Memories of the Victoria Wyndham and Charles Keating in Tupelo

Cumulus Broadcasting wanted to host a Women’s Expo and needed a celebrity to draw in the crowd. I caught a conversation between my internship overseer, Paul, and his co-worker, Melonie. I mention Vicky and Charles and the show, and Melonie loved the idea. I called Felice to see if both were available July 31st. That was a Wednesday. Felice called me at work on Friday saying, "Mary, Vicky can do it. Now we’re waiting on Charles. We should know if it’s a go by Monday." I didn’t know until Monday that Felice had tried to call me on Saturday. She called on Monday though, at 7:30am, to let me know that Charles was free too. That was the one time I didn’t mind being driven from sleep at such an ungodly hour.

THE DAY THEY ARRIVED Carolyn said I "bounced" out of the Expo after I "ripped" my poetry book out of her hands. I don’t agree with any of that, but will admit that I walked extremely fast. ? In my car, I instinctively switch the radio to Wizard. It was Victoria’s voice talking on my radio! "Okay, so she is there. Okay, pay attention to the road, and listen to Vicky and Charles. Remember everything!" How did I feel? Like the way you feel when you realize that Christmas is an annual thing and all those presents really are your’s to tear into. That was the longest ten minute drive. Vicky said something about loving the stand the clock was on. "For the non-viewing audience, the clock’s stand is a roll of toilet paper." Laughter, then discussions about toilet paper and "at least you know where some is just in case." Then talk of Charles and his knew movie, The Thomas Crown Affair.

He says, "I have a (can’t remember the exact word, but the point is he was trying to say that he had a small part in the movie)." Then Vicky says, "You have a what? What did you say?" Charles repeated the word, "Well, what does that mean," then hear Vicky say.

"I have a small part in the movie," Charles replies.

"Well, why didn’t you just say that?" Then she laughs cause she’s teasing him. I can see them in my mind as I’m driving. I think that she’s happy and that’s good. I remember her talking about a documentary she’s working on about the influence of African American women in music and something about a sceenplay. Then I pull into the station. There’s the white stretched limousine. "They have to be here."

I calmly (well as calm as I could) walked in, book in hand. Hillary says, "I thought that was you I saw running in the door." Such a kidder, that girl. Joyce gave me a quick hug…okay I was nervous and asked her to. God loves me, no kidding, because between Joyce’s office and the Wizard control room door ( a distance of maybe five feet) I went from that Christmas feeling to the day after went nothing can quite measure up. Although the door was open, I stood behind it and peeked in through the crack just to really believe it was actually her. Superstition again, sorry Felice. I saw her black ponytailed hair, and thought, "It’s real this time." They were finishing up the interview with Matt. I slowly went around to stand in the doorway. I wanted to be what they saw when they came out. Charles was first. "Okay, here goes," I thought. Deep breath.

"Hi guys," that sounded normal I think, "I’m Mary."

"Hi, I’m Charles." I see his face, then his hand. Shake his hand. He motions toward her, she’s still gathering her things and not paying attention. "That’s Victoria." Yeah, I know…Then she turns and it’s Victoria looking at me, two feet away not a world.

"Hi, I’m Mary," I shake her hand, expecting the reaction I got from Charles. Nope, not that from Victoria. I remember her voice and her hugging me. "Hi, honey, how are you?" I think I smiled, and perhaps got out fine.

I was moving pretty slow. "Darling, this is Mary. She’s the one…" Charles interrupted, "I know who she is." I’m just standing there, amazed that I’m standing there.

Then somebody talking to Vicky about something. (Sorry if this sounds like a recollection of a dream, but it kinda is). The limo commercial, I think. I remember Charles going to the production room. Vicky started that way. "She’s so tall," I was thinking. I moved to the production room, hesitated, then went in. Tom was in there with them. Charles was standing in one corner with script in hand, Victoria reading out loud over his shoulder and Tom was setting up the recorder. I was quietly standing in the doorway, speechless (for once). I watched them work. Charles didn’t make one ink mark on the page, but somehow he changed up the whole thing. Tom said something about it later, about how he was impressed by how fast they went through the script. He directed, and Victoria caught up with his ideas very quickly.

"Fire it up, man," Charles said to Tom. She read, leaning across Charles, then him. Then it was done.

"Well, that was a bedroom scene for you," she laughed.

"I think you have you seductive voice down," I piped up from the back.

Charles was all into how it sounded. He and Tom were talking.

"One more take," Charles said to Tom, then to Victoria, "To nasal, we’ll do it again." So once more. Then on to the next thing.

"How’s your internship going," I heard her ask me.

"Really good," I think I said, "I can show you where I work." I pointed in the direction of the WTUP control room.

"Cool," I think she said. Then I remembered my book of poetry. "Oh, I wanted to show you this while I had time." Handing Victoria the book.

"Well, this is van Gogh."

"Yes, and the book is the poetry from the show. I tried to put it in order," I get out, "I thought I could show it to someone later on, you know, when they say soaps aren’t educational."

"Oh, look at this," Vicky’s saying as she flips through my book. I get her back to the front of it to show the opening is the same as Couplets. "I put it there because I like and well everyone else that’s heard it does too."

"Wow, you’ve got everything here, don’t you." She’s looking at the Yeats and cummings’ poems. I see remembrance in her face. I show her the pictures of my grandmother and father. She tells me to remind her of them if they come tomorrow. Then I ask about the two poems I don’t have an author for. "You know why you don’t have these, Mary, because they’re pre-history. That’s why."

Somewhere in the middle of this she gets Charles’ attention," Look, darling, look what’s she’s done. She has all the poetry we’ve done from the show."

"We kept you busy, didn’t we," Charles looks at me, grinning.

DAY OF GIG Charles got on the stage, mic in hand, and started to speak to the audience. He tried the theatrical technique were you don’t use a mic. Vicky had problems getting her mic on. "Oh, Victoria, those fingernails," Charles said grabbing her mic to turn it on. She was just laughing. They used the stage for all of five minutes. Charles jumps down into the audience and Vicky follows. Vicky did her "Welcome," then Charles went into "Lovers and Madmen." The bits were mixed in with talk and questions from the audience. They spoke of Michael Logan. Charles started in on Rachel when she was pregnant with the twins, calling her 200 hundred years old. Vicky said that Logan said Charles was like a ham sandwich, "to which you replied, darling…"

"Well, I guess he wants to eat me," Charles finished, "What it was the politest way I could put it." The audience got a laugh out of that. Vicky did a Millay sonnet, then they "May I feel," "I found a flower," and Vicky went into "Men." Charles looked at her for a second once she finished and said, "Women…..No, I won’t go into that one. It’s too sarcastic."

I got a bottle of water on the stage sometime, which led to a semi-joke later on. Not involving me, but Charles. He was going on about something with TPTB while Victoria took a seat on the stage and a drink of water. He then turned and said something like, "isn’t that right?"

"What, what are you asking, darling? I’m sorry, I lost your thread. I was drinking my water."

He repeated and she finishes, "Oh, I don’t know. That’s you’re thing, I’m not getting into that."

So they wrapped things up and went over to start the autographs. The line was so long, and it was getting hot, but Vicky wouldn’t let us break it off. They signed for at least an hour and had performed for half an hour before that. Finally near 12:20 I said, "Vicky, the line’s getting longer." She laughed and agreed to let me break it off so they could take a break at 12:30. Back down to the Expo Vicky was walking fast. I told her now I know what my 7th grade teacher was preparing me for…her walking fast. She laughed and said in New York you walk fast and look like you have somewhere important to be so people won’t bother you. I told her to just put on the Justine face and they’d leave her alone. She thought a minute then laughed, saying yeah that would work.

Autographs went well. Charles and Vicky quickly put me in charge of taking pictures, so every few minutes or so I’d hear, "Mary, picture," from one or the other. Near the end Charles says, "Mary, bring that book of your’s over here and let’s sign it. We can’t forget that." And they both signed my book of poetry; Vicky did while she was talking to me about something and didn’t even realize she had signed it. Then they started to prepare to leave.

They posed for pictures at one or two booths and Charles made sure the florist had two pictures taken with them at her booth. Then out to the limo. I walked with Vicky to the limo door, with the intention to hand her bag to her once she got in. Somehow I got in the limo with her. I think because she motioned for me to. Next thing I know, Vicky has her hands on my shoulders and says,

"I love you. You did a great job, and we had a great time." Then she hugs me. I was speechless for a minute.

Then finally got out that I would keep in touch, I’d write. "Yes, you write, you do that." I mention maybe coming to Dallas, and she told me that would be great. I get out and side-step to not hit Charles.

When I turn around, there’s Charles hugging me and saying, "You did a great job, babe. We had a good time," and gives me a kiss on the cheek. I didn’t have much to reply to that, too much in awe. So they got in a said maybe next year again. And drove off . So, that was my gig. I’m glad I got pictures, because I don’t think I would believe that it had happened if I didn’t. But I have to tell you, Victoria and Charles are genuine, what you see is what you get. So, if you want to admire anyone, these are the two to admire.

Mary, Charles and Victoria. They all look wonderful

Victoria and Charles doing their Thing!

The Master and Mistress of AW

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