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 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.
Hollywood public service shorts on behalf of the March of Dimes and the search for a polio vaccine remind us of a world where a deadly and extremely communicable virus was everybody's fight and patriotic Americans did their part.
The March of Dimes was founded in 1938, as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was incorporated, launched by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. President Roosevelt, himself a victim of polio, was the nation's personification of the struggle against the mysterious virus. After President Roosevelt's death, his image replaced the old Mercury Head Dime and became the Roosevelt Dime because of the March of Dimes and the fight against polio. That fight still had almost another decade to find a solution. It found it in a vaccine. The success of the field trials were announced on April 12, 1955 - the tenth anniversary of his death. All of this, to a radical right fascist, might seem political.
Though there were plenty of detractors and outright enemies on the radical right against Roosevelt for his progressive programs, the fight against polio was not seen as political. Polio was scary.
It also took more than one vaccine to vanquish. The Salk vaccine was a two-injection process; the second shot was given three months after the first shot. Then an additional booster shot some seven months later.
In 1961, the oral vaccine developed by Dr. Albert Sabin was available, and even those who had received the earlier Salk injection still took the Sabin oral vaccine. Polio was that scary, people today who complain about the COVID vaccine and requiring boosters simply have no idea what they are talking about.
You were given a card on which to jot down the dates you received your shot:
Sound familiar? The difference between then and now is now we have allowed the most ignorant and immature and irresponsible people in our society a louder voice and far more power than they deserve.
Polio still has no cure. It is a virus that can be contained only by preventing it from spreading. Since 1979 no polio cases have originated in the United States, a couple of decades from the discovery of the first vaccine, and four decades from the founding of the March of Dimes by the nation's most famous polio victim.
Hollywood pitched in and did its part.
Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland from 1938:
Robert Young and his family from 1951:
Cecil B. DeMille:
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and their kids from 1954:
Have a look at the short The House I Live In (1945). We start a new year of blogging today, and a new era tomorrow. We're going to accentuate the positive this year, look for hope in the darkness, and maybe finding it in each other. I'm with Frank, I don't like Nazi creeps, either, especially ones that call themselves Americans. But there is yet an overwhelming tenor of decency and fairness and compassion in this country that even the worst monsters among us can't defeat. I like the way he grins, looks the mob of kids in the eye ("you have to be carefully taught") and calls them Nazis, hoping they'll challenge him. "Religion makes no difference, except maybe to a Nazi or somebody as stupid." Great line. Lump the Nazis with stupid people. Call a spade a spade. Trample all over their self-superiority. There were plenty of people in this country who would have seen this short in the theaters in 1945 and thought that Hollywood was overstepping its bounds, preaching a liberal message. To borrow another classic movie reference, the bad guys are coming into town at high noon tomorrow. Let's meet them at the train. Don't forget to grin when you challenge them by calling them Nazis or somebody as stupid, and hit them with unwavering, unrelenting truth. They hate that. They have no defense against truth, except more lies, and we've heard them all by now. If they cannot feel shame for their words or their deeds, then make them feel aggravation that respect, let alone cooperation, will be denied them. Let them know the apologists and excuse-makers among them will be held equally accountable as the instigators. Force them to look into the mirror of their depravity. And don't forget to grin. This year we'll be covering a lot of movies with plucky heroes - in classic films they come in the form of the average joe, the little guy - and they come to us in comedies as well as dramas. We'll be spending a good part of the summer with musicals - an art form as unabashedly exuberant as any known to man. We're going to examine this house we live in, and clean it up a little. See you next Thursday, when we'll discuss a plucky Pat O'Brien who helps to stop a run on Walter Huston's bank in the coincidentally named American Madness (1932).
Star
in the Night
(1945) is a short subject, about 20 minutes long, that has, thanks to showings
by TCM, has enjoyed rediscovery by fans of classic films and has become for
many as beloved a holiday classic as It’s
a Wonderful Life or Christmas in
Connecticut.It is like one of the
smaller presents under the tree—insignificant-looking, but sweet in its
simplicity.
We covered The Trail of Robin Hood (1950) with Roy Rogers last week as an
example of a movie with a Christmas theme that is an uncomplicated and innocent
slice of holiday fare, and Star in the Night
is similarly a movie with a Christmas theme that hits a minor chord among the
giants of the season: Holiday Inn, White
Christmas, etc.Unlike the Roy
Rogers Christmas tree caper, Star in the Night
hints at a theme religious in nature, but with a decidedly secular
wrapping.We think we know the story,
but it leaves us with a catch in the throat and a tear in the eye just the
same.
We meet three saddle tramps, with gaudy,
cheap presents strapped to the horns of their saddles, bemoaning that they
threw away their pay in town trying to impress a pretty young salesgirl by
buying so many things—which they have no use for.Simple toys, a basket that looks like a
cradle, a small tree, looking for all like carnival items.They ride slowly at night across a desert
scene, and in the far distance through the fog, they see a star, far brighter
than the others, and hanging strangely close to the horizon.
Before we can get too taken in by a
Christmas star and Nativity theme, we are wrenched from a spiritual moment by
J. Carrol Naish, who is atop a water tower hammering at a gaudy tin star with
lights on it.He obtained it from a
movie house that went out of business, the Star Picture Palace, and he’s using
it as an advertising sign for his auto court, which is what we now call
motels.They were a new idea back in the
day, a cheap string of bungalows on the highway where people could stop and
sleep for the night, get a bite to eat, not as fancy or expensive as a
hotel.Nobody expected much in the way
of comfort, just eats and a bed.
Hitchhiker Donald Woods isn’t even
expecting even that much.He’s down and
out, a hobo, and he asks Mr. Naish to allow him to come into the office and
warm up, and perhaps give him a cup of coffee.Naish scoffs at him, angry to have a bum try to play on his
sympathies.Naish is a businessman, not
doing too well himself, and he’s already got his auto court filled with guests
who are demanding, and downright rude.He doesn’t need one more person to ask favors of him, especially a guy
who can’t pay.
Woods is riveting in this role, he draws
our attention and compassion in extraordinarily subtle acting and what I would
expect to be brilliant directing by Don Siegel.Woods in the background of many shots, just observing, a silent witness
to the proceedings.A B-movie actor who
occasionally played minor roles in A-films, here Woods is compelling.He speaks softly, and in his soothing voice
and his dark, kindly eyes, there is a gentleness that is equally inspiring as
it is remonstrative to Naish, and us. He
is open and guileless, yet seems to bring secrets with him. There is a
Christ-like demeanor to his character, but he is not really the protagonist, or
the narrator, or the Greek chorus that represents the theme or the conscience,
nor does he really stand in for us.He
is a mystery, perhaps an angel, or could he really just be a guy with a
three-day beard and no coat, who glances under the floppy brim of his battered fedora
with such presence that we have difficulty taking him for who he is?Because we don’t know who he is.
Who we
are in the story is plain: we are Naish, the angry owner of the auto court who
is sick of being pushed around.We are
his various guests:the couple who want
more blankets and refused to accept no for an answer; the guy, played by Irving
Bacon, who’s mad because his shirts came back from the laundry all wrecked; and
the woman who’s fit to be tied because she can’t sleep for the noise the bunch
of rowdies in the next bungalow are making.Later the rowdies reverently sing Christmas carols.
Then Anthony Caruso, who pops up as
minor characters from time to time in movies, plays a Mexican immigrant with a
sick wife.He wants a room so she can
lie down, but the auto court is full up.Naish’s kindly wife, played by Rosina Galli, suggests the shed in back,
and Naish blusters, but he lets his wife have her way.The immigrants are led to the shed, and the
woman is allowed to lie down in the hay.
She’s not sick.She’s pregnant, and soon the husband panics
because the baby’s suddenly coming.Here.Now.What does he do?
He tells the others, and asks for help.
But this is a 20-minute short, and
moreover, it has a distinct lesson to tell us.There is no time wasted by the irritable other travelers.They snap to attention, and, as so often
happens in a crisis, they get to work to help someone who needs it.They give the blankets, the shirts, the hot
water, and the women go to the shed to comfort the woman and help deliver the
baby.They are immediate in their
reaction, a blessed contradiction to our usual vacillating whims.
Naish, we are told by his wife, is
really a softy, though we can’t believe it.She tells Donald Woods that when she first met him, Naish was crying
over an animal that he saw being mistreated.She was so moved, she decided then and there he was the man for her.
Naish is none too happy about the
Mexicans camping on him and sponging off him, but he is worried about the
pregnant woman, and he gives Woods a free cup of coffee, and later on his coat.He needs to help somehow.Helping gives us a sense of control.
The baby is born, it’s a boy.Relief washes over everybody as things seem
to be okay.Then the three cowboys come
in.We forgot about them.They are, of course, the Magi bringing their
presents (which suddenly are useful) to the baby in the shed.
Naish, bewildered, looks around at his
happy guests, and glances over to the shed where they kneel before the mother
and baby.His eyes squint and flicker as
they catch the light of his cheap, shabby star with its many movie marquee
light bulbs that pierce the foggy night.He looks up at the star, and suddenly it hits him.A look of humility, gratitude—and horror,
wash over his face.
He
almost turned away the Christ child.
The events of this night have been his
test, and his gift, and his redemption.Sometimes
redemption is just a second chance to be a nice guy.His eyes fill with tears.
And so do ours.
We may have a tacky tin star, but we don’t
have any movie “stars”. The character actors will handle this one just fine,
thank you.Star in the Night won an Oscar for Best Short Subject.It is currently an extra on the Christmas in Connecticut DVD.Who would have thought something so short, so
small, could be such a giant?
Here
it is:
***************************************** "Lynch’s book is organized and well-written – and has plenty of amusing observations – but when it comes to describing Blyth’s movies, Lynch’s writing sparkles." - Ruth Kerr, Silver Screenings
"Jacqueline T. Lynch creates a poignant and thoroughly-researched mosaic of memories of a fine, upstanding human being who also happens to be a legendary entertainer." - Deborah Thomas, Java's Journey
"One of the great strengths of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is that Lynch not only gives an excellent overview of Blyth's career -- she offers detailed analyses of each of Blyth's roles -- but she puts them in the context of the larger issues of the day."- Amanda Garrett, Old Hollywood Films
"Jacqueline's book will hopefully cause many more people to take a look at this multitalented woman whose career encompassed just about every possible aspect of 20th Century entertainment." - Laura Grieve, Laura's Miscellaneous Musings
"Jacqueline T. Lynch’s Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is an extremely well researched undertaking that is a must for all Blyth fans." - Annette Bochenek, Hometowns to Hollywood
Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. by Jacqueline T. Lynch The first book on the career of actress Ann Blyth. Multitalented and remarkably versatile, Blyth began on radio as a child, appeared on Broadway at the age of twelve in Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine, and enjoyed a long and diverse career in films, theatre, television, and concerts. A sensitive dramatic actress, the youngest at the time to be nominated for her role in Mildred Pierce (1945), she also displayed a gift for comedy, and was especially endeared to fans for her expressive and exquisite lyric soprano, which was showcased in many film and stage musicals. Still a popular guest at film festivals, lovely Ms. Blyth remains a treasure of the Hollywood's golden age.
The eBook and paperback are available from Amazon and CreateSpace, which is the printer. You can also order it from my Etsy shop. It is also available at the Broadside Bookshop, 247 Main Street, Northampton, Massachusetts. If you wish a signed copy, then email me at JacquelineTLynch@gmail.com and I'll get back to you with the details. ************************** My new syndicated column SILVER SCREEN, GOLDEN YEARS, on classic film is up at Go60 or check with your local paper.
