MacDowell Downtown

November 2009

For the finale of the 2009 MacDowell Downtown season, The MacDowell Colony will uphold what has become an annual tradition by offering a free screening of Lady in the Wings, a 1954 Hallmark Hall of Fame film about the evolution and founding of the Colony, on November 6th.

Produced in the early days of live television, Lady in the Wings spans a lot of history in one hour. It begins with the serendipitous meeting of Marian Nevins, a piano student, and Edward MacDowell, a starving composer living in Europe who must take on a pupil to earn money. The film goes on to detail Edwards’s music career, explain how the then-radical idea of an artist colony developed in the minds of the couple, and cover why Peterborough was chosen as its site. It also demonstrates why the idea of Marian being a “lady in the wings” to her husband’s and other artists’ creativity might not be entirely accurate. In the film (as in real life), it is Marian’s tireless efforts and irrepressible spirit that attracts artists, raises money, and spreads word of the work of the Colony across the country despite wars, depressions, and one great hurricane in 1938.

Rosemary DeCamp, better known for her roles as James Cagney’s mother in Yankee Doodle Dandy and Marlo Thomas’s mother in the television show That Girl, plays Marian with campy delight. Peter Hanson, who could be Edward’s twin brother, takes on the role of the great American composer. It is interesting to note that Colony Fellow Helene Hanff, author of the book 84 Charing Cross Road (which was turned into a film with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins), wrote the screenplay for Lady in the Wings. And Marian MacDowell, herself, makes a rare cameo appearance at the age of 96, thanking all of those who helped to make her and her husband’s dream possible.

Anyone interested in the history and mission of Peterborough’s own — and the nation’s leading — artist residency program is invited to join MacDowell on this entertaining and informative trip back in time to learn about the woman who many would say is still the soul of the place just up the hill from downtown Peterborough.

MacDowell Downtown will take place on Friday, November 6th, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. at the Peterborough Historical Society in downtown Peterborough. The series, which occurs the first Friday of every month from March to November, is free and open to the public; refreshments are served.