Major Hollywood stars of the day participated in this live radio broadcast dramaticizing the significance of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. At the conclusion, Jimmy Stewart, who had been narrating at the microphone, pulled back, whipped his headphones off, and burst into tears.
It was one week after Pearl Harbor. This monumental broadcast was described in this previous post. It's time for a reprise, a pivotal time just as dangerous to our country as our entry into World War II after the Pearl Harbor attack. Listen to it. This is what they were fighting for.
This is what we are voting for. The stakes were never higher.
Here is a portion of that original post from 2017:
Walter Huston is a blacksmith.He doesn’t want anyone telling him he has to pray the way somebody else tells him.Doesn’t like state religion.Wants to make sure there won’t be any.
Others are suspicious of authority.They know that just wanting law and order isn’t enough—Nero had such.
Marjorie Main plays a woman whose husband died in the war.She wants guarantees that he didn’t diein vain.
Edward Arnold is a bricklayer who argues that the work is unfinished.There’s only a foundation and no house.
So many voices, so much dissent, so much yearning for rights.We are taken on a journey not only through history, but through the minds and souls of this nation.
Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Madison lend their voices, and George Mason warning us not only about a monarchy, but a “tyrannical aristocracy” taking over, the monied class.
Now the First Congress begins sifting through the amendments to the Constitution and hammering them out for the future.It’s not an easy job, but it’s important and they persist.Stewart passionately narrates, cajoles, shouts.
Most profound is Orson Welles’ impassioned speech.He takes over at this point and adds the other voices to the founders of the Bill of Rights – not just the men in Congress, but from the victims of the ages – “They had much help, the many nameless and unknown – from bleeding mouths, burnt flesh – from numberless and nameless agonies.The delegates from dungeons, they were there.The delegates from ashes at the bottoms of the stakes were there.”
We hear a voice, weak, pleading.
Orson continues, “The gallows delegates, whose corpses lifted gently in the breeze, they too…”
His voice grows booming, horrified:“The Christians killed for being Christians, Jews for being Jews, the Quakers hanged in Boston town, they made a quorum also… The murdered men, the lopped off hands, the shattered limbs, the red welts where the whip lash bit into the back.Must you know what they said?Must you know how they argued?Must you be told the evidence?
“Listen, then!”
We hear a blood-curdling scream.
“That was an argument for an amendment.”
They are words for our times, how shockingly, sickeningly current.
Traitor Trump, among his other vile crimes and deeds, has stated that he intends to suspend the Constitution.
From Cherry Ames, to Meet the Malones, from Dave Dawson to Kitty Carter - Canteen Girl, the Silent Generation spent their childhood immersed in geopolitical events through the prism of their middle grade and young adult books. From the home front to the battlefield, these books are a window on their world, and influenced their hard-working, conformity-loving generation.
Make Mine Freedom (1948) is a simplistic cartoon warning about the evils of communism, without saying the word, and interestingly, in its depiction of the evils of various "isms" we can easily lump fascism, isolationism, and racism, among the basketful of "isms" that threaten to destroy America.
It was produced by John Sutherland Productions for the Extension Department of Harding College, now Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. It was the first in a series of short films produced for Harding.
At the start of the Cold War, we were worried about the expansion of communist rivals across the globe, and while concerned about the bleak future that might mean, we were still looking over our shoulders at the horrors of the fascism we had just defeated in World War II. It seemed like we were between a rock and a hard place -- and we clung, perhaps innocently, but with faith, to the idea that authoritarianism in any form -- from politicians, from big business, from foreign governments -- was not the path to freedom. It still isn't.
From Cherry Ames, to Meet the Malones, from Dave Dawson to Kitty Carter - Canteen Girl, the Silent Generation spent their childhood immersed in geopolitical events through the prism of their middle grade and young adult books. From the home front to the battlefield, these books are a window on their world, and influenced their hard-working, conformity-loving generation.
It Happened in Springfield (1945) is a short subject produced by Warner Bros. starring Andrea King as a teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts, where a new approach and emphasis on citizenship in a multicultural society was taught during World War II, which came to be called The Springfield Plan. This included teaching students to identify racist propaganda and to foster democracy.
We referred to the Springfield Plan last week in the Americans All post. Unfortunately, I was not able to track down a copy of the film It Happened in Springfield, but I'll keep looking.
Also in the cast were Warren Douglas, John Qualen, Charles Drake, William Forrest, and Arthur Hohl.
Short films such as this and the two previous films discussed in this series illustrate the government's concern over the catastrophe of fascism that had caused World War II, and the horrors the Allied armies were discovering about those fascist societies as the war progressed. We did not want that mental disease to take root here.
The differences between the shameless lies about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, by Traitor Trump and the radical right MAGA fascists -- and the nobler intentions of the wartime Springfield Plan of Springfield, Massachusetts, are stark and rather jolting, but it further illustrates our choice in November.
From Cherry Ames, to Meet the Malones, from Dave Dawson to Kitty Carter - Canteen Girl, the Silent Generation spent their childhood immersed in geopolitical events through the prism of their middle grade and young adult books. From the home front to the battlefield, these books are a window on their world, and influenced their hard-working, conformity-loving generation.
This is to post a belated public farewell to a dear friend and colleague, John Hayes. I "met" John in the early years of this blog, and some of you may remember his eclectic blog, Robert Frost's Banjo. A musician as well as a poet, some years ago John and his partner wrote and performed on the movie track a musical score for Nell Shipman's silent film The Grub-Stake (1923) which I covered in this previous post.
Most recently, John published a three-volume book set of poetry, which I posted about on my New England Travels blog here. Another volume of poetry will be published by Askance Publishing posthumously. He was overjoyed at the contract and the accomplishment even as he bravely faced rapidly declining health. A gentle man of extraordinary perspective, he faced his mortality with grace and gallantry.
For many years he was also my proofreader of my books, and I will miss his friendship. Unlike most of the dear friends I've gratefully come to know through this blog, I actually was delighted to have met John in person. He had been living on the West Coast, but on a trip to Boston to visit his mother, he kindly made arrangements to visit me in western Massachusetts, and we went to lunch.
I read his poems from time to time and I feel the comfort of his big heart, his intellect, and his spirituality. He has left us in his poetry a precious gift: himself.
Here is his obituary as published in TheOregonian.
John Hayes Obituary
John (Jack Hayes, his pen name) entered the light of heaven July 12. Born in 1956 to Elizabeth (Atkinson) and John Hayes Sr. in Bellows Falls, Vt., Jack was a warm, loving man with a generous, kind spirit. He received his BA in English from UVM and his MFA in Poetry from UVA and had a lot of passions, including music, baseball, and Tai Chi, but poetry was his calling. He published 11 books of poetry, most recently Prayer Wind (Askance), and has one more collection slated for publication posthumously. In life, as in his poems, John saw beauty in the ordinary and the unordinary, often in nature. He shared music that he loved, played with, and taught both guitar and ukulele. In 2018, John married his true love, Sandy Pullella. Besides her, he leaves behind her family; his sister, Naomi (Mort) Rosenberg; niece, Jessie; nephew, Ethan; their children; several cousins; and his beloved dog, Chloe; and cat, Curious. John felt enormous gratitude to the Taoist Tai Chi Society, where he practiced in Portland, Ore. for many years. He developed lifelong friendships with two nuns from the Marymount Hermitage in Mesa, ID and also felt deeply connected to his editor and friend, Sheila Graham-Smith. Thank you to the teams of Kaiser Permanente Hospice and Palliative Care, Portland, Ore., OHSU, and the Alpha One Foundation. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Kaiser Hospice, the Alpha One Foundation, or the Marymount Hermitage. John's body has been donated to the OHSU Body Donation Program. Mass will be at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church 7600 N. Hereford, Portland, July 28, 2024, at 10:30 a.m.
Published by The Oregonian from Jul. 22 to Jul. 28, 2024.
This World War II-era short U.S. government film (a little over 16 minutes) attempts to safeguard American democracy through the message of religious and racial harmony, and to strike back at the evils of bigotry.
Towards the end of the film the noted Springfield Plan is discussed, an interracial education program implemented in the public schools of Springfield, Massachusetts (which happens to be in my neck of the woods).
One fosters democracy by fighting bigotry, which is the main tool of fascism.
Remember this as you go to vote next month. When one group's rights are taken away, eventually it happens to other groups. Don't think it might not be you.
From Cherry Ames, to Meet the Malones, from Dave Dawson to Kitty Carter - Canteen Girl, the Silent Generation spent their childhood immersed in geopolitical events through the prism of their middle grade and young adult books. From the home front to the battlefield, these books are a window on their world, and influenced their hard-working, conformity-loving generation.
Don't Be a Sucker (1947) is a U.S. government instructional film -- these days, we may even say inspirational film -- about the evils of allowing fascism to take hold over America. As this short (only a little over 17 minutes) was made just two years after the end of World War II when we should have been confident in vanquishing our fascist enemies, it is obviously prescient about a future when the allure of domination over our fellow men and women might return.
It stars Paul Lukas as an American immigrant warning young Bob Bailey about joining the siren's song of a street soapbox fascist, and how bad it got in Europe when men such as he fell prey to the false promises of authoritarianism.
Bob Bailey, old time radio fans will note, was the best insurance investigator Johnny Dollar among many who played the role in the program Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
Felix Bressart plays a brave, but doomed, university professor in the old country. Lloyd Nolan is the narrator.
Paul Lukas tells us, "Racial and religious hatred is just another of the mental and emotional diseases which are sweeping the world today as plagues and pestilences swept the world before science and education controlled them. This pestilence can be controlled, too."
One certainly hopes so. But not without education and critical thinking. Most especially, a free press, not one that's been bought and paid for.
When the soapbox blabbermouth denigrates foreigners, Blacks, Catholics...Bob Bailey almost succumbs to the fascist's reasoning and reassurance of his own superiority -- until the fascist lumps Freemasons in with the other undesirables. Bob is a Freemason, and he is more than insulted, he is shocked that he could be the next one in the detention camp.
