Fred and Mary: An Unconventional Romance (formatted for web viewing)

From Act 1, Scene 2

(1876. A restaurant run by the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway in Topeka, Kansas. FRED has been presenting his ideas to two RR officials. As the scene continues…)

MR. MORSE: You’re saying that you can provide better meals than our restaurant currently offers and charge less?

FRED: No, Mr. Morse, I’m saying I can provide much better meals and charge less.

MR. NICKERSON
What do you think, Charles?

MR. MORSE
If Mr. Harvey is willing to bring his own furnishings, staff, and foodstuffs—not to mention take the fall when it fails—

MR. NICKERSON
If it fails—I’m not going to embark on an endeavor with no hope of success!

MR. MORSE
—if it fails. Then I don’t see what we have to lose.

MR. NICKERSON
Except our reputation. (MORSE laughs.) Which, truth be told, is miserable. (Beat.) Not our rail passage, mind you, our food service.

FRED
48 hours. If you aren’t exceedingly impressed, we’ll go no further.

MR. MORSE
What do you think, Thomas?

MR. NICKERSON
48 hours, Hmnn. (The two OFFICIALS exchange a glance again, agree, then they stand and reach out their hands to FRED.) Mr. Harvey. I hope this turns out to be a good business venture for all concerned. (The three shake hands.) 

FRED
Mr. Nickerson, Mr. Morse, communities already set their clocks by the railroad. In a few short years, they’ll set their standards for first-class dining by the railroad too…….

From Act II, Scene 1
(Late 1914. Kansas City. Parlor in the home of Minnie and JF Huckel. Minnie shares a copy of the San Diego Union newspaper with Ford and JF.)

MINNIE
Listen to this. Front page, San Diego Union. He’s written about the model for our Painted Desert Exhibit at the Panama-California Exposition. (Reads.) “The little model is an artistic triumph in itself.”

JF and FORD
Nicely put.

MINNIE
(Reading on.) “It was made by Miss Mary E.J. Colter of Kansas City, who does a great deal of artwork and decoration for the Fred Harvey system, from an outline and preliminary plan by Herman Schweizer.”

FORD
That must make you happy.

MINNIE
It does not make me happy.

JF
Why? You keep saying you want to see Mary’s name in print.

MINNIE
With proper respect!

JF
And so--?

MINNIE
“…who does a great deal of art work and decoration?!” Her title is Chief Architect and Designer. “Does a great deal of art work?” “Decoration”?

JF
I don’t know why you get yourself so worked up over a little bit of phraseology, Minnie.

MINNIE
Talk to him, Ford.

FORD
Minnie’s point is that Mary’s talents are not being properly described.

MINNIE
Nor are her accomplishments. She doesn’t just do a great deal of artwork. She designed Hopi House. She designed the Lookout and Hermit’s Rest. She restructured and designed the entire interior of the Indian Department.

JF
And it says, “…does a great deal of decoration.” She decorated The Alvarado.

MINNIE
John! Nothing’s changed since those brochures back when El Tovar opened. Her name wasn’t listed as architect along with Whittlesey’s name. And now, how many years later? Nine? She’s still listed as— I mean it sounds like she—

FORD
I would think you’d like seeing Mary’s name in print.

MINNIE
Oh, you are so obdurate! I’m trying to explain that—

JF
(With a glance at FORD.) There’s no end to this, is there? Next thing, women will be wanting to vote!

MINNIE
John! They got the vote in Arizona the same year it got statehood!

FORD
He knows that, Minnie. He just likes to get you riled up.

JF
No, I don’t. Well, maybe. (Laughs.) But it’s just word choice, Minnie. And you know I support her.

MINNIE
In the end. Humph.

FORD
I doubt it would bother Mary Jane at all. She’s just happy to be doing work she loves.

MINNIE
You just go ahead and tell yourself that, Ford. She does love her work, but I think she’s also proud to be paving the way for other women, younger women, so that they can do the kinds of things they want—even if they don’t have the temerity that she has.

JF
You mean the stubbornness!

MINNIE
(Fiercely.) I mean the balls! (Lights down on the parlor, up on OLD MARY.)

OLD MARY
You see what I mean? It wasn’t ladylike to speak that way back in the teens. I’m afraid I was a bad influence on Minnie with regard to language. Mine was always considered a bit salty, for a woman; but then we were doing groundbreaking things back then. The same year that we did the Exposition, we opened both Hermit’s Rest and the Lookout. I was working on a design for Indian Gardens, to be built halfway down the Canyon. We never did build that lodge. We put one at the bottom instead. Phantom Ranch opened in 1922. Those were the glory days for the railway. We didn’t realize that the Great Depression was only a few years away, and then the automobile. Travel and tourism were changing. And in the meantime, Ford passed away.

From Act II, Scene 4 
(1931. Outside the Watchtower, which is under construction. It is to be assumed that several masons are at work on the Watchtower.)

ALBERT’S OFFSTAGE VOICE
(Calling.) She’s not in Winslow?

OFFSTAGE VOICE OF MCCAFFERTY
Been here since early this morning.

ALBERT
Criminey! She’s 62 years old! (Appearing from one side of the building with a roll of architectural drawings under his arm.) Didn’t that car accident slow her down at all?!

(ALBERT appears disturbed as he stares for some time at the wall above him. Eventually, MARY, exasperated, wheels herself around from the other side of the tower. She is in a wheelchair after being in a car accident.)

MARY
You’re going to have to do something about these boys, Albert.

ALBERT
Miss Colter, McCafferty tells me—

MARY
Hire new ones, most likely. They’re complaining about the scaffolding!

ALBERT
What’s wrong with it?

MARY
They “find it intimidating.”

ALBERT
Intimidating?

MARY
You’ve hired a bunch of chickens—well spoken, but skittish.

ALBERT
Well, they are straddling the very edge of the canyon.

MARY
(Calling to the unseen WORKERS on the other side of the tower.) Do you boys think Native builders had scaffolding?

ALBERT
They must have had some kind of support.
                                                                       
MARY
They certainly did not. The Indians straddle the top of the wall, building it up row upon row as they go. I’m sure their ancestors did the same. (Calling to the unseen WORKERS.) And their walls were much thinner than this one—try 18 inches at the bottom and 12 inches at the top!

ALBERT
Hang on, fellas. Take your time. We’ll try to get you some more support tomorrow. 

MARY
(Calling to the unseen workers.) Fraidy cats!

ALBERT
Miss Colter, McCafferty tells me—

MARY
Where is McCafferty? (Calling.) Is it tea time?

ALBERT
Maybe it’s altitude sickness or something.

MARY
What?

ALBERT
I pulled him off the job. He told me you said to fill in that doorway. (ALBERT gestures to a point on the tower’s second story.)

MARY
And?

ALBERT
We took great pains to build that doorway just the way you wanted it.

MARY
I appreciate that. (Then, calling out to unseen workers.) Boys! I don’t want that rock there. I want that one there. That one goes over there!

ALBERT
Well, that’s why I had him stop.

MARY
I have to supervise the placement of every rock.

ALBERT
He’s getting light-headed or something.

MARY
Who?

ALBERT
McCafferty. He was going to fill in that doorway!

MARY
Of course! I told him to.

ALBERT
To do what? Fill in the doorway?

MARY
Yes.

ALBERT
But it’s a doorway.

MARY
Well, yes.

ALBERT
If you fill it in, you can’t go through it.

MARY
I don’t want anyone to go through it.

ALBERT
You know, Miss Colter, I’ve been in charge of scores of buildings, and—

MARY
Make your point, Albert!

ALBERT
In my experience, doorways are things people go through!

MARY
Well, I don’t want them going through this one.

ALBERT                                                       
Then why did you have us build it?

MARY
So people could go through it—and they were going to go through it until they heard a warring party was on its way.

ALBERT
And—?

MARY
Isn’t it obvious?

ALBERT
Isn’t what obvious?

MARY
They had to block all the entrances of course! (Then, looking around.) I had the boys block the stairs to the kiva’s roof too.

ALBERT
We just built those stairs! (ALBERT stares at the top of the stairs in disbelief.)

MARY
Would you want the warring party to succeed?

ALBERT
(Opening the drawings and examining them.) Miss Colter, the plans you gave me clearly show an open doorway.

MARY
If I had given you a drawing with the doorway filled in, you wouldn’t have gone to “great pains” to build it the way I wanted it.

(Silence.)

ALBERT
Perhaps you can tell me what else we’re going to fill in later. I presume we’re putting a roof on the kiva.

MARY
Why would you say that?

ALBERT
Because otherwise the warring party can step over the three-foot high barricade at the top of your stairs!

MARY
Gracious sakes, Albert. I wouldn’t worry about that.

ALBERT
And why not?

MARY
The warring party was called off!

(continued…)

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