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No record is extant of the "E! True Hollywood Story" of Mary Todd Lincoln, the network's vaults no longer retaining videotapes from the 1860s. But thanks to a number of reliable sources -- including a recent biography by R. Gerald McMurtry and Mark E. Neely, and Richard Caulfeild Goodman's play "The Insanity Case of Mrs. A. Lincoln," currently being presented by the Actors Group -- one is able to hazard a guess at what a biopic might have revealed about the famous first lady. Lincoln’s logs
By Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.comFor one thing she was an unrepentant shopaholic, as Goodman, a San Francisco-based playwright, explained during rehearsals here in Honolulu. "She constantly went to department stores and bought all kinds of curtains and watches," he revealed. "The rooms were piled high with packages, some of them not even opened."
To some extent Lincoln's profligacy can be explained as a reaction to her husband's assassination, a national tragedy -- yes -- but also a personal tragedy for Mary, who spent the remainder of her days shuttling from hotel to hotel in both America and Europe. Then again, she seems to have been infected with the Nancy Reagan bug somewhat earlier. As McMurtry and Neely report, "Lincoln exploded in anger at the spectacle of extravagance displayed by his wife (when she redecorated the White House) while soldiers shivered without blankets."
But if inveterate shopping was Mrs. Lincoln's only extravagance, we'd probably tune her out during E!'s first commercial break. Luckily there's more, much more, including the tragic death of three children, a nasty addiction to chloral hydrate and, most notably, her ultimate commitment to a sanitarium. That this latter act came as a result of her son Robert Todd Lincoln's actions must have made the two-month stint doubly embittering.
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 3 "The Insanity Case of Mrs. A. Lincoln"
Where: Yellow Brick Studio, 625 Keawe St.
Admission: $10
Call: 591-7999
"The transcript of the trial was lost, so most of what we know is based on newspaper accounts at the time," said Goodman, who strenuously tried to be fair to Robert even as he guessed at the prodigal son's motives. "I think he was afraid that his mother would destroy his marriage. And also, she was acting in a way that was very embarrassing. She had this idea that she was broke, so just two years after the assassination, she decided she was going to have a sale of all her clothes in New York, and the press just jumped on the story. I think Robert had a lot of reasons -- he probably also thought a rest and cure would do her good."
What adds another layer to Goodman's play, however, is Lincoln's trial and conviction at the hands of Victorian men. "The medical attitude was that women were given to easy collapse of their nervous systems," a view that was supported not only by the case's 12 male jurors, but Lincoln's own lawyer. (Although she had counsel at the trial, he said nothing in his client's defense.)
But if you think Mrs. A. took the matter lying down, you obviously haven't been watching "Biography" or even "Behind the Music" lately. Her ultimate triumph over the limiting forces of her day is one of the more moving parts of Goodman's nine-scene play, a climax that proves once and for all his assertion that Lincoln was a "very, very intelligent woman -- no dummy," despite her shortcomings.
Now if only she'd lived to sell the rights to her story to Hollywood. Think of the curtains she might have bought then!
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