The other day I wandered into a vintage clothing and collectibles store in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland. The majority of the offerings were from the 1950s and 1960s, made of glass, ceramic, more stylish and permanent than plastic. The area is perfect for imagining travel to an earlier time. Down W. 11th Street is a destination stop of nostalgia, the CHRISTMAS STORY house. This was the filmed residence location for Ralphie and his family, a movie filmed in the early 1980s, although the story takes place in 1940s Indiana. The house has been restored inside and out to appear just as in the movie. I’ve been told that it is some people’s favorite Christmas movie. Actually mine is the Preston Sturges/Mitchell Leisen collaboration, REMEMBER THE NIGHT, an idealized but pretty accurate 1940 Hollywood creation of a rural Indiana Christmas. Who wouldn’t want to go home with Fred MacMurray and to a mother like Beula Bondi?
Summertime is the easiest season in which to conjure memories. The senses are alert to smells, foods, melodies, noises, voices. Memories are pursued by so many of us and it’s often a frequent writing device. Woody Allen’s summer movie, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, offers the relatable theme that the past is more attractive and desirable than the present. Anyone who has visited the City of Light knows that Paris’s attributes have stayed constant for decades in spite of the intrusion of American popular culture. Parisians don’t easily change and so it’s a prime example of a place of imagination with a backward or forward perspective. I’ve also been reading David McCullough’s delightful history THE GREAT JOURNEY about Americans’ discovery of Paris in the early 19th century.
So many of our successful entertainments fill the desire for a return to an earlier era, like television’s MAD MEN, AMERICAN DREAMS, THE HOUR and we can look forward to the forthcoming PAN AM and PLAYBOY CLUB. I have always preferred the early classic songs of Jerome Kern (All the Things You Are), Irving Berlin (Always), Schertizinger and Mercer (I Remember You) and Richard Rodgers (his later The Sweetest Sounds). And satellite radio and the stations playing music of the 40s, 50s, 60s and Siriusly Sinatra give me good reason to adore and never tire hearing them.
Period movies such as THE HELP and CAPT AMERICA, depicting the 1960s and the 1940s, are drawing large audiences this month. Two of my favorite Broadway musicals, THE MUSIC MAN and SHE LOVES ME, present nostalgic time periods with the former being idyllic and the latter a foreshadowing of doom. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, recent revivals of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS, HAIR, ANYTHING GOES and SOUTH PACIFIC were widely praised because they used fresh retellings. And even musicals like GREASE, BYE BYE BIRDIE, JERSEY BOYS or films like AMERICAN GRAFFITI have tried to capitalize on audiences’ demand for nostalgia.
There were plenty of re-recordings when I was growing up. The Letterman harmonized to THE WAY YOU LOOK TONITE and ballads like BLUE VELVET were recorded multiple times in the 1950s and 1960s.
It’s not that those times were less complicated or dangerous. It was the contrary and every era offered less opportunities to minorities. Now young people want to throw off apathy and learn about history, activism and courage to fight for equal rights. So reflecting back on when rights were not equal is a good way to analyze how far we have progressed and how to take action.
Sometimes our current present does seem dismal and it’s hard for me to retain my usual Sagittarian optimism. I realized the other day that although Nostradamus was a Sagittarian, his predictions weren’t all rosy.
It’s frightening to me how many followers throughout Texas and beyond are enamored by Gov. Rick Perry. He seems to be a reincarnation of a Know Nothing Party member. That 19th century party, known officially as the American Party, was led by Protestant native-born white, conservative Unionist males who feared immigrants, Catholics and wanted to take control of the Union. They wanted to pass laws prohibiting immigrants from gaining citizenship for 21 years or from holding any public offices. They required daily Bible readings in public schools and no alcohol sales. The party succeeded primarily in OH by recruiting immigrant group members who wanted to join the persecution of Catholics.
I learned about this party and many other opposing views at Kenosha Wisconsin’s Civil War Museum. The historical video and audio enhanced exhibits focus on the Upper Middle West’s strong opinions. Dedicated activists founded Wisconsin with the idea of freedom and safety for colored people and runaway slaves. They also considered a break with the union if slavery continued to be condoned and a final solution wasn’t achieved.
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