{"id":16596,"date":"2022-12-11T11:14:16","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T11:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/11\/mark-twain-takes-the-stage-all-things-cruise\/"},"modified":"2022-12-11T11:14:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T11:14:16","slug":"mark-twain-takes-the-stage-all-things-cruise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/11\/mark-twain-takes-the-stage-all-things-cruise\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Mark Twain’ takes the stage \u2013 All Things Cruise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When Lewis Hankins dons his white swimsuit to take the stage as Mark Twain, he has a long-time routine. Before greeting his viewers, Lewis says a easy prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say, \u2018David, this is for you. Daddy has never forgotten you.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Lewis got here to be on stage as his favourite writer appears to be an act of future. The retired Kentucky state policeman grew up studying Twain\u2019s works. He delved deeply into the life born as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who selected the pen identify of Mark Twain to change into referred to as the daddy of American Literature.<\/p>\n

Before lengthy, Lewis\u2019 siblings \u2013 who have been academics \u2013 persuaded him to speak to their lessons in regards to the writer. \u201cThen I started dressing up as Mark Twain whenever I would be invited to talk about him,\u201d he says. \u201cOne thing just led to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis grew to become so immersed \u201cthat I sometimes think I know Samuel Clements better than I know myself,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cWe are kindred spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was a tragedy in his personal life that made him really feel even nearer to the famed writer. Lewis\u2019 younger son David was recognized with leukemia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to keep it from him that he was dying,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cHow do you tell a child that he is dying?\u201d<\/p>\n

But sooner or later, David introduced up the topic himself. \u201cHe asked me if I would forget him if he died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taken aback, Lewis answered his son\u2019s query with one in every of his personal. \u201cI asked him if he would forget me if I died.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the boy answered that he would always remember his father \u2013 it doesn’t matter what occurred, Lewis replied that he felt precisely the identical about his son.<\/p>\n

The oldest of Lewis\u2019 three sons, eight-year-old David died in 1971.<\/p>\n

Finding solace in Twain\u2019s writings\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Devastated past perception, Lewis discovered solace in Twain\u2019s writings. In personal life, Twain had suffered overwhelming sorrows. The lack of his solely son in infancy. Daughter Susy died from spinal meningitis. Daughter Joan drowned in her bathtub because of an epileptic seizure. The loss of life of his spouse who was his fixed companion preyed closely upon Twain\u2019s thoughts.<\/p>\n

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Lewis Hankins speaks within the first particular person as Mark Twain.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe wrote that, \u2018I know now what the soldier feels like when a bullet crashes through his heart,\u2019\u201d Lewis says. \u201cWhat impressed me was that he could use simple words to express his grief. He captured my emotions exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 1989, Lewis stepped aboard a Delta Queen Company riverboat in his three-piece Mark Twain white swimsuit and spent the following 19 years entertaining and educating passengers.<\/p>\n

8 Night \u2013 Memphis to St. Louis \u2013 American Queen<\/a><\/p>\n

Then the unthinkable occurred. The three sister boats \u2013 the Delta Queen, the Mississippi Queen and the American Queen \u2013 have been abruptly gone from the river.<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed it so much,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cWhen I heard that the American Queen was going to be back on the river, I wept. It represents a period of America history that once was and is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

On our American Queen cruise, Lewis stepped on the stage within the Grand Saloon to talk from his coronary heart \u2013 with out notes. Simple props embrace a lectern, wing again chair and desk with a bottle of bourbon whiskey.<\/p>\n

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A easy stage setting embrace a bottle of bourbon and Mark Twain books.<\/em><\/p>\n

In his mid 80s with a mass of white hair framing his face and a wavy white moustache, Lewis appears strikingly like Mark Twain. When he opens his mouth and speaks within the first particular person as Twain, the result’s riveting.<\/p>\n

Sharing Twain\u2019s phrases<\/strong><\/p>\n

For nearly an hour, Lewis recites traces from Twain\u2019s writing, brings loud laughs and ends his program with the writer\u2019s phrases about his impending loss of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came in with Halley\u2019s Comet in 1835,\u201d Lewis solemnly recited Twain\u2019s phrases. \u201cIt is coming once more subsequent 12 months and I count on to exit with it. It would be the biggest disappointment of my life if I don\u2019t exit with Halley\u2019s Comet.<\/p>\n

The Almighty has stated, little doubt: \u2018Now here are these two unaccountable freaks. They came in together. They must go out together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Twain\u2019s prediction was correct He died of coronary heart failure on April 21, 1910, sooner or later after the comet\u2019s closest method to Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1910,\u201d Lewis concluded, \u201cI took man\u2019s most valuable possession, which is his last breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2018Mark Twain\u2019 visits with American Queen passenger Logan Peters.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos by Jackie Sheckler Finch<\/p>\n

Ed. Notes:\u00a0See cruises right here:<\/p>\n

American Queen Voyages Cruises<\/a><\/p>\n

American Queen Cruises<\/a><\/p>\n

8 Night \u2013 Memphis to St. Louis \u2013 American Queen (cruisecompete.com)<\/a><\/p>\n

See cruises right here> CruiseCompete and its member journey advisors present many curated cruise and land offers, affords and facilities on over 50 cruise traces with over 500 cruise ships crusing all all over the world.\u00a0Browse Cruise Ships and Cruise Lines<\/a><\/p>\n

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