Friday, December 29, 2006
Long Farewells
The recent deaths of a former President and an entertainer had me thinking about who was the more influential in the public eye. Part of the answer depends on who they are, but another part depends on the times in which we ask the question.
Once, we would easily say it would be the politician who has the most influence. A century ago, Theodore Roosevelt made a huge impact on the American and world stage. In fact, his influence and presence is still with us whenever we visit a national park or consume food or medicine in our daily lives. Contemporary entertainers of TR’s time are largely forgotten even though they once made household news. With the possible exception of opera buffs, who remembers the opera singer Enrico Caruso today? Plus, how much of an impact did Caruso have in the world outside of music? (Point of fact is that politicians were also considered entertainment back then!)
Although I remember and even admire Gerald Ford, I can’t really say that he had as much influence as did James Brown. This is saying a lot since Ford was the steady hand that America needed at the time after the tumultuous years of Vietnam and Watergate. (Hindsight always has 20/20 vision!) Yet, it was Brown who had a larger impact (also unseen) than a politician has.
Most entertainers today don’t fully understand their social impact on the public, but James Brown did. He was more than a singer who knew how to belt a song in his unique way. Plus his influence is more than in the music he played. In a number of recent obituaries, an incident is mentioned that shows the power that an entertainer has. It was at a concert in Boston on the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Brown gave his usual raucous performance, but he also told a visibly distraught audience to peacefully leave for home, which they did. Meanwhile, most other cities in the country were in flames because of the murder.
Even though the Mayor of Boston himself was at the same concert and told the same audience the same message, the audience didn’t listen to him. They listened to James Brown. When President Ford gave his post-Watergate speech about our long national nightmare being over, it was stated so blandly that its full impact wasn’t appreciated until many years later. It may have been because the speaker himself was bland. The only politician who came close to having the same impact as James Brown was Robert Kennedy who spoke to an audience in Gary, Indiana on the same night as Brown’s Boston concert. In fact, largely because of Kennedy’s talk – one can’t really call it a speech – Gary, Indiana didn’t see any riots either.
Also, unlike many of today’s entertainers, Brown’s songs had a clear message. Even the titles said it all: “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” and “Don’t be a Drop-Out”. His own personal life and his more salacious songs might be a negative, but he’ll be remembered more for his anthems.
Entertainers in general don’t fully understand the impact they have on their audience. Those that do can sometimes end up being preachy, but the best of them convey their messages while simultaneously entertaining us. Wordsworth’s poems tried to convey England’s bucolic past while lamenting its industrial present and future. (Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy attempted to do the same thing, although that message may have been lost for most of its audience.)
Some of the best filmmakers also know how to convey a message – even without being preachy. Charlie Chaplin was most direct in films like Modern Times and The Great Dictator, but his message of poverty and survival were best portrayed in The Kid and City Lights. The last scene in City Lights is so moving that one has to watch the film from the beginning to understand the poignancy of Chaplin’s expression when he holds the young woman’s hand.
Film is such a visual medium that it has more of an impact even if it’s not completely accurate. The Auschwitz scene in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List had the victims enter the showers by walking down the stairs. Spielberg was criticized for being inaccurate in this portrayal, but that scene was more moving – showing people entering an underground abyss never to be seen again – than if it merely showed them entering the showers the way they really did.
The recently deceased Robert Altman made a number of “message films” that were not only entertaining, but whose messages still resonate decades after they were made. His first hit film M*A*S*H may take place during the Korean conflict, but anyone watching knew that it was dealing with the then-current war in Vietnam. (It was released in 1970.) Altman improvised throughout the making of the film. The actors loved him because he let them make up dialogue as they went on. This meant that screenwriters hated him because he never followed the script. Ring Lardner, Jr. may have been awarded for the script of M*A*S*H, but the final dialogue in the movie was nothing like his original version.
Altman’s most famous technique was the use of overlapping dialogue where a group of characters would speak all at once just as we would in real life. Writing such dialogue would be difficult even for the best of writers. (Actors, on the other hand, loved it!) Altman often used this technique which must have been difficult to film. (But, he made it look easy!) It was this kind of filmmaking that made a Robert Altman movie fun to watch. (Not to mention the barbs he would sling at Establishment figures!)
Entertainers of all kinds have more influence than they realize. In today’s world, they are more influential than the politicians. Just as James Brown may be remembered more than Gerald Ford, for better or for worse, the best of our current entertainers may just be remembered more than our current leaders.
I remember reading something that the news reporter, Edward R. Murrow once told one of his “boys”, David Schoenbrun, near the end of World War II. Murrow asked Schoenbrun, a former teacher, what plans he had after the war. Schoenbrun stated that he might go back to teaching high school to which Murrow asked him ”How would you like to teach in the world’s largest classroom?” Schoenbrun took the offer and became a news reporter (and “teacher” in “the world’s largest classroom”).
If all people in the entertainment and broadcast industry understand that they are really “teachers”, then maybe they might realize how much influence they have. I can’t say if they’ll ever have such insight. These just happen to be the times we live in where entertainers are more influential than politicians – and, entertainers are too ignorant to realize that.
May Gerald Ford, James Brown, Robert Altman and all the others who passed away this year rest in peace.
Fade out.
Once, we would easily say it would be the politician who has the most influence. A century ago, Theodore Roosevelt made a huge impact on the American and world stage. In fact, his influence and presence is still with us whenever we visit a national park or consume food or medicine in our daily lives. Contemporary entertainers of TR’s time are largely forgotten even though they once made household news. With the possible exception of opera buffs, who remembers the opera singer Enrico Caruso today? Plus, how much of an impact did Caruso have in the world outside of music? (Point of fact is that politicians were also considered entertainment back then!)
Although I remember and even admire Gerald Ford, I can’t really say that he had as much influence as did James Brown. This is saying a lot since Ford was the steady hand that America needed at the time after the tumultuous years of Vietnam and Watergate. (Hindsight always has 20/20 vision!) Yet, it was Brown who had a larger impact (also unseen) than a politician has.
Most entertainers today don’t fully understand their social impact on the public, but James Brown did. He was more than a singer who knew how to belt a song in his unique way. Plus his influence is more than in the music he played. In a number of recent obituaries, an incident is mentioned that shows the power that an entertainer has. It was at a concert in Boston on the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Brown gave his usual raucous performance, but he also told a visibly distraught audience to peacefully leave for home, which they did. Meanwhile, most other cities in the country were in flames because of the murder.
Even though the Mayor of Boston himself was at the same concert and told the same audience the same message, the audience didn’t listen to him. They listened to James Brown. When President Ford gave his post-Watergate speech about our long national nightmare being over, it was stated so blandly that its full impact wasn’t appreciated until many years later. It may have been because the speaker himself was bland. The only politician who came close to having the same impact as James Brown was Robert Kennedy who spoke to an audience in Gary, Indiana on the same night as Brown’s Boston concert. In fact, largely because of Kennedy’s talk – one can’t really call it a speech – Gary, Indiana didn’t see any riots either.
Also, unlike many of today’s entertainers, Brown’s songs had a clear message. Even the titles said it all: “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” and “Don’t be a Drop-Out”. His own personal life and his more salacious songs might be a negative, but he’ll be remembered more for his anthems.
Entertainers in general don’t fully understand the impact they have on their audience. Those that do can sometimes end up being preachy, but the best of them convey their messages while simultaneously entertaining us. Wordsworth’s poems tried to convey England’s bucolic past while lamenting its industrial present and future. (Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy attempted to do the same thing, although that message may have been lost for most of its audience.)
Some of the best filmmakers also know how to convey a message – even without being preachy. Charlie Chaplin was most direct in films like Modern Times and The Great Dictator, but his message of poverty and survival were best portrayed in The Kid and City Lights. The last scene in City Lights is so moving that one has to watch the film from the beginning to understand the poignancy of Chaplin’s expression when he holds the young woman’s hand.
Film is such a visual medium that it has more of an impact even if it’s not completely accurate. The Auschwitz scene in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List had the victims enter the showers by walking down the stairs. Spielberg was criticized for being inaccurate in this portrayal, but that scene was more moving – showing people entering an underground abyss never to be seen again – than if it merely showed them entering the showers the way they really did.
The recently deceased Robert Altman made a number of “message films” that were not only entertaining, but whose messages still resonate decades after they were made. His first hit film M*A*S*H may take place during the Korean conflict, but anyone watching knew that it was dealing with the then-current war in Vietnam. (It was released in 1970.) Altman improvised throughout the making of the film. The actors loved him because he let them make up dialogue as they went on. This meant that screenwriters hated him because he never followed the script. Ring Lardner, Jr. may have been awarded for the script of M*A*S*H, but the final dialogue in the movie was nothing like his original version.
Altman’s most famous technique was the use of overlapping dialogue where a group of characters would speak all at once just as we would in real life. Writing such dialogue would be difficult even for the best of writers. (Actors, on the other hand, loved it!) Altman often used this technique which must have been difficult to film. (But, he made it look easy!) It was this kind of filmmaking that made a Robert Altman movie fun to watch. (Not to mention the barbs he would sling at Establishment figures!)
Entertainers of all kinds have more influence than they realize. In today’s world, they are more influential than the politicians. Just as James Brown may be remembered more than Gerald Ford, for better or for worse, the best of our current entertainers may just be remembered more than our current leaders.
I remember reading something that the news reporter, Edward R. Murrow once told one of his “boys”, David Schoenbrun, near the end of World War II. Murrow asked Schoenbrun, a former teacher, what plans he had after the war. Schoenbrun stated that he might go back to teaching high school to which Murrow asked him ”How would you like to teach in the world’s largest classroom?” Schoenbrun took the offer and became a news reporter (and “teacher” in “the world’s largest classroom”).
If all people in the entertainment and broadcast industry understand that they are really “teachers”, then maybe they might realize how much influence they have. I can’t say if they’ll ever have such insight. These just happen to be the times we live in where entertainers are more influential than politicians – and, entertainers are too ignorant to realize that.
May Gerald Ford, James Brown, Robert Altman and all the others who passed away this year rest in peace.
Fade out.
