If you found a gold vein 1500′ long, 250′ wide, and 30′ thick, would it change your life?
When the Titanic sank in 1912, J.J. Brown was a continent away and ignored by reporters more eager to tell the tale of his heroic wife, Margaret “Molly” Brown. Twenty years prior, he and Eben Smith made news when they struck gold in Leadville, Colorado’s Little Jonny mine.
In the early years, J.J. and Margaret were a team. He, a hard-working mine manager, and she, a mother devoted to their children Lawrence and Helen. Having risen from poverty, J.J. and Margaret were unprepared for newspaper notoriety when they moved to Denver, Colorado. Then came lavish trips to Europe, private schools, and second homes.
For a time, their marriage worked until his penchant for secrecy and fear of death clashed with his wife’s desire to whirl and twirl through adventures, continents, and charities. And when the children were eager to exit the limelight, escaping the shadow of their millionaire father and socialite mother, a ship sank, thrusting Margaret into the national spotlight as “unsinkable.”
The Browns were a family whose heart was omitted from the story crafted as The Unsinkable Molly Brown for Broadway and Hollywood. Writersleft out the children, generosity, pride, unmet expectations, respect, and loyalty.
