Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
DUBUQUE (mentioned in television/movies/book titles etc.)
DUBUQUE (mentioned in television/movies/book titles etc.)
1928: BACK IN OLD DUBUQUE. This was a show tune from a musical in 1928.
1967: DUBUQUE BLUES (SONG) In 1967 “The Association,” one of the 1960s most popular bands, performed in the Locust Street Parking Ramp at a teen dance. Jules Alexander, a member of the band, wrote the tune that was released on an album in 1969. The song sold well locally, but never achieved nationwide popularity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP9Fz69Yin0
1980: "The Lady From Dubuque" by Edward Albee premiered on Broadway and ran for twelve performances.
The play's first act finds three young couples (Sam + Jo hosting Fred + Carol and Lucinda + Edgar) engaging in party games like Twenty Questions. Jo's angry bitterness becomes apparent earlier than its source, which is the terminal disease that tortures her and will soon claim her life. At the end of the act, after the mounting tension drives the guests to leave, Sam carries Jo up to bed. Suddenly, a fourth couple appears from the wings: a glamorous older woman (Elizabeth) and her black companion (Oscar). She asks the audience, "Are we in time? Is this the place?" and answers her own questions: "Yes, we are in time. This is the place." The curtain falls. (1)
In Act One, the recurrent theme of the game was "Who are you?" Now that question becomes more serious, as Sam, shocked by the appearance of these strangers in his house, repeatedly demands that Elizabeth reveal her identity. She eventually insists that she is Jo's mother, come from Dubuque, Iowa "for her daughter's dying". However, Sam knows Jo's mother as a small, balding woman with pink hair, who lives in New Jersey and is estranged from Jo, and Elizabeth is clearly not she. Unfortunately for Sam, who vigorously protests the veracity of Elizabeth's claims, Jo runs into Elizabeth's arms and never questions her appearance or identity. Whoever she and Oscar may—or may not—be, they clearly represent the coming of Death, something familiar and unknown. At the end of the play, Oscar carries the dying Jo upstairs one last time. As the devastated Sam demands once more to learn Elizabeth's true identity, she ends the play with this line: "Why, I'm the lady from Dubuque. I thought you knew. [to the audience] I thought he knew."(2)
Elizabeth's curtain lines, quoted above, both typify the Pirandellian style of the play's dialogue, in which characters frequently make comments directly to the audience. (The first occurs very early, when Jo, observing the Twenty Questions game in progress, looks out at the audience and asks, "Don't you hate party games?") Critical response (3)
Michael Billington, in his review of the 2007 London production, wrote: "...to me the lady from Dubuque is clearly the angel of death: a theory supported by the way the uxorious Sam resists her, while the pain-stricken Jo accepts her warm embrace. As in 'A Delicate Balance', Albee is also offering a metaphor for a decaying civilisation. This is a world where friendship is meaningless, words such as 'liberty' are dismissed as mere semantics, and where the mysterious intruder remarks that 'we're too bewildered to survive' ". (4)
Ben Brantley, in his review of the Off-Broadway 2012 production for The New York Times, wrote: "as David Esbjornson’s crisp production reminds us, the Albee of 'Virginia Woolf' is very much present in 'Dubuque.' For one thing, the little shindig that begins this later play echoes the nasty revels of 'Virginia Woolf,' in which “get the guest” was the favorite parlor game...'The Lady From Dubuque' is an allegory. It’s about what happens when death comes to call, and how we all do our damnedest to turn it away or pretend it isn’t there... the talk may be arch and precious and on occasion ponderous. Mr. Albee can’t help himself. But that dialogue is always impeccably paced." (5)
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Source:
Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_from_Dubuque
1999: DUBUQUE (SONG). In 1999 George Winston released the album "PLAINS YEAR." On track 1 is the piece "Dubuque," another musical tribute for Dubuque by a nationally recognized musical group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdXgvOdJhKI
2009: "Up in the Air" (motion picture)
"Ryan Bingham" (George Clooney) achieves his goal of reaching 10 million air miles over Dubuque, Iowa.
2012: "The Bachelor" (television program) Long speculation ended on March 9, 2015 when Arlington, Iowa farmer, Chris Soules known as "Prince Farming" to his fans chose Whitney over Becca to be his soulmate. The three-hour finale featured scenes of the JULIEN DUBUQUE BRIDGE, the TOWN CLOCK and HOTEL JULIEN DUBUQUE.