The Night of January 16th. (original) (raw)

Fifty-five years of January 16ths have come and gone since then, but the lesson taught on January 16, 1957 by Ball High School speech and drama teacher, Arthur Graham, at the old Galveston County Courthouse remain intact to this day with those who were there.

Graham had undergraduate degrees in speech and drama, physiology, and a master�s degree in psychology. He had planned to be a medical doctor, but lack of money had interfered with that.

So after a few years acting off-Broadway in minor legitimate theater productions, he returned to

Galvestonto teach. And he did that at Ball High for the next 33 years.

It troubled him that a lot of students and the public in general were convinced that popularity rather than achievement was almost always the deciding factor in which students reined as the chosen few.

Victor Damiani in 1958
Photo by Bill Cherry

Graham recalled seeing the unusual play that Ayn Rand had written in the late 1930s for the Broadway stage.

It was titled �The Night of January 16th� and it had a clever gimmick, one that hadn�t been used before.

The story was a fictional murder trial. It was performed in a courtroom setting, and the outcome was determined by jury members randomly selected from the audience moments before the curtain rose for the first act.

Rand had written two conclusions, so that whichever verdict the jury turned in, the actors could segue to lines that embraced the proper outcome.

Graham�s version ran two successive nights. He chose co-captain of the Ball High Tors, Bobby Wilkins, to play the defense attorney.

And he picked ROTC Company �C� Guidon Bearer, Victor Damiani, to be the prosecutor.

Speculations ran high among Ball High students. How could Damiani be a match for Wilkins?

After all, the juries for both performances were sure to be picked from audiences of students.

That inferred that no matter which of the attorneys was the better prepared or was the most convincing in his part, the co-captain was certain to beat out the guidon barer.

The first performance, Friday evening, came and all of the actors --- Wilkins, Damiani, Peter Moore, John Rowland, Raleigh Garcia, Peggy Burton, Pat McInerney, Nancy Frederickson, Jean Moreland and Sandra Salinas -� gave credible performances.

The jury gave its verdict. They found the defendant was not guilty.

Damiani and his supporters said they knew that was what would happen. They thought it was pointless to have the second performance.

The defense would surely win the jury�s verdict again.

Graham, though, was betting that something else would happen. And it was the lesson he wanted to teach.

Sure enough, Saturday night�s jury�s verdict went to the prosecutor.

So now it was a tie; one for Wilkins, one for Damiani.

Graham had let students discover for themselves that Wilkins hadn�t won the first night�s verdict because he was the co-captain of the football team. He won because the jury felt he was the more convincing.

And, Damiani, despising his first-night defeat, had spent all day Saturday rehearsing his lines over and over again, with his Aunt Rena as his audience and critic.

When that night�s performance came, he was infinitely more prepared to win than he had been the night before.

As Damiani turned to walk out of the courtroom with his victory, he looked at the large portrait that was in the regal frame and hanging on the rear wall.

He grinned and said under his breath, �How�d you like that, Judge?�

The picture on the wall was that of his cousin, Judge Jules Damiani, Sr., who in years past had presided over many criminal trials in that same courtroom.

January 20 , 2012 column
Copyright William S. Cherry. All rights reserved

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| Galveston Galveston Hotels Bill Cherry, a Dallas Realtor and free lance writer was a longtime columnist for "The Galveston County Daily News." His book, Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories, has sold thousands, and is still available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com and other bookstores. | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |

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