Project Summary

Storyline (of Existing 200+ Pages)

Cora Wylie struggles to raise her large family during the Depression on Minnesota’s Iron Range. Cora’s childrearing is complicated by her hard-drinking, out-of-work husband, Jesse, whose free-wheeling life as a lumberjack is cut short in 1934 due to widespread economic turmoil. Their survival as a family is constantly tested by poverty wages, harsh winters, and daily hardships. Nevertheless, Cora keeps investing in her children, imparting her values, morals, faith, and good humor.

After the accidental shooting death of a young son, Cora learns of an unexpected inheritance from her deceased father that could potentially improve her family’s welfare and security. She also learns that her father’s second wife has illegally denied her all but a pittance of it. With the aid of an unselfish lawyer who guides her through many months of legal battles, Cora seeks justice.

Along the way, she discovers the kind of genuine intimacy with a life partner that she has yearned for and rediscovers her sense of true self — long buried in constant care-taking duties. As the Depression nears an end and 1940s wartime begins, the deepest strivings of a mother bear fruit in her own life and the lives of her loved ones.

Main Characters

Cora Wylie - mother, wife, lover, and practical problem-solver with firm godly ideals

Jesse Wylie - former lumberjack unable to stay employed iron mining; heavy drinker

Ruby Colton - second wife of Cora’s father, runs his successful grocery store after his death, fancies herself First Lady of Duluth

Clement McGraw - lawyer fighting his largest, high-profile case against Ruby; confidant to Cora

Idaho Slim - railroad hobo who makes random visits to Wylie homestead; a singer/poet

Joel Wylie - middle son who accidentally kills his brother; Cora’s dearest challenge

Suzanna Wylie - teen daughter who helps raise kids and leaves home for fashion career in New York & Paris.

Existing TV Format

Scripted for television in two ready-to-shoot 2-hour pilot episodes with future episodes outlined. Historical drama that deals with female leadership, family relationships, marriage/independence, alcohol abuse, money, law and order, life and death, and spiritual values and truths. Both scripts (105 pages each) are available for editorial review.

If interested contact John

John is currently rewriting the above film scripts into book form as a romantic historical novel, and drafting Future Episodes (see below) into chapters.

Pilot Script #1

Cora Wylie, 37, struggles to raise her eight children during the Depression on Minnesota’s rugged Iron Range. Her childrearing is complicated by her hard-drinking, out-of-work husband, Jesse, 40. His freewheeling life as a lumberjack is cut short in 1934 due to economic turmoil and he reluctantly looks for work as a miner in Iron City, after moving his family to a 20-by-20-foot shack in the woods near Iron Creek. Their survival as a family is constantly tested by poverty wages, harsh winters, daily hardships, and Jesse’s bad luck at get-rich-quick gambling schemes.

One day Cora’s 10-year old son, Joel, accidentally shoots and kills his toddler brother while playing Cops and Robbers. Joel’s plunge into despondency tests Cora’s ability to overturn his debilitating shame and guilt. With each of her children, she works to impart her values, morals, faith, and good humor, but with Joel nothing lifts his spirits. Meanwhile, occasional visits from a mysterious hobo named Idaho Slim offer her both diversion (he sings rhapsodies) and delight (his wit shines through his poetic gift of gab). Her childhood love of music is rekindled as well as her spirit of spontaneity and hope in life.

A letter arrives from Cora’s father who invites the family to Duluth, where he owns the town’s most prosperous mercantile company (even in hard times). While the kids enjoy playing in the store, the real reason for the trip becomes apparent when her father, Sam Colton, 70, offers a good-paying job to Jesse. Jesse has refused similar offers in the past and, because of his pride, does so again. Cora gets furious: their hard times are harder than ever and her husband’s thick-headedness about his beloved lumberjacking dooms the family. Cora visits her mother’s grave and laments this loss but Jesse’s mind remains unchanged. Privately, Sam’s second wife, Ruby, 55, is thrilled to see the visitors leave and wishes selfishly that they never return.

Back home in the northwoods, events go from bad to worse. As Jesse’s work life flounders over the next several seasons, a special bond develops between Joel and Cora — the result of her individualized attention and special love. She even makes room for an orphan friend of one of her five sons who rivals Joel in his need for her unconditional love. When news arrives of her father’s death, Cora also learns that her share of his wealthy estate will be only $100. She is devastated. Soon a lawyer arrives from Duluth who cites Ruby’s underhanded altering of the will and champions Cora’s cause to win back her inheritance. (continued in Script #2)

Pilot Script #2

Over the next several months, as a legal battle develops, Cora continues investing in her children. She also supports Jesse’s feeble attempts to stay employed and confronts him about his drinking. He makes efforts to stop but weeks later drinks all the more. The lawyer, Clement McGraw, 40, reappears to develop the Wylies’ legal claim and Jesse rages in jealousy at the well-groomed rival. Throughout all this, Cora retains her sense of humor and quiet faith. And her children love her all the more (we observe each growing up and their individual stories presented in subplots).

The oldest children begin departing home from tiny Iron Creek to seek fortunes in Minneapolis, Chicago, and beyond. On trips to the Duluth courthouse, Cora is accompanied by Joel and some of the middle kids, who observe her efforts to obtain justice but see Ruby’s delays and tricks spoil longed-for results. Meanwhile, Jesse finds work at a WPA forestry camp miles from home where he returns to the outdoor, rugged life he worships — earning only pennies a day, however. Cora feels more abandoned than ever.

Another random visit by the hobo Idaho Slim awakens her inner, forgotten self. His singing liberates the music in her soul and frees her spirit. Challenged daily to the breaking point, Cora has turned into a care-taking machine that meets everyone’s needs while sacrificing her own. The vagrant’s footloose, quixotic lifestyle stirs the brave ideals in her heart and opens up the possibility of new choices for her.

After Jesse’s unfortunate drunken death at a logging camp in 1939, the family reunites. Cora’s quest for her rightful inheritance — fueled by the hope of improving her family’s welfare and security — culminates in a battle of wits and a courtroom showdown with her nemesis, Ruby. When surprise testimony from one of Ruby’s hired hands (the orphan Cora befriended) opens the door to the truth, Ruby reacts rashly and incriminates herself about her altering of the will. Justice prevails and Ruby goes to prison. Cora inherits a huge cash settlement, her father’s thriving business, and ownership of a rare minerals mine. The family makes plans to move to Duluth where Cora inhabits her girlhood home and assumes control of the Colton wealthy assets.

In this historical drama, the deepest strivings of a mother finally bear fruit in her own life and in the lives of her loved ones. As the family’s (and nation’s) depression ends, the reader/viewer shares in Cora Wylie’s dreams for the future as well as the quietly growing friendship between her and Clement McGraw which promises to offer the genuine intimacy Cora has yearned for. In the present and the future, Cora’s faith, values, and acts of love stir the hearts of everyone she touches — despite the many new challenges, and foul play, that arise. (see Future Chapters/Episodes).

If interested contact John

Future Chapters/Former Episodes

Future chapters see Cora settling in Duluth, where she becomes the city’s First Lady during WW II years. As her children reach maturity and strike out on their own, she takes over her father’s executive role managing his enterprises (the store and the mineral mine) and later establishes an orphanage, an opera house/ballet school and various charities. Her love for Clement McGraw deepens and eventually finds fulfillment in marriage. Together they make a dynamic business team in a decidedly man’s world, negotiating major deals with steel mills and munitions manufacturers back East — while the power elite (older men in stiff suits) observe their success with envy and spite. Rivals’ treachery jeopardizes their prosperity and once again Cora’s “divine connection” wins the day.

Meanwhile, hobo Idaho Slim reappears at random moments and stirs Cora’s sense of self; Ruby is released from prison after four years still unrepentant; and the older children return home (some to stay, some to leave again) — Gunther a wounded fighter pilot, Lamont a river barge grain worker and D-Day hero, Suzanna an aspiring fashion designer in New York, Winston a draftee now unemployed and drinking heavily, Sarah recently married to the Sheriff of Iron City and with child. The younger children grow up and also choose their own destinies, all of them guided by their generously gifted mother and supportive stepfather — Joel sets off to college and becomes a seminary student, his younger sister Fay becomes a boy-crazy teenager, and little Dorothy pursues her love of singing and dancing ala Judy Garland.

By the end of the war with renewed national prosperity, Cora’s executive talents develop even more so as her motherly duties diminish. She is now clearly the wealthiest, most powerful, and genuinely civic-minded person on the Iron Range (northern half of Minnesota). People whisper that she could run for elected office and win — which she does by close popular vote in 1948 (and with her election to State Representative history is reinvented). As a crusading woman in the Legislature, Cora learns the ropes quickly despite prejudice against her gender but never loses her sense of humor or her grip on why she is there — to represent underdog constituents and seek justice for their needs. Part social reformer, part seasoned realist, always a strong Christian, she stands up for children, orphans, and anyone whose voice goes unheard. Operating in the wings, unfazed about sharing the spotlight, is her astute legal advisor and ardent husband/lover, Clement McGraw.…and the ever-mysterious Idaho Slim.

Various storylines follow the Wylie children who grow up into young adults and fall in and out of love, starting their own families and careers, and making Cora a grandmother. For Cora, her faith, values, and acts of love live on in the nurturing partnerships she invests herself in, both on earth and in heaven.

If interested contact John