Memorial Day: Remember and Honor the Fallen

  

 
      Today, I feel it is appropriate to shift the focus a bit away from the Cold War Television and honor our fallen on this Memorial Day.  Memorial Day is often deemed the "unofficial kick-off" to the summer season and is celebrated with beach days, barbecues, parties, parades, and fireworks, but often it is not exercised as the day to honor our fallen soldiers.  Memorial Day was originally dubbed "Decoration Day" and was intended to be a day of remembrance for those who died while serving our country in the Civil War.  According to USMemorialDay.org, Memorial Day's roots go all the way back to 1868 when General John Logan, a national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, declared Memorial Day an official day to honor the fallen of the Civil War.  The day was deemed to appropriately honor those fallen from both Confederate and Union armies in an effort to reconcile the divisions of the Civil War.  Graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery were decorated on May 30th of that year as a means of honor for their service. By 1890, all the states in the North recognized the official "Memorial Day."  The South, however, refused to recognize the nationally designated day until after World War I, instead honoring their Confederate fallen on separate days.  Post-World War I proved a milestone in that the designation of Memorial Day was changed to honor all war dead, not just those from the Civil War.  With this, the South also recognized the day and it became a true nationally recognized day of remembrance.  In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a federally recognized holiday, which we celebrate today.


         Though Memorial Day does unofficially kick-off the summer season with the tourists heading to the beach towns, the barbecues christening the start to summer foods, parades and fireworks bringing crowds together in celebration, we should not forget that the day is one to remember our fallen for without them, there would be no summer celebrations.  During this kickoff to the summer season, lets remember the true meaning of Memorial Day and just take a moment to thank our soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice so we can enjoy our summer barbecues and beach days, and our freedoms for which these soldiers fought and died so valiantly. 

Cold War Television: The Military Comedy

Persuasive entertainment television in the 1960s included the military comedy, which was also created to remind the public of America’s military superiority over the evils in the world.  In the case of Hogan’s Heroes which ran from 1965 to 1971, Colonel Bob Hogan ran a successful military operation from inside a Nazi prisoner of war camp.  Not only did Hogan’s Heroes remind us that America was successful in defeating Nazism, but it allowed war to become an unrealistic, and fun, fantasy by characterizing the Nazi soldiers as bumbling idiots. Other military comedies that broadcast between 1962 through 1967 included McHale’s Navy, Gomer Pyle USMC, F-Troop, and The Wackiest Ship in the Navy, among others.  These all had a common goal in creating the fantasy associated with the military, especially in the post-war society where the U.S. was perceived as militarily superior in light of the successes of World War II.  The military comedy not only reminded viewers of U.S superiority in shows like Hogan's Heroes, but also succeeded as a means of escapism, especially as the U.S. drew nearer to military involvement in Vietnam.  “These war stories and comedic encounters prolonged the inability of the American citizenry to confront the reality of war.”  In effect, the war comedy allowed for the escapism to support military involvement in Vietnam by detaching the American public from the horrors associated with war.

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Source:  J. Fred McDonald, Television and the Red Menace: The Video Road to Vietnam, 2009.  Accessed December 16, 2011. http://jfredmacdonald.com/trm/index.htm

Cold War Television Invades Children's Programming: Rocky and Bullwinkle as Cold Warriors

          As the first “television war,” television broadcasts undoubtedly would have had an impact on the viewing public.  In light of this, it is easy to argue that the television was a factor in shifting the public from support to protest.  However, the shaping of a pro-war America occurred well before the news began covering Vietnam on a daily basis.   Early programming disguised as entertainment was mostly pro-war or, at the very least, anti-Communist. For years prior to the escalation in Vietnam, television programming conditioned Americans to feel it is America’s duty to stop Communism everywhere. Shows such as CBS” The Defenders which aired from 1961 to 1965 often involved story lines that revealed America’s duty to spread good throughout the world, which coincides with the justification of our involvement in Vietnam.  Americans were programmed to dutifully rid the world of the evils of Communism, the perceived motive for involving American troops in the warfare in Vietnam.

          The Defenders was not alone.  The constant inundation of Cold War dramas reinforced the image of America as the defender of democracy.  But, again, the programs were not limited to the dramas such as The Defenders, Mission Impossible, and The Twilight Zone, but persuasive television was disguised in animated cartoons such as Rocky and His Friends.  This children’s show was promoting the annihilation of evil Communist spies.  The premise for the show included spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale touting Eastern European accents and under the direction of the Fearless Leader attempted to carry out their sinister plots only to be foiled by Rocky, a loveable flying squirrel, and Bullwinkle, his dim-witted moose cohort. The series ran from 1959 until 1961 and continues even today in syndication.   The message was clear: “Russian men and women were evil, and they were out to destroy the American way of life” and could only be stopped by two all-American types.  In reality, even the children’s television programming fortified the view that it was the duty of noble America to stamp out evil Communism feeding Cold War fears and priming Americans to support anti-Communist efforts in Southeast Asia.

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Sources

Thomas Doherty, Cold War, Cool Medium.

Peter C. Rollins, “The Vietnam War: Perceptions Through Literature, Film, and Television,” American Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 3 (1984), 429. February 3, 2011.  JSTOR.

J. Fred McDonald, “Television and the Red Menace.”

Cold War Entertainment: The Spy Drama "I Led 3 Lives"

          Television programming took full advantage of the Cold War fears of the viewing public. News and discussion programs continually covered the Cold War as their primary platform, but “such nonfiction shows were limited in how they could present the Cold War. Tied to fact and the presentation of actual events, news programs could not ef­fectively illustrate emotional ramifications, such as the nature of the enemy or the consequences of defeat.”   Entertainment, however, had much more leeway in presenting the anti-Communist rhetoric.  Entertainment programs, especially the genre which has since been known as “spy television,” continually “presented an interpretation of life in which a good ‘us’ was forever defeating, in 30 or 60 minutes, an evil ‘them.’”  Throughout the 1950s, television programming inundated the viewing public with a “bath of Cold War clichés and fear—a flood of propagandistic messages that urged the public to support unquestioningly the policies of the U.S. government.” These shows subtlety conditioned Americans to believe that the U.S. government was the brave and unconquerable soldier in the fight against Communism everywhere.

          A prime example of the “spy television” program I Led 3 Lives which aired from 1953 to 1956 and was promoted as “a crusade against communist subversion.”  It was an instant hit. The audience was riveted by the character, promoted as a patriot, who led three lives in the service to his country:  a citizen, a Communist, and a counter-spy for the FBI.  The advertisements constantly reminded viewers that the story was based on true events, that of Herbert A. Philbrick who wrote a memoir documenting his years as an FBI informant working within Communists cells.  If this wasn’t enough to keep viewers routing for Philbrick’s character, each week actor Richard Carlson recapped for viewers that this was for real:

This is the story, the fantastically true story, of Herbert A. Philbrick, who for nine frightening years did lead three lives—average citizen, high-level member of the Communist Party, and counterspy for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For obvious reasons the names, dates, and places have been changed. But the story is based on fact.

With the constant recaps that the story was “true,” the entertainment became fact in the eyes of the viewers and further prompted fears of Communist infiltration within everyday America.

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Sources:

 J. Fred McDonald, Television and the Red Menace: The Video Road to Vietnam, http://jfredmacdonald.com/trm/index.htm

Thomas Doherty, Cold War, Cool Medium.

 Richard Carlson, I Led Three Lives quoted in McDonald.

The Americans: An Analysis of the Photography of Robert Frank

          The 1950’s seemed to be a decade hiding the realism of everyday life by highlighting the prosperity of a post-war era and the reachable “American Dream” that was sought by those living in this decade.  Because no one wanted to confront the realities of the Cold War, the Jim Crow ways lending to racial divisions, and the generational differences between the new breed of teens and their elders, Robert Frank’s The Americans, was not well received.  Being an immigrant, Frank saw America the way it really was and did not attempt to glamorize what he saw.  He shot the real Americans in their everyday lives and captured the heart and soul of that era in American life.

           It is important to note that Frank's subjects are not posed and no one is “smiling for the camera.”  Frank captured the faces of the American public within their everyday lives showcasing real expressions of real people living in 1950’s America.  Frank’s photos highlight everything from prosperity to poverty, multitudes to desolation, new life to finality of death, and happiness to sorrow which all occur during our lifetimes making his photos easy for the viewers to understand and relate.

            Furthermore, Frank was able to emphasize some of the issues of his era, especially segregation, patriotism, and generational gaps.  For example, the New Orleans photo on the cover shows a trolley car obviously segregated with white riders in the front and black riders in the back.  However, Frank also shows blacks and whites working side by side in an assembly line photo taken in Detroit as well as a black nurse holding a white baby in Charleston, South Carolina with undertones of hope for equality further highlighted by the photo taken in Detroit bar of Presidents Lincoln and Washington bookending an American flag.   In addition, the same New Orleans trolley car photo showing children riding directly in front of an older black man and directly behind an older white woman in addition to the Charleston photo of the black nurse and the white baby could be interpreted to show hope for a better future by emphasizing the children.   A photo of a baby next to a jukebox on an empty dance floor in Buford, South Carolina, indicates optimism for a future of fun and excitement.  A further example is in a Georgetown, South Carolina photo where three generations are sitting together on a couch, a small child, a woman who appears to be his mother, and an older woman who appears to be his grandmother, who is holding a cigarette.   Although this may not have been Frank’s intention, because the two younger generations are not smoking, this photo indicates that the future is brighter for the newer generations who are not partaking in the health risks of the older generation.  There is also a photo of teenagers necking in a public park in Ann Arbor, Michigan, showcasing the teens in love indicating hope for future generations.

         

           American patriotism seems to be a universal theme throughout Frank’s photos as well.  Many of the photos in the book contain an American flag which shows the high level of patriotism felt by Americans in the era after defeating Germany and Japan in the Second World War and at the beginning of the Cold War with the rising Soviet Union as a communist superpower.  Flags are hung on an apartment building during a parade in Hoboken, on the wall in a Navy Recruiting Station in Butte, Montana, hanging outdoors during a Fourth of July celebration in Jay, New York, on the wall in the Detroit bar, hanging from the building in a political rally in Chicago, and there are star lights in the background of a club car headed to Washington DC.

           The most important theme within Frank’s photos is that of “Americans.”  Frank photographed people from different cultures, including blacks, Hispanics, Jews, and whites; celebrating different religious and civil ceremonies from funerals to weddings.  He included biker groups, prostitutes, celebrities, high-class socialites, rural farmlands, cowboys, soldiers, teenagers, politicians, families, senior citizens, children, gamblers, and travelers among others within the photos.  This variety of people from different backgrounds living and socializing in different settings is truly American in that it is a blend of all different types of people living together as one nation.

Good Night and Good Luck

A dark blemish in an age known for its perceived contentment during the decade of the 1950s was the witch hunts that came to be known as “McCarthyism” where prejudices and fears of Communism allowed a junior Senator from Wisconsin to manipulate the public for his own advancement.  Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed to know a number of Communists who had infiltrated the United States government, preying on the public’s fears during the Cold War years that Communism would violently overthrow democratic governments both in Europe and at home.   Senator McCarthy single-handedly caused the fear of Communism to grow into an epidemic; however, due to the actions of a reputable news correspondent, Edward R. Murrow, Senator McCarthy was eventually exposed as the self-serving, slimy politician that he really was.

Released in 2005, over fifty years after the height of McCarthyism, Good Night, and Good Luck stars Hollywood actor George Clooney who also co-wrote this excellent portrayal of the events surrounding Murrow’s broadcasts on See It Now, his weekly news commentary show, regarding Senator McCarthy.   Good Night, and Good Luck has a documentary feel to it, filmed in black and white, lending an air of authenticity to the final product.  The music also sets the mood of the early 1950s, playing strategically in the background to bring us back to the days of the big band sound.  David Straithairn plays Murrow brilliantly with Clooney as his friend and producer, Fred Friendly.  Together, they challenge McCarthy on the same medium McCarthy himself used to gain publicity, the newly popularized television.  Making this film even more real, clips of McCarthy’s Senate hearings as well as clips from the See It Now broadcasts are intertwined into the film.

The movie opens with The Radio Television News Directors Association and Foundation saluting Murrow for his entire career of news broadcasts at a dinner reception on October 25, 1958.  Murrow begins his speech at this event, and then the film’s audience is brought back to 1953 when Murrow and his staff are putting together their next See It Now show.  Murrow and Friendly discuss the possibility of airing a story about a recently dismissed Air Force Lieutenant who refused to denounce his family for alleged Communist ties.  Lieutenant Milo Radulovich from Dexter, Michigan, was a casualty of McCarthy in Murrow’s eyes as he was tried and found guilty by the Air Force of being a security risk because his father reads a “Serbian newspaper.”  However, executives at Columbia Broadcasting System have reservations about the story, including the specific fear of losing their corporate sponsors.  Murrow and Friendly, in turn, due to their fierce belief that this story must be told, agreed to pay the $3,000 in lost revenue for that evening’s broadcast.  Murrow’s commentary sums up the unfair treatment of Radulovich: “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, even though that iniquity be proved, and in this case, it was not.”  Murrow further questions at what extent individual rights must be sacrificed in the name of national security, which is a question we still ask today.  In his commentary of the McCarthy story, Murrow states, we “cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home,” highlighting the importance of abiding by the very basic rights instilled by our country’s founding fathers.  The Radulovich story was the first of several aired by Murrow questioning Senator McCarthy’s methods, and it was groundbreaking for CBS as it was the first broadcast as an editorial rather than a neutral news story.  Surprisingly to all involved, public opinion seemed to support Murrow’s exposé, which allowed Murrow and Friendly to continue their attack on McCarthy.

            The film depicts the behind the scenes production of both the broadcast shows and the executives’ reservations.  It is important to note that the executives were concerned about the price the station would pay for airing this type of biased commentary, especially against a United States Senator.  Bill Paley, head of CBS, confronted Murrow several times about the airing of these segments, however, to his credit, he never directly told Murrow that he was forbidden to do the shows.  Unfortunately, after the McCarthy stories aired, See It Now was all but cancelled.  Murrow’s show was moved from prime-time Tuesday evenings to Sunday afternoons, and was not even aired weekly as it had been previously.  Paley justified the move by explaining it away as loss of advertisers due to the public desire for entertainment rather than “civics lessons.”

On a more personal note, the film also portrays victim Don Hollenbach, played by Ray Wise, the CBS news anchor who was labeled a Communist by newspaper reporter Jack O’Brian.  Hollenbach, colleague and friend of Ed Murrow and Fred Friendly, succumbed to the pressure of being labeled and, after the McCarthy show aired, committed suicide, depicting the personal toll taken by McCarthyism victims.  It is important to remember that each victim was an individual whose life was inadvertently affected by the accusations of that junior Senator, especially those made without merit.  Don Hollenbach’s tragic story is a perfect reminder of the ultimate price paid by a victim of unfounded accusations.  In fact, Murrow himself is accused of Communist ties by McCarthy in his rebuttal which seems to be McCarthy’s response to anyone who criticized or opposed his methods, which Murrow points out in one of  his See It Now broadcasts.

Edward R. Murrow was a hero, going up against a United States Senator who he saw as a terrorist against the better judgment of CBS executives and exposed a monster who exploited the public’s fear of Communism to further his own career.  Murrow was a genius in using McCarthy’s own words in his broadcasts and allowed McCarthy to “hang himself.”   Good Night, and Good Luck ends where it began, at the Salute to Murrow in 1958.  We could learn a great deal from this reputable news commentator as he reminds us in his speech that we need to remember to use television as a source of illumination and inspiration, and not merely as entertainment.    If it had not been for See It Now and the bravery of a man named Edward R. Murrow, Senator McCarthy may have been seen as the hero.  Murrow would be proud of Clooney and Good Night, and Good Luck for illuminating us as to the early days of television, the true nature of a man named Senator Joe McCarthy, and the importance of news commentaries like See It Now.

West Side Story: A Portrait of Life in 1950s New York City

            Can a movie be a true reflection of the time period in which it was made?  Although primarily created as entertainment for the purpose of making money, movies can be a great vehicle for the creators to effectively portray their views of contemporary issues.  For example, West Side Story, one of the most famous musical movies of our time, is often described as a modernized Romeo and Juliet, which is certainly an acceptable interpretation; however, this movie can also be seen as an accurate depiction of life in New York City’s West Side at the time when the movie was created.  In 1961, when this movie was released, city life in America was wrought with prejudices against minorities and urban life also spurred gang violence produced by the expressions of teens attempting to gain the respect of their peers.  West Side Story portrays both of these issues in its storyline revolving around a romance between members of two rival gangs, The Jets, who are the primarily White Anglo Saxon kids of working class parents, versus the Sharks, a Latino gang determined  to earn respect and equality on the city streets.  The romance is, unfortunately, doomed to fail because of the vicious rivalry between the gangs, thus highlighting that the lessons learned are of greater importance as this film shows the devastating results of hatred for fellow man based only one’s cultural background.  Therefore, the creators of West Side Story succeeded in portraying the historical accuracy of life in 1950’s New York City where prejudices and gang violence were part of everyday life.

          Although African Americans were making progress in their fight for civil rights, all minorities suffered at the hands of white supremacist thoughts and actions in all of American society in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  National attention had been given to the cause of African American civil right; however, Latino Americans were also fighting for their own equal rights.  Latinos had been considered second class citizens as well and were denied access to white areas and were not given equality in jobs, housing, or education.  This attitude was exacerbated when Cuban exiles started entering the United States in large numbers after Fidel Castro violently overthrew Dictator Fulgencio Batista in late 1958. Fear of being overrun by foreigners drove the already white supremacist thought. This is portrayed in the beginning of the film in the “Jet Song” when the Jets sing:

“We're drawin' the line,
So keep your noses hidden!
We're hangin' a sign,
Says "Visitors forbidden"
And we ain't kiddin'!”

The Jets make it all too clear that they do not want the Latinos in their territory.  The message is evident that foreigners were not welcome in their neighborhoods

            The Sharks, on the other hand, feel the animosity directed at them and are clearly trying to fight for respect and acceptance.  The song, “America” defines the Latinos attitudes about their emigration to the United States in search of the American Dream and the reality of life in New York City.  The girls, led by Anita, sing about the wonderful opportunities for them in America compared to their home in Puerto Rico, however, Bernardo and the Sharks counter each statement with the discrimination with which they are faced.  When Anita sings, “Life is all right in America”, Bernardo responds with, “If you’re all white in America.”  These two lines which sum up the entire song reflect the quest for the American Dream and the prejudices felt by minorities because of the lack of equal opportunities afforded them in 1950’s America. 

          The portrayal of these gangs shows not only prejudices against minorities, but also against perceived juvenile delinquency.  In the late 1950’s, teens rebelled against the conformist society established by their elders and  “juvenile delinquency” increased dramatically.  Gangs began roaming the streets of cities such as New York and Chicago, street fighting in “rumbles” to protect what they believed to be their territory against rival gangs.   This is also is portrayed in West Side Story, where the gangs were fighting for their territory as Action explains, “A gang that don’t own the street is nothing.”  These rebellious teens were misunderstood by the elders in their neighborhoods accenting the generational conflicts which abounded in the 1950’s.   The song, “Gee, Officer Krupke” demonstrates the Jets poking fun at the police officer, whom they encounter on several occasions, explaining that their delinquency is the fault of their parents and society.  Officer Krupke is not the only police officer who automatically assumes that the teens are causing trouble.  Lieutenant Shrank displays his hostile attitude towards the teens by addressing them as “hoodlums,””hooligans,” and “punks.”  Therefore, this film accurately depicts teenage rebellion, juvenile delinquency, and generational conflicts of the 1950’s.

            Although it is a dramatic movie, the 1961 film West Side Story accurately portrays life in the 1950’s by highlighting many of the social issues of the time.  This film focuses on the strained racial relations and the beginning of the fight for equal rights for all minorities; and generational conflicts between the new breed of teens and their parents, underscored by the birth of rock and roll music and a fear of increasing juvenile delinquency.  Discrimination towards minorities was a major issue coming to light in the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, and prejudicial attitudes towards Latinos, especially,  were rising in the late 1950’s as the Cuban exiles were relocating to America.  West Side Story, primarily a story about white attitudes towards a Latino gang in New York City, successfully portrays these prejudices and goes even further by showing the tragic results of prejudicial human thought and action.   Because of the prejudices, a romance is ripped apart and an innocent teen dies at the hands of hatred.  Therefore, the creators of West Side Story were able to show the results of prejudicial antipathy and teach acceptance in an entertaining venue.