Scene Seven
During the BLACKOUT, we hear a sudden blast of raunchy music,
and when the LIGHTS RISE, we see on a screen still projections of Nome,
Alaska in the latter days of the Gold Rush. Everything looks jerry-built
and slushy. The last still we see is of a seedy building with a sign announcing:
RICH BAR SALOON & DANCE HALL. Beneath it is a poster telling us: DIRECT
FROM JUNEAU...MISS TRIXIE DAWN with a photo of a hefty, not-so-young blonde.
A POSSE of GRIZZLED and DRUNKEN MINERS lope across the stage, shouting
and shooting off pistols. THEY exit to the left. A set slides on representing
the inside of the saloon filled with more GRIZZLED MEN and over-painted
WOMEN. Directly up center is a small Victorian stage with gas footlights
and a red velvet curtain. The MINERS we saw march across stage now enter
through the swinging doors to join the others. The orchestra strikes up,
the noise gradually subsides and the curtains part revealing a backdrop
of a street in a small western town---every bit as tacky as the backdrop
we saw in the London theatre. IRENE is now part of a CHORUS of SIX, all
dressed in short black satin costumes with black net stockings. Her hair
is now platinum, she sports a mole on one of her cheeks and looks harder
and older than in the previous scene. CHORUS does a simple, slightly suggestive
dance, and the MEN in the audience stamp and whistle. Spotlights falls
on stage right, and TRIXIE DAWN appears. She wears a low-cut white satin
gown studded with rhinestones, and she resembles the photo in the still,
only heavier and older. But from the attention she receives, she is evidently
a local favorite. She sings in the loud, raucous style of the period.)
