A Face in the Crowd

Andy Griffith (later to become the lovable Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry) made his screen debut in 1957’s “A Face in the Crowd” written by Budd Shulberg from his short story “Your Arkansas Traveler”, and directed by Elia Kazan.

Griffith and Neal. Film still from WNYC Studios

Shulberg and Kazan were an award-wining writer and director infamous for naming names before HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Committee). Kazan followed up his testimony with the award-winning anti-union and pro-informer film “On the Waterfront”.

Spoiler Alert: This is a 60+ year old film, so it’s hard to spoil a plot at this late date, but you probably haven’t seen it. If you want to see it and be surprised, read the next paragraph but skip the one after.

“A Face in the Crowd” starts with a radio program on a small-town Arkansas station. The conceit is to interview ordinary folks and give them their 15 minutes of fame. The host decides to check out the county jail for an interview subject and stumbles upon Larry Rhodes, a drifter doing a week for public drunkenness. Rhodes is coarse and considered dangerous by the other jail denizens. He comes alive on mic with homey language and improvised songs. She dubs him “Lonesome Rhodes” and together they rise to stardom, first as a folksy Will Rogers-type and then as a dangerous demagogue. Fame and fortune go to his head as he becomes advisor to a presidential candidate.

It becomes clear that he’s on his way to a fall. The question is how and when that will come. He sells out his trusted advisor (Marcia Jeffries, played by Patricia Neal), eloping to Mexico with a 17 year-old after proposing to Marcia. Marcia brings about his fall by leaving him on a hot mic during the closing credits of his TV show as he tells his fellow cast members what he really thinks of the flock of sheep he leads.

Is Lonesome Rhodes a stand-in for Senator Joe McCarthy? McCarthy was a bumpkin from Grand Chute, WI before he rose to infamy with the Army-McCarthy Hearings in the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations. He fell from grace when the Army’s legal counsel, Joseph Welch, finally said, “Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” Is this Kazan and Shulberg expressing their guilt for naming names and being unwilling or unable to stand up to Sen McCarthy and his ilk? Is Marcia the courageous one who stands up when Shulberg and Kazan fail to do so? Is Marcia Joesph Welch?

[McCarthy, like current Rep George Santos, “embellished” his resume. He was mocked as “Tail-gunner Joe” for his made up tales of WW II daring. The fictional Rhodes, like ex-president djt, expressed contempt for his followers and has a line in the film almost the same as djt’s infamous line about being so popular he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and get away with it.]

In 1982,Orson Welles was asked about Kazan by a French reporter and replied, “Elia Kazan is a traitor. He is a man who sold to McCarthy all his companions at a time when he could continue to work in New York at high salary, and having sold all his people to McCarthy, he then made a film called On the Waterfront which was a celebration of the informer.”

https://www.youtubetrimmer.com/view/?v=9HoojJ1dZac&start=409&end=695&loop=0

House Un-American Blues Activity Dream. Richard and Mimi Fariña, recorded live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1965

Karen Terrier

This is Karen.

Image credits: Generic Karen from Film Daily. Target Karen and Walmart Karen from the Daily Mail. Central Park Karen from NY Daily News. Pacific Heights Karen from sfist.com.

Karen Key: “Target Karen” destroyed a mask display while filming it. She doesn’t like to wear a mask and thinks you shouldn’t wear one, either. “Walmart Karen” blocked a parking lot and screamed profanities and racist insults at those (including police) who asked her to move her car. She was in Hawaii and yelling at Hawaiians. “Central Park Karen” called police to tell them an African American man was threatening her life – because he asked her to leash her dog in a bird sanctuary. “Pacific Heights Karen” called police because a man wrote “Black Lives Matter” in sidewalk chalk on his retaining wall. She insisted she knew the owner, who would not approve. Clearly the actual property owner’s skin tone was too dark for him to live there. Luckily, the responding officer knew him and knew it was his own house.

This is a bull terrier. It was bred to harass bulls.

This is a rat terrier. It was bred to harass rats.

This is a fox terrier. It was bred to harass foxes.

Dog images from AKC.com

As a child I learned about a breed called a Cairn terrier, but I heard it as “Karen terrier”. Why not? We could use it to let the above Karens know that their attitude is not wanted.

Why not?

image from meme-generator.com

Tales of Our Only President

The New York Times has revealed that Our Only President did not pay Federal Income Tax for 10 of the past 15 years. In the two most recent years in which he paid taxes, he paid $750. In 2018 he claimed an income of $435 million in a financial disclosure, while claiming a loss of $47 million on his tax return. There are two logical and not incompatible explanations for this: 1) He is a liar and a cheat; 2) our tax code is structured to favor the wealthy. He calls the story “fake news”. Unfortunately, many in his base will probably love him even more for this. Many consider taxes to be evil and think anyone who dodges taxes is smart and a hero. Income tax evasion ultimately brought down Al Capone. May we be so lucky this time.

P.S. He is also reported (in a new book by a supporter and convicted felon) to have tried to sell his campaign on the idea of Ivanka as his running mate in 2016.

When is a precedent not a precedent?
(A letter to Senator Ron Johnson. He declined to respond. This is a slightly abridged version, cut to fit a newspaper’s 200-word limit. They chose not to run it.)

Dear Sen Johnson:
Please explain why it is not the height of hypocrisy for you to have said, in May of 2016, “Let the American people have a voice in the composition of the Supreme Court…Instead of a lame duck president and Senate nominating and confirming, a new president and Senate — elected by the people only a few months from now — should make that important decision. I can’t think of a fairer or more democratic process”; and then in September of 2020 to say, “President Trump has indicated he’s going to nominate someone. Leader McConnell has indicated he’ll give that nominee a vote, and I’m very supportive of that.” Further, in 2016 you said, “In the politicized atmosphere of an election year, you probably shouldn’t even nominate someone. It’s not fair to the nominee, it’s not fair to the court.”

I agree with you that the situations are not exactly parallel. In 2016 we were 6 months away from a presidential election. Now we are 6 weeks away from a presidential election. Can you explain this as anything but a bald-faced grab for power? Say it ain’t so Joe. Show a shred of decency.

You may want to skip the italicized section if that made sense to you. If you’re not from around here, Senator Ron Johnson is from the same neck of the woods as Wisconsin’s worst Senator, Joe McCarthy. On June 9, 1954, Joseph Welch, General Counsel for the US Army, was being interrogated by Sen McCarthy. In exasperation, he finally asked McCarthy, “At long last, have you no sense of decency?”

In 1919 the Chicago White Sox allegedly threw the World Series in exchange for bribes from gamblers, in an affair known as “The Black Sox Scandal.”. While they were acquitted, several players were banned from baseball for life. Star player Shoeless Joe Jackson was indicted and Charley Owens, writing in the Chicago Daily News, ran a story headlined “Say it ain’t so, Joe”, asking him to deny the accusation. The line was misattributed to a child, making for this scene in the film “Eight Men Out”:

I’m not sure how much of this Senator Johnson understood. By urging him to show a shred of human decency, I wanted him to put himself above Senator Joe McCarthy. By calling him “Joe” I wanted to draw the parallels between him and Joe McCarthy, to be sure he understood the gravity of the situation. By adding “Say it ain’t so” I was asking him to disavow his statement. References to both the Black Sox Scandal and the McCarthy hearings (especially in the same sentence) may have made it a little dense. Also, Ron Johnson seems to be a little dense. Sorry, I don’t usually explain myself this much. And you’re not Ron Johnson.

Day of Atonement

While my wife and daughter fast, pray, and sing in the Temple of Zoom, I atone by cleaning our adopted highway. Gut Yontiv.

Mark Hirsch, of Platteville, WI, photographed an old Burr Oak every day for a year and chronicled it in the book “That Tree“. The tree blew down in a storm this summer. While I haven’t taken this photo every day, this is the same view from our adopted highway (County F by Brigham Park), that has appeared in this space multiple times, but never this photo from today. While it rained in town, and clouds stayed above me all morning, the valley to the west basked in sunshine.

Finally, happy birthday to my Big Brother who, as a young whippersnapper of my current age, sailed the Rolex China Sea Race, in the boat pictured. (Ask to see his dragon tattoo.)

Pennant Race

The Milwaukee Braves were hosting the Cincinnati Redlegs in a crucial series. The Reds were known as the Redlegs in those years so we’d know they weren’t commies, this being the McCarthy Era.

Warren Spahn was on the mound for the Braves; Milton Famey pitched for the Redlegs. Famey was looking great that day. He had all his stuff and the Braves hitters couldn’t touch him; not the great Eddie Mathews, not the feared Hank Aaron. As the zeros piled up on the scoreboard, a perfect game was on the horizon. Spahn was pitching a gem as well, and as the seventh inning stretch rolled around, it was still a scoreless tie. The Braves were getting desperate. Lew Burdette snuck off and arranged a little plot.

A beautiful woman lured Milton Famey up the tunnel from the dugout and convinced him to join her for a beer, with an unspoken promise of more to come after the game.

Milt went out and pitched a perfect seventh and eighth. When he came to the mound for the bottom of the ninth, something had changed. The beer had taken effect. His pinpoint control was not quite the same. He walked Mathews to open the inning. He followed that with a walk to Aaron. Reds fans began to worry, but he struck out Frank Torre on 4 pitches and forced Harry Hanebrook to ground out before walking the bases full. The pitching coach came out and Famey assured him all was well. The no-hitter was still in play.

1954 Schlitz ad

Catcher Del Crandall stepped to the plate and swung and missed on a blazing fastball. A wicked curve caught him looking. He took the count to 3-2. He fouled off the next four pitches. Finally, Famey missed low and away and the winning run walked in. He lost while pitching a no-hitter.

Once the story came to light, that seventh inning stretch can of Schlitz became known as “The Beer That Made Milt Famey Walk Us.”