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Chicago : with the Chicago tribune articles that inspired it / by Maurine Watkins ; edited and with an introduction by Thomas H. Pauly.
LIBRA PS3545.A828 C5 1997
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Watkins, Maurine.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- City and town life--Illinois--Chicago--Drama.
- City and town life.
- Illinois--Chicago.
- Criminals--Illinois--Chicago--Drama.
- Criminals.
- Genre:
- Comedies.
- Drama.
- Physical Description:
- xxxii, 158 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, [1997]
- Summary:
- "This one's got the makin's: wine, woman, jazz, a lover", says Jake Callahan, a reporter in Maurine Watkins's Chicago, a Broadway smash hit in 1927. Jake, speaking of his great fortune at finding the story of "the most beautiful murderess", precisely characterizes Watkins's satirical take on murder and its aftermath - a view she formed while covering two similar and equally sensational murder trials for the Chicago Tribune. Watkins opens this comedy with a brutal dramatization of the same situation the women in her articles faced: a vengeful Roxie has slain her lover for mistreating her. And then the fun begins. A boring, run-of-the-mill murderess until her frank confession creates an opportunity for profit, Roxie begins a transformation to rival that of Pygmalion's statue. She is the perfect answer for Jake, who has been "prayin' for a nice, juicy murder". Rosie's attorney, too, seeks to profit from her plight. "Go out for sympathy through the press", advises Billy Flynn, who circulates a press release - supposedly written by his client - fabricating Roxie's journey "from convent to jail". Flynn also encourages Roxie to cooperate with Jake's competitor, Mary Sunshine, whose sentimental reports upstage Roxie's crime in the same way that Watkins's humorous articles did for the murderesses she was covering.
- Notes:
- Reprint of the play Chicago, originally published in 1927, with the author's newspaper articles of the criminal trials that inspired it.
- Includes bibliographical references.
- ISBN:
- 0809321297
- OCLC:
- 36485978
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