A surprise contact brings to mind the amazing Victoria Woodhull

I heard today from Phyllis Kerns, a writer friend in Eugene whom I've known since she took a playwriting workshop of mine at Fishtrap some twenty years ago. She was "old" then; she must be in her 80s by now unless she was very prematurely gray back then. She amazed me because she'd been writing plays and screenplays for something like forty years and had never had a play produced. I'm happy to say that I was instrumental in getting a one-act of hers done in Portland, a wonderful comedy called "Cowboy of the Western World."


It was Phyllis who was working on a screenplay about the amazing Victoria Woodhull, the 19th century woman who ran for President, became (with her sister) the first female stock broker on Wall Street, a woman who addressed Congress, editor of the weekly paper that broke the sex scandal of the era (Rev. Beecher and a parishioner), mystical confidante and consultant to Vanderbilt, a story so amazing that it's even more amazing her story hasn't been told yet in a film. (The late journal Scenario published an unproduced screenplay that had been in development with Faye Dunaway in the lead, which is perfect casting.) She believed in Free Love and once in a speech said she had a right to have an orgasm with anyone she pleased. Pretty heavy stuff for the 1870s!

Here is her campaign song:

Victory for Victoria
The 1872 Campaign Song

If you nominate a woman
In the month of May,
Dare you face what Mrs. Grundy
And her set will say?
How they'll jeer and frown and slander
Chattering night and day;
Oh, did you dream of Mrs. Grundy
In the month of May?

If you nominate a negro,
In the month of May
Dare you face what Mr. Grundy
And his chums will say?
How they’ll swear and drink and bluster,
Raging night and day;
Oh, did you dream of Mr. Grundy
In the month of May?

Yes! Victoria we've selected
For our chosen head.
With Fred Douglass on the ticket
We will raise the dead.
Then around them let us rally
Without fear or dread
And next March, we'll put the Grundys
In their little bed.

A woman who believes in Free Love and a black man as her VP in 1872! Here is more info on this remarkable woman: Who is Victoria Woodhull? website.

Phyllis is an amazing lady in her own right. On the phone she sounded like she had all her wits about her. In fact, she wanted me to know that her son had just made a movie of a very old script of hers! She's sending me a DVD.

Phyllis has been writing a hell of a lot longer than I have, and sometimes it feels like I've been writing forever. She's an incredible woman.