August 14, 2022
Commentary on "Taking the Plunge" (scene 1 of Tales of the City(book 1 of the TOTC series)

TAGS: #book1 #MaryAnnSingleton #ConnieBradshaw #biofamily

Link to the text: Taking the Plunge (starting on page 10) (Scribd membership is required)

Plot summary: The scene opens with Mary Ann Singleton, a 25 year old woman on vacation to San Francsico from Cleveland, Ohio, at the Buena Vista. After fortifying herself with 3 Irish coffees, she calls her mother to let her know that she is going to be staying San Francisco. The conversation does not go well. Mary Anne then calls her old high school classmate Connie Bradshaw (who now lives in SF) to see if she can crash with her while she looks for an apartment.

Cultural Refences:

• The Buena Vista and those Irish Coffees: According to the the website for the Buena Vista Cafe, the San Francisco Irish coffee was first created here in 1952, as an attempt to recreate a memorable drink experienced at the Shannon airport in Ireland, however, according to Wikipedia there are several others places that claim to have invented the drink.
   
• McMillan and Wife - according to Wikipedia, the show was a police drama that aired from 1971-1977 on NBC. The show was set in San Francisco (which might explain why Mary Anne's mother brought up the show in this context) and starred Rock Hudson (who will appear in later books of the TOTC series)
   
• Patty Hearst was kidnapped (at age 20) by the Symbionese Liberation Army, who held her for 19 months. She was later prosecuted for bank robbery and convicted, but later had her sentence commuted by President Jimmy Carter and then she was pardoned by President Clinton.
   
• Top of the Mark is a bar located on the 19th floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill, at the corner of California and Mason streets in San Fransicsco.
   
• The Zodiac Killer was an unidentifed serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960's. Armistead himself was later connected to the case, as he had reported receiving a fan letter which sounded very similar to past communiques from the Killer. The letter was later shown to be from SFPD Dave Toschi, the lead investigator in the Zodiac Killer cases. ---- Here are some video clips from 1978 of Armistead Maupin from KRON TV and the Bay Area TV Archive at SFSU.
   
• 1968 High School yearbook: Assuming that Connie and Mary Anne both graduated from high school the sane year, Mariane would likely have been born in 1950 ir 1951, which makes sense given the text here saying that Connie is 25 years old (in 1976, we learn the year a bit later on in the text). The author was born in 1944, so Armistead is writing about a character who is 6 years younger than he was at the time.

Locations:

• Aquatic Park - is a a park/building complex located near Fisherman's Wharf. Much of it was built as a WPA project in 1936 and today it is part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. I remember this area well, as I walked to it several times on my first trip to San Franscisco when I stayed at the Youth hostel nearby at old Fort Mason.
   
• Fisherman's Wharf Holiday Inn - According to ToursoftheTales.com, the site of the Holiday Inn in 1976 is now Hotel Caza at 1300 Columbus Avenue.
   

My thoughts: This opening scene is one of my favorites because it sounded so much like the awkward conversations I had with my mother after I moved from Oklahoma to the big city of Austin, Texas in 1997.

The opening lines of this scene are so perfect, that I'm going to quote them here:

MARY ANN SINGLETON WAS TWENTY-FIVE YEARS old when she saw San Francisco for the first time.

She came to the city alone for an eight-day vacation. On the fifth night, she drank three Irish coffees at the Buena Vista, realized that her Mood Ring was blue, and decided to phone her mother in Cleveland.

“Hi, Mom. It’s me.”

“Oh, darling. Your daddy and I were just talking about you. There was this crazy man on McMillan and Wife who was strangling all these secretaries, and I just couldn’t help thinking…”

“Mom…”

“I know. Just crazy ol’ Mom, worrying herself sick over nothing. But you never can tell about those things. Look at that poor Patty Hearst, locked up in that closet with all those awful…”

“Mom … long distance.”

Later on the conversation grows more heated, until we get to this cresendo:

Her mother began to cry. “You won’t come back. I just know it.”

“Mom … please . . I will. I promise.”

“But you won’t be … the same!”

“No. I hope not.”

Mary Ann's zinger at the end of this exchange gives insight into what is motivating her move, but also what is to come. Mary Ann as a character will be a strong, driven person throughout the series, sometimes nervous, but in the end she always musters up her courage to "get what she wants" (to quote Anna Madrigal)

Of course, Mary Ann's escape from Cleveland is not yet complete, because she will first be reconnecting with her old high school classmate, Connie Bradshaw from the "Friendly Skies of United."

Overall, I love this opening. Armistead gives enough important details, but only just enough, which keeps the narrative moving forward in a brisk way.