Wallace Scholar Dr. Howard Miller to Speak in Franklin

Wallace Scholar Dr. Howard Miller will be speaking about Ben-Hur before the evening screenings of the film at the Historic Artcraft Theatre in Franklin, Indiana.

Dr. Miller is a Professor Emeritus with The University of Texas at Austin and a world-recognized scholar on the history of American religion. His article "The Charioteer and The Christ: Ben-Hur in American from the Gilded Age to the Culture Wars" was published in Indiana Magazine of History, and he has also authored a book-length study of Ben-Hur.

Dr. Miller will be speaking at 7:15 Friday and Saturday evenings. If you're planning on joining us for the movie, make sure you arrive early to hear him speak!

Civil War Music Coming to the Study

Lew was a fan of music. He played the violin and Susan played the guitar. One of his reasons for building the Study was so he could play the violin at midnight if he chose. We think he would approve of our upcoming event! A choral group from Wabash College will be performing a concert of Civil War songs inside the Study building Thursday, April 4.

Songs being performed will include:
Battle Cry of Freedom
The Soldier's Return
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
The New Emancipation Song
Ashokan Farewell
Battle Hymn of the Republic

Because seating is limited, RSVPs are required. Please call the Study at 765-362-5769 for details and to reserve a spot.

Growing Up With Ben Hur - a Guest Post

by Nancy VanArendonk

When I was growing up -- back in the days before Netflix, Redbox, Movies On Demand and the like -- there were just two possibilities if you wanted to see a film that had been made some years earlier. You could hope that it might someday be run on one of the four existing TV channels (three national networks and one local station), or that the film studio would deem it worthy of re-release and that it would come back briefly to theaters. Which is why I remember that when I saw the splashy newspaper ad for the re-release of the 1959 Ben-Hur (possibly for the 10th anniversary of its release?), I put up a positively merciless campaign of begging to get my parents to take me to see it. Eventually my dad gave in and took me to a drive-in theater where it was showing.

And I loved it. :)

Apparently I had good taste. No film in history has ever won more Academy Awards (11), and only two have even tied with it (Titanic and The Lord of the Rings) -- and it took 40 years and the invention of computer generation to do that!

I read the novel, and for once thought the film version of a story actually better than the book. Mind you, I definitely enjoyed Wallace's tale, but for me the film had an impact that the written version didn't deliver in the same way... especially in regard to the final part of the character Messala's story.

Eventually it became possible to see the film every few years, as it began to be shown on TV on some Easter weekends. With each viewing I appreciated new aspects. Were not the Sheik's horses the most gorgeous in filmdom? And how deliciously potent those three words, "You're wrong, Messala," just before Judah steps from the shadows!

Then came the availability of the home videocassette recorder. As my husband Larry remembers it, we purchased our first VCR -- a Beta, yet -- specifically to record Ben-Hur, which was scheduled to be run on TV. This was not the casual investment that VCRs later became; at that time each blank cassette tape cost $26 and could record just over four hours of material. But we'd end up splurging still more because of the film: Years later, when friends from another country moved to Indiana, we discovered in conversation that they'd never seen the movie. We invited a group and planned to make a big evening of it, and how better to do that than to buy a bigger TV? (Hey, you can't fully appreciate the chariot race when it's all compressed can you?) ;-)

There's a family story about Ben-Hur that predates me by many decades, though I hadn't heard it until after I'd developed my own fondness for Lew Wallace's tale. My parents were married in 1926. Since they were young and without money, someone suggested that they drive out of state to the farm of an aunt for their honeymoon. The drive there was a disaster in itself, as they camped in a pup tent en route; one night it not only rained, but a stray cat ran into their tent to escape the weather and used the dry area therein as a toilet, forcing them to relocate. And then, as you might imagine, staying with an elderly aunt wasn't really a honeymoon-conducive scenario. My father started reading Ben-Hur, and continued to do so throughout their stay. My mother, bored and frustrated with the entire situation, was still aggravated decades later about my dad having read that book on their honeymoon!

My own fondness for Lew Wallace's story began to give family members ideas when searching for birthday or Christmas presents for me. My younger daughter bought an autographed photo of Charlton Heston as a galley slave. Larry began shopping for unusual editions of the novel. One vintage volume, for instance, is illustrated with photos from the 1899 Broadway stage production, which ran for 21 years and featured live horses in the chariot race. Later, Larry found for me a century-old program from that play. And, since the novel's decades-long popularity had led to countless things being named after it, another of my surprises was an antique box of Ben-Hur brand black pepper (see photo)... the box was still filled with peppercorns!

The search for such things is half the fun, and today I was again rewarded with a "find." I attended a Vintage Book & Paper show, and while there I found an 1880s copy of Ben-Hur that had been autographed by author Lew Wallace! This makes my second autographed Wallace volume, the other being a copy of The Prince of India.

Such finds are fun. The search (to paraphrase a line from the film) goes on. :)

Larry & I appreciate a lot of classic films, so when the historic Artcraft Theatre in Franklin reopened about a decade ago and began showing classic movies to raise money to restore the 1922 building, we attended regularly, and seven years ago we sponsored our first film there. It was (surprise!!) Ben-Hur.

In the years since, we have sponsored many other films at the Artcraft. But when we learned that Ben-Hur was once again on the schedule, there was no question; we had to sponsor the movie! And so, on March 29th & 30th we will again be sponsoring this. I hope that many will come and enjoy this film as it was meant to be seen, on the Artcraft's 33-foot-wide screen. Showings will take place both days at 2:00 and at 7:30, but for the evening showings I strongly recommend finding seats no later than 7:00. Tickets are $5, or just $4 for students or seniors.

The Artcraft, by the way, is interesting in its own right. All those who work in the theater are volunteers. This way all the funds from the ticket sales can go to restoring the theater. The popcorn sold there is grown just five miles away and is popped fresh as you watch, and all evening films are preceded by door-prize drawings, the singing of the national anthem, and the showing of a vintage cartoon. For a few hours, you've gone back in time.

But those added benefits won't distract us; we'll all know why we're there:  To see BEN-HUR!  :)


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Note: Nancy and her husband Larry are members of the Lew Wallace Study Preservation Society as well as enthusiastic Ben-Hur fans. I asked Nancy to write this guest post so we could learn more about her reasons for sponsoring the movie screen as well as her relationship with Lew Wallace's legacy. If you have a story you'd like to share with our friends and readers, let me know! I'm always interested in sharing your stories.
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1959 Ben-Hur Screening at Historic Artcraft Theatre

Ten days from now, the 33-foot screen at the Historic Artcraft Theatre in Franklin, Indiana, will be home to a film spectacular. Just in time for the celebration of Easter, movie-goers can see Charlton Heston starring as Judah Ben-Hur. The 1960 Academy Awards presented Ben-Hur with eleven of twelve awards for which it had been nominated. In 1998 the American Film Institute listed Ben-Hur as one of the 100 Greatest Movies. For more information about the movie, as well as the book which inspired it, check out our website's Ben-Hur page. Lew Wallace Study Preservation Society members Nancy and Larry VanArendonk are sponsoring the showing. (Stay tuned next week for a guest post from Nancy about her love for Ben-Hur and her reasons for sponsoring it.)

What: 1959 Ben-Hur movie screening
When: Friday, March 29 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 30 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Historic Artcraft Theatre in Franklin, Indiana (map)

Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under, with discounts for seniors, college students and military (with ID). Each performance includes skits, classic cartoons, door prizes, and a fully-stocked concession stand.

Check out the Artcraft's website for further details and to purchase advance tickets.

Lew Wallace and his Lost Masterpiece

Lew Wallace is generally given credit for writing three novels of historical fiction. The Fair God: The Last of the ‘Tizins (1873), Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880); and The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell (1893). It is true that these were his three major novels that were actually published, but he wrote another novel that didn’t survive long past its initial public presentation.

While a student at the Indianapolis Seminary, Lew Wallace attended meetings of the Union Literary Society where students shared debates, recitations, readings, and parliamentary proceedings. In time, Lew began writing and publically reciting a lengthy historical poem he had written with John Smith of Virginia the hero. In the poem, this hero is aptly named “Virginia John.” Written in the flavor of Sir Walter Scott’s Marmion his poem ended with the dramatic rescue of Pocahontas.

A young Lew Wallace

Irving McKee in his book The Early Life of Lew Wallace speculates that Lew might have been inspired by a production of the play Pocahontas by Robert Dale Owen that was performed by the Indianapolis Thespian Corps in the winter of 1839. In this production, Lew had the role of “Numony,” Pocahontas’ sister and his real-life brother, William, had the lead role of John Smith.

Lew’s historical poem was then followed by his Travels of a Bed-bug. In this poem, a bed-bug, born in the office of an Indianapolis lawyer passes from office to office and from hotel to hotel with adventures and commentary on local citizens along the way until it dies from over drink—much like the famed Alexander the Great. Lew had this effort published to the great amusement of the town, but to his regret, as he wrote of: “. . . the just indignation of the gentlemen concerned. Learning that several of them were looking for me, canes in hand, I went hunting, and was gone time enough for the flurry to blow over.”

After these two efforts at epic poetry, Lew realized that his forte might rather lie in prose. He then commenced writing a lengthy novel that he read to the Literary Society in installments. This work, The Man-at-Arms: A Tale of the Tenth Century truly became an epic production. Just the synopsis in Lew’s autobiography runs from page 63 to page 72! To summarize the summary, the hero was a page named Pedro, who was of good blood and bore himself like a paladin. A talented youth, he played the lute, sang ballads of knights and ladies fair, excelled at horsemanship, spoke with grace and was generally heroic. Among the cast of hundreds, the story included an evil duke, a fair maiden named Inez, and a hateful old widow, and a kindly hermit who married the young lovers in a cave in the mountains.

Trials and tribulations flowed from Lew’s pen as the story wound on and on with the young lovers separated by the evil duke. Set in the year of our Lord 1097, Pedro eventually finds glory on a Crusade to Jerusalem. The finale included a famine, a plague, and a dying hero. As Lew wrote in remembering this work: “On a bed of straw she found him lying, to all appearance dying. Not minding his feeble protest, she unlaced his helmet and took it off. The recognition was instantaneous. The scene that ensued was to the author’s heart, and he gave it his best power.” Ultimately Pedro was restored to health because “there is no leech like love” and the duke, seeing Pedro and Inez’s love grants Pedro his dukedom.

By the time Lew had finished this gripping tale it had stretched to over 250 pages of text closely written and bound in a book. He kept the book at his home for several years, but while away serving in the Mexican War, the book was misplaced or destroyed. Even as Lew penned his autobiography some fifty years later he wrote that the loss of this book was one of his standing regrets—not so much for its literary quality, but for the amusement it would have provided. He stated that even with his youthful tendency to waste time, writing this book proved to him that he was capable of continuity of purpose. It also proved to him, that although sophomoric and overly sentimental, he could capture an audience with his writing and with his public speaking. The members of the Union Literary Society turned out in force whenever he had a new installment of the story to present. In theme and prose this effort presaged his later works of religious fiction. More importantly, this lost masterpiece demonstrated to Lew that he had abilities that deserved further self encouragement and ultimately led to the writing of The Fair God and ultimately, Ben-Hur.

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.

6 Questions With Board Member Helen Hudson

Helen Mundy Hudson is a retired public school teacher of AP English and German, part-time Wabash professor, director of Athenas, and erstwhile writer. She has served as president of the LWSPS board. She is fascinated by Icelandic studies.

How long have you been on the LWSPS board?
6 or 7 years

Tell us something funny or interesting (or embarrassing, if you're brave!) about yourself.
I was once a barrel racer and pole bender in horseback competition, played tenor sax, and collected stamps. I've been involved in a 30+ year love affair with Iceland.

How did your involvement with the Lew Wallace Study begin?
I knew it as a pretty place tied to Ben-Hur. Then Dale Petrie called me, I met Cinnamon, and the rest is history.

Why do you think the preservation of the Lew Wallace Study is important?
I'm a trained Mid-Century Modern :) and so entirely believe in our motto - "power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture." Lew and Susan Wallace were not only bright and important people, they knew how to live their lives richly, and because they were rich they left us the increasingly more valuable Study and grounds.

What is your favorite thing about Lew Wallace?
His painted walls and his library--especially his library...  Oh, and there was the Civil War and New Mexico and Turkey. What's not to like?

What is one thing you would like our blog readers and Facebook friends to know?

About Bohumir Kryl, the valuable paint (equal to the U.S. Capitol paint), the worldwide scholarship done on Lew Wallace. I would love for people to learn more about the contents of Lew's library.

Thank you, Helen, for all your hard work and your dedication to preserving culture in our community!

The Angel of Grief

The Angel of Grief by William Wetmore Story is one of the most evocative stone carvings of the late nineteenth century. It became so famous that the term has become synonymous with many grave stones erected in Story’s style. William Wetmore Story was born in 1819 in Boston, educated at Harvard and his father was Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story. A child of privilege; as his life developed he was surrounded by influential people like Robert Browning, Thackeray, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hans Christian Anderson, Henry James, and James Russell Lowell. William had a successful law career and was a published poet and essayist, but also pursued sculpture as a hobby. The hobby took on new meaning in 1845, when he was commissioned to execute a monument in memory of his father. This commission combined with a bout of typhoid fever caused Story to leave his law practice and pursue sculpting full time.

William W. Story ca. 1885

In the 1850s, Story moved his family to Rome where he completed one of his most famous works, Cleopatra, in 1858. With this statue, he moved American sculpture toward a new romanticism that combined realism and psychological drama that proved to be in sync with the Victorian tastes of the day. Pope Pius IX so admired Cleopatra that the Roman government paid all shipping costs in order to exhibit it in 1862 at the Roman Court of the International Exposition in London, where it made Story's reputation.

William Story married the love of his life Emelyn Eldredge in 1843. Together they had three accomplished children and their home in Rome became world famous for its hospitality. Their hospitality was helped by the fact that their “home” was a forty room apartment in the Barberini Palace, one of the most important examples of Baroque architecture in Rome. It was begun in 1625 and built according to the desires of Urban VIII, the Barberini pope.

Among the world famous guests who visited Mr. and Mrs. Story were Lew and Susan Wallace. The Wallaces visited the Barberini Palace in 1883, and the two couples developed a significant friendship. In a letter Anne Hampton Brewer, who was in attendance when the Wallaces were visiting the Palace, wrote “how the General literally charmed us all last evening at Mr. Story’s with his brilliant conversation. It is so seldom that a fine writer is a fine talker.”

In 1884, William Story penned a letter to: My Dear Mrs. Ben-Hur. In this letter Story noted how touched he had been by a letter from Susan Wallace and he apologized for his delay in responding. He blamed his delay on the desire to finish reading Ben-Hur before writing. He said that with all of the interruptions of his life he just could not find time for the book until he and his wife decided to read the story aloud to each other. They developed a deep and sustained interest in the vivid prose and both felt great regret as they finished the last page.

The relationship continued through letters between the families. In 1886, Mrs. Story wrote in a long letter to Susan Wallace: “Many a time, impatient of the silence which has come between us, have I wished to break it on my side, but so vague was my knowledge of your whereabouts that I was frightened about launching into infinite space my little skiff. Your most kind letter came and helps me to find you out. . . . The book of books [Ben-Hur] of this age read aloud for the second time has lost none of its rare charm and it is beyond words to say how greatly we prize it. All our English friends to whom we have introduced it join in this chorus and its reputation is fast growing there as in America. . . . I do not like you to think that being snugly settled in your old home, ‘outre mer,’ we are not likely soon to see you in Rome, but we cling to the hope that it is not impossible. . . .How pleasant had we hope of seeing you there [Plazzo Barberini] this winter, I do not like to wait too long for my good things, but am impatient in my old age to snatch them up lest the escape me altogether.”

Angel of Grief created by William W. Story
to mark the grave of his wife.

When Susan wrote her book, Along the Bosphorus, she wrote warmly of William Story, describing him as one of the finest people she had ever known. She went on to say “Of the friends we left in Rome, Story was among the last to join the silent majority. The loss of the wife of his youth whom he survived but a year, was a bitter blow, and with her passed his interest in affairs. It was only when his children suggested that he should make a monument to her memory that he consented to resume work: the design he chose was the Angel of Grief and it is wrought to exquisite finish, . . When this was done he left the studio never to return. The illness which began shortly afterward was long and severe. Soon he was forced to stay almost continually in his room, and strength waned till time became a burden too grievous to be borne. His best lover would not have held him back from the unseen land of which he wrote so tenderly.” Story died in October of 1895, just a year after the death of Emelyn. The monument he created for her marks their graves in Rome and became one of the most powerful and touching illustrations of love and loss in the Victorian era.

Sources

Letter from Anne Hampton Brewer to Susan Wallace, March 11, 1883
Articles by Joann Spragg, Journal Review, August 18, 2000 & September 21, 2000
Susan Wallace, Along the Bosphorus, Rand McNally & Co., New York & Chicago, 1898.

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.