Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
don't miss ' The Kettles' Million Dollar Egg ' by Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel, please.
I'm reading the new updated version and enjoy it so much.
I share a review by Olivier Thill.
The Kettles' Million Dollar Egg
Author:Wolfgang Hampel
Publisher: Betty MacDonald fan clubRating: ****
The Kettle's Million Dollar Egg is an historical account of a trial.
Betty MacDonald is the author of The Egg and I, which turned out to be a best-seller. It was adapted to the screen. A movie was made, and proved to be very successful too. Afterwards " Ma and Pa Kettle" appeared in a very successful series after the name of a couple of farmers who are not very flatteringly described by Betty MacDonald. Undoubtedly it is their dirtyness and dumbness that make the spectators laugh. The series was a big success. The problem is that a family sues Betty MacDonald for having been exposed to ridicule in her book. The Bishop family believes she had been depicted by Betty MacDonald as the Kettle family.
The plaintiffs are the first to talk. On some issues, witnesses are asked to confirm or infirm what has been said.
A few days later, Betty MacDonald can talk. She is asked to tell in what circunstances she wrote the book.
Comments Being the defendant is not pleasant. Being in the witness stand is not always very easy:
She said a finer man never lived than Al Bishop and described his wife as a wonderful woman. Cautioned by Judge Wilkins just to answer questions and not to volunteer information, Mrs. Madeline Bishop, a sprightly and alert woman, turned to the judge with a broad smile: "Am I talking too much, judge?" she asked. "We all do that sometime," the judge remarked smiling. "But I can't tell you unless I explain," she answered pertly. According to her Albert Bishop had tremendous working habits, not at all like Paw Kettle in the book. He had red hair "like that juror's", pointing to a young juror with red hair. Albert Bishop worked "like a dog, night and day." Her sister wasn' t profane as was Maw Kettle. "It was not a habit of hers. She was not a profane woman. She might say 'Doggone you' to a kid or something like that." Several pictures of the Albert Bishop family which defense attorney Crandell sought to have introduced through Mrs. Bishops identification were ruled out of evidence as having no bearing on the case since they were taken a number of years before the time allegedly covered in THE EGG AND I. As the last of the pictures was ruled out, Mrs. Bishop drew a photograph in a small round frame from her purse. "Here's one of my sister when she was a young woman," she remarked , " but I suppose that one has no bearing either." Then she put the picture before Judge Wilkins, commenting as she did so: "She's sweet, isn't she?"The situation is absurd. When people are attacking others or defending themselves, they feel the need to say and do stupid things, as if it were the most stupid person who would be the winner in the end. The judge knows that natural inclination, he encourages the others to talk nonsense, and then, he rules out whatever he likes. Even if the Bishops are mostly interested in getting financial subsidies rather than in restoring their dignity and honour, they are nevertheless victims in some ways, because Betty's book changed their life. They had to deal with tourists, who wished to see the ranch where Betty lived. They had to recreate it, to reinvent a myth, to charge one dollar per visit, to declare they were the Kettles or to deny that according to circunstances.
The story is about a rebellion against mighty forces which are thwarting long-established plans and desires. The Olympian Gods want to make surprises, but the poor mortals don't like them.
We got very important info regarding the original 'The Egg and I' and the way Betty MacDonald described her first husband Robert Eugene Heskett and their neighbours.
Greetings,
Ulla
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