Post 3 - When First We Practice to Deceive: Denver Center debuts GREAT WALL STORY
Reprinted from Prologue, the Denver Center Theatre Company’s subscriber newsletter
GREAT WALL STORY is a clever playwright’s riff on a daring—some might say foolhardy—event that transpired in Denver on the cusp of the 20th century. Four journalists looking for a story and finding none, conspired over drinks at The Oxford Hotel to concoct a tall tale sure to draw attention. China, they declared had decided to tear down part of its Great Wall with the help of American entrepeneurs. It drew attention all right—and a few unintended consequences.
That real incident lies at the heart of Lloyd Suh’s new play, GREAT WALL STORY, which was read at the 2011 Colorado New Play Summit. The rest of this world premiere is a playwright’s comic fantasy, with plenty of inventive twists and turns.
Below is one excerpt from the actual phony stories printed in The Colorado Republican.
BUILDS HIGHWAY OF CHINESE WALL
American Capital to Construct a Road of Stones From the Wonder. Mayor Harrison of Chicago Is One of the Men Interested in the Project. It Will Extend From Nankin to the Border of China and Siberia.
… One of the passengers arriving on the Burlington at 6:20 p.m. yesterday was a slightly built man of pleasant address, who registered at the Oxford as Frank C. Lewis, Chicago. He took dinner at the hotel, and at 10 o’clock retired in the Pullman car on the Union Pacific train which left the Union depot this morning for San Francisco.
Mr. Lewis is a civil engineer, and a member of the American Association of Scientists. He represents a syndicate of Chicago capitalists, one among whom is Mayor Harrison of that city… Mr. Lewis is en route to Pekin, where he will continue negotiations begun by him some months ago for the building of a road which will eventually become the highway between Nankin and the vast empire of Siberia…Extent of the Project.
In speaking of the matter last night, Mr. Lewis said, “I spent several years in China engaged in railroad building and my relations with the government are such that when the project of building a macadamized highway from Nankin to the northern border was first broached, I saw an opportunity… This plan was suggested first by an Englishman named Wallace, who is one of the directors in the Hong Kong railway… There is a fair chance that it will be carried out.
“Wallace will put in a bid to build a portion of the big highway and the syndicate which I represent will do likewise. If we get a portion of the contract now the Chicago men will make an effort to increase their capital stock to $5,000,000 and devote years to the work…”
Mr. Lewis will sail for China immediately upon reaching San Francisco.
GREAT WALL STORY plays Denver’s Ricketson Theatre March 16-April 22. For information or tickets, call 303.893.4100.
Post 4 - When First We Practice to Deceive: Denver Center debuts GREAT WALL STORY
Reprinted from Prologue, the Denver Center Theatre Company’s subscriber newsletter
GREAT WALL STORY is a clever playwright’s riff on a daring—some might say foolhardy—event that transpired in Denver on the cusp of the 20th century. Four journalists looking for a story and finding none, conspired over drinks at The Oxford Hotel to concoct a tall tale sure to draw attention. China, they declared had decided to tear down part of its Great Wall with the help of American entrepeneurs. It drew attention all right—and a few unintended consequences.
That real incident lies at the heart of Lloyd Suh’s new play, GREAT WALL STORY, which was read at the 2011 Colorado New Play Summit. The rest of this world premiere is a playwright’s comic fantasy, with plenty of inventive twists and turns.
Below is one excerpt from the actual phony stories printed in The Denver Post.
OLD WALL MUST GO
China’s Great Causeway to Be Razed – A Chicago Syndicate Wants the Contract
According to Frank C. Lewis, a Chicago civil engineer, who was yesterday a guest at the Oxford hotel, the Chinese government contemplates the destruction of the ancient Chinese wall that separates China proper from China Tartary, and Mr. Lewis is en route to China to assist…
“The plans of the Chinese government are not generally known concerning the great wall, I believe,” said Mr. Lewis last night, “but they appear actually to contemplate a great improvement. Through the proper diplomatic channels the matter has been broached to engineers and capitalists in America, England, France, Germany and Russia and bids are solicited. I represent certain Chicago financiers who see a good thing ahead.
… “The road is to be wide enough to accommodate a railroad and many concessions of the greatest value are held out… It will bring a vast commerce, I should think, to the port of Shanghai, the chief city on the gulf I have named, and also give a great boom to Pekin, which is only a few miles distant from the great wall…
“I understand that the enterprise is one of the Chinese government’s own conception and is independent of Russian, German or French influence… I anticipate that there will be sharp competition.”
Mr. Lewis said that he has information that a New York syndicate is the only other American concern after the project and that there are two British syndicates out, a French syndicate and three German ones…
GREAT WALL STORY plays Denver’s Ricketson Theatre March 16-April 22. For information or tickets, call 303.893.4100.
Post 2 - When First We Practice to Deceive: Denver Center debuts GREAT WALL STORY
Reprinted from Prologue, the Denver Center Theatre Company’s subscriber newsletter
GREAT WALL STORY is a clever playwright’s riff on a daring—some might say foolhardy—event that transpired in Denver on the cusp of the 20th century. Four journalists looking for a story and finding none, conspired over drinks at The Oxford Hotel to concoct a tall tale sure to draw attention. China, they declared had decided to tear down part of its Great Wall with the help of American entrepeneurs. It drew attention all right—and a few unintended consequences.
That real incident lies at the heart of Lloyd Suh’s new play, GREAT WALL STORY, which was read at the 2011 Colorado New Play Summit. The rest of this world premiere is a playwright’s comic fantasy, with plenty of inventive twists and turns.
Below is one excerpt from the actual phony stories printed in The Denver Times.
CHICAGO TO DEMOLISH THE OLD CHINESE WALL
One of the greatest undertakings ever attempted by an American syndicate in foreign lands gives promise of blossoming into fruit.
Frank C. Lewis, a well-known railroad builder of Chicago … was at the Oxford last night. Mr. Lewis is representing a syndicate of Chicago capitalists, and is on his way to Pekin (sic), China for the purpose of negotiating with the Chinese government with a view to tearing down a portion of the Chinese wall.
“I lived in China for four years,” said Mr. Lewis, “and during that time I was interested in building a great many miles of railroad. While in that country, the subject was quite frequently discussed by those in power as to the advisability of tearing down at least a portion of the historic wall, and using the ruins for the purpose of making a roadway to Nankin …
“While it is not an assured fact that we will secure the contract we are now figuring on, still I am inclined to the belief that it is a possibility. The company I represent has a capital $650,000 in cash, and I have been instructed to use every effort to secure the opportunity of doing the work.
“Of course, we know that it would bankrupt the Chinese government if they concluded to tear down the entire wall, but when you take into consideration the fact that we can hire laborers for a few cents a day, a large amount of work can be accomplished on a few millions of dollars. This subject has been broached a number of times and I have great confidence of meeting with success…
“Some of the wealthiest and best known capitalists of Chicago are interested in this enterprise and my instructions are to grab at everything in which there is a chance to make money…”
GREAT WALL STORY plays Denver’s Ricketson Theatre March 16-April 22. For information or tickets, call 303.893.4100.
When First We Practice to Deceive: Denver Center debuts GREAT WALL STORY
Reprinted from Prologue, the Denver Center Theatre Company’s subscriber newsletter
GREAT WALL STORY is a clever playwright’s riff on a daring—some might say foolhardy—event that transpired in Denver on the cusp of the 20th century. Four journalists looking for a story and finding none, conspired over drinks at The Oxford Hotel to concoct a tall tale sure to draw attention. China, they declared had decided to tear down part of its Great Wall with the help of American entrepeneurs. It drew attention all right—and a few unintended consequences.
That real incident lies at the heart of Lloyd Suh’s new play, GREAT WALL STORY, which was read at the 2011 Colorado New Play Summit. The rest of this world premiere is a playwright’s comic fantasy, with plenty of inventive twists and turns.
Below is one excerpt from the actual phony stories printed in The Chicago Daily Tribune, which appears to have been the verbatim text by the perpetrators of the Denver hoax.
PLAN TO RAZE CHINESE WALL
Frank C. Lewis Seeks Contract for Chicagoans — Mayor Harrison Said to Be Interested, but Laughs at It.
Denver, Colo., June 25 — [Special] — Frank C. Lewis of Chicago was at the Oxford Hotel last night. Mr. Lewis represents a syndicate of Chicago capitalists and is on his way to Peking, China, for the purpose of negotiating with the Chinese government with a view to tearing down a portion of the Chinese wall.
“I lived in China for four years,” said Mr. Lewis, “and during that time was interested in building a great many miles of railroad. While in that country the subject frequently was discussed by those in power as to the advisability of tearing down at least a portion of the historic wall and using the stone for the purpose of making a roadway to Nankin (sic). The idea was to pulverize the rock and use it in the roadways. While it is not an assured fact that we will secure the contract we are now figuring on, I am inclined to the belief that it is a possibility. The company I represent has a capital of $650,000 in cash, and I have been instructed to use every effort to secure an opportunity of doing the work.
“Some of the wealthiest and best known capitalists of Chicago are interested in this enterprise.”
While Mr. Lewis would not give the names of those interested in the company it is believed here that Mayor Harrison and numerous other prominent men are interested in the proposed plan. Mr. Lewis left for the West at 4 o’clock this morning.
At the residence of Frank C. Lewis, 2100 Orrington Avenue, Evanston, last night, it was stated that Mr. Lewis had left Chicago for Pittsburgh. Members of his family said they had heard of the Chinese wall project, but that Mr. Lewis was not going to China. They declined to give details.
Mayor Harrison laughed when asked if he were interested. He said he was too busy at home to bother about China’s ancient ramparts.
GREAT WALL STORY plays Denver’s Ricketson Theatre March 16-April 22. For information or tickets, call 303.893.4100.
A Tall Tale, A Great Wall and Denver: Great Wall Story is based on Denver history
by Doug Langworthy, Literary Manager for the Denver Center Theatre Company, for Applause magazine
In 1894 Denver was in the middle of a severe economic depression. The Silver Panic engulfed the city when the bottom fell out of the silver market. Unemployment was high and many banks had failed. Middle class families had to give up newly purchased homes. Angry citizens coalesced around the Populist Party, which cast the blame for the economic crisis on the fat cats—the banks, the stockbrokers and the wealthy elite. A group of unemployed men known as Coxey’s Army, having marched on Washington to demand jobs, was camping in tents along the shore of the South Platte River.
Sound familiar?
By 1899, the year that Lloyd Suh’s GREAT WALL STORY takes place, things were looking up. Denver’s coffers were shored up by huge gold deposits found at Cripple Creek, Colorado, and efforts were underway to diversify the economy into new areas. People were confident that the boom times of the 1880s were just around the corner. The turn of the century was sure to usher in a prosperous future.
But in many ways Denver had yet to shed its mining-camp origins and become fully civilized. According to local historian Tom Noel, “It was a city ugly. Mayor Speer was yet to come into office in 1904 and transform the city, so it was smoky and smelly and filled with saloons. It was politically quite corrupt.”
Newspapers were king then, the only source of information for the man on the street. The Rocky Mountain News had been the leader ever since 1859. The Denver Post favored sensational headlines. The papers played a critical role in rooting out local corruption.
Against this backdrop, the Great Wall hoax played itself out. Here are the facts: On June 24, 1899 reporters from Denver’s four major papers (Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post, Denver Times and The Republican) were hanging around Union Station on a slow news day, hoping to spot a newsworthy celebrity. Retiring to the bar at the adjacent Oxford Hotel, they hatched a scheme to plant a splashy yet fictitious story in each of their papers.
They had to concoct something that was high-profile yet difficult to trace. They landed on China, as it was halfway around the world and politically isolationist. From there the hoax seemed almost obvious: the Great Wall of China was coming down! Needing a local hook, they invented a Chicago engineer, Frank C. Lewis, who was stopping over in Denver on his way to China. Lewis’ plan was to win for his firm the job of tearing down the Wall.
The reporters dashed off to their desks to make sure the story got in the next day’s papers. Each of the reporters embellished the story slightly differently, but the basic “facts” remained the same.
Over the next few days, the story was picked up by newspapers in Chicago, New York and abroad. A few follow-up stories ran, but eventually the hoax ran out of steam and was forgotten. Years later, one of the reporters or one of the reporters’ wives let the cat out of the bag. Over time an urban legend grew that suggested the hoax had actually caused the Boxer Rebellion in China, a fact that, although disproved, has had irresistible dramatic value in Great Wall Story.
One hundred years later, enter playwright Lloyd Suh, who was captivated by the story when he came across it in a book of hoaxes: “I was immediately interested in the unexpected ramifications of something like that.” He quickly drafted the play’s first two scenes. Then, three years ago, he discovered the famous investigative journalist Nellie Bly, who would put on disguises and immerse herself in the milieu of her story. Most notably she faked insanity in order to report on an insane asylum from the inside. So he created his own Nellie Bly in the form of Harriet Sparrow, assistant to publishing giant Joseph Pulitzer, who sends her to Denver to get to the root of the Great Wall story.
“And so my way in was the character of Harriet who ultimately creates a sort of engine for the unfolding of the story,” Suh asserts. “That was great because it also brought to the fore themes that I found really interesting: truth and lie, myth, and the interesting connection between lying and wishing and mythologizing.
“I think that what’s most exciting about the notion of Denver in 1899,” he continues, “is the spirit of newness. It’s the West and it’s the verge of a new century, the feeling that things are constantly new. Denver had been growing and growing and on the other side of the century it kept growing and growing. I found that progression really exciting. What it means to push further West and what it means to push into a new century.”
Suh is thrilled to be completing his play in Denver, surrounded by the history of the city and the resources available here. “Doing the play in Denver,” he concludes, “makes the play better.”
For more information on the play or to purchase tickets, please visit www.denvercenter.org/greatwallstory
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