Click2Flicks - Chicago - The Rest of the Story - Chapter 7

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>CHICAGO</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 7 - THE REST OF THE STORY</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">When Fosse’s musical was released in 1975, it won no awards. Most critics believe it was overshadowed by the popular work, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.musicals101.com/chorus1.htm"><b><i>A Chorus Line</i></b></a>. But Watkins’ original "commentary" on crime, media, and the legal profession clicked with the American public in 1996, when Fosse’s musical was revived. It was, after all, the year following the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Simpson/simpson.htm"><b>trial of O.J. Simpson</b></a>. Cynical Americans wondered: Could just results ever come from celebrity trials?</p> <p>Capitalizing on the revived musical’s popularity, the film version - which kept the names of the characters - was made. Knowing the real background of the two murderers, one can easily see similarities between "Velma," the fictional character, and "Belva," the real prisoner. But how did Maurine, the reporter-playwright, get "Roxie" from "Beulah?" Turns out, she didn’t.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.maurinewatkins.com/img/roxie-1911ca-cropped100x120.jpg"><b>Roxie Hart</b></a>, an Indiana woman, had been caught up in a murder story the decade before. She was the real-life paramour of an alleged murderer (Walter Runyan) who - in 1913 - killed another man (Arlie Stull) to keep him from telling Walter’s wife about the Hart affair. Maurine coupled the actions of Beulah Annan with the name of Roxie Hart to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.maurinewatkins.com/play-1926-1-chicago2.htm"><b>create</b></a> her show-biz-obsessed character.</p> <p>And that, one might say, was the making of "All That Jazz."</p> </div> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"><a href="chicago_ch6.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="chicago_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>    <a href="chicago_ch8.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>