The primary
character is none other than Los Angeles evangelist, Aimee Semple
McPherson, who built Angelus Temple across from Echo Park Lake,
not far from downtown Los Angeles. Here she presented illustrated
sermons like her Christmas sacred opera "Bells of Bethlehem"
- her musical nativity drama.
As a child,
I always wanted to go and see her productions. I had an aunt
who was said to have neglected her own family in order to be
at the temple in Sister Aimee's presence. That Aimee was charismatic,
a Hollywood personality, there was no doubt. She was the perfect
incarnation of old time revival religion mixed with movie capitol
glamour. Not only did she cut a dashing figure onstage, she
was also fascinating on daily broadcast sermons on her own radio
station.
When she
went swimming near Venice, California on May 18, 1926 and vanished,
the press went wild. Had she drowned? Where was the body? Thirty-two
days later the body walked out of the desert in Arizona "after
escaping kidnappers who had tortured and drugged her and held
her for ransom in Mexico". The story was never proved nor disproved
in a court of law. Adding to the mystery, there were no signs
of physical mistreatment, the Mexican shack was never located
and Aimee reappeared fully clothed rather than in her swim suit.
Such colorful
material provided Susan Simpson with grist for her puppet show
using seven life-size wooden puppets carved from one basswood
tree, a complicated rig of white metal pipes, pulleys, and hooks
from which the puppets were sometimes suspended. and thirteen
actors and puppeteers. The result, especially for those in the
audience who remember Sister Aimee, was fascinating ritual theater.
The inevitable pauses from such technical requirements, such
as hooking and unhooking the puppets was effectively choreographed
and strengthened the ritual sense of it all. A puppet could
change or exchange character by the simple change of a wig and
there were two human actresses portraying Aimee as well - a
great poetic device since the show raises the questions, "who
was the real Aimee, what really happened after that fateful
swim and what attracted so many followers?" Many of the pat
answers could be superficial - and here the puppet costumes,
designed like paper doll clothes, underline the superficial
element.
