A Legend Like Nobody Else

 

About twenty years ago I was a member of the planning and design team for the newly established Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Alabama. Fundraising was a big part of our mission and we asked a large core group of airmen who they would like to see as a national spokesman for the effort. To a man, the response was, "Lena Horne!" who made a number of visits to their two Tuskegee airfields during World War II. They adored her. She was beautiful, had a sultry voice, the perfect figure for a World War II pinup, and a highly successful musical career on stage and screen. She was also strong-willed and, at times, defiant, both characteristics that served her well in the American civil rights movement following the war. No wonder she appealed to them.

Horne publicity photo from 1964, NBC Bell Telephone Hour

Who was this international star and favorite pinup? Lena Horne was born on this day in Brooklyn in 1917. Those familiar with the singer will always remember her remarkable talent as a legendary performer with a sparkling personality and a beautiful smile, In her almost seventy years in entertainment she worked the big band and cabaret circuits, movies, Broadway, and television. She became politically active in the fight for civil rights following World War II, a decision that placed her on the federal entertainment blacklist for over a decade. Readers can learn more details about Horne's life and career in a New York Times obituary published following her death in May 2010.

Horne at Tuskegee Institute banquet, Tuskegee, Alabama, during World War II

Due to her age and disabilities, Horne was unable to take on the role the Tuskegee Airmen so enthusiastically desired but fundraising commenced in a different direction and eventually contributed to construction and interpretation at the park. Her image and the stories of her visits are embedded in the exhibits.

I remember Horne well from her frequent television performances and recording beginning in the 1950's. She's always been a personal favorite among pop and jazz singers and the stories of her association with the Tuskegee Airmen story tells me she was one very special lady.

Here she is performing her signature song, Stormy Weather, from the 1943 film of the same name.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photograph, NBC Television, Wikipedia.org
banquet photo, Noel Parrish Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington

The 2000 Year-Old Man Turns 95 Today

Way back in the 1950s, Mel Brooks developed a comedy sketch with Carl Reiner, a comedy genius in his own right who passed away at 98 in 2020. The sketch, entitled The 2000 Year-Old Man, featured Brooks as the old man being interviewed by Reiner. Over fifty years the duo produced several recordings of the sketch and performed it live and on television countless times. 

Today we wish the 2000 year-old man a very happy birthday. The performer, writer, director, producer, songwriter, and perpetually wacko comic personality is 95 years old. In his seventy year career he's brought us some of the finest comedy to grace the American stage, big screens in theaters, and the television screens in millions of our homes. And there's no end in sight either with his work in animated features, occasional television appearances, and persistent rumblings of a Spaceballs sequel.

Brooks in a still from Blazing Saddles, 1974

Brooks started in comedy in the Catskills in the late 1940's, became a television comedy writer and performer in the early 1950's, and graduated to film direction with The Producers in 1968. The rest is history, a laugh track of films including:



Blazing Saddles (1974) "Pardon me while I whip this out."

Young Frankenstein (1974) "Abby...Normal."

Silent Movie (1976) "Non!"

High Anxiety (1977) "Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup!"

History of the World Part I (1981) "It's good to be the king."

Spaceballs (1987) "May the schwartz be with you."

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) "Actually Scarlet is my middle name. My whole name is Will Scarlet O'Hara. We're from Georgia."

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) "I have been to many stakings - you have to know where to stand! You know, everything in life is location, location, location...."

The Producers (musical) 2001 "Will the dancing Hitlers please wait in the wings? We are only seeing singing Hitlers.

The Producers (film remake) 2005 "My blue blanket! Give me back my blue blanket!"


Young Frankenstein (musical) 2007 "He vas my boyfriend!"


The American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Comedies list has The Producers (1968), Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein ranked at #11, #6, and #13. Here is the unforgettable three minutes and twenty seconds from the film he calls his personal favorite, the 1968 production of The Producers:

I think one reason why the 2000 year-old man is still laughing with us at 95 rests with the fact that the Mel Brooks on stage and film is most often the same man one finds in private life. How does he do it? I recall the many stories my National Park Service colleagues told of Brooks and his wife, Anne Bancroft. In the '70's and '80's they were frequent guests at Caneel Bay Resort inside Virgin Islands National Park on the island of St. John. Known for playing practical jokes on the younger park rangers and resort staff during the day, Brooks and Bancroft hosted them at after-hours gatherings where hilarity ruled. Given the public comedy we know, one can only imagine the memories to come out of the spontaneity of such an evening. The world would be a far happier place if all of us could have more evenings like that. 

Today, instead of laughing at the comedy and satire Brooks gave us over the years. the political correctness of the day would rather smother it and insure we never produce it again. So unfortunate. Regardless, we're wishing one of the funniest men on the planet a very happy birthday and hope to laugh at his wacko genius for years to come.

The Compelling Elusion Of George Orwell

For a prescient and enigmatic 20th century personality it is hard to surpass that of the British social critic and writer, George Orwell.  In 1949 he published his most significant work, the novel 1984. Can't speak about today but 60 years ago at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union virtually every high school graduate knew of the book and many of them read it or parts of it as required reading. 

Orwell experienced the rise of collectivist thinking in Great Britain and other parts of the world including the United States. He was also well aware of the totalitarian collectivism in the Soviet Union. The totalitarianism he rejected outright but not all the elements of collectivist thought At the same time he raised issues with republican and democratic forms of government and the capitalism that sustained them. In other words Orwell was a critic at large whose observation and analysis would have broad appeal and give rise to thought-provoking quote, including this one:

The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians.

Our volatile nation-wide experience over the last five years, and particularly our dance with the Covid-19 coronavirus, has brought us face to face with many members of this new aristocracy.  The American democratic republic embraced many of these players in the 20th century first with Progressivism, then with Roosevelt's New Deal, but it was Lyndon Johnson who would embedded significant elements of the "new aristocracy" in his Great Society program. It was after all a national government initiative designed to end in a progressive utopia for the American people. I leave an evaluation of the program's success over the last two generations to my readers. Instead I choose to focus on Orwell who as time passes seems to be more and more a visitor from the future who spoke not in terms of political parties but in an exploration  of the human condition, universal rights, classical liberalism, and the power of the individual.

George Orwell - Eric Arthur Blair - was born on this day in India in 1903 and educated at Eton College and through self-study and his experiences in Asia and Europe. Wikipedia defines him aptly as "an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism."

George Orwell Press Photo, 1933

Most of us know him only as the author of 1984 but there is much more to read and appreciate from this man who is consistently described as one of the most influential writers of the last century. If you only know him as a novelist, I suggest you read some of his early essays, especially Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), and Homage to Catalonia (1938). These works explore social justice themes in some of the finest, most vivid, objective, and descriptive writing to be found in modern English. More aspects of Orwell's insight appear in his literary criticisms which are available in several compilations.

For a man who passed away at 46, George Orwell left us an enormous and rich body of work that I am sure will influence social and political thought for a very long time.  

Sources:

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain, old accreditation for National Branch of Union Journalists, www.netcharles.com


Text:
title quote, Politics and the English Language, George Orwell, 1946
George Orwell, wikipedia.org

Father's Day 2021

Best wishes to all dads on their special day. Below is my dad's high school graduation photo, Class of 1925. His mom and dad were the son and daughter of first generation immigrants from Germany and Wales. He was afflicted with polio in his early years, but that didn't stop him. He graduated from high school in the midst of the Roaring Twenties, went to work to support his aging parents and married the love of his life in the midst of the Great Depression in 1933.

 

He was an entrepreneur at heart who was self-employed in the insurance and utilities industries and owned his own business by the early '50's. He left the Rust Belt in 1956 for even better careers in hospitality management, a field he loved dearly because of his commitment to quality service and customer satisfaction. He was "old school:" through and through and never met a stranger.

By example he demonstrated the value of living and building on a strong faith, a sound and loving marriage, a remarkable work ethic, civic engagement, and a love of country.  He also taught me the value of being an independent and critical thinker, of staying curious, and practicing life-long learning.  

Dad and the Old Tybee Ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park, 1954

Dad passed away forty years ago. I'm sure I speak for others who have lost their fathers that not a day goes by without a wish to have our dads and their guidance with us once more. How fortunate we were to have such beacons in our lives. And how fortunate are those who still have fathers in their lives.

Happy Father's Day and a big "Thank You" to my dad, Bill, and father-in-law, Vergil, and to fathers everywhere.

Juneteenth: A National Holiday At Last

My thanks to the Biden administration for making Juneteenth our newest national holiday. I find it hard to believe the nation waited so long to see this day. I find it even harder to believe that President Donald Trump, standing with the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln, failed to declare a one-time federal holiday for Juneteenth in 2020 during a critical bid for reelection. It was a grave tactical error. He chose instead to announce his support for such a designation in the last days of September. Instead of being the topic at countless family gatherings and other celebrations on June 19 itself, the message was lost in the 24/7 flurry of rhetoric during a bitter campaign.   

So, what is the new holiday about? If you are an American with African ancestry dating to the Civil War era you have known about Juneteenth from very early childhood; otherwise, the term may be vaguely familiar or perhaps even new. I think of Juneteenth as an ingredient in our national experience that is just now blending in the melting pot concept we learned about in elementary school. We're going to hear much more about the day as we should.  This description from the Library of Virginia is a good place to start:

[Juneteenth] has grown into a popular event across the country to commemorate emancipation from slavery and celebrate African American culture. Juneteenth refers to June 19, the date in 1865 when the Union Army arrived in Galveston and announced that the Civil War was over and that slaves were free under the Emancipation Proclamation. Although the proclamation had become official more than two years earlier on January 1, 1863, freedmen in Texas adopted June 19th, later known colloquially as Juneteenth, as the date they celebrated emancipation. Juneteenth celebrations continued into the 20th century, and survived a period of declining participation because of the Great Depression and World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s Juneteenth celebrations witnessed a revival as they became catalysts for publicizing civil rights issues of the day. In 1980 the Texas state legislature established June 19 as a state holiday.

 

Emancipation                                 omas Nast, American, 1865

Several significant days have competed to honor the subject including,

September 22: the day Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Order in 1862;

January 1: the day it took effect in 1863; 

January 31: the date the 13th Amendment passed Congress in 1865, officially abolishing the institution of slavery, and;

December 6: the day the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865. 

The persistence of the celebration in Texas on June 19 embedded it in the social fiber of former slaves and their families who carried it with them in their migrations to all corners of the nation and to urban areas in particular. Growing wealth among black communities in the 20th century enabled them to hold lengthier and more elaborate celebrations.

Despite a near-century of prejudice and racism, both de jure and de facto, Juneteenth survived across the nation. It was revitalized nationally by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1968), in combination with his Poor People's March on Washington (planned for May 12 to June 24, and its early conclusion with the Solidarity March on June 19.

We extend our best wishes for a joyous day to all those celebrating Juneteenth. And it's the perfect time for all of us to "honor the countless contributions made by African Americans to our Nation and pledge to support America’s promise as the land of the free."

Visit Juneteenth to learn more about story and meaning of our newest national holiday.

Sources:

Photos and Illustrations:
Library of Congress at loc.gov

Text:
virginiamemory.com
loc.gov
wikipedia.com
pbs.org, The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
"honor the countless" quote, whitehouse.gov

Happy Bloomsday 2021

In 1922 the Irish writer, James Joyce, published what would become a most significant novel in 20th century literature. I had to read it - try to read it would be more appropriate - in college in the mid-1960s. I didn't think much of it then. Not much interest in novels on my part and there was no context or timeline in which to place the book. It took forty years of reading and a few priceless encounters with people more aware of the written word for me to understand the meaning of what could be called my struggle with Ulysses. So it's probably time at this end of my life to take  another and closer look at why June 16 is far from an ordinary day. 

It isn't that a number of significant events occurred or that any singular event occurred this day. Instead, June 16 (1904) is the setting for a several hundred page descriptive stream of happenings in the life of Leopold Bloom, the protagonist in the James Joyce novel, Ulysses. The Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, said this about the book:

What is so staggering about Ulysses is the fact that behind a thousand veils nothing lies hidden; that it turns neither toward the mind nor toward the world, but, as cold as the moon looking on from cosmic space, allows the drama of growth, being, and decay to pursue its course.

 

First edition copy (1922) described as "unread except for the racy bits"

To say the least, Ulysses is an adventure. For some it may be merely pornographic or a huge word puzzle or a unique work of art in its truest form. However you chose to view the novel keep in mind that people are celebrating this work and its author across the world today on what has become known as Bloomsday. And even those who know nothing about Bloomsday, never read the book or know little about the author have likely encountered bits and pieces of Joyce's skill in school and through popular culture. Here is one of those most often quoted pieces:

I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

I came to appreciate that quote so much I used it for several years in descriptive writing courses. It saddens me to think I could not use such a rich verse today to describe thought, emotion, and action. None can compare with this beautifully written thought stream. Here is another quote that leaves behind an intimate moment between a woman and her lover and takes one man's meditation to boundless playfulness that simply makes for enjoyable reading:

Meditations of evolution increasingly vaster: of the moon invisible in incipient lunation, approaching perigee: of the infinite lattiginous scintillating uncondensed milky way, discernible by daylight by an observer placed at the lower end of a cylindrical vertical shaft 5000 ft deep sunk from the surface towards the centre of the earth: of Sirius (alpha in Canis Maior) 10 lightyears (57,000,000,000,000 miles) distant and in volume 900 times the dimension of our planet: of Arcturus: of the precession of equinoxes: of Orion with belt and sextuple sun theta and nebula in which 100 of our solar systems could be contained: of moribund and of nascent new stars such as Nova in 1901: of our system plunging towards the constellation of Hercules: of the parallax or parallactic drift of socalled fixed stars, in reality evermoving wanderers from immeasurably remote eons to infinitely remote futures in comparison with which the years, threescore and ten, of allotted human life formed a parenthesis of infinitesimal brevity.

I trust this post raised some curiosity among novel readers. Regardless, rest assured there is more there than the racy bits.

If you want to learn more about the day, the book, and the author, visit these sites: Bloomsday, Ulysses, and James Joyce.






Sources:

Photo and Illustrations:
theguardian.com, June 4, 2009, photo by Martin Argles
quotations, goodreads.com

Flag Day 2021

Today is Flag Day, a day for commemorating the adoption of a design by Francis Hopkinson as the official Flag of the United States on this date in 1777. President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation in 1919 declaring June 14 as the official day.

Francis Hopkinson Flag                                                   1777

 Here are some words about the Hopkinson flag from the link above:

Hopkinson is recognized as the designer of the official "first flag" of the United States. Although he sought compensation from Congress, the letter was somewhat comical. He asked for a quarter cask of wine in payment for the flag, the Great Seal, and various other contributions. Congress used the usual bureaucratic tactics of asking for an itemized bill. After some back and forth, Congress eventually refused on the pretext that Hopkinson was already paid as a public servant. The letter also mentioned that Hopkinson collaborated with others on his designs because he was one of many contributing to the Great Seal. 

While there is no known Hopkinson flag in existence today, we do know from his rough sketch that it had thirteen stars and thirteen stripes. It is believed that his flag used red and white stripes and white stars on a field of blue. Because the original stars used in the Great Seal had six points, we might also assume that Hopkinson's flag intended the use of a 6-pointed star. This is bolstered by his original sketch that showed asterisks with six points.

The legend of Betsy Ross as the designer of the first flag entered into American consciousness about the time of the 1876 centennial celebrations. See Betsy Ross Flag. This flag with its circle of 13 stars came into popular use as a flag commemorating our nation's birth. Many Americans today still cling to the Betsy Ross legend that she designed the flag and most are unaware of Hopkinson's legacy.

There are any number of songs written about our national flag. Among the best of them is George M. Cohan's 1906 rouser, You're A Grand Old Flag, written in 1906 for his musical, George Washington, Jr. Here it is performed by The President's Own" United States Marine Band:

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Hopkinson Flag, public domain image, wikimedia.org

Text:
Francis Hopkinson, entry, wikipedia.org
"You're A Grand Old Flag," entry, wikipedia.org

Seventy-Seven Years Ago Today: To Take The Cliffs, To Free A Continent, To End A War

 

Into The Jaws Of Death, US Troops Wading Through Water And Nazi Gunfire

June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded -- but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.

 

We don't teach history much these days. If students simply learned that "more than 100,000 soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler" and his National Socialist movement, I would be somewhat pleased. I'd also like every student to know that 16 million Americans served during World War II. About 325,000 are still alive. About 110,000 die each year. In a short time all of these eyewitnesses to history will be gone. There will be no one to thank, no one to question. We can only remember.

For more on the significance of this day link to the U.S. Army D-Day Page.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

photo, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Public Domain Photographs, 1882-1962

map, Department of History, United States Military Academy

Text: 

title derived from a quote by President Ronald Reagan

quotation, www.army.mil/d-day, U.S. Army D-Day Page

statistics, U.S. Army D-Day Page