Well, now I have to know more about THAT

The scene opens in a sound booth at Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic where I read textbooks onto CDs. As it happens, tonight I was recording the study guide for the new SAT. I get a lot of grammar and writing books assigned to me because I can read very poorly written sentences as if they are perfectly normal: "Everybody thought he should of threw the ball more harder to Jane and I."
Ouch.

And I have more to say about the new SAT on another day.

This is the story of how I came across this sentence in the reading comprehension section:

Maude Adams, after her spectatcular triumph as the original Peter Pan, went about heavily veiled and was accessible to only a handful of intimate friends.

Now you know I stopped what I was doing to write that down.

Here's what I've learned, as is my duty to you to share what is in my head, and your sad fate to be interested in such things. Let us deconstruct this fabulous sentence.

Not Maud Adams. That's very different. Though if Octopussy had played Peter Pan, I am sure she would have triumphed.

Maude Adams -- born 1872, did indeed play Peter Pan in 1905, but retired from the stage 10 years later.

spectatcular triumph? -- played 1500 performances, considered her most famous role, for which she made $20K per month

original Peter Pan - true.

went about heavily veiled - To the contrary, she went to work at General Electric developing lighting for filmmaking and spent time as a college professor. But, she may have worn a veil when traveling ( to prevent Hook and Smee from recognizing her?)

accessible only to a handful of intimate friends - specifically, the sisters of St Regis in Lake Ronkonoma, Long Island. Though she never married (and you know what THEY are like) it is not apparent that she became a nun, or that the Sisters of St Regis are a veiled order.

She may also have disappeared Somewhere in Time after meeting Christopher Reeve at the Majestic Grand. [That is still a great movie. The penny! Not the penny! ]

For proof that there is everything on the Internet, here is a long, unnecessarily dense, 100 year old biography of the actress.