Quotations from P G Wodehouse are copyright of, and reprinted by permission of, the Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate © 2012 The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)

Silly, Soulful and Splendiferous Saturday Night

by Saltatrix and Jelle Otten

The high point of all US Wodehouse Society conventions has always been the Saturday night banquet, and Divine Providence was no exception, making the experience paradise on earth. At past conventions those who attended in costume were usually in the minority but this year the reverse seemed to be true: there was a sea of people dressed in period costume, in full soup and fish, as PGW characters, and even as cow creamers. This made it very difficult for costume judges Kris Fowler, Rosemary Nolan and Dottie Swanson to decide on winners, though in the end they came up trumps – more of which in a minute.

Prior to dinner conventioneers sluiced happily on the Providence Biltmore’s balcony, producing a glorious cacophony that must have been heard on the hotel’s top floors. Then the doors to the Garden Room opened and we flooded in, eager for a good meal and the entertainment yet to come. Our master of ceremonies for the evening was NEWT Randall Burkett, who welcomed us all and tantalised us with hints of what lay ahead. We consumed a meal worthy of Anatole and as we ate and chattered we admired the table centrepieces, which included black pigs eating at their own swill buckets, as well as the beautiful keepsakes by our plates. These were exquisite little booklets containing a selection of PGW quotes referring to Divine Providence – it was surprising to see how many there were and apparently Amy Plofker, who had compiled them, found many more besides. But it was Doug Stow of Paper Crane Press, California, who selected the quotes to use and then printed and bound the booklets himself – a beautiful memento of a very special event.

After dinner the evening’s program began with the toasts. Anne Cotton, president of the NEWTS, delivered the toast to Plum with a very clever (and original) poem that perfectly summed up our feelings for the man who had brought us all together. Then Father Wendell Verrill offered the toast to Absent Friends, remembering those whom we had lost since the last convention.

Before the prize-giving there were presentations to be made. Len Lawson came to the microphone and paid special tribute to the above-mentioned Doug Stow, who has been a TWS stalwart for many years and has donated hand-crafted keepsakes for past conventions as well as this one. We all applauded as Len presented Doug with a gift from the Society in gratitude for all he has done. Following this, it was just-past-president Jean Tillson’s turn to be recognised. Newly-elected president Kris Fowler spoke of Jean’s contributions to the Society as well as her superb convention planning and presented her with a Voco Clock (the one where Stephen Fry intones wake-up messages with a Jeevesian lilt). Then Hilary Bruce thanked Jean on behalf of the UK Society and gave her a cricket ball embossed with the word ‘Plum’. Jean’s devotion to cricket is well known, so this gift was most appropriate to the occasion.

Next up was the announcement of the Fiendish Quiz winners, undertaken by Elin Woodger Murphy on behalf of the absent Quizmaster, Neil Midkiff. This time around there were two classes of entrants: the Master Class, consisting of those who had either written works on Wodehouse or had somehow absorbed every single word PGW wrote; and the Fan Class, comprising the vast majority of us. Elin began with a confession: she had lost Ian Michaud’s entry! This was possibly good news for Ian (newly elected membership secretary for TWS), who, if he had won, would have been responsible for creating the quiz for the 2009 convention, as he had done in 2005 (Neil and Ian pretty much trade the quiz championship between them every other year). But then again, maybe not, as the overall winner in the Master Class turned out to be Lynn Vesley-Gross of the NEWTS, who just edged out runners-up Elliott Milstein and Kris Fowler. In the Fan Class, the winner was Mike Riezenman, followed by Karen Shotting and Tamaki Morimura. All were presented with Fabulous Prizes, cheered loudly by those of us who wondered how on earth they managed to do it, such was the quiz’s fiendishness. Lynn now has the unenviable task of coming up with the quiz for the St Paul convention – good luck to her!

The hands-down winner of the Brotherly Love Sermon Challenge was Stephen Persing, who unfortunately could not attend the convention. His prize was collected by Wendell Verrill, who had delivered the sermon superbly on Stephen’s behalf during the Clean, Bright Entertainment the previous night. To get an idea of just how good and funny Stephen’s sermon was, see the next issue of Wooster Sauce.

We now come to the costume prizes – which need some explanation. You would expect, wouldn’t you, that there would be specific, predetermined categories by which the judges would assess the fabulous finery and creative costumery that filled the Garden Room – but you’d be wrong! Instead, the judges ingeniously make up the rules on the spur of the moment and create categories, depending on the winning ensembles and the prizes available. Thus, we ended up with 21 winners in 15 categories, such as Best Book Titles (Deborah Bellew as The Girl in Blue, Christine Hewitt as Dr Sally, Bill Franklin as A Gentleman of Leisure and Sophie Ratcliffe – whose ‘costume’ consisted of the can of tuna she was carrying – as Something Fishy). Freda Kirkham and Maria Cimino won as Multiple Aspects of the Same Character: Rocky Todd in the am (Freda in pyjamas) and pm (Maria in a jumper over her pyjamas). There were awards for Best in Show at the Shropshire Agricultural Show (John Graham as a cow, though most thought he was a cow creamer), for Best Flapper (marcelled and bobbed varieties, won by Anne Cotton and Eileen Keck, respectively), and for Best ‘Divine Providence’-Themed Costume’ (Marjanne Otten in a dress printed with a an obscure but undoubtedly sacred text). And that’s only a few of the winners! See the Winter 2007 issue of Plum Lines for a complete list.

The awarding of costume prizes was followed by the auction of two special items. With the raffle and the rummage sale, the NEWTS had already set a record in raising money for the TWS Convention Fund, but auctioneer John Kareores was determined to go even further. The items for auction were, first, a proclamation by the City of Providence declaring October 15 to be PG Wodehouse Day; and, second, a citation from the State of Rhode Island, signed by the Governor, lauding The Wodehouse Society for holding its 14th International Convention in Providence. In each case, the bidding started low, but soon rose higher and higher – and higher yet! The winning bids are not available for this report but I recall them both to be somewhere in the $300 range. Paul Abrinko, the successful bidder for the City of Providence proclamation, dedicated his winning bid as a donation to TWS in memory of his father, who died on October 15, 2000 (Plum’s 119th birthday).

The feverish auction had left the room in a state of high excitement, only to be excited further as it was time to conduct the Great Raffle. In this conventioneers had bought raffle tickets for the chance to win special items such as PGW books signed by Stephen Fry and Richard Briers; a book on tape signed by its fabulous reader, Martin Jarvis; other books and audiotapes; and a number of Voco Clocks, featuring Stephen Fry’s dulcet tones, as mentioned above. Conducting the raffle were NEWTS Indu and Jagannathan Ravi, ably assisted by MC Randall Burkett, who shimmered about the room, soliciting folks to draw winning tickets. Squeals of ecstasy and moans of disappointment filled the room as each raffle prize found a new owner. Your correspondent was thrilled to win one of the Voco Clocks and is glancing at it now as she draws this report to its inevitable conclusion.

All good things must come to an end – so I’ve been told – and such was the case with our splendid banquet. But the revelry continued until midnight as music, dancing, and egg-and-spoon races all broke out spontaneously. A certain Colonel Murphy rather dominated the dance floor and exhausted many a partner but his 83-year-old father-in-law, Herb Woodger, did an admirable job of keeping up; between the two of them some 20 ladies – maybe more – found themselves tripping the light fantastic. Bill Franklin was also seen squiring several partners and many other couples dazzled the onlookers with their hoofing skills. No wonder so many were limping at brunch the following morning (though Colonel Murphy claims none of his partners did so!).