The Coming Book

I am engrossed in making Footlights in the Foothills, an overview of amateur acting companies in Las Vegas, New Mexico, between 1871 and 1899, ready for publication. I went back through my original research and found many tidbits of information that had to be cut for the initial article, things like the connections among the performers, the historical context of the plays they chose, the lovely venues--Ward and Tamme Opera House, Duncan Opera House--and the dynamics of the troupes themselves.

The companies varied from burlesque to opera, and they performed in Las Vegas opera houses and halls as well as the Fort Union Opera House. The performers included bookkeepers, ladies, butchers, tailors, soldiers, politicians, bankers, and gamblers. The plays ran the gamut from "The Female Bathers," to "Coloquios de los Pastores," to "Union Spy," to "H. M. S. Pinafore." The one common denominator is that all the performers were amateurs although some moved into professional status. I have come to know these game thespians who took to the stage in front of audiences that included local sophisticates as well as transient outlaws. And I will miss visiting with them when the manuscript is turned over to the publisher.

Pearl Harbor

Let us never forget the American sailors' screams, the thundering explosions, the stench of burning flesh. That was Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 68 years ago today, a Sunday morning, when the Japanese bombed our ships at anchor.