Hey, Lily! Hey, 9! We’re going to be involved in a mystery this weekend!

Will it be dark and scary?

Perhaps for some, but not for us.

It sounds like an appropriate run-up to Halloween.

More than you know, Lily, because we are also taking up the invitation to attend in costume.

We’re going to Wine, Dine and Death, an annual fundraising event featuring dinner, live and silent auctions, and a murder mystery benefiting Little Theater of Walla Walla (see https://www.ltww.org/)

This year’s event has a literary theme. The murder mystery cast includes Jane Austin, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ernest Hemingway.

 

Authors as murderers?

 

I’ve heard rumors that three of them are on the suspect list. Also, that the audience will vote on whodunit. This puts the actors on the hook for three different endings.

Intriguing.

And we’re going to wear a costume?

 

Yes, and I’ve been planning it for weeks! The challenge is to come as either a famous author or a fictional character created by a famous author. I’ll be riffing on a character I put together many years ago. But this time, I have exactly the right hat.

 

Like the Cat in the Hat?

 

No, but the era is close. Dr. Seuss’s creation hit the shelves in 1957. The book I’m working from (technically a novella) was first published in 1958. It was made into a movie in 1961.

 

Three clues so far: “exactly the right hat” and a book published in 1958 that was made into a movie in 1961.

 

Very good, Lily.

Would Mom let me watch the movie?

Probably not, 9.

How about me?

 

Possibly. More likely if it was listed in TV Guide and Mom and Dad were out for the evening you and Ann would watch it but not tell them.

 

It must have kissing and stuff.

 

A bit. But it really has more to do with what people who rate movies refer to as “adult themes”. This movie is rated NR (not rated) as they didn’t give movies letter ratings as we know them (G, PG, R, etc.) until 1968.

Being an actor, I of course had to dig beyond the surface and look into the details. Two copies of the novella are in the local library collection, but both are checked out, which in itself is a mystery. Are there two others in the Walla Walla community digging into the source material to enhance their portrayals of the character?

My research pivoted to Wikipedia regarding the book, and a YouTube character-specific makeup tutorial. This particular character has what cosmetics enthusiasts consider an iconic look. Even with exactly the right hat I’d water down my illusion with the wrong colors, lines and angles.

 

 

You’re using eyebrow pencil? I would never.

 

You are a woman of your time, Lily, eyebrows plucked as thin as they will go. How this got to be part of the “natural look” I have no idea.

 

I want to see the hat!

 

I guess that’s only fair, 9. And speaking of guessing, I’ll bet a few of our readers will instantly figure out our character when they see this:

 

 

Neat hat but I’m stumped. What do our readers get if they guess right?

 

Drum roll, please: The satisfaction of getting it right!

And I hope they also get it right by supporting the arts in their communities. . .