Title: The 20-Year Lost Weekend: Rip Van Winkle Was a Drunk
Headings: The 20-Year Lost Weekend: Rip Van Winkle Was a Drunk
The 20-Year Lost Weekend: Rip Van Winkle Was a Drunk
Content: Press is writing two musicals based on his version of Rip’s story, passion plays sympathetic to the plight of Dame Van Winkle and other wives abandoned by drunken husbands. Press has written off-Broadway plays and hopes to get his musicals produced in New York. Through files gathered from the Museum of the City of New York, local libraries and other sources, Press determined Rip was born in 1727 near the Ulster County town of Gardiner. Press says he’s not sure if the name Rip Van Winkle was real or if Washington Irving made it up. For convenience, Press uses Rip. ADVERTISEMENT
At 16, Rip’s father died, leaving the boy a fortune in land and cash. The carousing Rip went on a 24-year binge and drank up his inheritance. In the meantime, he married Dame Van Winkle - the she-devil of Irving’s story - and fathered two children, Judith and Rip Jr.
Dame Van Winkle’s efforts to reform Rip failed. One day, Rip wandered off - and here’s where Press’ version differs with Irving’s story. Irving had Rip wander into the mystical Catskills, where the ghost of explorer Henry Hudson casts him into a 20-year sleep.