"WILDE IN AMERICA"
We are very pleased to publish by kind permission of the author the
scenario and Part 1 of Wilde in America, a play written for television by Walter J.
Walker.
Wilde in America is ©Copyright 1999 Walter W. J. Walker
SYNOPSIS BELOW
PART I HERE
PART II HERE
WILDE IN AMERICA
Travels with Oscar Fingal
O’Flahertie Wills Wilde -1882
“To
get into the best society nowadays one has either to feed people, amuse
people, or shock people.”
Oscar Wilde-
in conversation.
merica was Oscar Wilde’s stage in
1882. In parlors from New York to San Francisco he received both standing
ovations and catcalls. Long before any of Oscar Wilde’s plays had graced the
boards, Ireland’s most flamboyant man of letters took America by storm.
WILDE IN AMERICA is a
six-part television mini-series starring the world’s most infamous
playwright.
As remarkable as
it now seems, the young Oscar Wilde, a novice poet and struggling
playwright, toured more than 150 venues in North America from January to
December 1882. The whys and wherefores of Oscar’s Tour are as follows:
1.
His
official mission:
to bring culture to the masses via a series of lectures on aestheticism.
2.
His
sponsors’ objective:
to excite audiences about the new Gilbert & Sullivan production of
“Patience,” which spoofs Wilde and the aesthetic movement.
3.
His
personal ambition:
to engage producers for “Vera: Or the Nihilists,” Oscar’s first –ever
theatrical piece.
4.
His
accomplishment:
with his signature wit and charm, Oscar Wilde leaves a lasting impression on
a frontier American society. He also earned a small fortune for his
lectures.
“I
believe a most serious problem for American people to consider is the
cultivation of better manners. It is the most noticeable, the most
principal, defect in American civilization.”
Oscar Wilde
- in conversation
WILDE IN AMERICA chronicles an
extraordinary odyssey for Oscar Wilde. What starts out as a 20-city lecture
tour expands to 150-plus cities and townships. The 27-year-old aesthete
bears witness to the dawn of a new America. It is the advent of the Gilded
Age as culture, fashion and social etiquette under-go a reformation.
The Americans are
certainly great hero-worshippers, and always take heroes from the criminal
classes.
Oscar Wilde
- letter
In the face of
all that is peaceful and civilized, the America of the1880s continues its
social contract with violence and guns. On July 2nd 1881,
President James Garfield is senselessly gunned down in Potomac-Baltimore
railway station by a lunatic fundamentalist. Wilde will encounter a
Washington DC consumed with the trail of Charles Guiteau, Garfield’s accused
assassin. Within weeks of the Garfield shooting, Pat Garrett dispatches
Billy the Kid in Fort Sumner Texas. While Oscar is touring and preaching the
precepts of the English Renaissance and modern home decoration, Pat Garrett
has embarked on one of the first-ever national book tours promoting his
biography, The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. The outlaw Jesse
James was gunned down by fellow gang member Robert Ford, in the summer while
Wilde was on tour.
Wilde
in knee breeches, velvet jackets and billowing cravats was a startling
contrast to the rough and tumble characters, who populated the small
settlements and townships throughout the West. Although his carriage and
mannerisms were beyond effeminate, it would have been a mistake to dismiss
Wilde as a limp-wristed push-over. At 6 foot 3 inches, the young aesthete
was every bit as big as any Texas Ranger. He surprised many of his American
hosts and acquaintances with his bottomless capacity for alcohol. More than
one young tough, thought it would be fun to ply the Irish dandy with whiskey
and watch him fall over. The roles were invariably reversed, leaving even
resilient Colorado miners with a manly respect for this “nancy boy.”
WILDE IN AMERICA
is both a coming age for its hero and the host nation. In Wilde’s case he
will return to London with a draft of The Duchess of Padua,
his first successful stage play. He will gain professional confidence as a
result of the commercial rewards of his lecture tour. Receipts for the tour
totaled more than $18,000 of which Wilde’s share was $11,000 and change. He
will gain creative strength and self-assurance through his experience as a
public lecturer.
It
is the noisiest country that ever existed. Such continual turmoil must
ultimately lead to the destruction of the musical faculty.
- Oscar Wilde:
in conversation
For
America, 1882 represents a watershed year. The country will soon rid itself
of the painful memories of the Civil War and turn its undivided attention to
the marvels of new technology, a new social order and cultural improvements.
Large urban centers such as New York, Washington and San Francisco open
their doors to the artistic and cultural influences of Europe. And America
begins to fulfill its destiny as a leader among nations. The industrial
revolution has taken hold and new technologies are rapidly deployed. Thomas
Edison has just introduced the electric light bulb. And Wilde will be
startled by the glow of primitive electric lights, illuminating the dreary
street corners of south Manhattan. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention has
created a web of aesthetically unappealing telephone wires in the nation’s
largest city. The stanchions of the Brooklyn Bridge rise to breath-taking
heights, as the world’s largest suspension bridge takes shape. Three years
from completion, the Brooklyn Bridge offers pedestrians a temporary passage
via a precarious suspension path. The Brooklyn Bridge plays a symbolic role
in WILDE IN AMERICA. A symbol of hope and promise for the new era, and the
nation as a whole, is under construction in New York Harbor. A gift from
France, the Statue of Liberty commemorates the nation’s centenary. But fully
six years after the anniversary, the statue is only partially finished.
Wilde will discover Lady Liberty’s disembodied arm, bearing her famous
torch, in Madison Square Park where it awaits final assembly.
“One should never
give a woman anything she can’t wear in the evening.”
-Oscar Wilde:
An Ideal Husband
In
matters of love and romance Wilde is an enigma. He is a bachelor. The nature
of his sexual orientation, at this time, is not entirely clear---certainly
not to the public and, perhaps, not to Wilde himself. In the summer of 1881
Wilde took an interest in Constance Lloyd (future wife and mother of his two
sons). Richard Ellmann (Wilde biographer) speculates that he was under-going
a treatment (mercury dosages) for syphilis and, under doctor’s orders, was
not permitted to marry. He leaves for America without asking Constance for
her hand. In spite of his gay leanings, Wilde was a favorite with the ladies
and he adored the companionship of attractive women. In WILDE IN AMERICA,
the young aesthete exercises his charm and wit on an enthusiastic cadre of
beautiful damsels.
“Would
you like to know the great drama of my life? It is that I have put my genius
into my life --- I have put only my talent into my work.”
- Oscar Wilde:
in conversation
Upon arriving at
a New York customs office January 2, 1882, Oscar Wilde is asked if he has
anything to declare. He responds with “Nothing but my genius.” Part of
Wilde’s genius most certainly lay in his remarkable talent for
self-promotion and sociability. Throughout his travels Wilde met many US
personalities among them: Louisa May Alcott, Walt Whitman,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Jefferson Davis, General George
McClellan, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry James, Lily
Langtry (English actress has NY debut), Richard Doyle Carte
(Theatrical producer –see Mike Leigh’s Topsy Turvy) Col. Morse
(Carte’s employee and Oscar’s tour manager) Mrs. Frank Leslie
(publisher/proprietor Leslie’s Illustrated Papers), Robert Lincoln
(Secretary of War and son of the assassinated President), Sam Ward
(noted Washington lobbyist and entrepreneur), Napoleon Sarony (NYC
photographer of the stars), Steele MacKaye (Broadway theatre
producer) Baby Doe McCourt and Horace Tabor (Colorado
millionaires), Joaquin Miller (the Frontier Poet), Eugene Field
(Managing Ed. Denver Tribune) and Clara Morris (Actress).
WILDE
IN AMERICA further speculates and fictionalizes probable encounters with:
Jay Gould (railroad tycoon and publisher, The World),
Andrew Carnegie
(industrialist), J.P.
Morgan (financier),
William Henry
Vanderbilt (Railroad tycoon), Ned Harrigan & Tony Hart (Broadway
theatrical duo), Lillian Russell (Broadway actress), “Diamond” Jim
Brady (promoter, entrepreneur, playboy), Robert Ingersoll
(renowned orator: the “Great Agnostic”), Dr. T. DeWit Talmage
(Brooklyn Presbyterian Preacher, rival to Henry Ward Beecher),
John B. Drake (Chicago Hotelier) Rose Loevjoy & Matte Silk
(Denver prostitutes), Johnny L. Sullivan (Heavyweight Champion of
1882), Josh Billings (comic firebrand orator) and Davenport
(Wilde’s would-be African American valet)
WILDE IN AMERICA
opens with Oscar’s funeral in Paris, 1900. The story of his American tour is
told as a flashback on the part of Maggie Hayle, fictional society
reporter for the Washington Post in 1882.
WILDE IN AMERICA
·
Episode 1: Declaration of Genius
·
Episode
2: “Patience”
·
Episode
3: Shoot First and Vote Later
·
Episode
4: Throwing Down The Gauntlet
·
Episode
5: A Three-bottle Man
·
Episode
6: A Bridge to Cross
© copyright 2003
Walter W. J. Walker