One of the best things about this play is watching veteran actor--but new to Huntsville--David Minnich transformed into the crotchety Thomas Edison. I haven't seen a biography on Edison or studied his life, but Minnich had me convinced after a few minutes into the play that he was the "real" thing. No offence to the other two actors, who do a great job--but Minnich really sold me on his portrayal of the eccentric inventor.
This play is not only entertaining, but it's also an eye-opener. How interesting to see three historical figures we all have heard of in a setting like this. I knew little about President Harding going into this play, but he seems to have a lot in common with some of our present day Presidents. Who knew?! Here's a brief summary of the play: "Harding wanted to be with his mistress. Ford wanted to be President. And Edison wondered how the three of them ever got stuck in the woods together." Throw in the local twist of Muscle Shoals, Alabama and the playreading committee of Theatre Huntsville couldn't resist offering this play to you.
Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, for several years during the 1910's and in 1920, had taken annual camping trips together in the hills of western Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania. Usually they went alone … "alone" meaning only Ford and Edison … and their respective troupes of relatives, close personal friends, chauffeurs, maids, cooks, and other camp workers ... your "normal" 20-30-person camping trip. However, in 1921, for reasons known only to him, Henry Ford invited President Warren G. Harding to join he and Edison on their annual sojourn into the backwoods.
That President Harding did go camping with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison is a fact … but there are no detailed records of what happened on that trip. However, based on historical events, documented personal philosophies and the political climate of the time, author Mark St. Germain devised a scenario where Ford, Edison and Harding "slip away" from the main encampment, get lost, have a wreck, wait to be rescued, and spend the intervening time engaged in some witty and sometimes very poignant dialogue and antics … thus the play "Camping with Henry and Tom."
Though many remarks and pieces of dialogue in the play are adapted from the actual words of these three men, there is no proof that such a dialogue ever really took place. What is undisputable—and probably prompted St. Germain to create the play in the first place—is that Warren G. Harding was a man who never wanted to be President, that Henry Ford is a man who did, and that after many annual expeditions, this was Thomas Edison's last camping trip with Henry Ford.
Probably totally unrelated to anything that happened on that trip, President Harding, two years later, was visiting Alaska when he received a coded message from Washington for him to return to the White House. When he reached San Francisco, he became gravely ill, and died there on August 2, 1923.
Of particular LOCAL historical note is the fact that Henry Ford is known to have wanted to purchase the Muscle Shoals hydroelectric dam/facility (now Wilson Dam) from the then-flailing Tennessee Valley Authority. Of course, being a property of the Federal Government, Congressional approval of such a sale was required. Ford could see great private sector economic possibilities for the area … turning it, essentially, into a "Detroit of the South." In anticipation of this "inevitable eventual sale," some Quad Cities planners drafted new municipal plans—with new streets drawn in (some even named after members of the Ford family). Initial ground was broken and concrete was poured … all for naught. Ford low-balled the Government, wanting to pay only pennies on the dollar relative to what is was worth, AND wanting the Government to invest millions in repairs of and upgrades to the neglected facilities, before they turned it over to him. Congress disapproved the sale.
Theatre Huntsville's "Camping with Henry and Tom" runs at the Von Braun Center Playhouse thru July 24. Tickets, $14 for adults and $12 for students and seniors—group rates for 10 or more are also available—and are on-sale now by calling Theatre Huntsville at 536-0807.
"Camping with Tom & Henry" Actors' Bios
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