A Face in the Crowd

Evidentiary of a probable new lease on life, the Bags bullpen has several new authors of note. Introductions are forthcoming, predicated mostly on the Bags custodial staff spic & spanning their newly refurbished quarters & outfitting them with the requisite skeleton keys. There’s also the matter of printing cubicle placards and ordering monogrammed ascots, but that’s neither here nor there.

In the meanwhile it seems worth mentioning a personage who is at once of their number & curiously apart from it. I’m speaking, of course, of the heretofore inscrutable Emory Davis. Mr. Davis’ matriculation into the Bags fold is mostly a function of fortuitous circumstance-- call it kismet if you wish-- an instance of being at precisely the right place at precisely the right time. Perusing our electronic pages under the gas lamp illumination of what has been described to me as a “subterranean sanctum situated well beyond the prying eyes of rumormongers and flibbertigibbets,” Mr. Davis recognized the plight of our poor foundering ship and generously volunteered his services through the conduit of our liege and benefactor, an individual who also prefers to remain anonymous and effect her influence from behind the scenes.

Those services are still being ascertained and collated at the bullpen level as attempts at background checks have been stymied by multiple respondents. There’s the Emory Davis of Broadway musical repute, whose performances in productions like Tovarich, Greenwillow and The First Gentleman in the late 50s & early 60s evinced both a keen arranger’s ear & capacious clarinet chops to boot. Next, the Emory Davis whose stature as forerunner in the design of an elegant line of multi-faceted women’s swimwear puts him head and shoulders above his peers in the garment industry. Then there’s the clairvoyant Emory Davis whose amazing story was told in fictionalized form via a thrilling episode of the television show Mannix.

As can be plainly gauged, it’s a bit difficult gleaning the straight dope; especially when the subject is as prevaricating and evasive as Emory Davis is wont to be. My efforts are redoubled however having recently taken the heat for one of Mr. Davis’ typically maverick moves. Stay tuned.