In June of 1937 the historic production of Marc Blitzstein’s trade unionist musical "The Cradle Will Rock" was performed by Federal Theatre Project actors and produced by Orson Welles and John Houseman. In 1999 Tim Robbins directed a film version. Why did Robbins feel compelled to tell this story and why is he stumping again for John Edwards? Today Robbins and his wife Susan Sarandon will join John and Elizabeth. Why?
Blitzstein had written a song "A Nickel Under My Foot" about a prostitute and enlarged that into a musical about all kinds of prostitution – the press, the arts, the courts- our whole corrupt system. From Wikipedia:
The musical is a Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed. Set in "Steeltown, USA", it follows the efforts of Larry Foreman to unionize and otherwise combat wicked businessman Mr. Mister.
Blitzstein portrays a whole panoply of societal figures: Mr. Mister's vicious, outwardly genteel philanthropic wife, sell-out artists, poor shopkeepers, immigrant families, a faithless priest, and an endearing prostitute named Moll. The piece is almost entirely sung-through, giving it many operatic qualities, although Blitzstein (as he often did, even in his full-blown operas) included popular song styles of the time.
Tensions were extremely high at the time in the United States. 10 striking steelworkers had been shot in South Chicago by the police; 7 of them in the back. The WPA was under attack by right wing politicians. The country was in a terrible depression and fascism was on the rise. As our country now sinks into another depression and fascism has gained strength throughout the world as the economics of empire sucks the life out of democracies, it's good to look back at what happened in 1937. From Wikipedia:
Originally set to open at the Maxine Elliott Theatre with elaborate sets and a full orchestra, the production was shut down due to "budget cuts" within the Federal Theatre Project—though it was widely believed that this was instead due to censorship on the part of the government. The theatre was padlocked and surrounded by armed servicemen, ostensibly to prevent anyone from stealing props or costumes. They even impounded leading man Howard Da Silva's toupee. On the spur of the moment, Welles, Housman, and Blitzstein rented the New Century Theatre and a piano, and planned for Blitzstein to sing/play/read the entire musical to the sold out house. Blitzstein encouraged cast members to say their lines from the audience, to exercise their right of free speech. Just after beginning the first number, Blitzstein was joined by Olive Stanton, the actor playing Moll, who joined in from the audience, since she (along with the rest of the cast) was forbidden by the Actor's Union to perform the piece "onstage". During the rest of the performance various actors joined in with Blitzstein and performed the entire musical from the house. Actors sang across the theatre to one another. Many who attended the performance, including poet Archibald MacLeish, thought it to be one of the most moving theatrical experiences of their lives.
(Personal Note: John Houseman’s Acting Company’s performed "Cradle" starring Patti Lu Pone as "Moll" in London in 1985 and I was an understudy).
America rises time and time again. Often it is the artists, musicians, writers, and poets who try to depict what the corporate media will not. The struggle of regular Americans to have a decent middle class life and the struggle of men and women to band together to fight for better working conditions has received far more attention in plays and movies and songs than it has in the corporate media.
But these are stories that should be told again and again. And the word "union" should not be a maligned word. Words have meaning and the candidate who consistently talks about the politics of unity is John Edwards. He has talked about it in his first campaign and now more urgently in this campaign.
Edwards is talking about bringing unity, not between politicians, but between rural and city workers; bringing unity between factory workers, office workers and hotel workers. He is talking about uniting young people with an older generation of activists in the pursuit of peace, justice and a healing for our ailing planet and its creatures. He is talking about bringing back the dignity of work and the respect that everyone should have for all kinds of labor. For it is labor that creates wealth. And to back up these very fine words, he’s got an 80 page repair manual. He’s asking us all to roll up our sleeves and rise up together and put aside our divisions.
The Steelworkers in 1937 were building America literally. We’ve seen the pictures of the great beams rising as the Empire State Building was constructed. The Steelworkers today are helping John Edwards in his vision to build a better America that works for everybody and not just the top 1%.
But we give no respect to labor. Reagan made sure that we thought it was not as good as working on Wall Street. That to be a real American was to be an "owner" and not a "worker". Robert Kuttner in this month’s "The American Prospect" said that even the "liberal" Bill Clinton positioned Alan Greenspan next to the First Lady at the State of the Union. Kuttner says that
The next president should accord that seat of honor to the leader of the janitors’ local and take a few minutes of the State of the Union address to tell the story of what it took to win a first contract and what difference that made in the lives of ordinary people."
Kuttner says that
It would be a fine thing to see a Democratic president celebrate the heroism of ordinary people who braved the loss of their jobs to organize or join unions.
When Olive Stanton stood up in the audience at the Venice Theater to start singing the part of the prostitute Moll in 1937, they say she was trembling with fear. This was not a time to lose what little money the actress was making. But she felt compelled to tell the story as did the rest of the cast that rose up to join her.
Actors like Sarandon and Robbins feel compelled to tell other people’s stories for them. Filmmakers like Michael Moore feel compelled to tell the stories of people hurt by closing factories and shamelessly wicked insurance companies. Playwrights from Aeschylus to Shakespeare to Brecht to Miller to Sorkin and musicals from "The Cradle Will Rock" to "Rent" call and sing out the stories of the people.
It takes one person to rise up instead of stay seated. But it takes a fraternity and sorority of brothers and sisters to make a movement. Rise up with the man from Robbins, the man from the mills, the man who was Valerie Lakey’s champion. Rise up with the janitors, the garbage workers, the hotel workers, the writers. Do you have a hammer of justice, do you have a bell of freedom, do you have a song to sing all over this world? Then do it. This isn’t a hootenanny, this should be a revolution.
"And the cradle will rock!"
NOTE: Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon will join John and Elizabeth in Bedford, Hampton and Dover today. The rally in Dover is at 7:15PM at the Elks Lodge 184.
ANOTHER NOTE: There's a bit of a discrepancy in the Wikepedia entry that I used. Here's a note from marcblitzstein.com
It was, however, the last time that Welles and Houseman worked for the FTP. Welles resigned from the project and Houseman was fired under a WPA rule which forbade the employment of non-American citizens. The WPA sent its officers into the Maxine Elliott theatre to demolish the set that Welles had designed. Unit 891 folded overnight, to be reborn shortly after as Welles' and Houseman's own Mercury Theatre.
For the record, The Cradle Will Rock ran for a further 18 performances at the Venice Theatre. It then re-opened at the Windsor Theatre in January 1938, produced by Sam Grisman, although still without props, and with Blitzstein playing the piano, where it ran for a further 108 performances.