Driving up to the old courthouse and museum in the Monroeville, Ala. town square – this was my first visit, yet in some ways a very familiar place – I saw in my mind's eye Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson in pre-trial conversation on the courthouse steps.
Boo Radley's worn-down house couldn't be more than a stone's throw from the middle of town and Sheriff Heck Tate and Calpurnia, the Finch's maid, surely were close by.
Up the old courthouse steps and then inside, I actually did cross paths with Jean Louise Finch, better known to millions down through the years as Scout.
Now in her mid 50s, Mary Badham (who played Scout) was in town along with a couple of hundred other folks for the final night's performance of the play, “To Kill A Mockingbird'' flawlessly performed each spring for the past 19 years by an excellent local cast.
With about 72 hours to spare this past weekend between the end of region playoffs and Tuesday's opening of state high school tournaments in five sports in Murfreesboro, I slipped out of the world of sports writing and into the past to meet, in my opinion, one of the great child actresses of my childhood.
Arriving as a spectator – and without any foreknowledge – I was also offered a small (but silent) part in the play.
Barbara Wilson, a retired school teacher and one of the Monroe County Heritage Museum volunteers, asked if I wanted to be part of the jury in the play.
“You'll have the best seat in the house,'' said a smiling Wilson who had taught English and Latin for 43 years.
I jumped at the chance to be front and center with Bob and Mayella Ewell and Judge Taylor in the famous courtroom trial scenes.
Maybe Wilson and Badham has seen the 1960 classic dvd of Mrs. Jean Salyer's Lookout Mountain School fifth grade class play where I played a poor newspaper boy counting his day's earnings in the opening scene.
As the old saying goes, three chances that happened – slim, none and fat. Actually, I was at the right place at the right time and 12 men were needed to fill the seats in the jury box.
But the highlight of the visit to Monroeville - home of Pulitzer Prize winning author Harper Lee for her book ''To Kill A Mockingbird'' – was attending a 90 minute afternoon session with Mary Badham as she recounted her childhood acting career as Academy Award nominee Scout opposite Gregory Peck, who won the Academy Award for his role as Atticus in the movie.
How appropriate that she was in Monroeville on Saturday to reminisce about her role as Scout (and other life experiences) on the Academy Awards' 80th anniversary (May 16, 1929).
The local cast's excellent portrayal of Lee's book, centered on Finch, the a middle aged widowed lawyer, representing Robinson, a black man, on trumped up charges of raping a local white girl (Mayella Ewell). Plus heart-warming scenes between Atticus and his children, Jem and Scout, as he attempted to instill in them the philosophy of gaining a better understanding of one another by walking around in their shoes.
Badham stressed in her enlightening, thought-provoking and entertaining symposium, that the book (written in 1960) turned award-winning film shed light on glaring problems – racial issues, women's issues, social class issues, a child's shattered innocense and prejudice among others.
“And we are still dealing with these same issues today; just look at the front pages of newspapers across the country,'' she stated.
The movie was filmed in 1962 in Los Angeles and Badham, then age 10, was, at the time the youngest actress ever to be nominated for an Academy Award. The winner that year was 16-year-old Patty Duke for her performance of Helen Keller in Miracle Worker. Another nominee was Angela Salisbury (The Manchurian Candidate).
The Birmingham, Ala. native told the humorous story how her older brother, John, a student at Yale in the early 1960s, had to hear not once, but twice that younger sister, Mary, was doing quite well in the film industry which he so much wanted to be a part.
“Not only did my mother call John to tell him I had won the part in the film opposite Gregory Peck (Bad ham called him Atticus until his death in 2003), but also a follow-up call that 'guess what, little sister has been nominated for an Academy Award,''' said Badham with a laugh.
Brother John did make it to Hollywood, as his film/television credits in directing and producing include Saturday Night Fever and Rod Serling's Night Gallary.
Ironically, Mary had a part in Serling's final episode (The Bewitchin' Pool), the final episode of the original Twilight Zone series. She also was in This Property is Condemned (1966) with Natalie Wood and Robert Redford.
Badham's life today takes her worldwide - England, Russia, Japan and beyond - as she discusses and teaches the novel and its far reaching life lessons.
“The kids I talk to get it (the story's meaning),'' said Badham, who is active in Big Read, a program which encourages citizens of various communities to all read one book and discuss.
''I have had such a extraordinary, happy life and much of that has come from being part of the film and talking about the book,'' said Badham who lives in Virginia with her husband of 35 years and has two children and one grandchild.
Her Comments on A Few Topics:
Gregory Peck: “What you saw was what you got. He was an absolute great human being. He was very intelligent and well read.''
Royalties From the Movie: She laughed and then said, 'My last royalty check a few years ago was for 89 cents. I have to work just like all of you.''
She added that Peck put a good deal of his own money behind the film.
Education: “I thank my parents (both deceased) for pulling me out of Hollywood and making sure I had an education. Too many superstar child actors and actresses have had lots of problems and are broke. I retired at the ripe old age of 14,'' she said with a smile. “I stress readinb and getting an education wherever I speak.''
Getting The Part of Scout: ''The casting crew had gone through about 4,000 kids before coming to Birmingham (Mary and Philip Alford, who played Jem, both lived in Birmingham).
“My father was against my trying out for the play, but mother (a local actress) told him 'what are the chances this child will get the part anyway.'
''Phillip and I were then off to New York and later Los Angeles where it took five months to film the movie.
''One key to getting the part was that Phillip and I looked like we could be brother and sister and Gregory Peck looked like a real life father.''
Quoting Lines
I, like tens of thousands and probably millions of others, can quote numerous lines from the movie, filmed in 1962 about life in a fictional “tired old town'' in Maycomb, Ala.
One line that has stuck with me 40 plus years dating back to Mr. Michael Bailey's junior English class at McCallie School.
On one test dealing with our reading of Lee's legendary novel, Mr. Bailey asked us to expound on the line by the black pastor during the trial as Atticus was leaving the courtroom after Robinson had been convicted by a jury of 12 white men.
As all the black folks in the balcony had already done, Reverend Sykes respectfully, but earnestly said, “Miss Jean Louise stand up.Your father's passin'.'''
I guess I had forgotten the teacher's comments a few days earlier of the scene in chapter 21. Most likely I was pondering how many points McCallie would score in the upcoming and all-important wrestling match with cross-town rival Baylor (note: we won).
Not knowing the world-staggering significance of the scene, I wrote, ''well I guess Atticus was going home for dinner.''
That answer wasn't intended to be flippant, but I needed to write something. I did miss that question and not until seeing the film for the first time later that spring did I understand the significance of the scene; a white lawyer representing a negro in the deep South, and the black folks were standing to pay respect.
I am a very visual person and if I had seen the movie before or while reading the book, I surely would have aced that question and hopefully many others.
For more information on the play, “To Kill A Mockingbird'' and the museum.
www.tokillamockingbird.com
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net