the jewel in the crown

Today's showing in Mansfield ranks with the best I've had with "Uncommon Vision". The setting had so much to do with it. It was in the Farr Best Theater located on the Main Street of Mansfield. The theater is about 20 yards from where Griffin was hung in effigy some fifty years ago. Today the theater was full of people proud to claim Griffin as a role model and favorite son.
The Farr Best is an old theater in the best and classic sense. Griffin went to films here. One could look out in the audience and it's not hard to imagine a full house for a Saturday matinee. This was a Sunday matinee and happily we had a full house. A full house which included African Americans. For much of Griffin's life African Americans weren't allowed.
The projection was superb. The floor was sticky. Aren't they always in a theater. The Griffin family was there. People laughed in the right places (they love the Lyndon Johnson line in Texas) and clapped in the end. A good day and that doesn't count the dedication of Mansfield as a literary landmark by the American Library Association. I think John Howard would've smiled and maybe laughed.