Reviving a presidential performance
The tales and travails of Theodore Roosevelt are brought to life by actor Michael O. Smith.
By ROBERT HICKS
Published April 3, 2005
Theodore Roosevelt's legacy is well known to students of American history. He was a cowboy, rancher, writer, explorer, police commissioner, military hero, family man - and 26th president of the United States.
Tampa resident Michael O. Smith brings that rich legacy to the stage in his one-man show, The Bully Pulpit, which he's reprising at Florida Studio Theatre's Gompertz Theatre in Sarasota for a two-week run beginning Wednesday.
"I've tried to concentrate on the inner man to separate the man from the myth," Smith said. He dedicated the show to actor Brian Keith, who played Roosevelt opposite Sean Connery in the film The Wind and the Lion.
"Brian and I were fishing buddies and he gave me insights into Teddy. I have him to thank for giving me the kick in the rear end to get this thing on the board," he added. "Brian and I were always concerned that there had not been enough said about Roosevelt's relationship with his first daughter, Alice."
Set on the occasion of Roosevelt's 60th birthday on Oct. 27, 1918, The Bully Pulpit is a narrative account taken mainly from Roosevelt's speeches, correspondence and writings.
"I thought that was an appropriate time because I could incorporate all of his career," Smith said. "He died three months later on Jan. 6, 1919."
And what a career it was: Roosevelt led the Rough Riders cavalry regiment on its famous charge up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War. He advocated antitrust policies as governor of New York and served as vice president under President McKinley. His land conservation created 230-million acres of national parklands. He negotiated the peace conference that ended the Russo-Japanese War and won him the Noble Peace Prize. As president, he used his considerable skills to broaden the reach of the executive office.
Apart from Roosevelt's political accomplishments, Smith shows him as a man troubled by the loss of his first wife (Alice's mother) and his own mother on Valentine's Day in 1884. Losing his son Quentin during World War I plunged Roosevelt into grief.
"I really wanted to get into the nitty-gritty of his relationship with his family," he said.
As a young boy in Mississippi, Smith listened intently to his grandfather's stories about Roosevelt's bear hunts in the state in 1902. Roosevelt's refusal to shoot the bear and his reputation for good sportsmanship entered the American psyche via cartoons and the merchandising of the Teddy bear by the Ideal Toy Co.
Years passed before Smith, now 60, finally put his fascination with Roosevelt into words. He first revived his interest while playing the role of Teddy opposite Alice Ghostly, Patrick Wayne (John Wayne's son) and Mary Wicks in the play Arsenic and Old Lace at Burt Reynolds' theater in Jupiter. During New York stints, he worked with playwright Jerome Alden in his play, Bully, and his musical, Teddy and Alice, in the mid '80s. Both productions premiered in Tampa before short runs in New York. A decade later, he created a 30-minute version of his current show in Los Angeles. After expanding it, he presented it at civic clubs in Los Angeles, at conventions in Las Vegas and at universities in the early '90s.
Smith always has been an avid reader of Roosevelt's writings and he worked closely with Wallace Daly, head of the Roosevelt library at Harvard University. After moving to Tampa 30 years ago, Smith gathered Roosevelt stories from the Rough Riders civic group and from Tweed Roosevelt, the great-grandson of Theodore.
As an actor whose credits included stints on Evening Shade, Murder She Wrote, The Young and the Restless, Days of Our Lives and a regular role as police Chief McGhee opposite Burt Reynolds on B.L. Stryker, Smith attracted the attention of Florida Studio Theater artistic director Richard Hopkins. He encouraged Smith to lengthen his one-man show and present it at his Florida Playwrights Festival in Sarasota in 1999 and 2001 before premiering its current full version at Florida Studio's Keating main stage in 2004. Smith's work on The Bully Pulpit has changed his perception of Roosevelt.
"In the beginning, I was very pro Roosevelt, but I think I am now open to some more negative points about Roosevelt," Smith said. "I've tried not to look back at his life as a Monday-morning quarterback, but I have tried also to accept the fact that the man was fallible in some areas."
PREVIEWThe Bully Pulpit, Wednesday through April 17, Gompertz Theatre at Florida Studio Theatre, 1247 First St., Sarasota. $26-$28 (941) 366-9000.