Check out the new episode of the UVA Today Radio Show, a weekly five minute segment on WTJU radio. Look for new editions of the show every Wednesday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU. Afterward, all of the segments will be posted oniTunesU.
Read more about the stories featured in this week’s program:
In 2008, the U.Va. Library Special Collections acquired the diary of Harrison B. Jones, a sergeant in the 33rd Virginia Infantry in the Civil War.
Each day, the library posts an entry from the corresponding day of Jones’ diary in 1861. In many, you can read the tedium of a soldier’s day-to-day life:
the day was cloudy
nothing of importance
occurred to day. there was
Some firing of cannon
in the direction of Alex.
It was my pleasure last night to attend the opening of “Moonlight and Magnolias,” Heritage Theatre Festival offering presented in U.Va.’s Culbreth Theater.
A quick summary: The play revolves around the real-life story of how Hollywood producer David O. Selznick halted production of “Gone With the Wind” — at a cost of $50,000 per day — to rewrite the script and change directors. He called in Victor Fleming to direct and Ben Hecht to rewrite the script, locking them in his office for five very long days of frantic work. As it turns out, Hecht hadn’t read the script, so Selznick and Fleming had to act out scenes. “Moonlight and Magnolias” is playwright Ron Hutchinson’s imagining of what went on behind those locked doors.
Which all got me to thinking: I was sure that I had come across something about “Gone With the Wind”-related memorabilia at the University. So I did some searching and inquiring.
The UVA Today staff is off for the weekend, but the folks at the Special Collections Library will be showing off their Declaration of Independence exhibit all weekend. A cool new feature: there’s a tabletop computer monitor that allows you to manipulate the document, zooming in on passages and signatures — really hands-on stuff. It’s worth a trip.
I got a sneak peek today and I think it will be very cool. About 120 items, including a 19th century Daguerrotype of one of U.Va.’s more famous former students. You’ll see manuscripts and personal effects, including his writing desk. One of my favorite items was a valentine he wrote to a sweetheart. “From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe” continues through Aug. 1 at the Harrison Institute.
The University has just acquired — too late to include in the exhibit — an original Poe letter in which he apologizes to a publisher for his drunken behavior and pleads for them to publish his article because he’s “pushed for money.” (That resonates in these times, doesn’t it?) It’s a glimpse at two of the demons that plagued him his whole life: debt and drink.
I got a sneak peek today and I think it will be very cool. About 120 items, including a 19th century Daguerrotype of one of U.Va.’s more famous former students. You’ll see manuscripts and personal effects, including his writing desk. One of my favorite items was a valentine he wrote to a sweetheart. “From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe” continues through Aug. 1 at the Harrison Institute.