Dr. Alice Hamilton is a real historical figure. As is, we regret to say, her nemesis Thomas Midgley.
There are two other characters in Shrub, though, who are based upon real people as well.
Morris Fierman is our highly enigmatic elevator operator. After all, here’s a fella who spends much of his time in a 4 x 4 steel box, and yet he knows things. His understanding of the wider world, and the human beings who inhabit it, is uncanny. Supernatural, even. One of our fans referred to Fierman as the “Yiddish Oracle.” Further, it’s a comical motif that Fierman only speaks in two quite distinct modes of speech: guttural, tongue-thrashing, throat-gobbling Yiddish, or a perfectionist, clipped Mid-Atlantic. The staccato exactitude of a 1930s radio announcer. The rapid-fire precision of the chap reading the script on the Movietone News.
Well, here, folks, is the real Morris Fierman, and his lovely wife Nettie:
Morris was Rick’s wife’s grandfather on her mother’s side–and, according to family lore, a real mensch. Also an elevator operator during the Great Depression. And further, as that lore would have it, a bookie. Which kind of led to our character’s ability to range outside the elevator walls. The numbers, the horses, bets, life … it’s all one and the same, what?
The other character whose parallel most certainly exists in the real word today is Drew Nugent. Drew is a superb musician and perhaps even superber time-traveler. Drew’s musical taste and the direction of his band covers the grounds of the 1900s to the 1940s. Drew also has deep knowledge of the history of American music, and can discuss the lives of the musicians of that era with insight and compassion.
Drew Nugent and the Midnight Society can be found on Facebook. And here’s one fine example of their music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFJ1k2oduss
