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Act 1
(The
parlor adjoining a small,
cramped kitchen at No. 5
rue Christine in Paris,
1963. At rise there sits
Alice with her back to the
array of legendary
paintings aglow on the art
walls behind her. She
strikes a long
kitchen-match, then slowly
and deliberately lights a
cigarette and exhales.)
ALICE
(dryly)
I like a view, but I like to sit with my back to it.
Ah, yes—the pictures. I know. I see your eyes…
— The Necessary Luxury Company
by Marty Martin (2016)
October. The month that
Gertrude Stein and Alice
B. Toklas returned to the
U.S. in 1934 is the
perfect time to begin the
countdown for
Alice’s 150th
birthday in 2027, the
beginning of ABT,
“Alice B.
Time.”
In the beginning was the
Gertrude and then the
Alice B. showed up on her
first day in Paris at the
Michael Steins and that
was that.
My use of the proper noun
“GertrudeandAlice”
(which is usually
corrected by the
proofreader) implies the
symbiotic relationship
that developed after that
first meeting. Edmund
Wilson confirmed this in
1935 from his first-hand
experience. Here is the
complete quote which
I’ve referenced
before:
“I
called on Gertrude Stein
and Miss Toklas the other
day. I like
Gertrude Stein and found
her stimulating to talk
to; but the whole setup
is rather creepy, and I
don’t think I could
ever be a habitué.
It is the most complete
example of human
symbiosis I have ever
seen.”
But for some Alice still
plays second fiddle to
Gertrude’s first
chair violin but next year
I’m making sure she
insists that Gertrude
forfeits her chair.
Roughly three years after I was bitten by the “why-not-collect-Gertrude
-Stein-stuff” bug, I decided to focus on Alice B. Toklas. She was born in
San Francisco. I was living in San Francisco, so it was time to honor one
of this city’s native daughters. The city named the one block, alley-like
street behind the location of her birthplace on O’Farrell Street , Alice. B.
Toklas Place in 1998. Along that place, condos now sell for around three
fourth of a million dollars in a renovated 1920s Cadillac dealership.
My Alice B. period began around 1999. I had created a timeline of key
dates in her life with Gertrude and noticed that 2002 would be her 125th
birthday. So, I began planning. First, it was a matter of going through my
collection to see how many items I had that directly related to Alice. I
had accumulated a large number of translations of her cookbook, some
letters, a postcard she had written to a San Francisco friend a year after
she had met Gertrude and a videotape and movie screenplay of I Love
You Alice B. Toklas. The 1968 cult film had nothing to do with Alice B.
except for the scene in which hippie Leigh Taylor-Young grabs the Betty
Crocker brownie mix and adds the ingredient that has kept Alice’s
cookbook in print for 72 years.
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It was during this inventory that I had the idea of collecting things not
specifically relating to Gertrude or Alice, but things similar to items they
mentioned in their books or letters. Soon the collection began to grow
with this and that such as the model of typewriter that Alice used to type
Gertrude’s work and a cast iron corn bread mold like the one given to her
by someone in Texas during the U.S. trip stolen by Vichy officials from
their apartment in Paris during World War II. Then I found a 1941
Mixmaster on eBay similar to the one sent to her during the war by their
friend Samuel Steward. His story can fill many a future article. Let’s just
say he had a colorful life. And yes, the autograph book which I wrote
about last month was among the unconventional finds.
My keen eye and regular online searches while on this Alice B. treasure
hunt also resulted in acquiring intriguing portraits of Alice. John Keating,
a San Francisco artist, began creating works and he continues to surprise
me with new GertrudeandAlice portraits annually. John lives about
three blocks from where Alice was born.
With my trove of loot, two 2002 Alice B. exhibitions came about: one at
the Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center in the San Francisco Public Library,
six blocks from her birthplace, and the American Library in Paris which
is 2.2 kilometers from their apartment at 27 Rue de Fleurus and
5,561 miles from O’Farrell Street as the crow flies.
With those events I felt that Alice B. was on her way to becoming more
than Gertrude’s chief cook and bottlewasher or secretary, moving more
and more toward being her “partner.” I tried to come up with a word for
this transformation but couldn’t. Instead, I made up a word
“wellknownness.” As a fan of the grand tradition of German compound
words, I asked AI to do the same and it came up with
Weltweitallgemeinwohlbekanntheit, more than twice as long and
certainly
lexicologically
impressive.
In the next few months, I will be giving Alice B. even more due as we
countdown to her 150th birthday on April 30th, 2027. I therefore
proclaim that the next seven months will be “Alice B. Time.” No wait, I
proclaim that it will be all of next year: “Alice B. Time” during the
Chinese “Year of the Goat,” a year which is to be filled with peace,
compassion and creative harmony – a bit like Leigh Taylor-Young’s Betty
Crocker snack was to provide. PEACE, COMPASSION, CREATIVE
HARMONY – World leaders are you listening?!
There are no goat recipes in Alice’s cookbook, so one of the ten lamb or
mutton ones will have to do. The most curious one is Gigot de la Clinique, page 33, invented by a surgeon. It requires injecting the meat with a
syringe filled with cognac and fresh orange juice for a week. Your guests
will have to be patient for this Year of the Goat feast.
In June of 2027, as we approach “creative harmony,” I will be producing
the one-person Alice B. play, The Necessary Luxury Company by Marty
Martin. It is a companion piece to the off-Broadway hit of the late 1970s, Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein which starred the
American comedian, Pat Carroll. I saw it in 1982 in Chicago.
The title of the play is the name given to Alice and her coterie of
girlfriends in San Francisco by a male friend because of their unique
ability to quickly restore everyday pleasures to their lives following the
city’s 1906 earthquake. In the play, Alice is preparing dinner for Annette
Rosenshine, her cousin and Harriet Levy, her longtime friend from the
time they both lived on O’Farrell Street. (Harriet’s memoir
920
O’Farrell Street
from 1947 is still available.) As Alice is cooking, she
reminisces about her life with Gertrude and many of the other people in
their life together and the meals she created. This will be only the second
time the play has been performed.
One last proclamation: during “Alice B. Time,” it will be
“AliceandGertrude,” not “GertrudeandAlice.”
Now it’s time to set watches and clocks to “Alice B. Time.” There is no
better way to once again say “We love you, Alice B. Toklas (and so does
Gertrude Stein!)”
Act 2
(The doorbell buzzes.)
They’re here. After all these years. Are those two in for a treat!
(straightening her hair in the mirror)
Well now… there’s a face in the mirror after all—mine! Not some shadow.
I am not dead yet! There will still be old friendships, new laughter...Oh,
mes amis, though butter truly is divine, the most necessary luxury of
them all is friends. Friends, friends, friends, friends, friends, friends,
friends, friends, friends. (As she speaks, one by one the vanished
paintings on the walls, with their myriad of faces, begin to reappear.)
(The light fades.)
copyright 2016 by the Marty Martin
Note: AliceandGertrude on their violins courtesy of Tom Hachtman with
AI tweaks. Photograph of cookbooks in a Parisian kitchen and
photograph of 1935 San Francisco are AI generated.
Art of the Month
“Alice and Gertrude,” Elizabeth Dekker (2024) encaustic.
“Alice and Gertrude,” Elizabeth Dekker (2024) acrylic on canvas.
Works commissioned for Gertrude’s
150th birthday exhibition in San Francisco in 2024.
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