Marta Becket
I am sharing a story with you about a woman that is unforgettable.
Her name is Marta Becket.
She is a ballet dancer that has, in my mind become a National Legend.
Her story starts with her and her husband's travels through California's famous and wondrous Death Valley.
The two of them were returning to their eastern home after Marta's performing in Los Angeles with her usual act.
While site seeing through the desert southwest on their return east, the car breaks down in the dilapidated town of Death Valley Junction just outside of the national monument.
The town was once used as a center for the mining camps that mined the ore of the local region.
This town contained housing for the workers, shops, motel and all the services to maintain the miners needs and a theater/meeting hall.
But, at this time the town was a virtual ghost town. It did still have a service station and the motel to handle minor breakdowns that occurred to fellow travelers through this part of the desert.
As they waited for their car to be repaired, which would take some time to acquire parts, Marta found much time to explore this wasted relic.
What Marta found, she fell in love with. Something about this forsaken land intrigued her!
Quickly, she made a decision, "I want to spend more time here."
Slowly, the car was refurbished and ready to carry on. But for Marta, she was not leaving. She told her husband to go ahead and continue his return.
She was staying in Death Valley Junction!
Marta stayed at the one and only motel, still intrigued, she made arrangements to buy the place. She settled in, explored the once vital town and was fascinated with the history of this once flourishing historical town atmosphere right on the edge of one of the countries most bizarre places, ' Death Valley.'
Here she opened up court, literally!!!
She got her hands on the local meeting hall and transformed the stage that she would continue her ballerina performances on. Being a creative painter, she decided to paint on all the walls above the audience's seats a replica of a European Kingdom Court, complete with King, Queen, Prince, Knights, Ladies in Waiting, Courtiers and all the subjects of a royal court.
This will now be named,,, Amargosa Opera House, after the Amargosa Valley that they were locally known as. Notice the theatrically stylish happy/sad faces on the front doors. (painted by Marta)
In this hall, she would perform her show, audience or not. Night after night she went through her performance.
Some nights with an audience, some nights without, but always with the characters she had painted on all the walls to encourage her on.
As a gesture, and for an audience, she'd offer, to the near-by brothel workers and local ranchers, to come, visit, be entertained and fill the house.
I don't think this ballerina went over very well with the established local mentality. But still, she began to get noticed.
Noticed by tourists traveling through this eastern edge of the Death Valley experience.
Slowly she sold tickets. She sold tickets and became an oddity. What is going on here? This place is fantastic! How did this come to be? These walls are not at all what one expects to be found in a this mining ghost town.............
.........................................! Meet Marta !...................................
Always willing to welcome the audience, guests/admires!
We did just that, as we visited Death Valley during the mid 1990's, we went through this town, stopped to fill up on gas and found this crazy show that was to be performed that very evening. We bought tickets and stayed around to see the oddity ourselves.
The show was fun! For an older woman to be doing this ballerina stage performance was kinda silly, but still fun! I think it was meant to be silly.
She had a male sidekick performing with her, a local man that did not fit the bill of a dancer, was very clumsy. He did everything from romantic interest to female impersonator. It was funny and impressive.
Most of all, the walls were the thing to marvel over. There they were, the entire royal court. All painted by Marta herself, and well done!
She made it possible, if she had no live audience, she always had the royal court to perform to.
As an artist myself, I was amazed! Although my dinosaur phone camera could not capture the dark imagines on the walls, I was able to get just a few. Imagine the entire hall above you covered with the King, Queen, and their royal court. Was truly wonderful!
After the performance, she allowed the audience to come into a showroom to see some of her paintings, she had some for sale and I really wanted one. My husband said no, too expensive! So I didn't by it.
A short time after we returned home, we saw a documentary about her, her performance and her little town out in the desert.
I then convinced my hubby that we should go ahead and buy that painting. So I called her and found out that the one I wanted was already sold.
But she said that she can paint another one for me. I was very happy. She informed me that she would give me a call when it was ready to be picked up.
When it was completed, we drove back down to Death Valley Junction and I received it. Here it is, it depicts a ballerina on stage taking the final curtain call with two ballerinas and a stagehand pulling back the curtain. I like it very much and was glad to get an original of hers!
In August of 2010, I was driving through the area by myself and decided to go into the ghost town, to see if she was still there and performing.
I looked around and it looked pretty abandoned. I found the door to the motel unlocked, so I went in. Inside, I found some people sitting around a table. I asked if Marta was still around and there she was. Sitting rite there, I introduced myself and greeted her. I reminded her of our meeting before and the painting she had done for me. I told her how much I appreciated what she did and her great talents. I was glad to have met her and that she was still around. We chatted for a bit and I was off.
She really is a character! For she had made a world for herself in what once was a lost town and forsaken place. YOU GO GIRL! Thanks for sharing your talents with me and all that got a chance to meet you and experience your world!
Her name is Marta Becket.
She is a ballet dancer that has, in my mind become a National Legend.
Her story starts with her and her husband's travels through California's famous and wondrous Death Valley.
The two of them were returning to their eastern home after Marta's performing in Los Angeles with her usual act.
While site seeing through the desert southwest on their return east, the car breaks down in the dilapidated town of Death Valley Junction just outside of the national monument.
The town was once used as a center for the mining camps that mined the ore of the local region.
This town contained housing for the workers, shops, motel and all the services to maintain the miners needs and a theater/meeting hall.
But, at this time the town was a virtual ghost town. It did still have a service station and the motel to handle minor breakdowns that occurred to fellow travelers through this part of the desert.
As they waited for their car to be repaired, which would take some time to acquire parts, Marta found much time to explore this wasted relic.
What Marta found, she fell in love with. Something about this forsaken land intrigued her!
Quickly, she made a decision, "I want to spend more time here."
Slowly, the car was refurbished and ready to carry on. But for Marta, she was not leaving. She told her husband to go ahead and continue his return.
She was staying in Death Valley Junction!
Marta stayed at the one and only motel, still intrigued, she made arrangements to buy the place. She settled in, explored the once vital town and was fascinated with the history of this once flourishing historical town atmosphere right on the edge of one of the countries most bizarre places, ' Death Valley.'
Here she opened up court, literally!!!
She got her hands on the local meeting hall and transformed the stage that she would continue her ballerina performances on. Being a creative painter, she decided to paint on all the walls above the audience's seats a replica of a European Kingdom Court, complete with King, Queen, Prince, Knights, Ladies in Waiting, Courtiers and all the subjects of a royal court.
This will now be named,,, Amargosa Opera House, after the Amargosa Valley that they were locally known as. Notice the theatrically stylish happy/sad faces on the front doors. (painted by Marta)
In this hall, she would perform her show, audience or not. Night after night she went through her performance.
Some nights with an audience, some nights without, but always with the characters she had painted on all the walls to encourage her on.
As a gesture, and for an audience, she'd offer, to the near-by brothel workers and local ranchers, to come, visit, be entertained and fill the house.
I don't think this ballerina went over very well with the established local mentality. But still, she began to get noticed.
Noticed by tourists traveling through this eastern edge of the Death Valley experience.
Slowly she sold tickets. She sold tickets and became an oddity. What is going on here? This place is fantastic! How did this come to be? These walls are not at all what one expects to be found in a this mining ghost town.............
.........................................! Meet Marta !...................................
Always willing to welcome the audience, guests/admires!
We did just that, as we visited Death Valley during the mid 1990's, we went through this town, stopped to fill up on gas and found this crazy show that was to be performed that very evening. We bought tickets and stayed around to see the oddity ourselves.
The show was fun! For an older woman to be doing this ballerina stage performance was kinda silly, but still fun! I think it was meant to be silly.
She had a male sidekick performing with her, a local man that did not fit the bill of a dancer, was very clumsy. He did everything from romantic interest to female impersonator. It was funny and impressive.
Most of all, the walls were the thing to marvel over. There they were, the entire royal court. All painted by Marta herself, and well done!
She made it possible, if she had no live audience, she always had the royal court to perform to.
As an artist myself, I was amazed! Although my dinosaur phone camera could not capture the dark imagines on the walls, I was able to get just a few. Imagine the entire hall above you covered with the King, Queen, and their royal court. Was truly wonderful!
After the performance, she allowed the audience to come into a showroom to see some of her paintings, she had some for sale and I really wanted one. My husband said no, too expensive! So I didn't by it.
A short time after we returned home, we saw a documentary about her, her performance and her little town out in the desert.
I then convinced my hubby that we should go ahead and buy that painting. So I called her and found out that the one I wanted was already sold.
But she said that she can paint another one for me. I was very happy. She informed me that she would give me a call when it was ready to be picked up.
When it was completed, we drove back down to Death Valley Junction and I received it. Here it is, it depicts a ballerina on stage taking the final curtain call with two ballerinas and a stagehand pulling back the curtain. I like it very much and was glad to get an original of hers!
In August of 2010, I was driving through the area by myself and decided to go into the ghost town, to see if she was still there and performing.
I looked around and it looked pretty abandoned. I found the door to the motel unlocked, so I went in. Inside, I found some people sitting around a table. I asked if Marta was still around and there she was. Sitting rite there, I introduced myself and greeted her. I reminded her of our meeting before and the painting she had done for me. I told her how much I appreciated what she did and her great talents. I was glad to have met her and that she was still around. We chatted for a bit and I was off.
She really is a character! For she had made a world for herself in what once was a lost town and forsaken place. YOU GO GIRL! Thanks for sharing your talents with me and all that got a chance to meet you and experience your world!
posted by Rocko at 12:41 PM
3 Comments:
Good help your poor husband that passed up on the original painting you wanted!
Yes, sometimes I wonder about him.
One part of this story is wrong--Marta's husband Tom Williams did not go on and leave Marta there. They both went back to New York City, packed up their stuff and headed back to Death Valley Jct. Tom, my Dad, worked on having the town declared an historical landmark and together they bought the town for a dollar. He repaired the theatre so Marta could paint the incredible mural all over the ceiling and walls.
Marta is an amazing woman. A true artist and she influenced my young life tremendously.
Linda Williams Aber
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