Now posted on Amazon are some changes I made near the end of Those Ringlings: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Musical. Deeper feelings between James A Bailey and his long-time secretary, Merritt Young, are shared.
In the next scene, the young boy Raymond, who has tried to adopt Al and Louse as his parents, is now, in the wake of a midway melee, maybe close to death. A grief-stricken Louise, deeply attached to the boy, seems unable to face Al, and her coldness devastates him. Fearing he is losing her, he pours his heart out to his closest brother Charles, feeling he has failed in selfishly depriving Louise of any offspring. Charles gives Al what perhaps none of the other brothers could.
Are these factors based in reality? Surely, the Bailey-Young relationship is. The bond between the two was profound, In fact, for the year or two when Bailey was away due to chronic illness, Young, a bachelor, was with him every step of the way. In fact, Bailey valued the loyalty of bachelors, for they came with no marital distractions.
With Raymond and Louise, this is mere speculation. No, I do not know of a young kid like Raymond, although I know that Louise had a long time personal chauffeur to whom she willed some of her money. And there were rumors of an affair between the two. And of course, inevitable would have been the likelihood of a young boy running away with the circus and finding comfort in the association of Louise and Al.
Those Ringlings, I believe, may now deliver its most heart-felt moments in the final scenes.
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