President's Lady
This evening, I was reading through some of the comments our wonderful RUSC friends have written about the shows they have listened to.
One of these really stood out, and was written by Betty Herrington, a long time member of RUSC, whose reviews I always admire. She is a wonderful writer and I always like to read her comments and reviews, so I emailed Betty to ask her permission to feature her comments in this article, and she has kindly agreed.
The review Betty wrote is for a LUX radio show called President's Lady, based on the novel by Irving Stone. The story begins in the year 1789 and is the tender memoir of Andrew Jackson, one of our greatest presidents, and of his deep love for his wife Rachel.
Their marriage was one plagued by one of the most vicious rumor campaigns in American political history, and the love of the life of our seventh President was destroyed because of these wicked half-truths.
Betty had researched a little about Andrew Jackson before writing the review. Here's what she wrote...
"This is a very moving and sad story of the Jackson's life.
As a Hollywood ticket seller the producers were not interested in the true facts which would have made just as good a story. Rachel did not move to a place on the edge of the wilderness with a single black female servant, far from her family.
She and the slave did not plow and harvest the crops alone and live in a small cabin alone for many years. Andrew Jackson bought a very successful working dairy farm with a substantial two story log home from a man who was selling out and retiring to the old country.
She lived there with a slave family and others numbering nine people working the place. Rachel lived in that house for the next 18 years and it was very near her large family of siblings with many children who often visited and lived there.
She did raise an orphan Indian baby and after Andrew's election his death at age 17 from an accident while working on the new Hermitage house likely caused her death from a bad heart just before Christmas and before the family would have moved into the White House the next Spring.
The details in the story about the divorce are true."
You can listen to the radio show, President's Lady by clicking here. Charlton Heston stars in the lead, reprising his role from the original 1953 20th Century Fox production.
I'd love to know your thoughts about the show after you've listened to it. You can add comments below, or you could comment on the actual show.
Happy listening my friends,
