If you should happen to see Bob Dylan today while he’s in Hershey for a concert performance, please tell him Thaddeus Stevens would like a word with him.
He’ll be waiting outside the theater.
Dylan, the influential Nobel laureate singer-songwriter who is performing at Hershey Theatre tonight, is an admirer of Stevens — Lancaster’s own 19th-century Radical Republican congressman and fiery abolitionist.
Dylan declared his respect for The Great Commoner in a 2004 autobiography.
That gave Ross Hetrick, president of the Gettysburg-based Thaddeus Stevens Society, an idea.
Hetrick, who frequently portrays Stevens at historical events around the region, says he will hold a 4 p.m. Tuesday press conference at Houlihan’s Restaurant & Bar, 27 W. Chocolate Ave., ahead of Dylan’s nearby 8 p.m. concert.
Hetrick will talk about Stevens and the inspiration he afforded Dylan — an artist with hundreds of original songs, multiple Grammy Awards, an Oscar and a massive fan base spanning generations to his credit.
Later Hetrick, dressed in Stevens garb, and other members of the Thaddeus Stevens Society will stand outside the Hershey Theatre on Caracas Avenue to engage with concertgoers and pass out flyers detailing the connection between Dylan and Stevens.
Shown in a 2014 file photo at a Thaddeus Stevens event, Ross Hetrick, president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, will portray Stevens outside the Hershey Theatre Tuesday evening, Nov. 16, in hopes of a meeting with singer Bob Dylan.
The Stevens posse will be holding a sign inviting Dylan to come out and meet the Stevens re-enactor and his fellow modern-day representatives.
In his autobiographical work, “Chronicles: Volume 1,” Dylan wrote that he had read a biography of Stevens, whom he noted was “quite a character” who had “a club foot like (Romantic poet Lord) Byron.”
“He grew up poor, made a fortune, and from then on championed the weak and any other group who wasn’t able to fight equally,” Dylan wrote of Stevens. “Stevens had a grim sense of humor, a sharp tongue and a white hot hatred for the bloated aristocrats of his day. … Stevens was hard to forget, he made a big impression on me, was inspiring.”
Stevens, considered the “father of the 14th Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution, practiced law in Lancaster and was elected to represent the area in Congress from 1849-53 and again from 1859-68.
He railed against slavery, and fought to exclude former Confederates from the U.S. House after the Civil War.
Hetrick, a Virginia native, became a Stevens fan while studying about him in middle school. He writes a monthly column, “Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles,” which can be found on the society’s website, thaddeusstevenssociety.com.
Hetrick also announced there will be a three-day celebration in Gettysburg, April 1-3, 2022, to mark Stevens’ 230th birthday and the dedication of a statue the society commissioned. It’s being created by Chattanooga, Tennessee-based artist Alex Paul Loza.
