Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Muffet Brown stands by the 1/20th-scale replica of the Titanic during 'Titanic--the Movie on Tour' at Paramount's Great America.

Sea Worthy

Molly Brown's great-granddaughter takes Titanic tale on the road

By Audry Lynch

When the movieTitanic opened, Muffet Brown realized the enormity of her marvelous heritage as the great-granddaughter of Molly Brown, the most famous survivor of that historic shipwreck. Molly Brown, the wife of the Colorado gold-mining millionaire, J.J. Brown, was a well-known socialite and activist for women's rights. She earned the name "unsinkable" from the courage and assistance she offered fellow survivors of the Titanic.

Muffet Brown was well aware of her famous great-grandmother, having heard stories from the time she was a little girl, and having begun a quest in her teens to learn more. But, thanks to the movie, it all came back in a rush--the family stories, the musical, the biographies and the TV documentaries.

"She was a wonderful woman," the Los Gatos resident says. "She was larger than life. She even advocated miners' rights when mine ownership was the source of her own wealth. I admire her, and I'm proud to be her great-granddaughter."

Brown's fascination with her famous relative actually began when she went at the age of 5 to see a West Valley Light Opera production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Later, she fell in love with Debbie Reynolds' interpretation of her great-grandmother in the movie of the same name.

"It captured my imagination," she says, "and I still shed a tear when I watch it, especially when Molly has to choose between love and money." According to Brown, though, most of the musical is actually untrue. "In real life, Molly and her husband never got back together, but I hate to burst everyone's bubble."

Brown grew up in Los Gatos and attended St. Andrew's School in Saratoga--far away from Colorado, where Molly is one of the state's top three historical women.

She recalls her father talking about Molly. "Dad used to tell us about this feisty great-grandmother who survived a terrible shipwreck," Brown says. "When she was told to evacuate the ship, she took all her furs and warm clothes to help other passengers keep warm. I loved that image of this dynamic woman trying to help everyone else in this crisis."

There were other stories as well. "She was surprised when she was put in the lifeboat. As a good swimmer, she wasn't worried. She was placed in the lifeboat against her own wishes. Once inside the lifeboat, Molly contributed to her own legend; she swore like a sailor and even took up the oars in Lifeboat No. 6."

Brown says she wasn't named after Molly. In fact, she says, Molly's real name was Margaret, and she was called Maggie. "Molly was a posthumous stage name."

But Brown does see similarities between herself and Molly. "Like her, I'm a liberal and very politically active. I've registered voters for the Democrats, made calls and worked on fundraisers." Brown adds that, like Molly, she loves to travel. "I was delighted to find that we both loved Egypt."

When James Cameron's Titanic was released, Brown went to see it the first weekend." As luck would have it, she met Tom Beddingfield in the lobby. "It was one of those rare chance meetings that has led to all kinds of new Molly Brown developments," Brown says.

Beddingfield worked for RMS Titanic, the company that was doing the salvage operation on the Titanic. He had been the company's spokesman at the movie openings to explain the operation. He now works part-time for Titanic International, a nonprofit historical organization. His permanent home is in Tennessee; he's been on the West Coast doing speaking engagements.

When Beddingfield met Brown and learned of her family connections, he invited her to join him. Together they started talking in movie lobbies to the crowds who came to see the movie. "People loved it," Brown says. They give presentations together as well as separately and expect to appear in late July or early August at Disney World in Orlando.

Brown appeared at the opening of "Titanic--the Movie on Tour" when it was at Paramount's Great America recently. The exhibit features 150 props, costumes and set pieces used in the film. It also featured the 44-foot model (1/20th scale) of the ship that was used in the open-water scenes and some of the sinking and breakup scenes. Brown left July 1 to open the exhibit in Cincinnati. But she planned to be back in the area in time to appear with Beddingfield July 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Saratoga Library, at the corner of Saratoga and Fruitvale avenues.

Beddingfield's own interest in the Titanic had also started in childhood. At the age of 11, he had written a paper about the disaster, entered it in a national contest and won an award. His extensive work on the salvage operations has resulted in a book that may be released in the fall.

The lobby lectures made the two an instant team. They've been lecturing at schools and public libraries. She took special delight in talking to students at St. Andrew's in Saratoga, where she had once been a student. Amtrak even offered free trips in exchange for lectures to travelers. On the train, they discovered some people who had worked as extras in the film.

Throughout all the appearances, Brown describes herself as being "like a snowball gathering information from people I've met along the way." Her family stories were limited, but she's collected so much information in the past year, she says, "I don't think it's inaccurate to say that in California, I'm now the expert on Molly Brown."

Brown has accumulated her information from many sources, especially the Colorado Historical Society. The Molly Brown House, now a museum, and one of Denver's leading tourist attractions, is a special place for Brown. "Molly's Victorian home was not my style, but it must have been a nice place to live. It feels like it was the right kind of home for her. I was very impressed with her library and book collection."

During the '80s, Brown's family interest was stoked by TV documentaries about the discovery of the wreckage of the Titanic. "It had a universal fascination because of all the human interest stories. I'd watch and listen for mention of my great-grandmother. They would usually mention her."

Thanks to television, Brown came in contact with other descendants of Molly, the Vollrath family of Leavenworth, Wash. "They saw me on a cable-TV interview about Molly and got in touch. They showed me family scrapbooks and pictures of her," Brown recalls. "My favorite picture was of her sitting sidesaddle on a camel in front of the Sphinx because I'm crazy about Egypt."

And they showed her a letter she now knows by heart. "They showed me an emotional letter my grandfather had written to Molly (his mother) after he received her telegram about being saved [from the sinking Titanic] by the Carpathia. She had asked him, 'How's the baby?' That was my father she was talking about, and she was coming home to America to see him."

Biographies of Molly were also helpful in allowing Brown to understand her great-grandmother, but they were also confusing. "It's hard to separate the myths from the real facts," Brown says. "Everyone agrees that she was a large woman, of regal stance, who projected a larger-than-life presence. That's the picture I get from the biography by Christine Whitacre.

"Then there's a biography by Caroline Bancroft that really cuts Molly down. That book points to her as a rabble-rouser, always upsetting the status quo. I always wonder if there wasn't a lot of prejudice against her not only because she was nouveau riche, but also because of her Irish background."

Brown says she hopes a new biography, written by Kristen Iversen and to be released this fall, will present a more balanced view of Molly.

"Her bias is that Molly was not as eccentric as people believed. Instead, she was a great liberal and progressive who was one of the country's first great forces for the cause of feminism."

Brown says she doesn't think she'll be writing her own book, although she doesn't discount the possibility of producing a coloring book for children, illustrating it and using all the facts she's been accumulating since Titanic hit the movie screens. Brown, who received a degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, is currently studying graphic arts and planning on a career change.

While the Titanic is still capturing people's imaginationsm and Brown is riding a wave of "Titanic-mania" and giving talks to groups and schools, she's also entertaining the notion of offering her services to help host Titanic-themed parties.

"I've been giving it some thought," she says. "Dinner parties could include Titanic-themed games, mock wills, things like that."

Often when Brown lectures to schoolchildren, they ask her about Molly's wealth, and she has to tell them that it's all gone.

"The beautiful mansion depreciated drastically during the Depression, and then a nonprofit organization saved it from demolition and turned it into a museum."

Brown explains that her great-grandfather suffered a series of strokes and died leaving two unsigned wills. Molly and the children fought over the money; the mines probably dried up. "Then Molly liked to live in luxury hotels, so the money went fast," Brown adds.

Her own father inherited some of the land in the foothills outside of Denver, but because the property taxes were so high, he donated the land back to the state.

The only artifact Brown retains from Molly is a gold necklace and bracelet which she treasures because "it contains gold from their own mine."

What does Brown think of the movie that gave her an opportunity for much more than her proverbial 15 minutes of fame?

She says she loves it in spite of the literary license that the story presents in contrast to some of the historical facts. In fact, she has her own special take on the movie's love story: "I hope girls don't expect someone like Leonardo di Caprio to come along, fall in love and die for them. I think people should concentrate on the larger love story--the love of life. Rose went forward to realize her own life and dreams in spite of a lost love and lost way of life."

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