Wheeling Film Society (noon) and Eric Wittenberg (7 pm)

Apr. 24 - Towngate at 7, Screening: The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985) - 82 mins. Apr. 28 - Library at Noon, Conversation: The Purple Rose of Cairo

John Whitehead

Woody Allen’s hybrid of romantic comedy and fantasy set in 1935 in a small, Depression-gripped New Jersey town, centers on Cecilia, who prefers the movies to her real life with an abusive, out—of-work husband. One of the two movies she goes to see during the film is Top Hat; the other is an equally frothy Hollywood confection, set in Egypt and Manhattan, called The Purple Rose of Cairo. Cecilia becomes unusually absorbed in this movie: one of the characters literally comes down from the screen to meet and fall in love with her, and eventually takes her back into his luminous black-and-white world of nightclubs and penthouse apartments. Allen has long maintained that this comes closest of all his films to accomplishing exactly what he’d set out to make.




And at 7 PM: People's University: The Civil War 1865 & the Lincoln Legacy

Phil Sheridan Reexamined

“Five Feet Four Will Do In a Pinch” – A Reassessment of Phil Sheridan. This class will examine the successes, failures and questionable character of General Phil Sheridan, focusing on his involvement in the closing days of the Civil War.

Instructor: Eric J. Wittenberg

Eric Wittenberg

Eric J. Wittenberg has a BA from Dickinson College and an MA and JD from the University of Pittsburgh. An attorney and Civil War historian, he is the author of 16 books and numerous articles on Civil War cavalry operations. His articles have appeared in North & South, Blue & Gray and many other journals. Eric regularly travels the country to lecture on the war, and he is frequently asked to lead Civil War battlefield tours. Battlefield preservation work is very important to him and he maintains a well-regarded blog, “Rantings of a Civil War Historian.”