A Prairie Home Companion: The Screenplay

by Garrison Keillor, Robert Altman (Foreword by)

Overview

The screenplay of iconic radio host Garrison Keillor’s Robert Altman-directed major motion picture, A Prairie Home Companion, starring Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin.
 
The day of reckoning has come to the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, home of A Prairie Home Companion. The show is closing, the theater is going dark. Station WLT has been sold to a broadcast conglomerate in Texas. The wrecking ball is poised to swing as the regulars—the Johnson Girls, Yolanda and Rhonda, and the singing cowboys, Dusty and Lefty, crooner Chuck Akers, and announcer Garrison Keillor—arrive for the last broadcast in a state of disbelief. But when the Dangerous Woman appears with her Botticellian hair and dazzling white trench coat, the final curtain catches them all by surprise.
 
• Features a foreword by director Robert Altman and an introduction by Garrison Keillor
• Contains an eight-page insert of photos from the movie set

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101118948
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/18/2006
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	186 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Garrison Keillor, author of nearly a dozen books, is the founder and host of the acclaimed radio show A Prairie Home Companion and the daily program The Writer's Almanac. He is also a regular contributor to Time magazine.

Robert Altman (1925–2006) was a renowned director and screenwriter best known for his subversive and genre-bending works, such as Nashville and MASH, that often included large ensemble casts. In recognition for his long career and impactful films, he received the Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2006. He wrote the introduction to Short Cuts, a collection of stories by Raymond Carver that were adapted into the film of the same name directed by Altman.

Hometown:

St. Paul, Minnesota

Date of Birth:

August 7, 1942

Place of Birth:

Anoka, Minnesota

Education:

B.A., University of Minnesota, 1966

Table of Contents

Hello Love

O Captain, My Captain

I Will

Tomato Butt

Barnyard Dance

Casey at the Bat

Rhubarb

Life is a Ballgame

Revival Tent

Calling My Children Home

The Perfect Day

The Warm Welcome

Regina

Carl's Dog Story

Vincent

Pontoon Boat

Goin' Home

The Lake Superior Canyon Project

Cotton-Eyed Joe

Emily Dickinson's Birthday Pizza

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Troublesome Ivories

The Little Match Girl

The Elegance of Winter

Answering Machine

A Kohler Thankgiving

Not the Cheapest Kind

Homecoming

You Drive Me Crazy

Six Minute Hamlet

The Living Flag

Stars and Stripes

Pioneer Waltz

Buddy Holly and the Pharaohs of Rhythm

My Life

Cherry Picker

Graduation Day

Julia

Raccoons

Lover's Waltz

Editorial Reviews

This anthology of material originally presented over the past 25 years on Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion radio show on Minnesota Public Radio is a delight from start to finish. The last cassette alone, which is a compilation of songs from various musical groups who have appeared on the show and the cast of the show, would make this production worth purchasing. But the stories from Lake Wobegon and other reminiscences by Keillor are equally wonderful vignettes of life in the Midwest. If there are natives of the region who may object to the author's often comical characterizations of the denizens of the "town that time forgot," they should just get over it and realize that Keillor is writing about small-town life in Anywhere, U.S.A., and lovingly at that. The stories range from the remarkably moving "Truckstop," about an elderly couple who become separated on a road trip, to the hilarious "Clarence Cleans His Roof," which taps into the hazards of the formidable winter weather of the Midwest. It is clear that careful selection was made of the stories to be included, from the many they could have chosen, to assure not only high quality but also balance in the anthology. Highly recommended.--Mark Pumphrey, Polk Cty. P.L., Columbus, NC Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal