Chasing Memphis

It is April, 1968 and the eve of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., an event which sets into motion inalterable changes in the country and in the lives of a wealthy Memphis society couple and three impressionable teenagers. Briggs Turncastle is enjoying a late afternoon cup of coffee in a small, nondescript cafe near downtown Memphis. He will soon be joined by an attractive woman who has been the object of his attentions and generosity for months. At home is his stoic wife, Sweet Turncastle who has a penchant for chain smoking Tareyton cigarettes and spoiling Daisy, her pet dachschund. She is from and old, moneyed Memphis family and had once been the most beautiful and popular girl in her group. Now she has settled into a slow, predictable life detached from her husband and teen-age children-- Gene, her sensitive, talented son who drops out of college and quickly makes his dream of becoming a successful songwriter come true. And her quiet, studious daughter Julie Turncastle who simply wants to watch "American Bandstand" and go away to college to study art history. Davis Poole is the grandson of Old Poole, the long-time yard man for the Turncastle family. Davis is ambitious--he picks up money caddying at the country club, washing cars at the carwash, bagging groceries and occasionally helping his grandfather take care of the lush Turncastle property. After mastering a guitar he bought for $300 and playing in bands for pocket change around Memphis, he lands a dream job with a dynamic soul singer and goes on a journey that takes him further in life than a poor boy could ever imagine. "Chasing Memphis" takes you into a world of pop and soul music with characters shaped by old money and new opportunity which are inextricably tied their various visions of what really constitutes home.