August 2006 – Day 3 – The Authors’ Breakfast
After leaving the Bob Schiller event and having a great long chat outside the Rapaport Center afterward with Sabrina Scharf and Tom Schiller’s wife (and getting a chance to take a Schiller family portrait! So exciting!) I was running a bit late for the Author’s Breakfast! After all this breakfasting I’ll be able to ROLL back to Toronto… But just as I started walking towards the theatre, a big birthday parade led by “Lucy” and “Ethel” came marching down 3rd Street towards the Desilu Playhouse. These Friends of the Formerly Friendless – complete with noisemakers and party hats – told me that they’ve moved the roundtable breakfast to the Tropicana Room. Not a good sign with the limited seating and there were a lot of Formerly Friendless Friends in the parade…
So, I just went with the flow and asked if they had any tickets available in the playhouse gift shop. They didn’t, so I had to hurry to the box office to pick up a ticket and hurry back before everything got started. After passing the Schillers who were strolling past the theatre (in the opposite direction for whatever reason), I made it back there in plenty of time.
The breakfast was very much the same as at the Bob Schiller event except this time there were “omelette burritos” (…?!) along with the rest of the stuff. Still full from the last meal, I decided to have one more round with the bagels after my unfortunate bagel dumping incident a couple of hours before. I won this round! Then the roundtable started with a screening of Lucy Writes A Novel, followed by the discussion itself.
Now, as much as I hate to say this, this year’s Authors’ Roundtable was very disappointing with no fault lying with the wonderful and interesting guests. I think it was a formatting problem. Many of us who has read Kathleen Brady’s “Lucille” agree that it is the closest thing we have to a definitive biography of Lucy; Audrey Kupferberg and Rob Edelman two of the four foremost authorities on Vivian Vance, and foremost authority of Bill; that Elisabeth is the epitome of creativity and knows different sides to Lucy and Desi that other authors couldn’t hope to have; and that Michael Karol is a treasure hunter extraordinaire.
To me, though, a lot of the discussions led by Kathleen seemed to be a bit superficial instead of getting into the “meat” of their books. While Kathleen is undoubtedly a wonderful interviewer to gather so much primary material for her book, I think the problem must be that all five of the authors are so familiar with the other books – and each other – a lot of questions are left unanswered from the audience.
If I remember correctly, Lucy festivals in the past were hosted by others, not one author who is part of the roundtable discussion itself. I believe – and correct me if I’m wrong – one year was hosted and moderated by a local radio host, and one was moderated by Tom Watson. The other formats left the host more detached from the group and from that position they were able to go more in-depth. It seemed as though the authors assumed everyone in the audience had read the books (and it’s safe to say that they were right!!), but it hindered discussion a little bit.
But, from what the authors did share, it was a very interesting seminar. Kathleen’s story of the first time she met Lucy herself was great, and her reaction to meeting her was probably how every one of us would react to being in her presence. I also enjoyed hearing about how Michael Karol approached searching for all the tidbits of information he put into his book and how his mother’s illness made him feel a personal connection with Lucy. It was a very touching story, and one I don’t even want to attempt to butcher here. It would lose so much in the translation. LOL
At one point I asked the authors that when they completed each of their respective books (or groups of books) what lingering questions they had or what loose ends would they have liked to tie up, but couldn’t. This got some interesting responses from the authors. Audrey would have liked to know what it was like to see Bill onstage with the brief Mrs. Frawley. Elisabeth mentioned that there are so many stories and anecdotes swirling around about Lucy and Desi that she would like to know finally which are true and which are not, because it’s difficult picking which ones to put in her book. The people alive today that knew Lucy and Desi are often unsure themselves.
After the discussion, I thought of so many other questions I would have liked to ask each author, especially Elisabeth. She had access to all of Lucy and Desi’s scrapbooks while making her own condensed version of a scrapbook. I’m dying to specifically how she selected each item to be reproduced in that book, what criteria she used to choose, if there were items she wanted to include but were impractical to be put in, etc.
But whatever disappointments I had over the roundtable discussion were quickly overshadowed by the SPECTACULAR finale – Lane Loves Lucy!
So, I just went with the flow and asked if they had any tickets available in the playhouse gift shop. They didn’t, so I had to hurry to the box office to pick up a ticket and hurry back before everything got started. After passing the Schillers who were strolling past the theatre (in the opposite direction for whatever reason), I made it back there in plenty of time.
The breakfast was very much the same as at the Bob Schiller event except this time there were “omelette burritos” (…?!) along with the rest of the stuff. Still full from the last meal, I decided to have one more round with the bagels after my unfortunate bagel dumping incident a couple of hours before. I won this round! Then the roundtable started with a screening of Lucy Writes A Novel, followed by the discussion itself.
Now, as much as I hate to say this, this year’s Authors’ Roundtable was very disappointing with no fault lying with the wonderful and interesting guests. I think it was a formatting problem. Many of us who has read Kathleen Brady’s “Lucille” agree that it is the closest thing we have to a definitive biography of Lucy; Audrey Kupferberg and Rob Edelman two of the four foremost authorities on Vivian Vance, and foremost authority of Bill; that Elisabeth is the epitome of creativity and knows different sides to Lucy and Desi that other authors couldn’t hope to have; and that Michael Karol is a treasure hunter extraordinaire.
To me, though, a lot of the discussions led by Kathleen seemed to be a bit superficial instead of getting into the “meat” of their books. While Kathleen is undoubtedly a wonderful interviewer to gather so much primary material for her book, I think the problem must be that all five of the authors are so familiar with the other books – and each other – a lot of questions are left unanswered from the audience.
If I remember correctly, Lucy festivals in the past were hosted by others, not one author who is part of the roundtable discussion itself. I believe – and correct me if I’m wrong – one year was hosted and moderated by a local radio host, and one was moderated by Tom Watson. The other formats left the host more detached from the group and from that position they were able to go more in-depth. It seemed as though the authors assumed everyone in the audience had read the books (and it’s safe to say that they were right!!), but it hindered discussion a little bit.
But, from what the authors did share, it was a very interesting seminar. Kathleen’s story of the first time she met Lucy herself was great, and her reaction to meeting her was probably how every one of us would react to being in her presence. I also enjoyed hearing about how Michael Karol approached searching for all the tidbits of information he put into his book and how his mother’s illness made him feel a personal connection with Lucy. It was a very touching story, and one I don’t even want to attempt to butcher here. It would lose so much in the translation. LOL
At one point I asked the authors that when they completed each of their respective books (or groups of books) what lingering questions they had or what loose ends would they have liked to tie up, but couldn’t. This got some interesting responses from the authors. Audrey would have liked to know what it was like to see Bill onstage with the brief Mrs. Frawley. Elisabeth mentioned that there are so many stories and anecdotes swirling around about Lucy and Desi that she would like to know finally which are true and which are not, because it’s difficult picking which ones to put in her book. The people alive today that knew Lucy and Desi are often unsure themselves.
After the discussion, I thought of so many other questions I would have liked to ask each author, especially Elisabeth. She had access to all of Lucy and Desi’s scrapbooks while making her own condensed version of a scrapbook. I’m dying to specifically how she selected each item to be reproduced in that book, what criteria she used to choose, if there were items she wanted to include but were impractical to be put in, etc.
But whatever disappointments I had over the roundtable discussion were quickly overshadowed by the SPECTACULAR finale – Lane Loves Lucy!
posted by Brock at 11:59 PM
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