- [Jim] They met in St. Louis.

They wrote in St. Louis.

And what they started here would take them to Broadway.

But while Tennessee Williams has stood the test of time, why not the other Pulitzer prize winner?

- [Henry] In the 1950s, Inge was the more celebrated playwright.

- [Jim] The Dred Scott Case went down in history.

And now there are plans to erect a new Memorial to the hundreds of others who fought for their freedom in the old courthouse.

- [Judge] I felt that the city of St Louis needs to honor this history.

- [Jim] And fighting for his life, a story of the history that is being written today.

- And then 48 hours later, I got the result and it said positive and blew me away.

- [Jim] It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(jazz music) - I'm Jim Kirchherr.

And we're gonna start off with some literary history, actually, quite a bit of literary history.

I mean after all, two of America's most prominent post-war playwrights emerged from this city.

They both have stars here on the walk of fame, but while just about everybody's familiar with Tennessee Williams, a lot of folks would probably have to stop to read about William Inge.

The two men first met here in St. Louis, and they knew each other well.

They were friends and sometimes rivals.

- There's no doubt that Inge was in some ways, if we just look at their work in the 1950s, that Inge was the more celebrated playwright.

- Henry Schvey is a drama professor at Washington University where Tennessee Williams had been a student and were later Inge was an English instructor.

During his years in St. Louis, he was writing and developing the work and style that would take him to Broadway.

Inge wrote a string of successful Broadway plays that were made into Hollywood films.

"Come back, Little Sheba", "Picnic", "Bus Stop", "Dark at the Top of the Stairs", and his Oscar winning screenplay for "Splendor in the Grass."

How come we don't know him better?

How come Tennessee Williams is this?

I don't mean just in St. Louis.

Everybody knows about Tennessee Williams.

I think, I think William Inge has sort of faded away a little bit.

- Yes.

- [Jeff] Maybe not in your world of drama.

- No.

Well, even in my world of drama I mean, how often are Inge's plays produced?

Not often.

- [Jeff] In early 2020, the Webster Conservatory did stage "Picnic".

It set in a small Midwestern town.

The characters include the local beauty queen, her tomboy sister, the rich young man, the spinster school teacher with a drinking problem, the hunky drifter who enters their lives.

Molly Burris played beauty queen match.

- Well, I mean, I re-read "Picnic" when we were doing the auditions and I finished it and I went, "Oh, okay."

(laughs) I was like, this show is dated.

You know, it's got some tropes.

But then I have a very, very deep love and appreciation for the character.

- [Jeff] It was because of these kinds of plays, the settings, the characters, the themes that William Inge became known as the playwright of the Midwest.

William Andrew was born in the town of Independence, Kansas in 1913.

His father was a traveling salesman.

His mother ran their home as a boarding house for unmarried women school teachers.

He was a smart, talented kid.

He was teased by fellow school boys as a sissy.

He was a collector of movie star photographs and he liked to perform for the adults.

In college, he wanted to be an actor but he ended up teaching, first in a high school, and then for five years at Stevens College in Columbia, Missouri.

He began to do some writing, but not seriously.

And he wasn't happy there.

For much of his life, William Inge was filled with self-doubt and depression.

- And he turned fairly early on to alcohol as a way of dealing with that.

- For much of his life, Inge would undergo psychiatric treatment.

And he was, as you pretty much had to be back then, a closeted homosexual.

It was something he had difficulty coming to terms with, something that increased his sense of isolation.

In 1943, Inge made the move that opened all kinds of new opportunities.

He was hired to be the arts critic for the St. Louis Star Times.

Reviewing plays, concerts, movies, exhibits, even the Ice-Capades.

St. Louis was really the first big city he lived in.

The first place with a large underground gay community.

It was in many ways liberating.

He was free from teaching.

He was writing for a living, and was immersed in the theater world.

But he was still drinking too much.

His coworkers knew little about his private life.

They saw, he was a hard worker.

They noticed the hangovers.

Inge and Tennessee Williams met for the first time here, where Inge had an apartment north of downtown.

It was 1944 and Tennessee Williams had already happily left St. Louis behind.

But he would come back to visit his mother.

And he was here on his way to Chicago for the pre-Broadway opening of the "Glass Menagerie".

Williams came to Inge's apartment to be interviewed for a story that would run in the St. Louis Star Times, and immediately they hit it off.

Yeah, they were both gay and biographers generally agree, they had a physical relationship at some point but it was more than that.

They had a lot of shared interests, art, music, theater, and similar family backgrounds.

- They both were peculiar kids, but whereas Williams, in some ways, embraced his difference.

Inge always felt unhappy.

- In late December of 1944, Inge went to Chicago to see the opening of his new friends play.

The "Glass Menagerie" was Tennessee Williams' Semi-autobiographical work set in St. Louis.

And seeing that play was a turning point in Inge's life.

- And I think that was a kind of thunderclap and it signaled to Inge, maybe this is possible, even though there was not a lot of separation in terms of age between the two, there was a kind of role model.

And he must of felt, Inge must of felt, if Williams can do this, maybe, just maybe, I can too.

- [Jim] By the time "Glass Menagerie" opened on Broadway, just a few months later, William Inge had already completed his own first play "Farther off From Heaven".

Tennessee Williams connected Inge with his agent who felt the play was good but not good enough for Broadway.

But it would be staged in Dallas, and Inge would later rework it into "Dark at the Top of the Stairs".

His next play "Front Porch" was put on in St. Louis.

This play would become the basis for "Picnic".

And in fact, elements of most of his successful work on Broadway really first began to take shape in those years in St. Louis.

As Inge began to focus on his writing, he lost his job at the Star Times to a returning veteran.

And was hired here at Washington University as an English instructor.

But he really now saw himself as a playwright.

He joined alcoholics anonymous, and he was determined, desperate really, to succeed.

He sent another play to New York.

He said at the time, if the play doesn't make it, I'm through.

The play was "Come Back Little Sheba" and it did make it.

This was his ticket out of teaching, and out of St. Louis and he left for New York.

"Come Back Little Sheba" was followed by "Picnic" which had one of its pre-Broadway openings here in St. Louis with a young Paul Newman in the cast.

"Picnic" would win the 1953 Pulitzer prize for drama.

Just as Williamson had done, Inge was drawing on his own life experiences.

The small town, characters dealing with alcoholism, and repressed sexuality, aging, discontent.

These were people.

These were things.

He knew firsthand.

- We were asked that at a talk back.

You know, which character do you think William Inge wrote for himself?

And we kind of came to the conclusion that every character in "Picnic" has sort of a representation of Inge.

- [Jim] After "Picnic" two more successful Broadway plays would follow.

And at the 1962 Academy Awards an Oscar.

But by the mid 1960s, neither William Inge nor Tennessee Williams would achieve the critical or popular success of their early works.

But Williams rolled with the punches, became a literary star, embraced his celebrity.

Inge struggled, deeply affected by failure and criticism.

And the playwright of the Midwest was beginning to be written off as the playwright of the 1950s.

- For better or worse, Inge's career is perceived.

Not that he stopped writing.

But perceived as being framed by that single decade.

And so we associate him with fifties values.

- First of all, I mean, it brings a lot of comfort.

Shows like "Picnic" because people can kind of sit back and relax and just escape away to a different place.

And, but I don't necessarily think still that "Picnic" is a very like new and innovative and thought provoking show that should be produced as like a revival on Broadway.

- [Jim] Other Pulitzer prize winning plays from the same era have had more staying power than "Picnic".

Tennessee Williams's "Streetcar Named Desire".

Arthur Miller's "Death of the Salesman".

But while Inge's plays may not have aged well, in his time he was at the top.

He'd achieved the success, fame, fortune, but not the happiness he pursued.

Always a loner.

In the end, he felt a failure struggling with drugs and depression.

In 1973, shortly after his 60th birthday, William Inge committed suicide.

The playwright of the Midwest is buried in his hometown of Independence, Kansas.

In different ways, St. Louis helped shape two of the most successful playwrights of post-war America.

And it was here their paths crossed, and this place and that relationship, especially for William Inge, changed everything.

He went on to establish a solid reputation that was built on a very fragile foundation.

There are plaques and monuments and statues all over this city.

Some have recently been removed but that's not what this story is about.

It's about a new memorial, not dedicated to somebody famous but to people whose names are not familiar to us.

For some time now, there's been an effort to honor people who fought for their freedom here in St. Louis.

Some won, some lost.

Gabrielle Hayes has the what, the why, the where, most importantly the who of the story.

- [Gabrielle] You may know the story of Dred and Harriet Scott, and their quest for freedom.

- The Dred Scott Case was essentially taught to law students as a one-off case.

- [Gabrielle] But the truth is, it wasn't an isolated case.

- You didn't know there were more lawsuits just like it.

- [Gabrielle] In fact, court documents show before their story, there were more than 300 stories just like it.

- It let me know, not only what we endured, how strong, how heroic a slave had to be in order to fight for their freedom.

- [Gabrielle] Judge David Mason is at the forefront of the Freedom Suits project, an initiative seeking not only to uncover these stories but to make sure they are not forgotten.

- Because when you think about it, for me, it sometimes makes me want to cry.

- [Gabrielle] Historians say about 40% of slaves who sued, won.

But that also meant many did not.

And retribution was brutal.

- The whole range of things would occur.

Probably those who were beat are probably happy that, that's all that happened.

But many were sold to plantations in Louisiana and Mississippi.

These were plantations that had a national reputation for being very harsh to slaves.

I can't imagine how horrible it could be because the slave master will certainly wanna make sure they punish the slave enough to put down any other slave, that would have the nerve to go into court and sue them.

- [Gabrielle] It's a chapter of our history Mason is working to preserve with the Freedom Suits Memorial.

- I felt that the city of St Louis needs to honor this history.

And that's what led me to say, look, you know, we need to have a memorial to this.

- Carved into this 3D piece art, seems depicting slaves suing for their freedom.

Sculptor, Preston Jackson, created it.

He's an artist who creates for those who can't speak for themselves.

Why is it so important that we not only recognize and own this history, but that we create a space where people can go and remember.

- That monument serves of more than one purpose.

Of course, there's the purpose of memorializing, honoring those who filed those suits, and honoring the courts that entertained those suits.

But it's also important in terms of what that monument stands for.

It stands for the proposition that our courts even today must be courts that are open to every citizen no matter what their station in life.

- Judge Mason says on July 29th, this base will transform into the Freedom Suits Memorial.

Assembled to remind us of where we come from.

But a space to make sure we never forget.

- On, I think the date is July the 29th, which is the date of the final ratification of 14th amendment.

- What do you want your community to know?

What do you want people to walk away with when they learn this story?

- I'm glad you said that I want them to walk away with the fact that the slave was not just a victim, caught up in a whirlwind of abuse.

That we were in fact very proud people.

We were a strong people.

We were a people who had our African culture stripped from us, where we developed an African slave culture that has become the black American culture.

So there's the recognizing the past, but it's also educating the present in order to enhance the future.

- Finally, a couple of stories about this pandemic, which most of us are living through, while too many others have not.

Anne Marie Berger has the story of one man who found himself fighting for his life like never before.

- [Anne Marie] We celebrated the new year with visions of a vaccine and dreams of COVID-19 in the rear view mirror.

But COVID and all the stress and restrictions that go with it is just as present this year as it was last year.

And that's why this man's story is so important now.

- My name is Ken Rich, and I tested positive for COVID on November 14th.

I'm 55 years old.

I'm a very active individual, health, fitness and nutrition are very important to me.

I'm a workaholic and a workout-aholic.

So I work out about five times a week.

I have no pre-existing conditions.

As a matter of fact, in September, when I turned 55, I asked my doctor for a stress test just to get a baseline.

I got kicked off the treadmill during my stress test because I couldn't get my heart rate up enough for them.

- [Anne Marie] After a few days of yard work, Ken noticed his seasonal allergies were flaring up.

All the normal remedies weren't working.

And after his ear started throbbing, he took himself to urgent care, to treat a simple ear infection.

- And I went in there and they took my temperature, and they said, "Oh, you have 101.4, you must really feel bad."

And I'm like, I have a fever?

I go, no, my ear just hurts.

They said, we have to COVID test you.

I'm like, that's fine, I just need to see a doctor because my ear hurts.

I was convinced that I didn't have COVID.

I was actually convinced the thermometer at urgent care was wrong.

And then 48 hours later, I got the result and it said positive and blew me away.

I just thought I had an ear infection.

(soft music) And I had worked so hard to do everything right.

And I started beating myself up a little bit forgetting the fact that this is an airborne virus, it's a pandemic, you know.

I was feeling like I did something wrong.

And I didn't, you know, I did my best.

And, but I found it very emotional.

And then I hated making the phone calls, but I was like, I gotta call everyone I'd been around.

And it was, I felt terrible.

Because I didn't wanna be the person that did that to somebody.

But you know what people don't have, you have to let people know.

So it was, it was a bit emotional.

- [Anne Marie] spent a few days with chills and sweats, rollercoaster fevers, then his oxygen levels began to decline and he struggled to breathe.

After about a week of fighting COVID at home, Ken was admitted to the hospital.

- I had one fear though the whole time.

And that was, I didn't want to be put on a respirator.

And I haven't shared this with many people.

I was having a conversation with a cousin of mine a couple of months ago, and we were just talking about death.

And I said, you know, I've never really been, I've always been afraid of getting the disease that might cause death.

I said, but I've never been scared of dying.

It's something that happens to everybody.

So maybe it's not that bad when it happens.

We're all gonna do it.

I said, but you never gonna know until you're in the situation.

That was two months ago.

And so I re-ran that conversation in my head when I was in the hospital, but my answer was still the same.

I wasn't afraid of that, but I was afraid of the respirator.

You know, that's part of the process I guess, that was the part that scared me.

- [Anne Marie] Ken says he's always been a positive person, but never really understood the power of positivity until he found himself hospitalized with COVID-19.

- Every morning, I would grab my cell phone and take a selfie of myself, smiling.

And I texted it out to my family and a few friends just to, a, let them know I was okay.

And, and then B, I'd get positive responses back.

The positive stuff I got back encouraged me to keep doing the things I was doing.

- [Anne Marie] Ken spent eight days in the hospital with bilateral pneumonia.

He never did require a respirator.

He was released with an oxygen tank in tow.

- Am I going to have any extended health issues?

I don't know.

My doctors sound very encouraging based on how I'm healing that I should be okay.

But I, I don't know if I have to kick off 2021 with a trip to a pulmonologist or a cardiologist or any of that.

There's a lot of, there's a lot of unknowns.

- [Anne Marie] Ken doesn't know how he got COVID, but he did, despite doing all the right things.

He does know it's important to protect one another.

- People to be courteous of one another.

And, and just the social distancing and wearing a mask.

Maybe you don't like wearing a mask, but you know what maybe just do it to help somebody else.

And maybe, you know, I mean, you may be saying, well it's not gonna stop me from getting it.

Maybe it'll stop you from giving it to somebody else, you know, to your own parent or grandparent, or the stranger just walking by in a grocery store.

So we're all gonna get through it.

But I think everybody has to work together to get through it.

- [Jim] In so many ways we are living through historic times.

Public health, science, politics, and they're connected.

A couple of years ago, we met Washington University's Dr. Michael Kinch, a scientist, and historian.

Back then, we were talking about his book on the history of vaccines and the fear of, and opposition to vaccines.

What's happening today is just the latest chapter in a long story.

And despite all the COVID 19 cases and death toll, Dr. Kinch says, anti-vaccine sentiments are alive and well.

- I mean that, this is nothing new.

New vaccines are consistently viewed with considerable skepticism because they're generally very new.

- Do you feel the current pandemic is actually strengthening the skepticism and anti-vaccine feeling?

- I do.

And in large part it's, it's arguably less the pandemic and more the fact that this pandemic happened to occur during an election cycle.

And everything about this particular pandemic seems to have been politicized.

From masks to vaccines and just everything in between.

And so again, I think that if we look back at the longer arc of history we see that these sorts of events tend to be short term.

And, and we will hopefully return soon to a place where we have more trust both in science and in authorities, and that anti-vaccine feeling will start to go away.

- But you think the skepticism is going to make this last longer than it could have.

- It absolutely will.

And I think all of the evidence, both from this pandemic and past pandemics, verify that.

- As you know, mistakes have been made in the past, in the medical community, in the science community.

It seems to me that a bad batch or an unexpected side effect could really have an impact on this overall debate.

- Absolutely.

And that's why I've been pushing for the last nine months, since really the pandemic was recognized as being such.

That scientists, physicians, all levels of society, we have to be fully transparent in the information that's out there.

For example, we don't know how long the vaccine will last, how long the protective of that effect will last, is this going to be months or years?

And that's frankly an unknown.

Likewise, there is no reason to believe that there are long-term toxicities, but should they arise from the vaccine we need to be transparent about that.

- But in the scientific community, in their effort to communicate, have they been doing a good job, have mistakes been made?

- I think they've been doing the best job under sort of the crisis conditions, but there've been a number of unanticipated and unnecessary mistakes.

In early, very prominent example that will probably haunt us for years to come pertains to the question of masks.

In the early days it was advised that people not wear masks.

And the reason for that was that we needed to keep the specialized masks, these N95 masks available for medical professionals.

Well, what we miscommunication, quite frankly, was that masks don't do any good.

And we know, and we could anticipate, even a year ago, that masks do good.

But we sent the wrong signal and then people were confused.

And at some point this became politicized.

And from there it was a lost cause.

And there are other examples where I think we'll look back and say we could have done a better job.

The vaccine itself, the campaign to discover it was truly I would argue more important than the Apollo project.

They're more impressive than the Apollo project.

Given the timeframe of which this was done.

- [Narrator] And here are five things to know about Operation Warp Speed.

- But the decision to name this operation, Warp speed, was a tremendous mistake, because that unintentionally conveyed to the public that this was going to be done irrationally.

And so that is something that I think, you know, if we could take that back, that would be, that would be high on my list.

- Yeah, it seems to me, however it is, if we were to talk a year from now, we would either be talking about an amazing success which perhaps goes to the plus side of science in the medical community, or a, I won't say a terrible failure, but falling short, which would be a plus side for those who are arguing in the, the anti-vaccine movement.

- And I think the next few months are going to make that decision as to whether this is gonna be viewed successfully or not.

There's nothing wrong with having skepticism.

There's nothing wrong with asking questions.

I think the key is can we deliver information that is believable, that is accurate and that intended to save people's lives.

And, and I'm confident that we can, but again we've gotta get past this political association and other sort of negative connotations that have been really demeaning, both science and vaccines in particular for the last many years.

So efficient communication, both of what we know and what we do not know is gonna be essential over the next months and years.

We, you know, lives quite literally depend upon our doing this properly and doing this right.

- Dr. Michael Kinch, thank you for joining us.

I appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- And that's "Living St. Louis".

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jim Kirchherr and we'll see ya next time.

- [Narrator] "Living St. Louis" is made possible by the support of the Mary Ranken Jordan and Ettie A. Jordan charitable foundation.

And by the members of Nine PBS.

(upbeat jazz music)