"The Last Of My Solid Gold Watches" (Tennessee Williams)

Burl Ives as Charlie Colton.

By Tennessee Williams, a condensed version of his one-act play (written 1946, first published 1947), from the currently in-print collection "27 Wagons Full of Cotton: And Other One-act Plays" (1966).

Williams sez in the voiceover here that this character, Charlie Colton "the last of the Delta drummers", was a precursor of Big Daddy.

Classic early Tennesse Williams piece of narrative, memories, and dreams.

Williams himself edited a shortened version of this play for TV broadcast in the late '50s. I suspect this version (from late 60s?) follows that one very closely, but I don't really know. Any Williams scholars out there have the facts?

Burl Ives, though mostly known for his singing of folk and popular songs, was a fine actor too. He created the role of Big Daddy in the 1950's on Broadway, and reprised the role for the film version of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958). That same year he won an Academy Award for impersonating the bad guy in "The Big Country".

The black porter has very few lines, but suprisingly these bits (along with the stage directions) create a rather full character.

MR. CHARLIE. This room was like a throne-room. My samples laid out over there on green velvet cloth! The ceiling-fan going -- now broken! And over here -- the wash-bowl an' pitcher removed and the table-top loaded with liquor! In and out from the time I arrived till the time I left, the men of the road who knew me, to whom I stood for things commanding respect! Poker -- continuous! Shouting, laughing -- hilarity! Where have they all gone to?

NEGRO. [solemnly nodding] The graveyard is crowded with folks we knew, Mistuh Charlie. It's mighty late in the day!


In the full version of the play, there is another whole character--a much younger travelling salesman named Harper:

HARPER. [restively squirming and glancing at his watch] How long you been on th' road?

MR. CHARLIE. Fawty-six yeahs in Mahch!

HARPER. I don't believe yuh.

MR. CHARLIE. Why would I tell you a lie about something like that? No, suh, I want you t'know -- I want you t'know -- Hmmm ... I lost a mighty good customer this week.

HARPER. [with total disinterest, adjusting the crotch of his trousers] How's that, Charlie?

MR. CHARLIE. [grimly] Ole Ben Summers -- Friar's Point, Mississippi ... Fell over dead like a bolt of lightning had struck him just as he went to pour himself a drink at the Cotton Planters' Cotillion!

HARPER. Ain't that terrible, though! What was the trouble?

MR. CHARLIE. Mortality, that was the trouble! Some people think that millions now living are never going to die. I don't think that -- I think it's a misapprehension not borne out by the facts! We go like flies when we come to the end of the summer ... And who is going to prevent it? [He becomes depressed] Who -- is going -- to prevent it! [He nods gravely] The road is changed. The shoe industry is changed. These times are -- revolultion! [He rises and moves to the window] I don't like the way that it looks. You can take it from me -- the world that I used to know -- the world that this boy's father used t'know -- the world we belonged to, us old time war-horses! -- is slipping and sliding away from under our shoes. Who is going to prevent it? The ALL LEATHER slogan don't sell shoes any more. The stuff that a shoe's made of is not what's going to sell it any more! No! STYLE! SMARTNESS! APPEARANCE! That's what counts with the modern shoe-purchaser, Bob! But try an' tell your style department that. Why, I remember the time when all I had to do was lay out my samples down there in the lobby. Open up my order-book an' write out orders until my fingers ached! A sales-talk was not necessary. A store was a place where people sold merchandise and to sell merchandise the retail-dealer had to obtain it from the wholesale manufacturer, Bob! Where they get merchandise now I do not pretend to know. But it don't look like they buy it from wholesale dealers! Out of the air -- I guess it materializes! Or maybe stores don't sell stuff any more! Maybe I'm living in a world of illusion! I recognize that possibility, too!


This video selection is ripped from a DVD (of a CBC documentary) "Tennessee Williams' South", first shown on TV in 1973.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Tennessee-Williams
• My-Solid-Gold-Watches
• Burl-Ives
• play
• theatre
• one-act-play
• Southern-US
• Cornelius-Williams
• travelling-salesmen
• performing
• arts

[htuomnom]

Burl Ives truly one of the masters,he did it all

[LostLadyElgin]

This is great to see Tennessee Williams

[chrisoulicius]

it's quite a different version of the one written by williams isn't it? i mean he definately doesn't look like a 78 year old man... the man who's talking with him in the beginning is supposed to be black.. he's not drinking because of a health problem and where's bob?? other than these he is a great actor.... and thanks for uploading this video... i needed it for a lesson, great help!!!!^^

[gardenvarietypenis]

you got that righ

[thesecretgarden390]

we did this play at our community theater