Ladue High School (my alma mater, so they say) had a teacher (I would say his field was “American Studies”, although it wasn’t called that) named McMillan Lewis. He was an older gentleman (maybe 55?) and had served one term as a Missouri state senator, so was known as Senator Lewis. This made him sort of a celebrity. He was a character (in a good sense) and considered a good teacher, but I never took a class from him (I don’t know why; it was perhaps a mistake). He was also known as someone who gave the same exam every year, so a good grade was easy to get if you knew someone who took the class previously.

McMillan Lewis was a Princeton graduate. And he wrote a short book, titled Woodrow Wilson of Princeton. A personally inscribed copy of that book can be found in our house. In those days, I didn’t know anyone who had written a real book, so this made him a celebrity in another way.

From these introductory paragraphs, you must think that I am writing a post about Ladue High, or McMillan Lewis, or maybe Woodrow Wilson. But if you thought this, you would be wrong. I am writing this post about the book Babbitt and the stage adaptation that is playing now at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington. And I starting by referring to the Senator, because he got me inured to thinking, as a teenager, that the last name Lewis should be matched with an unusual first name. And Babbit of course was written by Sinclair Lewis. In the 1950s, to me, Sinclair was a brand of gasoline.

Now, I guess I know better. John Lewis. Jerry Lee Lewis. Jerry Lewis. Interestingly, if you go on the website ranker.com (and heaven only knows why you ever would), you can see 75 people named Lewis ranked according to how famous they are. Now, here is a good reason why you should not go to ranker.com: the most famous Lewis is actor Damian Lewis, and I don’t know if I ever even heard of Damian Lewis, much less be able to tell you a film or play he acted in. The Lewises making up the rest of the top 5 are Rudy, Denise, Al and Geoffrey. Ever heard of any of them? (By the way, John is 23, Daniel-Day is 28, Jerry Lee is 30, and Jerry is 64.) Ranker.com? Bah.

Back to Babbitt. I have not read the book, but after seeing the play last weekend, I trekked out to Second Story Books Warehouse in Rockville, knowing that they would have a copy. After all, they have (so they say, and who’s not to believe them?) more than 500,000 books under one roof. I found copies of many Sinclair Lewis books (Main Street, Cass Timberlane, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth, Arrowsmith) but no Babbitt (and no It Can’t Happen Here).

George Babbitt (played by Matthew Broderick) is a proud, civic minded Republican real estate agency owner in a small Midwestern town. If he lived today, instead of in 1920, he would be a supporter of Donald Trump, no doubt, mainly because most of the folks in his town would be for Donald Trump, and he was certainly not one to have any original ideas. Babbitt had always lived in that town, had gone to the state university with most of the people of his age who were his neighbors, and – as a student – had shown initiative and promise (he had been a champion orator), all of which had been forgotten as he had struggled to make a living to satisfy his wife and two teenage children. He certainly has not made a name for himself.

But he is encouraged by an old friend to make a speech at the local Rotary (I think Rotary) Club in support of the Republican candidate for mayor (he is running against a “socialist”, who was also a college classmate and former friend of Babbitt’s) and his old oratorical skills come to the fore. Suddenly, Babbitt is a celebrity, someone to look up to, outshining even the candidate that he is supporting.

But then, Babbitt needs a political favor (a friend has been jailed for shooting his wife, and Babbitt wants the governor to pardon him, which never happens, by the way), so he goes to the governor’s close ally, Babbitt’s old socialist friend now running for mayor. The candidate agrees to contact the governor (maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t), but only if Babbitt throws him his support, and starts using his speaking prowess to convince the Republicans to vote for a socialist. Babbitt agrees.

For the first time, Babbitt is acting against the interest of those people whose support and friendship he had always valued most, and he seems to become committed to his new found leftist positions. Yet something happens – his old friends desert him, his wife goes to visit her sister for vacation without end, his family falls apart (and his attempt to strike up a real relationship with a young dance instructor becomes an embarrassment), and not only that, his business – never the strongest – begins to fail.

To save himself, Babbitt must renounce socialism and the mayoral candidate, join the citizens league, and become a Republican once again. Will he do it? After all, Babbitt has tasted “freedom” and he sorta likes it.

The story is over 100 years old now, but it probably could be written today (just add cell phones). The play was engaging, funny, and thought provoking. It was also uniquely staged (but you don’t really care about that, do you?).

Okay. It took me about 20 minutes to write this – 20 minutes that I wasn’t thinking about Trump. Or was I?