June 19–26, 1997

book quarterly

Oh, Savannah!

By Harriette Behringer

The Hall-Mercer House.

It doesn't look like things will ever get back to normal in this sweet Georgia town.

Of course, Savannah already experienced a sea of change after publication of John Berendt's book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil — topping 150-plus weeks on the best-seller lists.

And then the movie came along. The crew making the Warner Bros. film based on Midnight, headed up by director Clint Eastwood, arrived in town in late April and left only a few days ago for Hollywood to complete the shoot.

"Clint works without hoopla," said Jenny Stacy of the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau in an interview before the filmmakers left. She's not upset by The Book, as locals call it, although it portrays a sleazy side of Savannah and originally embarrassed the upper crust. "Every city should have a book like it," Stacy added.

"This filming means millions in the short-term," said Steve Thomas, business editor of the Savannah Morning News. "Hiring extras, renting equipment, fees for shoots in local houses, hotel and restaurant business — but the long-term bonanza is far greater. We'll see countless millions of dollars in increased tourist activity."

It had happened before, on a smaller scale. "We went through all this last spring when Gingerbread Man was filmed here. We love Hollywood," said Stacy.

Who's playing whom in Midnight? Rumors clogged the air before the casting was announced, but now it's well-known: Kevin Spacey is playing Jim Williams, the antique dealer accused of murdering his part-time lover; John Cusack will portray John Berendt; and Lady Chablis will play her drag queen self. Actually, Chablis is Benjamin Edward Knox, born in Quincy, FL, in 1957, according to her 1996 autobiography, The Lady Chablis: Hiding My Candy, written with Theodore Bouloukos (Pocket Books).

Although the film (slated to open at the end of this year) made a huge difference to this 264-year-old city, vast changes had already occurred since the 1994 publication of Midnight. For example, there are six "The Book" tours: self-guided walking, carriage, Greyline bus, and the best, Hospitality tours by minivan. Be aware that you can't enter any of the houses mentioned in The Book except one, the Hamilton-Turner Mansion at 330 Abercorn St., owned by the character Mandy, Nancy Hillis in real life, who sometimes greets tourists in person. (Allison Eastwood, Clint's daughter, will play her in the movie.) A local gossip told me, "The house is a wreck. She's trying to sell it."

Everyone has a comment or connection with The Book. When we asked a cab driver if it was true that some people hated it, he replied, "Oh, the only ones who hated it were the ones whose names weren't in it."

We went to a Savannah Symphony concert, and when the taxi we ordered failed to materialize, a kindly, round-faced policeman offered to drive us back to the Hyatt in his squad car. And what a policeman!

"I was the chief homicide officer investigating the murder [of Jim Williams' hustler lover, Danny Hansford — Williams went free after four trials]."

"Williams hired me during my off hours as a security guard at his big parties. I wore a tuxedo and kept an eye on his guests. He had two Christmas parties, one for influentials and one for gays," he said.

"Williams was a nice man and was respected by everyone."

After he died in 1990, his Mercer House mansion was occupied by his sister, Dorothy Kingery. She is still there, reputedly writing a book which will surely piggy-back on Midnight.

Memories of piano-playing lawyer and real estate broker Joe Odom, one of The Book's most colorful characters, still abound. We read his "rule for drinking" in the Savannah Morning News."Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen."

Miss Gloria, another Book character, catered for Odom, according to her former employer, the owner of The Lady and Sons, an authentically Southern collard greens and turnip greens restaurant near City Market.

"Gloria was 4 feet 10 inches tall and about as round. When she was hospitalized for a stroke, later fatal, Berendt came to see her in the hospital and had their picture taken together," she said.

Everybody has a story — and something to sell.

Some items are schlock. How about a chocolate statue of the Bird Girl in Bonaventure Cemetery? Or a T-shirt, refrigerator magnet, costume jewelry, throws or candles with Mercer House pictures on them? More tasteful is a framed photo of the Bird Girl, signed by the photographer, Jack Leigh. He locked himself in the cemetery to take night shots of what became The Book's haunting jacket photo.

But there's more to this city than Midnight...

We arrived in Savannah a few weeks ago.

It is getting late. We check into our Hyatt room, open the curtains, and below us is the Savannah River.

"Any river is more beautiful than anything else I know," says the poet James Dickey.

We go out into the soft evening. We walk along the snaking river, past six blocks of shops, restaurants and bars fronting the water of River Street. Ships' horns sound mournfully. Seagulls cut the sky, dipping and swerving. An immense container ship, cargo stacked in red and orange rectangles like a modern Mondrian, moves to the Atlantic Ocean 18 miles away. Yachts tie up for the night.

Jazz and country music beckon from bars. We go to Dockers for wine, and talk to the first of many locals about their city.

"Tell me about Savannah," I ask our waiter. The young man pulls up a chair and joins us.

"How ya' doin'? My name is Geoff. I'm from Philadelphia, too. I came down here to visit my brother and never went back. Nobody walks fast like in Philadelphia. It's peaceful here, and it's beautiful."

The next day we leave the waterfront and walk into the town which Conde Nast travel magazine calls "one of America's most beautiful cities." And it is.

James Oglethorpe settled the place in 1733 with a cargo of convicts from England's debtors' prisons. The Ed Bacon of the colony, he was a city planner par excellence, laying out straight streets dotted with 24 squares (parks they are, but that's not the word used here). These are oases of green with fountains, sculptures, Spanish moss and pink azaleas with blossoms big as tennis balls. After naming the colony after King George II, Oglethorpe decreed, "no slavery and no lawyers." Unfortunately, after he returned to England, his laws were forgotten.

Space is too scarce to describe the museums and breathtaking mansions to be seen. There are 1,200 houses rated to be of architectural and historical significance. Walk the historic district, or choose from one of 20 guide operators, offering tours by bus, minivan, trolley, boat or horse-drawn carriage.

We discovered elegant food and hospitality at the Olde Pink House. The 1771 mansion, decorated with paintings of Savannah's founders, is where we met Mr. Hospitality, Milton Rahn.

We chat with this sparkly eyed, middle-aged local while waiting for a table. We exchange cards.

His eyes pop when he sees my middle name, Rhawn.

"Well, I declare. I do believe we're KIN!" he exclaims.

"Well, I reckon we sure enough are." (I talk Southern because I once lived in Virginia — and we sure enough are kin because descendants of our mutual German ancestor, Caspar Rhawn, emigrated to Philadelphia and to Georgia.)

Another memorable restaurant was Elizabeth on 37th. Elizabeth Terry was named James Beard Best Chef/Southeast in 1995. The menu is as impressive as the setting — a turn-of-the-century mansion with high ceilings and hardwood floors.

And Southern hospitality once more. When Gary, our attentive waiter, overheard my nearsighted husband lament that he had left his reading glasses at the hotel, Gary instantly offered him a pair of glasses, the dimestore kind, but perfectly adequate for menu-reading.

"This is the most hospitable thing that has ever happened to me in a restaurant," said my husband, a world traveler. "This place is truly vaut le voyage."

Yes, I thought, all of Savannah was worth the trip.

That's why we'll return next March for the nation's second largest St. Patrick's Day parade and celebration.

You remember the parade — it was, after all, in The Book.

Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau, (912) 944-0456, fax (912) 944-0468, or write 222 W. Oglethorpe Ave., Savannah, GA 31402.

Savannah Bed & Breakfast Service, (800) 729-7787.

Club One, 1 Jefferson St., Savannah, (912) 232-0200.

Olde Pink House, 23 Abercorn St., (912) 232-4286.

Elizabeth on 37th, 105 E. 37th St., (912) 236-5547.