Sunday, December 1, 2013

Miss Alabama to read from Zelda Fitzgerald's novel Save Me The Waltz at the Fitzgerald Museum January 18.

Chandler Champion, the reigning Miss Alabama, will
give a special reading from Zelda Fitzgerald's novel
Save Me the Waltz.
SELTI and the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum are proud to announce that the reigning Miss Alabama, Chandler Champion, will give a special reading from Zelda Fitzgerald's novel Save Me The Waltz at the museum on Saturday, January 18 at 2:00 p.m. The excerpt will give the audience a sense of what was it like for the young Alabama belle Zelda Sayre to fall in love with Lieutenant F. Scott Fitzgerald during World War I in Montgomery. Scott Fitzgerald was one of many beaus who courted Zelda Sayre while training at Camp Sheridan to go overseas in the war.

In the largely autobiographical novel, Zelda's fictional character "Alabama Beggs" falls in love with the fictional "David Knight," an army lieutenant stationed in her hometown during the war. In the novel, Knight becomes a famous painter in New York, while Fitzgerald became a famous writer in real life. Both the fictional and real couples moved to the French Riviera and Paris before returning home to America.

Miss Alabama's personal community service platform is "Chandler's Challenge: Reading Is Believing . . . Don't Stop Believing," which encourages people to read every day. Both Zelda and Chandler studied ballet, which is a strong theme in Zelda's novel.