Friday morning ChristyFest™ resumed, spending the morning at the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center. Attendees loitered in the lobby/shop area and exchanged pleasantries. Gradually, all found places in the auditorium, anticipating the morning's programs.

Christmas at Ebenezer Mission: Neither Evergreen nor Everbronze

Presented by Marilyn Mitchem

Marilyn Mitchem, Ebenezer Mission historian, was the first to speak in the morning. Respected for her excellent historical presentations on the Mission, as well as those folks involved with it, this warm July day she focused on Christmas at the mission.

Even though Catherine Marshall's parents served Ebenezer Mission from October 1909 to March 1912, the novel Christy includes only eleven months of its heroine's life. The scope of life Catherine portrays is vast: a wedding; two funerals; other deaths; a typhoid epidemic; school recitations; church services; spring planting; fall harvest. But: except for a brief mention of Christmas 1911 in Chapter Three, there is no Christmas in Christy, the main reason being that Catherine Marshall knew Christmas was a big event and could not be included after the typhoid epidemic of November 1912.

Marilyn's presentation covered six Christmas periods at Ebenezer Mission: 1899; 1907; 1909-11; 1919; 1926; and 1927. Throughout it, Marilyn skillfully wove stories of the Galax plant. Its role as a prized decorative leaf, "neither evergreen nor everbronze," stands in stark contrast with the hardship and toil involved in harvesting it. Recall that at Montreat, Dr. Ferrand told Christy of Uncle Jason, "...whose sole income was gathering and selling Galax leaves at twenty cents a thousand..." [Chapter One]

Using creative license to recreate important events, Marilyn brought to life the people who served and were served by Ebenezer Mission. Marilyn showed one hundred photos and illustrations, including three original drawings done by Jay Hofer and Mary Koepke. Marilyn told of Katie Plantz, Ebenezer Mission's founder, who came alone in December 1899 to Read Hill, near Del Rio. As a first-generation American whose parents were German immigrants, Katie witnessed Appalachian Christmas customs very different from those of her rural Wisconsin childhood. To honor Katie Plantz, a prominent mission worker, and her German heritage, Don Mitchem first sang "Silent Night" in German, and invited the group to respond in English.

The 1907 segment focused upon several whiskey-related deaths which occurred at Christmas near Ebenezer Mission. Like Galax, "neither evergreen nor everbronze," Christmas at Ebenezer included dual elements of joy and tragedy. Both resulted from the Appalachian tradition of "serenading," which Ben Pentland described to Christy: "...Like Christmas - In the mountains we shoot rifle-guns up chimneys and blow up tree stumps to celebrate." [Chapter Three]

Of great interest are John and Leonora Wood's service years at Ebenezer Mission. One of their important fund-raising projects was the collection and sale of Galax leaves. Learning that "it is more important to give than to receive," Ebenezer Mission children donated the proceeds of their tedious and back-breaking labor to the Highland Orphanage, whose barn had burned in autumn, 1911.

Marilyn read an excerpt from Barbara League's book, Letters to Lori, in which Opal Corn Myers describes Christmas 1919. Hilarity ensues during the Christmas program, resulting not from Opal's delivery of her Christmas program play lines, but instead, from wearing her "new" mission barrel shoes on the wrong feet!

The Ebenezer Mission community had no way of knowing it, but Frances Marston's assertion that Christmas of 1926 would go down in history as "one of the best" would prove tragically true - Miss Marston, one of Ebenezer's most beloved teachers, died suddenly in February 1927. No replacement teacher was sent; thus Ebenezer Mission School never reopened.

Marilyn closed her presentation with a poignant true story about one of Ebenezer Mission's final Christmas programs. George, a young man living near Ebenezer Mission, was thoroughly embarrassed by the teen-age girls' choice and delivery method of his Christmas gifts. Instead of retaliating, George demonstrates the true meaning of Christmas by giving the "old man's handkerchiefs and socks" he received to an old bachelor in need of some warm clothing.

After her presentation Marilyn graciously chatted with attendees, answering questions and even pausing for photographs.

I Lift Up Mine Eyes unto the Hills

Presented by Kathy Gwinn

Kathy Gwinn then took the stage. In her soft, but strong voice she told stories of the surrounding areas. She shared the original meanings of some of the local names, giving a greater appreciation for the Native Americans who once inhabited that region in great numbers. She effortlessly shared stories and anecdotes of the area, weaving their connections to Christy.

One of many fascinating topics she discussed was the life of a circuit preacher. Christy details some of the travel David undertakes as the local preacher but despite his extensive efforts, it is not the life of a circuit preacher. In the heyday of circuit preaching, men of exemplary character were assigned certain geographical regions and were expected to travel them extensively. They have very few important items, but chief among those were their horses and their Bibles. Circuit preachers logged endless hours in the saddle, relying on their mounts to get them to safety and shelter when it could be found. Unsurprisingly, the mortality rate of these brave men was often quite high. Such information gave a greater understanding into life in the mountains. One can certainly understand how creation of a permanent mission site to answer the needs of the local congregation would indeed be a great sign of progress.

Kathy lingered to answer questions and spent some time in conversation with the attendees. All enjoyed her insightful presentation. As the morning drew to a close, lunch was sought in the interim before the afternoon session commenced.

Writer's Forum

Presented by Tom Blomquist and Brenda Lilly

After the lunch break attendees reconvened at the Highland Manor Inn Conference Room for the afternoon session. Much of the afternoon focused on the way to dramatically adapt a Novel for television. Special Guests, Tom Blomquist and Brenda Lilly seated themselves before an expectant audience for their Writer's Forum. Brenda was a writer on the series, as well as the PAX Films. Tom was a Supervising Writer and Producer for the series as well as Executive Producer for the PAX movies. Both have extensive credits to their name.

Together they discussed the formula for an hour long television episode, explaining the traditional dramatic arcs. Each episode is composed of four acts which are worked around the commercial breaks. In Act One a problem is presented, in Act Two the problem is further developed, and added to this are the various subplots, one of which "keeps us hanging" at the second commercial break. Act Three works hard at finding a resolution to the main conflict and then suddenly, this resolution fails and it seems "all is lost!" However, in Act Four the viewers begin to recover from finding out they were completely wrong about how the problem would be solved and final resolution occurs. This is the general format a writer uses to outline their ideas before writing the script.

Tom and Brenda also talked about the Table Read. This is done even before rehearsals begin, when the writers and actors gather and hear the script read out loud for the first time. It is a testing ground for the work, to ensure that it works as a unit and is suitable as an episode. For a writer, it can be immensely satisfying to witness this stage of the process, seeing how others, including the actors, react to their lines and scenes.

The presentation continued as Tom and Brenda covered other aspects of creating an episode, such as the importance of relationships between characters, how to channel a character's voice, as well as the privilege of writing in new characters. Dialogue techniques are especially important - for example, a character cannot say everything they want to say, characters are not that transparent. Instead, actions often take the place of words. What a character does not say can be as important as what they actual say. It is vital the writer understands the motivation and psychology of each character.

Brenda and Tom gave attendees much to ponder, and appreciate, about the excellent writing that went into Christy the Series and the PAX movies.

Creating a Cast

Presented by Jo Doster

Jo Doster was another influential individual who worked on the Christy CBS series. She was a casting director for the series and she cast all of the local extras including many of the teenagers and children. At this, her first ChristyFest™, she spoke of working with the show creators to find the perfect actor for each role.

During this process, Jo was in Townsend looking at local talent while also working closely with Penny Ellers, another casting agent, who was back in California. They began their search close to Townsend and then gradually widened the circle as needs required. It was believed that in order to have authentic, consistent accents for the children local casting was very important. Jo recalled that the actors who played Little Burl and Mountie O'Teale were some of the youngest with speaking parts. Alyssa Hmielewski [Mountie] was only about six years old in the series.

As part of her presentation, Jo explained her casting process. She auditioned the children by sitting them in front of a video camera and asking them questions. One popular topic Jo used was their animals - the children were happy to talk about their pets. She looked for good listeners with good eye contact and noted whether they were oblivious of the camera.

Jo explained the difficult time they had casting the roles of Ruby Mae and Lundy. Kellie Martin offered some recommendations and ended up being instrumental in finding Emily Schulman and possibly Scott Michael Campbell for those parts. She was pleased with the casting and received compliments on her work from her colleagues at Emmy nomination time as they were genuinely impressed by Christy. They wanted to know who those actors were who played the parts of Bird's-Eye and Opal because they were so good. Jo could not always explain the success of Christy except to say that everything was done at the highest standard.

After this time spent speaking to Attendees, there was time for some questions and conversation. It was a wonderful insight into a new area of the making of the Christy CBS series.

Meeting the Cast of Christy

Presented by Cast & Crew Members

At this time, the Cast and Crew members present assembled for an informal 'meet and greet' as Attendees took copious amount of photographs. Janis N led the question and answer session which focused on their work on the series and movies. Their answers were lively and entertaining. Participants in this session included Lane Batot, Andy Stahl, Jeffery Buckner Ford, Jo Doster, Tom Blomquist, Mike Hickman, Brenda Lilly, and Bruce McKinnon was able to join us via cell phone as he drove to Townsend. For more on these Cast and Crew members, please visit the Cast and Crew Links.

All of the Cast and Crew members answered the questions presented to them with humor and insight. Each had their own anecdote to add. Mike Hickman, when asked about his favorite episode, selected "Both Your Houses." He singled out the poignant scene he shared with Dale Dickey [Opal McHone] as being one of his favorite pieces of work. Andy Stahl spoke of his trepidation in playing the character of Tom as he realized, upon reading the book for research, that Tom was killed. Andy expressed his concern about his character's death but was later told that Tom would be spared. His wife Opal, however, would instead be shot and killed leaving Tom to deal with raising three young children. Andy found himself in the odd position of being relieved and happy about the death of a character - happy as it was not his own. Later the script was revised and both Opal and Tom remained among the living.

As the afternoon drew to a close, attendees adjourned in high spirits and headed out for evening. Later that evening was the group hayride in the park which many chose to attend.

The Hayride through Cades Cove

Despite the somewhat threatening-looking weather, it remained on the whole clear and dry and a pleasant evening to tour Cades Cove. Attendees caravanned to the hayride from Townsend and were soon piling onto the bales of hay. Everyone searched the surrounding area for wildlife, often spotting deer though a bear was not seen this year. After the trip 'round the Cove, attendees began making their way back to their accommodation, curious as to what Saturday would bring.