I know that during the filming of "The Adventures of Mark Twain" with
Frederic March, there were standing orders on the set that NO ONE was to
speak to Clara Clemens.

With Clara's views on religion, and her reluctance to release his
anti-religion writings, I wonder if she would have had many complaints
about the sanitization of Yankee, especially the lack of any of the
cutting satire on religion contained in that book. And as a singer, I'm
sure she'd have enjoyed the music.

Anyone remember whether they used Mark Twain's great bit of dialog: 

"I am his lordship's page."

"Go on. You ain't more than a paragraph." 

I seem to be able to hear Bing Crosby doing that line.

Richard



Downloadable mp3 Mark Twain audio books at http://www.richardhenzel.com 
Latest Title: The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in
Connecticut

   -------- Original Message --------
 Subject: Re: Conn Yankee
 From: David Davis <[log in to unmask]>
 Date: Thu, September 17, 2009 9:41 am
 To: [log in to unmask]
 
 It is a terrific work, although I seem to remember (what I perceived
as)
 flaws. Grabbed a PDF from Google Books Search, re-reading starting
 yesterday. 
 
 I wonder what Clara made of the Bing Crosby version? ;-) 
 
 DDD
 
 -----Original Message-----
 From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of L T
 Oggel/FS/VCU
 Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 1:24 PM
 To: [log in to unmask]
 Subject: Conn Yankee
 
 Here's a piece from yesterday's Wash. Post that's perfectly timed for
 our 
 recent/on-going discussion on Conn Yankee:
 
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR200909
 0403802.html?referrer=emailarticle
 
 Henry Nash Smith's book on CYankee, Mark Twain's Fable of Progress,
left
 a 
 strong impression on me when I first read it, and it still does seem to

 hit the nail on the head. Smith's book, one of (few) literary studies 
 that endures, might be old but it's not out of date, like the Twain
book
 
 it examines. Smith's book is sub-titled, Political and Economic Ideas
 in 
 A Connecticut Yankee.
 
 Terry Oggel