I\u2019m midway through Ron Chernow\u2019s masterful 1,200\u2011page biography of Mark Twain, and like most Americans, I carry the familiar image of him: the thick white hair, the unruly eyebrows, the bristling mustache, the slightly surly expression. That picture comes less from grainy photographs than from generations of living\u2011history portrayals.<\/p>\n
Actor Hal Holbrook famously embodied Twain in a one\u2011man show that endured for six decades. Chernow has said his lifelong fascination with the author\u2011humorist\u2011pundit began when he saw Holbrook perform in the mid\u20111970s. As the man with the white suit and cigar tossed out one hilarious line after another, it must have seemed to Chernow that Twain himself had returned for a night.<\/p>\n
I felt a similar spark on July 3 in Douglassville, watching five remarkable American women from the Revolutionary War era brought vividly to life.<\/p>\n
The program took place inside the White Horse Inn, one of several restored buildings in Old Morlatton Village, an 18th\u2011century Swedish settlement along old Philadelphia Pike. My friend and colleague, Reading Eagle reporter Michelle Lynch, portrayed Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker, a Philadelphia Quaker who kept a detailed diary during the British occupation.<\/p>\n
Drinker\u2019s husband was imprisoned for refusing to sign the oath of loyalty to the commonwealth. She and three other wives made an exhausting journey to the Continental Army encampment at Valley Forge to petition Gen. George Washington for the men\u2019s release. Washington said he lacked the authority but allowed the women to visit their husbands.<\/p>\n
After yet another 100\u2011degree heat\u2011index day, I had to dig deep for the motivation to leave my couch during Wimbledon and head to a tavern built 11 years before the Declaration of Independence. I doubted the White Horse had centralized cooling \u2014 or even a working ale tap.<\/p>\n
Still, if Michelle and the others could perform in full Colonial dress, I could manage T\u2011shirt and shorts. It was the eve of the nation\u2019s 250th birthday, after all.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the meeting room \u2014 thanks to a portable air conditioner and fan \u2014 was far more comfortable than my sedan, whose AC failed shortly after I departed on the 20-mile trip along Route 422.<\/p>\n
Despite that breakdown, I\u2019m grateful I chose living history over early\u2011round tennis. The performances, presented by the Berks County Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, were uniformly impressive. The women reprised roles from the DAR\u2019s Famous Ladies Tea, each writing and memorizing her own script.<\/p>\n
Michelle captured the quiet strength of Drinker: \u201cWhen the need arose, I found a strength within me. I stood up to soldiers. I traveled difficult roads. And I met with the man who would become our country\u2019s first president.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has portrayed figures ranging from Emma \u201cGrandma\u201d Gatewood to Frances Glessner Lee. Joining her at Morlattton on July 3 were Abigail Adams, Mary Katharine Goddard, Nancy Morgan Hart and Elizabeth \u201cMom Bett\u201d Freeman.<\/p>\n
You can catch performances like these at the DAR Famous Ladies Tea next April at the DoubleTree by Hilton Reading hotel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m midway through Ron Chernow\u2019s masterful 1,200\u2011page biography of Mark Twain, and like most Americans, I carry the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7755,349,1559,1560,28,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-240104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-amity-township","tag-berks-county","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}