Self-Made Man by Vincent Limon

Ever since we started talking about the topic of “The Self-Made Man” in class, one name has continued to occupy my mind. This person fits the description and embodies what it means to be self-made in the American culture; someone who goes on to obtain great success through sheer determination, willpower, and hard work when everything else seems to be against them. Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States and the man who was able to successfully lead the Union to victory during the Civil War, is the closest thing to being self-made that anyone could find. It is important to note that Lincoln is simply the “closest” person to fitting the mold of what the self-made man is. One important concept that was covered in class is the idea that no person is entirely self-made. This is because people are often dependent on other people for their success. As Oprah Winfrey once stated, “Surround yourself with those who only lift you higher.” What Winfrey is saying in this quote is that if someone wants to be the best that they can be at something, they are going to have to surround themselves with other people who have the skills to elevate that person to be the best. This sort of practice is often seen in the most successful companies and has yielded positive results for almost anyone who has tried it. (photo via https://harpers.org/abraham-lincoln-1862/)

With this in mind, when analyzing Lincoln, it becomes very clear that while at points he was dependent on individuals for his success, most of his accomplishments came without the help of others. From an early age in rural Kentucky, Lincoln was able to almost entirely self-educate himself–he did receive about eighteen months of formal education as a youth–by reading anything he could find (depicted in photo below via https://aboutpresidentabrahamlincoln.blogspot.com/p/abraham-lincoln-childhood-pictures-and.html)

He was able to teach himself Law and practice successfully before being elected to the Illinois State Legislature and the United States House of Representatives. While he lost in the famous 1858 Illinois Senate Election to Stephen Douglass, he did not let defeat deter him from his goal of making America a better place without the heinous practice of slavery–this idea of perseverance and the underdog is also popular in American culture. (depicted in photo below, via https://www.britannica.com/event/Lincoln-Douglas-debates),

Using his great performances in the Lincoln-Douglass Debates he persevered and won the Presidency in 1860. As President, he was able to accomplish some things that politicians today could only dream of; leading America through its darkest times, abolishing slavery, and signing legislation like the Homestead Act and the Morrill Land-Grant act are just some of these impressive accomplishments. Almost all these accomplishments show his limited dependency on others and reinforce the fact that he is mostly a self-made man; while he did have a cabinet of advisors and Congress to help him with all these situations/ideas, he was the one at the forefront of all of these and the one who was primarily responsible for their success.

Icons like Abraham Lincoln are the ones that Americans and people from all around the world should be looking up to and striving to be like. Of course, Lincoln was not without his flaws, and these flaws are often overlooked/forgotten about due to the pedestal that al icons are put on where myths seem to take over reality, but overall, he is a great role model and the closest thing to being a “Self-Made Man” that there is.

February 1, 2018

Rise & Grind by Celeste Joyce

“I used to be a slave.” During a speech at a campaign event, the newly-Republican Abraham Lincoln told the crowd that he had been a slave. This statement was partially true: until he was 21 years old, Lincoln’s father had rented out his son’s labor and kept all the profit. It is also completely false. Lincoln was still free to go. He may have worked hard, and toiled under unfair conditions, but he was still able to become a lawyer, a state representative, and eventually president of the United States- things a slave could never have done.

Lincoln’c story of hard work, perseverance, and grit is compelling. It also writes out any mention of luck, chance, or privilege. The myth of the “self-made man” necessarily requires some doctoring of one’s own story. The most important component, the one that is always left in, is the hard work. Whether to convince others of the validity of the self-made man’s success, or to convince oneself, hard work is the common thread of every self-made story. Lincoln purposefully left out the fact that he had married into elite society in his “I used to be a slave” speech. He didn’t mention that his father was financially stable, or that he was allowed to pursue education as a child instead of being forced to work more. Even his height gave him a decided political advantage. Instead, history has created a narrative of a tireless hard worker, whose success had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with strength of will.

In older, more traditional versions of the self-made man fable, this hard work often took the form of manual labor. A self-made man was always that- a real man. His legacy was quite literally founded in the sweat off his back. Many of the self-made men of John Swansburg’s article fall into this category. Ben Franklin made sure people saw him pushing his wheelbarrow around and waking up early. Lincoln’s strength of character was forged while splitting rails as a child. The author’s own father got started pouring tar on rooves. He could feel a good real estate prospect “in his balls.”

Even more contemporary success stories, which don’t rely on balls or backbreaking manual labor still focus on the necessity of hard work. Sophia Amoruso of Nasty Gal reminds her aspiring readers to work hard: “If you’re a #GIRLBOSS, you should want to work harder than everybody else.” She goes on to discuss the various menial tasks and dead-end jobs which taught her to “tolerate shit [she didn’t] like…” and reminded the #GIRLBOSSes of the world that on their way up, they might have to do some unsavory jobs because “this is not an ideal world and it’s never going to be.”

The rhetoric of every self-made man is blind to the fact that the world is unfair, unideal. What Amoruso cites as “shitty learning experience” jobs might be the only job someone will ever get. Through no fault of their own, it will not lead to multi-million dollar profits. Scrubbing the floor, no matter how well you do it or how diligently you apply yourself, does not guarantee a $50 million investment. For some people, “stepping-stone” jobs are the only one’s they’ll ever have. And although she states it in her own writing, Amoruso does not seem to acknowledge that the world is not ideal.

America has an obsession with hard work. There is a pervasive American ideal that working is like freedom- it keeps you honest and wholesome. There is also the indelible, inescapable American promise: that you are always free to work (wherever you want, in whatever profession). There is no promise of freedom from work. After all, if you want to make it, you have to put in the sweat equity. No one promises this more than the people who have made it.

As Swansburg’s article illustrates, the self-made men and women of the world love to tout the value of hard work. This maxim is in their autobiographies, their speeches, and their self-help books. After all, hard work is the only guarantee in America. You will have to work hard. No one can guarantee luck, chance, or privilege. It’s far prettier to insist that hard work creates opportunities, than to suggest that opportunities might be as random as chance.

Blumenthal, Sidney. Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. Simon & Schuster, 2017.

February 1, 2018

Oprah Winfrey: A Self-Made Woman by Andrea Morales

Oprah Winfrey was born Orpah Gail Winfrey to a single mother in Kosciusko, Mississippi. During her childhood in the deep south, she faced dire living conditions in extreme poverty. After being left with her grandmother by her mother, Oprah often wore potato sacks as clothes due to their unfortunate economic situation. This did not deter Oprah, for she learned how to read before the age of three and would often recite bible verses in their entirety in church. Despite her impoverished upbringing, Oprah turned out to be the world’s first female African-American billionaire and a critically acclaimed talk show host, actress, producer, and director. Oprah encompasses the “American dream” in the way that she came from abject poverty but by sheer will and determination, accompanied by grueling hard work, she became one of the world’s leading women.

Being born into a disadvantaged position certainly provided Oprah a set of austere challenges from the beginning. Her first challenge was being an African-American woman in the rural south during the Jim Crow era. She later moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her single mother who worked as a maid. Her mother proved to be a physically abusive presence in her life and less supportive than her grandmother whom she had previously lived with. While living with her mother, she was transferred to a high school in the suburbs because of her academic success. She was later sent to Tennessee to complete her education. Oprah acquired a scholarship which allowed her to attend Tennessee State University. However, I believe it is important to note that not many African-American children were allowed this opportunity at the time. Most were enrolled in schools where the education was lacking due to government funding or they had to drop out to support their families. So I think in this sense, Oprah was privileged in the way that she was granted a scholarship to continue her post-secondary studies and study communication. It is possible that if she had not been able to study in the affluent suburbs for the period of time that she did, she would not have been able to attain the scholarship which allowed her to earn her degree. A recurring theme from the reading by Swansburg is the discussion of the prevailing myth that everyone, despite their background, can become a self-made person. Yet, everyone in that article was white and most of them were male. There is the factor that minorities in America lack resources and opportunities those mentioned to be self-made may have been offered. That is why I think that Oprah is not only a self-made woman, but an icon. She prevailed over the limitations which were built off of hundreds of years of oppression and discrimination and became one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential women.

April 8, 2016

Rocky: Not My Hero Posted by Maxine Elizabeth Whitney

“When they’re cheering for Rocky, they’re cheering for themselves” – Sylvester Stallone

Many movie buffs and locals to the city of Philadelphia would argue that Rocky is one of the most influential and inspiring fictional icons in the history of American media. He is an average, middle class white American who is given an impossible task. He takes it on without fear to show that he is not just an average joe because of where he comes from. He is a symbol for masculinity, self-respect, and and drive that all people in his place can look up to. In his piece Reaffirming Tradition Values, Daniel J Leab explains that the reason Rocky got as much praise and appreciation as it did is because it mimicked the mood and the important aspects of 1970’s America. As written by Leab, “the film touched “a live nerve with the public,” as Frank Rich put it. American audiences, influenced by the bicentennial’s strong emphasis on the validity of the American Dream, had lost interest in downbeat themes, in bleak reality, in attacks on old-fashioned values- all subjects which as films of one sort or another had recently done well at the box office” (Leab, 269). Rocky showed middle class America that they can put up a fight against bigger powers and make a name for themselves no matter their background. This is what 1970’s America needed, to see that there is hope for those in a similar position, who until then felt hopeless.

However, does Rocky really deserve the icon status he has gained? I understand that I was not alive during that time and I may not understand the struggle or feel the connection that so many American’s had to him. However, its my outside, modern perspective that will allow me to make the unbiased critiques. First of all, its frustrating to me that the embodiment of the 1970’s American dream has to be a fighter. I understand its symbolic, I understand that if you get knocked down you have to get back up, but I would never idolize someone who could make 150,000 dollars for knocking someone out. I don’t think for a second that that is a realistic standard for the American dream. He did not even really do much to earn the opportunity to win that money. Someone found him and picked a fight with him. That’s not working to achieve a goal, that’s being handed an opportunity and working not to waste it. Not all Americans are going to be put in that situation.

However, I do see that his story is one that was heavily connected to what people were feeling at the time, and that’s something I will probably never be able to fully understand. However, I think my main frustration and the cause for my ranting is that I think a majority of the people who idolize him in present times may not be critically analyzing the film. In fact, I was one of those people before I actually watched it. In addition to my realization about his false American dream image, the racist and sexist under-themes are frustrating and make it hard for me to see him the same way. I think this is why he has maintained his iconic status even beyond the time period where he was most relevant. People don’t watch the film with the intention to critique, hence he stays relevant because he is a tough guy who beats his odds. Since this kind of character is much more popular in modern times, I am rejecting it. I say no more to the strong, violent male character who does more than he thinks he can. Where my girls at?

Works Cited

Leab, Daniel J. “Reaffirming Traditional Values The Blue Collar Ethnic in Bicentennial America: Rocky.” Hollywood’s America: Twentieth-Century America Through Film. Ed. Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts. N.p.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. 264-71. Print.

The first picture : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Balboa

The second picture: http://totalrocky.com/the-films/rocky-iii-1982/photo-gallery

April 7, 2016

Rocky, Symbol of a City by William Kowalik

Rocky is much more than an iconic film in American culture. Rocky is representative and encyclopedic of a particular time and place. Rocky, the character and Rocky the movie are inextricably linked to the City of Philadelphia. I think few films have such a deep connection to a specific place, as does Rocky.

Philadelphia is much more than the setting of the Rocky (and Creed) franchise; it is an integral part of the movies that blurs plot and setting. In the case of Rocky, they’ve very much one and the same.

Philadelphia is Rocky. Rocky is Philadelphia.

Not to mention Philadelphia’s long and storied legacy of boxing plays into the story. Much as the architecture of Frank Furness spoke to the industrial city of Philadelphia, melding the industrial with the beautiful. Rocky speaks to post-industrial Philadelphia. Rocky, like the city itself is down own his luck, but still trying to make something of himself, up against, and in the shadow of those better than him. Rocky puts up a good fight against Apollo Creed, but still ultimately loses. Philadelphia a once great city has long lagged behind its main competition New York in many ways for over two hundred years, but has slowly found its niche. “Stallone hit at the core of the matter in his comments on audience response to the film: ‘when they’re cheering for Rocky, they’re cheering for themselves’” (Leab 271).

In his chapter on “The Blue Collar Ethnic in Bicentennial America”, historian Daniel Leab uses Rocky as his example. Leab’s picture of life in the 1970’s–particularly urban life in the 1970s, as a gloomy era when everything looked to be hopeless is part of the “Rocky narrative”, however, peaking through this darkness is some form of the American dream, some will to triumph and overcome. This same attitude is one that Philadelphia experienced during this time, coming to a very dark place at the time of Rocky, and then slowly rising up from that depression. In just the last census, conducted in 2010, Philadelphia five-decade population decline began to reverse. “Rocky’s life is bleak. He seems to have no future” (Leab 265). Despite the darkness in the film, critics and viewers see Rocky as “optimistic, idealistic, and sentimental” (Leab 269).

The character of Rocky Balboa is flawed and multidimensional, despite that the fact that he might not seem so at first look. Issues related particular to race, racism, and sexism, which in itself is an entire topic to delve into, but would be inappropriate not to mention. Especially given Rocky’s clear and specific depiction as an Ethnic White, the film’s relationship to Philadelphia, where race has long been a heated and difficult topic.

There’s a certain self deprecation and criticism from the community. Several individuals throughout the film call Rocky a bum. He ardently denies this claim. A marketing push for Philadelphia on billboards in the 1970s, which certainly didn’t speak well for the city, touted: “Philadelphia isn’t as bad as Philadelphians say it is”.

Rocky is a symbol of the city, this city, Philadelphia. But he is a symbol of this city at a very defined moment in its history. The once great industrial city, fallen and down. While Philadelphia has come back strong in many areas—a leader in healthcare, education, and culture, with a thriving tourism industry—where in fact tourists marvel in the sights of our nation’s founding, and make the trip up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to, run, climb or walk the seventy-few steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Visit Philadelphia proudly declares that in 2011, the steps were named the second most famous filming location in the world, second only to Grand Central Terminal in New York. At the same time, few tourists will venture away from Center City to experience the rest of Philadelphia; where over a quarter of city lives in poverty. The gritty image of the city, has sold well, and continues to do so. Five months after Rocky was released, they had earned over $50 million. And on top of that, Rocky still earns money (Leab 268). Even though much of the city has changed from the time of Rocky in 1976. Many Philadelphians still have a bleak future, and still live like Rocky. This further emphasizes that Rocky is not exclusively a snapshot of one place and one time, but part of the narrative of city; it’s not the story (or just the story) of a boxer, of a man; it is the city.

Sources

Leab, Daniel. “Reaffirming Traditional Values: The Blue Collar Worker in Bicentennial America: Rocky.” Hollywood’s America: Twentieth Century America Through Film. Ed. Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. 264-71. Print.

Eakins, Thomas. Between Rounds. 1899. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.

Rocky Statue: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/99/b9/85/99b985cf1dda1bf40cc294e7b75de9bb.jpg

Philadelphia Billboard: http://ilovebricks.blogspot.com/2011/05/philadelphia-isnt-as-bad-as.html

April 7, 2016

Rocky and the Global Common Man’s Resonance by Samantha Smyth

Rocky’s resonance through the ages is paralleled by few other films. The rough and tumble Philadelphia boy seems to be the pinnacle of icons for the down-and-out, the under-achieved, under-represented, the gritty real people, whose lives aren’t glossy like Good Housekeeping covers depict. Rocky plucked himself out of obscurity and, quite literally, fought his way to the top (only after a humbling loss in Rocky I). He is the every-man’s underdog. He’s a dim-witted, fourth-rate, club fighter with no particular distinction, but he manages to embody optimism and courage (Leab, 265).

The reason for Rocky’s resonance beyond a bicentennial United States icon is to do with his relatability. As such, his image has been lifted and utilized many times, in many countries, making the Italian Stallion more than just an American idol but also an international icon.

Stamp collectors had the opportunity to enjoy the mangled-up Stallone face on 5 sets of limited edition stamps released in 1996 bringing fact to Rocky’s own line: “Yo, is this a face you can trust? Someday, they’ll put this face on a stamp.”

The fact that Rocky’s face was lifted for the 5 countries (Ghana, The Gambia, Uganda, St. Vincent and Grenadines, and Grenada) was explained as: “Rocky Balboa stands for the average guy who wants to lead a decent life and be the best he or she can be. The Philadelphia club boxer symbolizes everyone who has at anytime in their life been faced with seemingly impossible obstacles and yet refused to just give up” (Daniel Keren, Total Rocky). Each country felt an affinity for the man who nearly won, and each country boasts “more Rocky fans than America,” according to the article published on Total Rocky.

HPIM1124.JPG

In 2007, Serbian city Žitište erected a statue dedicated to the fighter. The subject of a documentary, Amerika Idol by Barry Avrich, the statue was revealed to be the hope of the city to counteract the misfortunes of the past 4000 years. The statue is thought to bring “inspiration,” and “tourism dollars,” as reviewer Robert Bell points out. Bell also states that the residents believe Rocky will be a good role model for the youth and also stands as the “universal representation of the underdog.” Rocky as the symbol of luck, a waypoint for wayward youth, and the ultimate underdog has been utilized by town.

“WON’T BE DEFEATED”

“When they’re cheering for Rocky, they’re cheering for themselves,” seems to be the most apt description of Rocky uttered by the man himself Sylvester Stallone (Leab, 271). It’s Rocky’s ability to appeal to the every-man that makes him so relatable. He stands for the underdog and embodies the emotions of courage, bravery, and pluck (which we could all use a bit of sometimes). As such, Rocky’s image has become the symbol of fight, of determination, and of strength in the face of adversity.

So, why Rocky? Because he’s every man, every person, the common man… he’s one of us. His appeal crosses borders, but his message remains the same. Go get it, and don’t give up.

Sources:

Daniel Leab, “Reaffirming Traditional Values,” Hollywood’s America.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1347302/

http://totalrocky.com/articles/five-nations-honor-stallone.html

http://exclaim.ca/film/article/amerika_idol_true_story-directed_by_barry_avrich

April 7, 2016

Rocky: The Quintessential Philadelphian Story by Keira Wingert

As a Philadelphian, one of my best kept secrets to date was that I had never seen the movie Rocky. This movie has become an icon not only to Philadelphia but also to the world, spurring hundreds of thousands of people to flock to the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps and run to the top or pose beside the hulking Rocky Balboa statue at the base of the steps. I always felt ashamed that I never watched the iconic film before, but I figured I didn’t have to; growing up here, I was told the Rocky story dozens of times without ever actually having to see the movie itself. I knew about Apollo Creed, Adrian, Mickey, and Paulie, and I had performed the film’s punchy, upbeat score in my elementary school orchestra. I was familiar with all the iconic lines (“Yo, Adrian!”), the major plot points, and the iconic still image of Rocky at the top of the PMA steps. But one thing I never understood is why the low-budget movie starring an unknown actor Rocky became such an important part of Philadelphia’s culture. After all, it’s certainly not the only film that takes place in Philadelphia (need I mention the film literally named Philadelphia?). So why did Rocky become thefilm set in Philly? Recently, I was forced to watch Rocky finally, after 22 years of somehow avoiding it, and I came to a better understanding of Philadelphia’s connection to the film. This film represents the city and its people in a way that is realistic, not dolled up to conform to typical, fabulous Hollywood representations of big cities. Philadelphia is known for its grit and hardworking attitude, and that is exactly how the city and its people are represented in Rocky.

Philadelphia has a reputation among other cities as being a bit…rough. This is the city whose sports fans have a penchant for throwing things at people they don’t like, including, but not limited to, the poor Santa Claus who was booed and pelted with snowballs at an Eagles game back in 1968—a story that despite having happened over 40 years ago has somehow remained a defining part of this city’s lore. It’s the city that (unsurprisingly) beheaded the adorable hitchhiking robot whose journey was supposed to represent human kindness and togetherness. Five years ago, Philly was named the 2^nd Dirtiest City in the country, beating out Los Angeles, Memphis, and New York. (New York!! Have the people who made that decision ever even been to New York? It’s disgusting!! And they expect us to believe that we’re actually worse than that?!). We don’t have a great reputation—and yet, we’re completely unfazed by the way the world sees us. We’re pretty content just doing our own thing. That’s the Philadelphia represented inRocky.

The Rocky character himself represents Philadelphia perfectly. In this film, Rocky Balboa is a lovably ordinary character. He is a working class guy who lives in a tiny, unattractive apartment. He is apparently uneducated and boxes for a meager living—though he also works as a loan shark’s muscle to make ends meet. He has two turtles and a fish, all of whom he greets as friends when he comes home in the evening. He has a painfully awkward crush on an even more painfully awkward woman, Adrian. When we first meet him, Rocky doesn’t seem like the type of person to seek out greatness; rather, he seems largely content with the life he has. For Rocky, winning isn’t everything. He is completely ordinary—that is, until he is handed a great opportunity. That’s when we see Rocky begin to change from the modest working-class citizen to the great Philadelphia icon he is today.

The environments in which Rocky exists also represent his journey to greatness. In this film, director John Avildsen clearly made deliberate choices regarding the shooting locations in Rocky and what they represented in the character’s journey. Nearly every outdoor scene at the beginning of the film takes place in an industrial setting—ships float in the background, trains clatter by, water towers loom over the residents of the city. Trash is scattered on the ground. The color palette is bleak and hazy, and frankly, it could not be more representative of the more working-class or poor areas in the actual city of Philadelphia, as well as the meager beginnings of the Rocky character. As Rocky trains, we literally see him move from these more modest areas of Philadelphia—the dirty streets of South Philly and the bustling, working-class Italian Market—toward the more grandiose locations in the city, like the ornately designed City Hall and the beautiful Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The range of activities in which Rocky partakes—from feeding his turtles in his tiny apartment to climbing the daunting steps of the PMA—represents exactly the type of hardworking, ordinary people living in Philadelphia. He is content with his ordinary life, but he is capable of greatness, just like Philadelphia is. Rocky is a film that represents the both the everyday activities and the greatest triumphs of which a city like Philly is capable, and that is why it has become the essential cultural icon to represent us.

References

Chartoff, R., & Winkler, I. (Producers), & Avildsen, J. (Director). (1976). Rocky [Motion picture]. United States: United Artists.

Leab, D. “Reaffirming Traditional Values – The Blue Collar Ethnic in Bicentennial America: Rocky.” In Mintz, S. & Roberts, R. (Eds.), Hollywood’s America: Twentieth-Century America Through Film (p. 264-71). Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Leopold, T. 4 Aug. 2015. HitchBOT, the hitchhiking robot, gets beheaded in Philadelphia. CNN. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cnn.com/2015/08/03/us/hitchbot-robot-beheaded-philadelphia-feat/

14 June 2011. Interaction: Is Philadelphia 2^nd Dirtiest City? 6ABC Action News. Retrieved fromhttp://6abc.com/archive/8189374/

4 May 2010. 9 Terrible Philly Fan Incidents…And Their Harmless Explanations. Sports Pickle. Retrieved fromhttp://www.sportspickle.com/2010/05/9-terrible-philly-fan-incidents-and-their-harmless-explanations

April 7, 2016

Song & Voice by Casey Watson

I’m smack dab in the middle of my research into Woody Guthrie’s iconic “This Land is Your Land,” arguably one of the most recognizable songs in the American folk song catalog or the whole of American music for that matter. We all know it. It is as pervasive in our culture as it is catchy. And while I dig and sift through biographies of Guthrie and articles addressing the dissentious message of the song, I’m reminded of something Scott Nelson mentioned in his John Henry piece: “Historians tend to regard music as background rather than raw material. Appropriated for book titles by countless historians, music itself is seldom seen as a primary source.”[1] I believe he is right. But obviously the role of music in memory is more complex, permeating almost all of our lives.

A friend of mine, a pop-music critic, made this observation in her article reconsidering Kanye West’s Yeezus earlier this year: “…music…[is] always in the air, always ready to sneak up on you, sometimes when you least expect it. There’s no telling, especially not on first listen, how many times you’ll hear a given song or album over a lifetime, or which listen will be the one when it finally clicks with you, if it’s to click at all. Maybe it’ll be the first, or third. Maybe it’ll be the thousandth.”[2] She’s pointing to the fact that a piece of music, more so than any other piece of artwork, can be consumed and internalized over and over in huge numbers. I believe that this unique ability of a song is precisely the reason that it is so easily considered “background” by historians or other researchers. Because a song can be replayed seemingly ad infinitum, coupled with the tendency for the listener to develop a personal connection and interpretation of said song (it’s art, right? It’s can be whatever you need it to be), we as listeners are able to retrofit it with new significance and personal meaning. In doing so, the song is slowly removed from its origins and in some cases, such as “This Land is Your Land”, transformed into an icon; a useful, malleable cultural tool.

Now then. Why does this matter? While doing my research, it occurred to me that perhaps a song’s ability to take on so many meanings while burrowing deeper and deeper into our cultural subconscious with each replay is the reason that songs are so often marginalized by some historians. In my opinion, this is foolish particularly when the subject is a folk song. Folk songs are stories and stories are seldom created for leisure. They come from specific circumstances and are sometimes the only traces the voice of a particular group. “This Land is Your Land” has taken on a life of its own since Guthrie penned it (as icons are wont to do). But we must not forget that his voice was that of the disenfranchised during the Dust Bowl. His words are telling and must not be forgotten as the song is sung by children at camp or Presidential hopefuls.

[1] Scott Nelson, “Who was john henry? railroad construction, southern folklore, and the birth of rock and roll”, Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas 2 (2): 54-55.

[2] Lindsay Zoladz, “Reviewing Yeezus in 2016 to Better Understand Kanye West and The Life of Pablo.” Review of Yeezus. Vulture, February 14, 2016. http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/kanye-west-the-life-of-pablo-review-yeezus.html.

March 31, 2016

The Kennedy Assassination: The Experience of an Irish Catholic Immigrant by Tara Doherty

My grandmother was cleaning her porch windows that Friday in November of 1963. A neighbor bounded out of his house with the news, running along the string of Philadelphia row homes until he arrived at my grandmother’s front windows.

“Margaret! He’s been shot. President Kennedy was shot,” he exclaimed. To her disbelief, she turned on her TV only to face a matching uncertainty. Over fifty years later, she recalls the deep gravity of the situation, the momentary ambiguity of the state of the nation’s President. She watched with hands shaking until shortly after President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead.

She didn’t vote for Kennedy, although her immediate memory suggested otherwise. “Of course I voted for him,” she answered. A moment lapsed until she remembered that she couldn’t have voted for the Irish Catholic Democrat from Boston as much as she might have to. 1963 marked her ninth year as an Irish American immigrant, and she had not yet gained citizenship. Still, she spoke of Kennedy with a certain tenderness; he wasn’t just America’s president. He was a president of her people: Irish Catholic immigrants.

“They got it terribly hard, and they were terribly good Catholics. I’m not saying the president and the wife, but the president’s mother Rose. She went to mass every morning,” she said. She remembered that his grandparents emigrated from County Limerick of Bruff in western Ireland; her family back in Donegal loved him as if he were their own leader. For her and other Irish Catholic immigrants, Kennedy represented the tie between Ireland and America and offered a hope of success in the land of opportunity.

My grandmother was 34 years old the day of the assassination. Her husband was at work, and she spent her days at home taking care of her two young children. Though she emigrated nine years prior, her home was decorated with memories of Ireland. Irish flags, pictures of relatives, a painting of the Irish countryside above her mantle – she placed Catholic paraphernalia on every open surface, every wall so as to keep God and her country close to her heart. Yet, somewhere amongst her collections of home, she kept pictures of President Kennedy, dozens of pictures of an American man that she couldn’t have even voted for. Of these pictures, she most recalls a picture of Kennedy that portrayed him with the divine.

“Oh yeah. It was taken with him. It was a holy picture. They put Jesus or God next to John in the picture. I had one of them, but I don’t know what happened to them,” she said. In her eyes, the Kennedy family was a nice family, a family struck by tragedy and forever martyrs to America. When asked about the assassination, she most engaged with Jackie’s experience.

“The sad thing about it was his wife, Jackie, standing next to the vice president… and her skirt was covered with blood. She held the president’s head when he was in the car and she kept it on – she wanted the whole world to see what they went through, and she was right to do it. And to see her face – she was in another world; she was in shock. I’ll never forget. It was the worst weekend. Jackie was the same age as me, same month, same year,” she said. Like many Americans struck by the tragedy, she identified with the Kennedy family. She saw herself as Jackie, her young children as the Jackie’s children; the assassination didn’t only mean a loss of a nation’s leader, it was a personal loss of a family made personable to Americans.

My grandmother spoke of President Kennedy in her strong Irish brogue decades after his assassination with an almost palpable nostalgia. The young president was a symbol of hope and success in America for Irish Catholic immigrants, a figure that represented success for those seeking it in an unfamiliar country. The Kennedy legacy has lived on in the hearts of those of that time as an embodiment of family and tragedy in American history.

March 31, 2016

Camelot Wannabes by Olivia Baranowski

The story:

My grandparents were engaged November in 1963 and planned to be married the following summer in June of 1964. My grandmother, Sarah, worked at the Curtis Publishing Company located in Old City and my grandfather, Robert, was a full time graduate student at Temple University. They first saw the President when he was visiting Philadelphia during those early years in the 1960s. They waited along Frankford Avenue with friends and cheered and waved American flags as he drove down the avenue in his motorcade. He was campaigning for his election, the same as he was when he was assassinated. My grandmother humorously compared the spectacle to the way Philadelphia was when the Pope recently visited back in September.

The day JFK was killed my grandmother was at work and my grandfather was at his parents’ home studying for an exam. My grandmother and the rest of her coworkers stood around the small black-and-white television in the lobby of the building for what seemed like hours. Everyone watched the news and no one spoke, she said, everyone was in shock. My grandfather was listening to the radio while he was studying and the music was interrupted with the announcement, and he gathered his family around the radio to listen to what the radio hosts were reporting. He recalled feeling confused because the radio hosts didn’t seem to have much information. Later that evening, my grandmother went over to my grandfather’s house to help him study for his exam, but they couldn’t concentrate on the material. It was hard for them to fathom what had happened that day. They said everyone they knew and our family members were in shock. Temple canceled their classes the next day.

Why They Loved Him:

My grandmother loved fashion. She had all the big name magazines and was a frequent shopper at her local fabric store where she would buy fabric to make her own dresses and skirts. She loved Jackie Kennedy. My grandmother was someone that saw her as a fashion icon. She loved seeing when new pictures of Jackie were released so she could remake what she was wearing or gain her own inspiration form the images. My grandmother made a black skirt and black silk camisole when JFK was killed.

Because of the way the Kennedys were portrayed during his presidency, my grandparents thought of them as the perfect family. They were engaged; they wanted a family to be exactly like the Kennedys. They were beautiful and healthy and seemed to have had it all. My grandfather jokingly mentioned how even he was taken back by JFK’s handsome appearance and how much better he looked standing next to Nixon. This is something that my grandparents look back on fondly; they have said that they didn’t pay attention to scandal news when it came out.

My grandparents wanted to create their own Camelot in their West Philadelphia row home. It is interesting to hear their story and compare it to the way the Kennedys are viewed today. They look back with such nostalgia, they think nothing is wrong with the family or listen to the rumors and conspiracy theories. They take real politics out of the mix and look at the family for what they were, a family. My grandparents’ memory of the Kennedys today is so pure that I think many people should forget any negative judgement of the family and remember the tragic event that caused a wife to lose her husband and children to lose their father. In the end, that is what made my grandmother so emotionally upset about the assassination. My grandparents appreciate the legacy left behind and still honored by the Kennedy family.

Note on Photo: The cross over the fireplace was replaced with this picture of the President during the Camelot era. Pictured here: my grandmother’s younger sister (my Great Aunt Mary-Anne, dress made by my grandmother) on her way to her high school’s prom, overlooked by JFK.