities to the ancient Furies. Is it possible that our modern equivalent of the Furies resides in those angry citizens who are waving placards in Orlando and Jacksonville? Does a Fury reside in Nancy Grace?As Casey, runs towards a car that will spirit her away to safety - does she hear the shouts? Does she flinch as though struck by an invisible whip?

I’m getting carried away here but I can’t help it. I love good theater, even when it is dispensed by. CNN instead of Netflex. Besides, I am suddenly reminded of O.J., who like one of those doomed Greek heroes, was first blessed and then cursed by the gods. When I see him now, overweight, getting a bit flabby, with that sheepish grin (like the cat that ate the canary), I get the distinct feeling that O. J. didn’t get away with anything. He will live out the remainder of his life with his crime branded on his forehead.

I liked my theory about the Furies so much, I told a friend of mine about it. He didn’t agree. He said that O. J. and Casey lacked nobility. In effect, he said that their lives were too petty and trivial. Certainly, they didn’t deserve a punishment as awe-inspiring as the wrath of the gods. In other words, only arrogant kings or immoral queens deserved to be tormented by the Furies. Only the chosen have the depth of soul to be guilty of hubris.

Well, I thought about that and I don’t agree. I remember what that grand old expert on living and dead religions, Joseph Campbell said about those mythical heroes and heroines. He recalled having seen Oedipus boarding a New York subway, Helen of Troy shopping on 5th Avenue, or perhaps Odysseus getting out of a taxi on Broadway. He said that all of the great stories are a kind of template that is destined to be repeated for all eternity. Today, the great tales are not the sole property of royalty, but belong to all of us. Tristram may be a dishwasher in a Greek restaurant where Isult is a waitress. Achilles may be a pro-Nazi skinhead in London and Orpheus may be in Nashville where he just released his first cd.

Campbell felt that the petty, mean-spirited, cruel - as well as the gentle, faithful and compassionate - might reenact a story that has been told and then forgotten numerous times. None of them are noble but they might acquire something akin to nobility by suffering. In other words, selfish, dissembling Casey Anthony may be granted forgiveness at some point in the future. In the tragic story of Oedipus, the old, blind kind is only forgiven when he is dying. Then the Furies become his comforters and grant him peace.

So, I am wondering about those who escape earthly justice, evade prison and rush off to complete book/film script deals and become some kind of shady celebrity who is occasionally exhibited like an exotic reptile on TV talk shows ... is that “success in show business” possibly deceptive? What is it like spending the rest of your life knowing what people think when they see you? Does O. J. feel that he really got away with something? Is he not painfully aware that there are places where he can never go again? As for Casey, what is your freedom worth if you must hide?

There is a marvelous way to end this ordeal, both for Casey and O. J. They need to confess. Neither can be arrested or imprisoned again. What if Casey Anthony confessed to David Letterman, sitting right there on the guest couch between say .... maybe Madonna and Elton John? What if O. J. confessed to Oprah? What if those confessions were rerun for a solid month like a mobius strip? How would you feel about these two sinners? Would you forgive them? Would the Furies disappear?

A WILD SURGE OF GUILTY PASSION by Ron Hansen - Reviewed by Gary Carden

A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion by Ron Hansen
New York: Scribner
$25.00 - 256 pages


Well, kind hearts, as they used to say back in the Jazz Age, this one is “the bee’s knees.” Set in the roaring 20’s, Ron Hansen’s new novel is based on the sensational 1927 murder trial and execution of Ruth Snyder and her weak-kneed accomplice, Judd Gray. Viewed from the jaded present age where we have become accustomed to media coverage of serial killers, bizarre mutilations and the over-hyped details of the Casey Anthony murder trial (which is still dominating the news), the details of this crime by two inept, foolish lovers seems sordid ... but unremarkable. Yet, there is something here that caught the morbid attention of America in what became known as “The Trial of the Century.” What was it?

In addition to turning the courtroom trial into a media circus that dominated newspaper headlines for six months, New York’s Queens County drew an audience of thousands that packed the courtroom, the halls and the surrounding grounds and streets. Celebrities managed to acquire seating up close to the action. New York Governor, Al Smith; the Reverend Billy Sunday; evangelist, Aimee Semple McPherson; historian, Will Durant, comedian Jimmy Durante; director, D. W. Griffith; song-writer, Irving Berlin; columnist Fannie Hurst and playwright, Damon Runyon came each day - all eager to share their opinions and moral judgments in paid interviews with the media. Aimee preached a stirring sermon about "sex love" and "red-hot cuties."Noted playwright, Willard Mack noted that as theater, the trial lacked direction, "the plot was weak and most of the participants were stupid." However, each performance was standing room only.

And share them, they did. Each day, for the duration of this amazing trial,writers, gossip columnists, early advocates of Freudian psychology and even politicians, and comedians made daily comments about how the Ruth Snyder affair was a lurid fable about the dangers of the New York life style. As the testimony shifted from prosecution to defense, Ruth and Judd found themselves described first as tragic victims of a doomed passion and then as coarse and shallow alcoholics who were motivated totally by greed (Ruth had secretly taken out a $95,000 insurance on her husband, Albert’s life.) When the sordid details of their “love nest” were revealed - a lavish room at the Waldorf-Astoria where this carnally imaginative couple conducted a year-long tryst - the moral pundits of New York were finally shocked. Drunken orgies complete with bootleg whiskey and room-service banquets... and all of it recorded in Ruth’s diary, a document so lewd and explicit with sexual details that the court finally ruled against allowing it to be read in court.

After Ruth Synder turned against Judd Gray, testifying that she had been a reluctant participant in Albert’s death (bludgeoned to death in his bed with a window sash), the media coverage gradually became vicious. Judd was no longer described as “a debonair, educated distributor of women’s lingerie” but as “a weazened little corset salesman.” Ruth was no longer extolled as a “wowser” with “China-blue eyes crackling sparks,” but as a “blond fiend, a vampire” and a “spider woman” who had revealed herself to be “a shallow-brained pleasure seeker who is accustomed to unlimited self-indulgence.” Finally, when Ruth’s diary revealed that she had attempted to murder her husband a half-dozen times before she finally solicited Judd’s reluctant assistance, the last vestiges of sympathy vanished. The jury was out less than ninety minutes.

Reduced to its basics, the Ruth Snyder/Judd Gray murder trial has a tawdry simplicity. There are now heroes or heroines in this triangle. Ruth, unhappily married to a moderately successful magazine editor, suffered from neglect and physical abuse. Treated with public contempt by her husband, she attempted to fill in the vacuums in her life with a frenzied self-indulgent life style. Broadway shows, beach parties, shopping binges with her nine-year-old daughter ... and flirting with every “beach sheik” in sight. Judd Gray’s life seems a duplicate of Ruth’s. Unhappily married but a devout parent to his indifferent daughter, Gray is reputed to be a successful salesman with a genuine love of music and the arts. Unfortunately, he is a seasoned alcoholic, who, according to his own admission, never falls asleep at night, but “passes out.” In the morning, he does not wake up, but merely “regains consciousness” to continue to drinking.

From their first encounter, this “jazz couple” seem to be hopelessly drawn to each other; their wild roller coaster affair is an exhilarating rush to destruction. Yet, they are a product of their time. Ruth quips like May West, an actress she admires: “Better to be looked over than overlooked,” she says when sees admiring males looking he over. She sings Irving Berlin songs, peroxides her hair a vivid blonde and knows all the current dances. She is, after all, “a real jazz baby.” Judd quotes the classics, attends the theater, affectionately refers to Ruth as "Momsie," and ponders the moral issues explicit in D. W. Griffith’s movie, “An American Tragedy” (which concerns a murder that has some remarkable parallels to poor Albert Snyder’s demise).

As for Albert Snyder, it would be difficult to find a less sympathetic victim. Arrogant, self-indulgent and given to episodes of surliness and bad temper, he had few friends. Although an enthusiastic party-goer, he frequently insulted his peers and had a reputation for picking fights. Ironically, the autopsy performed on Albert revealed that he was suffering from alcoholic poisoning and if Ruth and Judd had not succeeded in beating his brains out with a window sash, he may have died that night from the effects of bootleg whiskey.

In reviewing the case, many legal pundits conclude that this was “a murder by clowns,” carried out by an almost child-like ineptitude. Certainly, the trial was badly handled by the defense. Given he fact that there was a plentiful supply of black-hearted villains and gory Capone-era slaughters, the public’s passionate demand for the death of these two poor sinners seems excessive. Why? Hundreds of worse killers have walked away, or ended up with a life sentence. Why execute Ruth and Judd?

Perhaps their mistake was candor. Ruth’s diary treated both the murder and the erotic details of their love affair with a kind of joyful zest and abandon. Certainly, the secret pleasures they enjoyed were not unknown in New York’s decade of decadence, but perhaps what was unforgivable was to record everything with such enthusiasm and frankness. Ruth seemed to glory in carnal details; poor Judd was devastated by guilt, which meant that he enjoyed the experience even more.

Ruth and Judd did not die well. A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion concludes with a harrowing account of the executions. Ruth approached the electric chair with fear and trembling, and had to be forced to sit. A few moments later Judd Gray managed to walk under his own power and take his place. Both suffered embarrassment regarding their coarse prison garments and the tonsure-shaved circles on their heads. Following their execution, the burned and blistered bodies of the two lovers were placed on storage shelves awaiting burial ... their nerveless hands, scant inches from each other.

FULL DARK, NO STARS by Stephen King - reviewed by Gary Carden

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
New York: Scribners
$27.99 - 368 pages


“I have no quarrel with literary fiction which usually concerns itself with
extraordinary people in ordinary situations, but as a reader and a writer,
I’m much more interested in ordinary people in extraordinary situations.”

- Stephen King

At the conclusion of this collection of four novellas: Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King adds an “Afterword.” In acknowledging that his quartet of stories is “a bit harsh,” King goes on to make some provocative observations on both the reasons for his success as a writer and his beliefs about the significance and /or purpose of fiction. Essentially, King feels that writing is the act of taking meaningless and/or random events and arranging them in a pattern that gives the lives of his characters the appearance of an order and meaning. The implication is that this “appearance of logical order” is artifice, or fabrication.

What is especially interesting about King’s comments is the fact that he acknowledges a debt to the American writer Frank Norris. Anyone who is familiar with Norris will immediately recall McTeague, the author’s “naturalistic novel” that recounts a grim tale about a man who is a hapless pawn to forces beyond his control. The popular literary term that describes McTeague’s dilemma is “determinism,” and embodies factors such as heredity, environment ... and chance. With this in mind, King’s four tales acquire an additional “noir” quality.

“1922” grew out of King’s fascination with Michael Lesy’s Wisconsin Death Trip (which is well worth the trouble of tracking it down if you are not familiar with it). A bizarre collection of photographs and news articles, Lesy’s book presents a disturbing “vision” of the harsh life of farm families in the Midwest during the depression. King chooses to depict such a family and gives a vivid account of the forces that move them. Wilfred James, the protagonist of “1922,” confesses the details of his wife’s death (a gruesome murder that was never discovered) and its consequences.The fact that Wilfred’s teenage son, Henry, becomes an unwilling accomplice to the crime complicates matters considerably. In fact, poor Henry’s guilt provides the corroding poison that blights the lives of a dozen innocent people. The crime is motivated by land (Wilfred’s wife wants to sell it and move to the city and Henry is determined to keep it). When King adds a few mitigating circumstances, such as a mortgage, a ruthless banker, Henry’s pregnant girlfriend, and Wilfred’s phobia about rats, “1922” acquires sufficient deterministic forces to assure a tragic denouement. In addition, the plot includes a colorful “Bonnie and Clyde” couple (Henry and his pregnant girlfriend) who are also created (and destroyed) by forces beyond their control.

In “Big Driver,” King presents one of his most appealing characters: Tess, a gentle soul who has managed to find her niche in the literary world by developing a series of mysteries, each of which features a witty collection of ladies who solve murders while they knit (“The Willow Grove Knitting Society.”) Tess is blessed by a modest “cult following” and when she isn’t busy working on her next mystery, she augments her income (and savings) with speaking engagements. Her cozy and quiet life style contains only two companions: Fritzy, her cat and Tom-Tom, her GPS (the latest in satellite navigation systems that enables Tess to find her way to her speaking engagements).

When Tess takes an ill-advised short-cut home from a speaking engagement, she ends up in a cleverly-devised trap on a remote road where she is raped, brutally violated and left for dead ... stuffed in a drainage pipe with several corpses. Unwilling to report the crime (she knows what happens to rape victims in the media) and mindful of the fact that her rapist will continue to maim and murder, Tess is plagued with guilt and anger. So begins a fascinating study of an ordinary (moral and law-abiding) woman who is forced by circumstances to become an agent for justice and, yes...revenge. Utilizing her skills as a researcher, she not only succeeds in identifying her rapist, but discovers a surprising link between her last speaking engagement where her “helpful employer” gave her the information about the ill-advised shortcut home. The tension builds when Tess loads her .38, feeds Fritzy, programs her GPS and drives away into the dark...

“Fair Extension” is King’s darkly humorous version of the old Faustian bargain with the Devil. Dave Streeter, a nice fellow who has terminal cancer, finds pudgy Mr. Elvid sitting under a yellow umbrella on a side street near the airport. Mr. Elvid seems to be a street vender and has a sign on his table that says “Fair Price.” However, he has no visible wares to sell. When Dave realizes who the vender is and makes a cautious inquiry, Elvid assures him that instead of his soul (souls no longer have any value), Mr. Elvid wants 15% of his annual income. Streeter agrees and is told that if all of Dave’s misfortunes are removed, he must “pass them on” to someone else. Dave selects his best friend, Tom Goodhugh. Dave goes home to find that not only is his cancer is in remission, his life is blessed with prosperity. During the next fifteen years, Dave’s fortunes thrive while Tom Goodhugh and all the members of his family ... once wealthy and powerful, descends into poverty, bad health. Does Dave Streeter suffer from guilt? Absolutely not. Instead, he dutifully forwards 15% of his annual income to Mr. Elvid’s account and basks in his good fortune....which continues unabated.

“A Good Marriage” owes its origin to King’s research into Dennis Rader, the infamous BTK serial killer. In his “Afterword,” King notes that Rader’s wife of 34 years never had the slightest suspicion of her husband’s “secret life.” However, following Rader’s confession, she endured considerable distress due to comments by neighbors and the media. In essence, these comments suggested that Rader’s wife “must have known something.” This response prompted King to write a story about a wife who inadvertently discovers that her husband has murdered at least eleven people during their 27-year-marriage. What would she do? In “A Good Marriage,” Darcy
Anderson has a strong sense of justice, but there are “extenuating circumstances.” If she calls the police, her life and the lives of her children will be wrecked. There must be a way to bring the monster down. There is.
This tale also has a satisfying conclusion that features Darcy’s meeting with a character that may remind some readers of Peter Falk’s popular character, Detective Columbo. Their dialogue is a masterpiece of evasion and implied meaning.

This is an excellent collection. King displays masterful control of his four dramas - all of which feature ordinary characters driven to extraordinary actions by circumstance. Frank Norris would be pleased.

NEVER SEEN THE MOON by Sharon Hatfield. Reviewed by Gary Carden

Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell by Sharon Hatfield
Chicago: University of Illinois Press - 2005
$14.95 (paperback) - 286 pages

“... most of the news stories on the Maxwell case have been written in hotel rooms with a bottle of corn in one hand and a copy of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine in the other.”
- Never Seen the Moon, p. 44.

On a hot July night in 1935, a young Wise County, Virginia school teacher named Edith Maxwell came home late. Her father Trigg, who did not approve of his daughter’s late hours, confronted her and a violent argument (which turned into scuffle) developed. Some fifteen minutes later, Trigg lay dying on the floor. A doctor was summonsed, several neighbors arrived and finally the local sheriff conducted a brief investigation. The following day, Edith and her mother were arrested and charged with Trigg’s murder. The alleged weapon that killed Trigg Maxwell was identified as Edith’s high-heeled shoe. Later testimony would indicate that Trigg died from a blow to the head by an axe, an iron or a skillet, but the shoe would win the hearts of the journalists.

Thus began one of the nation’s most sensational murder trials - a minor domestic tragedy that became a kind of media circus. Within days, a swarm of journalists and writers descended on Wise County, quickly dubbing Edith as the “Hillbilly Girl of the Lonesome Pine” (a reference to the John Fox novel which has its setting in Wise County). Many of the journalists belonged to that somewhat sleazy school of writers that are referred as “colorists” or “yellow journalists” because they were adept at inventing sensational details that had little or no relationship to facts. In addition, the most disreputable writers were employed by Hearst-controlled newspapers - all noted for gossip, distortion and sensationalism.

Suddenly, grotesque images of Edith, her family and her neighbors, began to appear major newspapers. Like the heroine in Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Edith was described as “golden haired” (she wasn’t) innocent who was a victim of a tyrannical father who enforced a harsh curfew that required Edith to go to bed so early, she “had never seen the moon.” A photograph of a cow strolling down the street in Wise County conveyed the impression that Edith’s neighbors lived in rustic ignorance. Much was made of a grim tradition called “mountain justice,” which required the nearest relative of a murder victim to avenge the crime by killing the murderer. Although the tradition only existed only in the imaginative minds of journalists, such distortions implied that Edith would be killed by her brother, Earl.

Ironically, Earl, who had moved to New York where he “lost” his mountain accent, immediately returned to Wise County and became Edith’s champion and most devoted defender. Within a matter of days, Earl found capable lawyers to defend his mother and sister. In time, he would conduct fundraising efforts on her behalf and launch a vigorous public relations campaign. Earl also engineered a contract with Hearst papers, giving them exclusive rights to Edith’s story. However, despite his best efforts, Edith (who was tried separately from her mother) was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

During the next two years, Edith Maxwell became something of a national celebrity. After the verdict was appealed, she was transferred to the Jonesville, Virginia jail (which had more “humane facilities”). Within a few weeks, both letters and visitors increased to several hundred each day. Newspapers such as the Washington Post and the Washington Herald expanded their coverage by aggressively soliciting funds for Edith’s defense.Two major national women’s organization, the National Women’s Party (NWP) and the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) decided that Edith’s trial would be an excellent sounding board for current issues such as the Equal Rights Amendment. Certainly, the fact that Edith was found guilty by an all-male jury indicated that she had been denied her rights to a jury “of her peers.”

Before the media circus was over, Edith’s defense would be taken over by some of America’s most prominent (and controversial) attorneys. In addition, a host of “missionaries” would arrive to offer cultural and educational assistance to the citizens of Wise County as they ventured reluctantly into the 20th Century. Journalists continued to refer to the locals as “bumpkins, local primates, hillbillies and half-wits.” As one cynical reader put it, “It would cause us to wonder why our social, welfare, missionary and religious organizations spend so much in all years past soliciting funds and workers for the uplift of the heathen of the Orient or the savages of Africa, when for less effort and expense, they could have gone to Wise County, Virginia and found a country full of them.”

Although the unrelenting journalistic distortions left the people of Wise County (and much of Appalachia), smarting from the depictions of their region, their culture and their people, there was some objective coverage. Sympathetic writers such as Ernie Pyle and James Thurber did their best to correct the distortions. Of course, what seemed to have gotten lost in this extravagant spectacle was ... did Edith Maxwell murder her father? In fact, her guilt or innocence seemed to become irrelevant as the warring factions collided: journalists, “sob sister” writers, lawyers, social critics and angry Appalachian advocates engaged in verbal battles that dominated the regional news for five years (1935-1940).

After two trials and the denial of a hearing before the Virginia Supreme Court, Edith’s defense, conducted by “outlanders” (eastern lawyers) and funded by activist organizations, began to collapse. Weakened by flawed research, contradictory testimony and hysteria, the atmosphere in Wise County began to resemble the infamous Snopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. In desperate need of money, Edith and her brother entered into an ill-advised contract with a Hollywood studio and gave her endorsement for a film entitled “Mountain Justice.” In addition, the former teacher seemed become despondant and wrote a letter to her wealthy benefactors in Washington and New York stating that she wished to withdraw from any association with the NWP and the NAWSA.

When it was finally over, Governor James H. Price granted Edith Maxwell a pardon and she quietly departed the Goochland pententary in Richmond with $10 and an assumed name. After serving six years of a 20-year sentence, she received a pardon due to a letter written on her behalf by Eleanor Roosevelt. Upon learning of Price’s decision, Edith asked that Price wait for one day before officially announcing her pardon. It was her wish to vanish. She said that she wanted to avoid journalists and hoped to live in obscurity for the rest of her life. She got her wish. Living as Ann Grayson, she later married, had two children, allegedly lived happily and died at the age of sixty-five in 1979. She never returned to Wise County.
This is a fantastic story and I highly recommend it.

Note: Sharyn McCrumb’s new novel, The Devil Among the Lawyers, is based on Edith Maxwell’s trial. It will be reviewed in this column at some future date.

NANCE DUDE AT THE MACON COUNTY LIBRARY

 

Last night (August 12th) I did a program on Nance Dude at the Macon County Library and showed the DVD. There was a "dialogue with the audience after the film and it is amazing that this tale continues to fascinate audiences. There was a good audience and a lot of provocative questions. Naturally, I forgot to take any pictures.

One of the most frequently asked questions is about the location of Nance Dude's grave. I visited it recently with a friend and we found it easily by turning of #441 at Wilmot and crossing the bridge. At the fork in the road, go right to the Bumgarner Cemetery. There is no tombstone ... just a marker with her name (misspelled)..Nancy Kerley. I understand that there is now a stone on Roberta's grave over in Haywood County.

NANCE DUDE DVD WITH ELIZABETH WESTALL

Well, Kind Hearts, I finally have "Nance Dude" on DVD. For those of you who do not know, Elizabeth Westall has been doing this dramatic monologue for twelve years, and in view of its continued popularity, I managed to get a filmmakeer to record her last performance at the Performing Arts Center in Highlands, N. C. last June. The DVD can be ordered directly from me and the cost is: $20 plus $3 for postage and handling.
My address is:
Gary Carden
236 Cherry Street
Sylva, N. C. 28779

Nance Dude: a dramatic monologue

Well, Kind Hearts, here, at long last, is a 4.5 minute clip from my play, "Nance Dude."(To enlarge the picture, simply click on the screen icon at the bottom of the screen right under the YouTube logo.) The actress is Elizabeth Westall, who has been performing the role for twelve years. It is, for whatever reason, the most popular work that I have. Since this clip is taken from the middle of the play, a bit of background might be useful. Nance Dude is a "real person" who was charged with the murder of her two-year-old granddaughter back around 1913. She was sentenced to 30 years of hard labor and was released after 15 years. She was 80 years old and came home to find that her own family rejected her. She ended up living in a one-room shack on Conley Creek in Jackson County. She remained a social outcast and was considered a witch by many of her neighbors. Her only companions were a pack of stray dogs that followed her. She supported herself by splitting kindling which she sold to "the Floridy folks." She died alone at the age of 104.

Over the years, people have come to believe that there were "mitigating circumstances" that were never brought to light about the murder. Nance had been forced out of the house where she was living with her daughter and told to "get rid of "Roberta," the two year-old-child ... the reason being that there were too many people living in the house. The old story about Nance says that she walked the roads of Haywood County for three days and was unable to find a home for the child. It was April and cold; the child was sick.

The story has become a legend in my region. Maurice Stanley's book, had a profound effect on this play. However, I grew up hearing the stories and often saw Nance walking along the roads in my region with a load of kindling on her back. (There is much more to Nance's story, including her love for a man named Dude Hannah.)

MEMORABLE "NANCE DUDE" PERFORMANCE

My favorite actress, Elizabeth Westall performed the dramatic monologue, "Nance Dude" for a mesmerized audience last night at the Martin Lipscomb Performing Arts Center in Highlands, N. C. Not only did the seasoned actress garner standing ovations (yes, several!), but the adoring audience kept her for almost an hour following the performance answering questions. They learned that Elizabeth is "technically blind," but moves about the stage with deftness and confidence (probably due to the fact that she has done this play several hundred times).

In the scene on the right, Nance reads from her Bible, stating that in her fifteen years in a penitentiary, she was urged to demonstrate that she was "penitent" by reading her Bible constantly. Elizabeth has performing this role for twelve years. In the beginning, the play was more complex: two scenes, set changes, complex lighting and sound effects. Now, the play has been reduced to a single scene and a bare stagewith the "props" in the photo on the left: a rocking chair, a wooden box, a Bible, a stump, a pile of fresh-cut kindling an ax and a jar of spring water.
Following the performance, I was invited to join Elizabeth on stage where we fielded questions from the audience about the "real" Nance Dude and the story of her murder trial that captured the interest of WNC in 1913. Although Elizabeth has announced that this was her "final performance," I am determined to persuade her to repeat this role for a fund-raising event in Sylva this fall.

Nance Dude: a dramatic monologue