The Kingfish opened in March 1991 at Off Broadway’s prestigious John Houseman Theatre in New York. And now... He's back and perhaps more relevent than ever. Don't miss this chance to join the Kingfish for an evening  as history comes alive and to a stage near you!

 

Don't miss this chance to join the Kingfish for an evening as history comes alive and to a stage near you!



Huey P. Long (1893 – 1935) Born in Winn Parish, the center of the “Populist” movement in Louisiana, Long grew up surrounded by rural poverty and the simmering bitterness of a farm belt depression. He dropped out of high school his senior year to peddle cooking oil and patent medicines within the large expanse of territory between Houston and Memphis, while he learned the necessary political skills of persuasiveness, showmanship and crowd-gathering. After studying law at Tulane University he started a legal practice in Winnfield and Shreveport. In 1918 he won election to a seat on the State Railroad Commission. As its Chairman during the early 1920’s, he championed the interest of utility customers, passengers on common carriers and lowered telephone, gas and electric rates. He lost his first race for Governor in 1924, but won in 1928. His campaign song and platform, “Every Man a King,” brought such ”radical” reforms to the people as free schoolbooks, toll-free highways and bridges, public works projects, hospitals and a State University. While still Governor, he ran for the U.S. Senate and was elected in 1932. Although he was an early supporter of FDR, he soon parted ways with the President and offered “Share the Wealth” programs to rival the ”New Deal”. His rabble-rousing style and homespun homilies earned him a variety of monikers from friends and foes alike: ”Tinpot Napoleon.” ”Messiah of the Rednecks,” ”Rustic Caesar,” but he preferred to be called “The Kingfish”. His extraordinary life came to an end suddenly and violently when he was assassinated in the State Capital on the night of September 8, 1935, by Carl Weiss, a Baton Rouge physician and son-In-law of a local anti-Long judge. The continuing controversies surrounding Long’s assassination and the question of whether or not Dr. Weiss was actually the Kingfish’s assailant stirs heated debate to this day.