Written by John Smith,
Founder of GrassRoots Community Network
It was the summer of 1972. A handful of volunteers were set to launch a
new idea in the old mining town of Aspen, Colorado. A cable company had moved into town and was
importing national programs for cable viewers, but there had been no community
origination.
The creation of GrassRoots, perhaps the first community access cablecasting station in the nation, changed all that. And it was a home-made soap opera named “The Edge of Ajax” that became an instant hit, captivating the public and transforming GrassRoots -- now approaching 50 years of age -- into a valuable community resource.
It all started when Aspen Times reporter Sally Barlow suggested that we try to produce a local soap opera for the first GrassRoots season.
The next issue of the Aspen Times carried a small notice inviting all those interested in this idea to meet at the home of David Michael. I was there at that meeting. The room was so full one could hardly get in the door. I had planned to say a few words about Sally’s idea and the fact that GrassRoots had only one camera, but that was impossible. It was standing room only and everyone was talking at once -- about the town, its history, its quirks, its characters, its delights, its conflicts, its challenges, its many paradoxes. The gathering finally broke up about midnight with no apparent plan in place.
However, the next day the stage of the Wheeler Opera House was packed with people trying out for parts in the upcoming television drama. A team of writers was already talking about a script. Elmira Snyder, a church organist, had volunteered to plant thrilling organ chords at appropriate places in the story and, somehow, in some mysterious way, “The Edge of Ajax” was launched -- Ajax being the name of the mountain that boarders the town of Aspen.
Here is the opening of “The Edge of Ajax,” rich in the names of local places and pioneers, and familiar to most people who lived in the valley at that time.
The script of this local soap opera may someday appear on this web site at a later date if we can pull it off. We do feel the idea of a local soap opera could be adopted by almost any community cable station in the 50 states and could be a huge boost to local viewership as well as developing writers, actors and directors in a modern form of community theater.
And now, a short version of our l972 soap…
ANNOUNCER: Presenting….The
Edge of Ajax
SOUND: Organ swell
ANNOUNCER: A contemporary drama about the world of Felicia A. Wheeler of
the Roaring Fork Valley.
SOUND: Organ music
ANNOUNCER: Felicia’s origin is shrouded in mystery. She was found as an infant wrapped in beaver
skins and tied to a dog sled in the dead of winter on top of West Maroon Pass.
Brought to Aspen and raised by the local jailer, Felicia was named after one of
Aspen’s early pioneers, Jerome B. Felicia.
After being sent off to school in the East where she met and eventually
married Monroe T. Wirthwell, a wealthy land developer, Felicia is now divorced
and back in the Roaring Fork Valley with her two children trying to cope with
modern day Aspen and solve the mystery of her own identity.
Production took place every weekend for eight weeks, basically the entire summer. And it was cablecast daily, Monday through Friday. “The Edge of Ajax” became so popular that those on cable often invited friends who lived down valley, or out of cable range, to come to dinner to watch the current episode.
The weekly shows were directed by various residents and visitors. I specifically recall Aspenite and writer James Salter, wearing an impressive hat and pressed shirt. He quickly took total control of the actors and the chaotic technical crew and wrapped up the shoot in record time. The production of “Edge of Ajax” also created a certain amount of envy among visiting directors from remote places like Hollywood who asked to participate in one of the programs.
The final show, and perhaps the most important one, was to be shot on the porch of our cabin up Little Woody Creek, down valley from the town of Aspen. The actors and crew were there, waiting in the warm sun. I was at Aspen’s airport to pick up Ed Schuman, an old friend and neighbor from my teaching years in Los Angeles. When we got in my truck, I broke the news. “Ed, I have an odd request for you today. We are going to drive to our home in Little Woody Creek where the actors and crew are waiting for you to direct them in the last show of our local soap opera. All our other directors have burned out or left town.” It took Ed just one second to respond. “Darn it, John, it has always been a dream of mine to direct a television show. I can’t wait to get started!”
It was one of the best shows we ever taped. It began with this announcement:
ANNOUNCER: When we left Felicia last week, she had just found out about a plot against her. She and Mark had overheard a phone conversation that had Lance and Eleanor planning to get Felicia’s inheritance before she even knew about it. Lance and Felicia were to be married and Lance would take over her business affairs, selling off her stock immediately, getting the money and running off to Mexico with Eleanor and Lance’s father, Old Weird Billy. The plot has now been uncovered and Mark Malone and Felicia are on their way to see Old Billy and find out the details of Felicia’s life…
(Moving toward the end of the script, we hear from a character named Snoop
Jackson who tells Felicia this...)
Snoop: I just talked to the boys in
legal and according to them, you own controlling interests in The Aspen Skiing
Corporation, The Highlands Ski Corporation, Buttermilk, Snowmass, Breckenridge,
Sun Valley, Squaw Valley, Bear Valley, Jackson Hole, and Boyle Mountain, not to
mention large portions of Chicago, Detroit and Miami, and the entire downtown
section of Los Angeles, California!
You’re the richest woman in the world, Mrs. Wheeler! The richest woman in the world!
(ORGAN
MUSIC)
Felicia: Snoop, please don’t call me Mrs. Wheeler.
Snoop: I’m sorry………Felicia.
(We cut to the last scene of “The Edge of Ajax.”)
Felicia: I’m selling the stock and
I’m giving a million dollars apiece to everybody … [Turns to camera] And a
million for each of you. All of you who
are watching in the Pub and the Foc’sle and the Jerome Hotel, all of you who
are watching at home … all of you. I’m
sending each and every one of you a check for a million dollars to spend any
way you like. Just because I like
you. There’s just one thing…. Don’t cash
it ‘til Thursday – Thank you!
(Winks) (ORGAN MUSIC)
ANNOUNCER: And so ends the final episode in the life of Felicia A. Wheeler
of the Roaring Fork Valley. You have
been very kind to sit through this madness every week and we all would like to
thank you.
(Camera on graphic then cuts to announcer and everyone who wants to say
thank you. Closing credits with sound of
one person clapping.)
CREDITS:
THE EDGE OF AJAX
The cast, alphabetically
ANN AMABILE ELEANOR
RIGBY
MARY CARNEY NURSE
NANCY
PHIL CLARK OLD
WEIRD BILLY
MAURA EGGAN FELICIA
B. WHEELER
ROSS GRIFFIN DR.
MARK MALONE
“WHITEY” HALE RYAN
RON HODGE MARTY
ROBIN MOLNEY SNOOP
JACKSON
BUDDY ORTEGA LANCE
BOYLESUSAN SANCHEZ ANNETTE
Walk on celebrities
Saul Bellow, Bil Dunaway, Eve
Homeyer, Sue Michael, Shady Lane, Tom Benton, Herbie Balderson, and others…
NOTE: We regret that the above credits are
incomplete, and may contain inaccuracies. We definitely need your help with
corrections and additions. We have no
records of the writers or directors of The Edge of Ajax, with the exception of
the few listed. Please contact us.
[WARNING – The following may contain unsettling material…]
There are certain myths surrounding the early days of community cablecasting
in the mountain town of Aspen. Although
I was there at the time, I cannot vouch for the veracity of these veiled,
unsubstantiated reports, but for the sake of full disclosure, they must be
mentioned.
The first is from Nicholas Smith, a former Aspenite and successful
dot com-person. “What fun reading the
excerpts from the script and the history of how it all came together. Reading this brings me right back to Little
Woody Creek – and a bit of the madness surrounding the filming of that last
episode at our house. I remember wanting
to taste all of the food that people had laid out for the cast and Katy (his
mother) telling me, as I reached for a scrumptious looking brownie, “Um, don’t
eat ‘those’ brownies! Eat ‘these.’ ”
(Nicholas was only 10 years old at the time and had not yet learned to
distinguish between regular brownies and special brownies – at least so I am
told.)
There were other Myths. This one
was reported by Anonymous.
“Two of us (both women) had been spending hours producing and cablecasting
videos with excellent content, but we were convinced that no one was
watching. So, what to do? Well, we decided to find out.” (Editor’s note: it was reported to me that
one of the women took off her blouse in front of the camera while the second
one mooned the camera – whatever that means.)
The anonymous testimony continues:
“The telephone began ringing itself off the hook -- that’s when we knew
that WE WERE A SUCCESS!!”
IN MEMORIAM
ANN AMABILE
TOM BENTON
HERBIE BALDERSON
PHIL CLARK
BIL DUNAWAY
KATY SMITH
EDGAR STANTON, JR.
The text above was written by John Smith in Oregon, using The Edge of Ajax
scripts one to eight, with the script of episode number five missing. If any of you have a copy of No. 5, please
let us know. We would love to put the complete Edge of Ajax online. The
original scripts are being donated to the Aspen Historical Society. We also
need your help completing the credits of the actors, directors, and writers of
“Ajax.” Also, we are missing the sole copy of the 16mm film of Ajax,
transferred in Hollywood from our original half inch video tape. It was shown only once at a fund raiser for
GrassRoots at the Aspen Institute theater. If we can locate it we will copy it for all of
you to view on this website.
Please
use the CONTACT button on the home page for information about to reach us.
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