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Doc Holliday and the Angel of Mercy




The main character in my novel Star Liner is an entertainer. He is required to come up with five acts to perform for the passengers of the star liner Webelos. One of the performances that he decides to do is the one-man play Doc Holiday and the Angel of Mercy.  This is a real play written by an acquaintance of mine, Vaughn Marlowe. The play was performed in various communities around Oregon by our theater company. It has also been performed by other theater companies around the country, but I don’t think Vaughn ever tried to interest a Broadway producer with it. And that is kind of a shame because as a play, it is really good.

Doc Holiday was a real person who has kind of blended into the folklore of the old west. He fought at the famous gunfight at the OK Corral. Not being a fan of westerns when I was a kid, I never heard of Doc Holliday until I saw an episode of (what else?) Star Trek that featured a mythological Doc Holliday. That episode, ”The Specter of the Gun” played with an alternative history woven into the Star Trek story, so there was no attempt at giving a real historical account. Still, it put Doc Holliday on my radar. The real Doc Holliday was a complicated man, sometimes portrayed as a hero, and sometimes portrayed as a villain.

The play Doc Holliday and the Angel of Mercy shows us Doc as he is preparing himself for the gunfight at the OK Corral. We see him the evening before, which turns into the morning of, the gunfight. As one might do before heading into battle Doc muses about his life, the choices that he made. We learn his history. We get a glimpse inside his personality, his loves, his strengths, and his foibles. At the beginning of the play we see Doc making his own ammunition. He does not trust ammunition made by any other than his own hand.  The “Angel of Mercy” referred to in the title is Laudanum. Doc Holliday suffered from Consumption (tuberculosis) and Laudanum, a mixture of opium and alcohol, was his drug of choice, well, it was pretty much the only drug of choice. For a person with consumption in the mid 1800’s about the only thing the medical community could do for them was to treat the pain (with laudanum) and recommend they relocate to a dry climate, hence Doc’s move to the American Southwest, eventually winding up in Tombstone Arizona.  “Doc” was a dentist by training, but as soon as it became known he had consumption, no one would allow themselves to be treated by him. So he found other ways to make a living, mainly by being a gambler. Marlowe gives us a real feeling for the man as we, the audience spend the night, privy to his thoughts and observations.

I have a genuine affection for the play. (No, though I am involved in our local theater community, I was not involved in any of the productions of “Doc”. I was just an avid audience member.) This is why I included the play in Star Liner. It is a wonderful play that deserves to be seen. If I can in my own tiny way encourage others to perform it or watch it, then all the better. The dedication in Star Liner is to “Van and Vaughn.” Vaughn of course is Vaughn Marlowe, the playwright, and Van is Edward van Alstyn who directed the local productions of “Doc” and was an important influence on my life. Both men have moved on to the great theater beyond, and I miss them.

(My novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon, or the other usual online sources)


Star Liner

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