Terry Baum in Hick: A Love Story

HICK: A Love Story
The Romance of Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt

One Night Only!
Saturday, November 22 at 7:30 pm
Arbeter Ring (Workmen’s Circle)
1525 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Info: 310-552-2007

“Hick is a real love story like no other – a compelling, thoroughly researched one-woman show. Terry Baum shares her insights and feelings clearly, honestly, and with passion. A fascinating story that, at last, has come to light.” (San Francisco Examiner)

Tickets are $10 at the door, no reservations, first come first seated.

The smash hit from San Francisco, HICK: A Love Story had a sold-out and critically acclaimed run at the Eureka Theatre in July, and was nominated for a Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Solo Production. Terry has presented her solo performances at Arbeter Ring twice before to much acclaim. In this performance she is joined by Stephanie Satie reading the letters of Eleanor Roosevelt, and stage manager Eric Gordon.

When HICK: A Love Story play opened, few people had ever heard of ER’s “First Friend,” as Lorena Hickok was called by the press. That changed in October with Ken Burns’ television documentary, “The Roosevelts.” Ken Burns acknowledges the friendship but ignores the evidence of a lesbian relationship. As Baum says, “Why would Eleanor write ‘I ache to hold you close’ if they weren’t lovers? I love my women friends, but I’ve never ached to hold them close!”  Baum’s play is based on her research, which included reading everything published by and about Hick, interviewing people who knew her, and poring over original documents in the “Lorena Hickok” files at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York.

Hick was the most famous woman journalist of her day and the first woman to have a byline on the front page of the NY Times. She met ER during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first Presidential campaign in 1932.  She convinced her editor that this particular candidate’s wife was worth her own reporter, and was assigned to the job herself.  The love affair between the patrician First Lady and the charming, hard-living butch reporter lasted several years. Their friendship lasted Mrs. Roosevelt’s lifetime. Hick helped Mrs. Roosevelt become an outspoken, media-savvy activist for democracy and human rights, and one of the greatest women of the 20th century.