Photo courtesy of WCFTR, Film Title Stills
HEN Alfred Hitchcock set his thriller To Catch a Thief on the French Riviera, that playground for international high society, he sought to capture onscreen a world of luxury and sophistication. He did no less than shoot on location, Wusing the Riviera's own villas, beaches, and serpentine roads as a backdrop for his tale of theft and postwar intrigue. For the romantic leads, he cast the perennially refined and classic Gary Grant and Grace Kelly, pictured above. And to be sure that Kelly, Grant, and all the film's actors looked the part in this story of stolen hearts—and stolen diamonds—the master of suspense turned to the master of Hollywood design, Edith Head. By 1954, the year To Catch a Thief was made. Head had over thirty years' experience in cos tume design for film. She turned artful sketches, like the one on this issue's cover, into elegant designs like the one Grace Kelly wears here. Edith Head brought excellence to all her film projects but recognized later in her career that To Catch a Thief was her favorite. The Wisconsin Genter for Film and Theater Research's Edith Head Gollection, which includes both original sketches and film stills, is featured in an article beginning on page 18. m WISCONSIN
Editor J. Kent Calder Managing Editor Kathryn A. Thompson Associate Editor Margaret T. Dwyer Production Manager Deborah T. Johnson Book Review Editor Jonathan Kasparek Research and Editorial Assistants Brett Barker James W. Feldman Joel Heiman Tim Thering Designer Kenneth A. Miller
THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, published quarterly, is one of the many benefits of membership in the Wisconsin Historical Society. Individual memberships are $35 per year; senior citizen individual, $25; family, $45; senior citizen family, $35; institutional, $45; supporting, The Strange, Sad Death $100; sustaining, $250; patron, $500; life (one person), of Sergeant Kenney $1,000. To receive the Wisconsin Magazine of History, join the John Evangelist Walsh recounts the tragedy Society! To join or to give a gift membership, send a check to Membership, Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State surrounding his uncle's death in Street, Madison, Wl 53706-1482, or call the Membership America's first anticommunist crusade. 1 Office at 888-748-7479. You can also join via e-mail, [email protected], or at the Society's Web site, www.wisconsinhistory.org (click on "Become a Member"). Elegance by Design The WMH has been published quarterly since 1917 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Phone 608-264-6400). Maxine Fleckner Ducey shines the Copyright © 2002 by the State Historical Society of Wis spotlight behind the scenes on a consin. Permission to quote or otherwise reproduce por tions of this copyrighted work may be sought in writing powerful talent. 18 from the publisher at the address above. Communication, inquiries, and manuscript submissions may also be addressed to [email protected]. The magazine is Mining Salt ofthe Earth indexed annually, and cumulative indexes appear every ten years. Articles are abstracted and indexed in America: James J. Lorence reveals the interwoven History and Life, Historical Abstracts, and Index to stories of blacklisted filmmakers and Literature on the American Indian. The Wisconsin Historical Society does not assume oppressed miners. JL O responsibility for statements made by contributors. ISSN 0043-6543. Periodicals postage paid at Madison, Wl 53706-1482. Back issues, if available, are $10 plus As She Knew Them postage. Microfilmed copies are available through Univer sity Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106. Margaret Beattie Bogue revives the words Photographs identified with PH, WHi, or WHS are from the of Juliette Kinzie, a witness to early Society's collections; address inquiries about such photos to the Visual Materials Archivist, 816 State Street, Madi Wisconsin history. T"T" son, Wl 53706-1482. Reviews 58 On the front cover: Sketch courtesy of WCFTR, Edith Head Collection Box 15. Letters from Our Readers 62 Back Matters 64
VOLUME 85, NUMBER 2 / WINTER 2001-2002
The Strange, Sad Death of Sergeant Kenney
AZING calmly out mother often told me, Mick of a large photo A Personal Story of Heroism andfough t the Bolsheviks (an early G graph, a sepia-col Loss during America's Russian name for the Gommunists), win ored oval in a plain bronze ning commendations and frame, all during my boyhood Intervention of 1918-19 medals for his bravery. Then on he stared imposingly down on November 11, 1918, came the me from the living room wall. By John Evangelist Walsh Armistice, ending World War I. A seated figure wearing the By the boatload the victorious khaki uniform of a World War I soldier, arms folded in mar Yanks came home, but not the 339th, which stayed on in Rus tial fashion, proudly he posed at a three-quarters angle (the sia. It was on a cold, dark night in late December, at a little better to display his sergeant's stripes, I thought then). Easy town whose name my mother never could recall, that Bolshe good nature and the promise of ready laughter showed in his vik bullets found Mick. pleasant, almost handsome face, an impression confirmed by "He died on New Year's Eve," my mother would say my mother's fond memories of him—"and a wonderful mournfully, "but by then the war was over! We all thought he dancer!" she'd add. Yet for me the portrait held more sadness was safe. Then in January 1919 came the telegram. It said than joy. Ten years before I was bom, that young soldier had he'd been killed on New Year's Eve. How could that be?" died in the snows of North Russia, cut down by a Bolshevik When eventually I began searching out my uncle's story, I machine gun. As he lay bleeding his life away, the war he'd wondered why the 339th had stayed in Russia and kept on been sent to fight had been over for six long weeks. fighting after the Armistice, why they'd gone there at all. In He was my uncle, my mother's brother. His name was the very first source I checked—an obscure old book written Michael Kenney, "Mick," everyone called him. In 1917 he'd by several ofthe 339th's officers—I found that my mother's come overfrom Gounty Sligo, Ireland, joining two sisters and claims about Mick's heroism were not just sisterly exaggera a brother already here. The sisters were in New York Gity tion. and the brother in Ghicago, but Mick preferred Detroit, Describing a Bolshevik attack on a town called Seletskoe, Michigan, where some cousins lived. That April America the book explained how "for two days and nights the Ameri entered the war, and in September Mick, just turned twenty- cans beat off the attacks, principally through the good work of five, enlisted in the 339th Infantry Regiment, "Detroit's Sgt. Michael Kenney, the gallant soldier who fell at Kodish Own," as it was fondly called. Assigned to K Gompany, Third on New Year's day." A few pages further on the fighting in Battalion, directly out of basic training he was promoted to December at Kodish is pictured, and again Mick is men sergeant and with the 339th promptly sent overseas, to the tioned: "Sergeants Kenney and Grewe of K Gompany gave frozen wastes of North Russia. Soon the 339th had earned for their lives that night in moving courageously among their itself the nickname "The Polar Bears." men."i In battle after battle in the dense, snow-clad forests, as my Often my mother had told us of an indignant letter written to the War Department by her brother in Ghicago, Patrick. Sgt. Michael Kenney of tbe 339tb Infantry, known as tbe "Polar Gomplaining about a mix-up in the notification of Mick's Bears," poses witb bis sister Ann (tbe autbor's mother). Tbepboto was taken in a New York City studio in July 1918, days before tbe death, it also pointedly asked how it was that an American 339tb sbipped out for North Russia. soldier could have died in battle when the war was long over.
Courtesy of Ihe aulhor At the National Archives in Washington, some fifty years after
This article has been funded in part by an Amy Louise Hunter Fellowship from the Wisconsin Historical Society.
WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
it was written, I found that original, handwritten letter, neatly tucked into Mick's burial file. Clipped to it was a copy ofthe official typed reply apologiz •f^^4<-.<0,,.&«iS^*i«j^ui.»„w. fl»iU«i,..».iii, •nn.i.i ii*Afcj'*i"'*r-*VT^^f<'*v--*in-iiii-ii«iift>
HE last time anyone of his fam ily saw Mick before he went Toverseas was in July 1918, when he visited my mother in New York Gity. The 339th had been transferred from its original training base at Gamp Guster, Michigan, to a staging area on Long Island, New York, to await transporta tion for England. On a weekend pass he According to John Cudahy, author of Aichangel: The American War with Russia, "the campaign had already assumed a defensive came to bid goodbye to his sister and to character" by the time the Americans reached Archangel in September. his many Irish immigrant friends in the city. The only tangible relics of that final visit are the large larger war. The old Russia had been one of the Allies, fighting oval photograph of Mick so familiar to me in my youth, made against Germany. Now the Bolsheviks had changed all that, in a New York studio at my mother's insistence, and a second unexpectedly signing a separate peace treaty with Germany in photo made that same day showing the two together.^ March at Brest-Litovsk, taking Russia out of the war and free By mid-August he was gone, headed with his comrades for ing a horde of seasoned German troops to join the fighting on what all believed would be the battlefields of France. After the Western front in France. By intervening, the Allies hoped to two weeks in England, however, the 339th found itself bound bring the old Russians back to power and reconstitute the Russ not for France but for Russia's frozen north, as part of the ian front. A few lesser reasons for intervention were also urged: Allied Intervention force. deny Germany naval bases in a friendly country; preserve the In the summer of 1918 the Bolshevik revolution, then less huge supplies of scarce war materiel stocked at Archangel; res than a year old, had succeeded in taking over most of Russia cue a troop of Gzech soldiers apparently stranded in Gentral and had promptly altered the balance of forces engaged in the Russia.
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No sooner did the 339th debark at Archangel on September 6, 1918, than it found itself in combat
meant to please all sides, based on no clear-cut purpose or principle, it turned out to be the worst of his career. Reluctant to agree, unable to say no, he ended by doing both, and neither. The document in which he lays out his decision, the so- called aide-memoire presented to the Allied War Gouncil, is a fairly shocking instrument, full of imprecision, obfusca- tion, and sheer contradiction. He would send a small force to Russia, he announced, some five thousand men (mostly from Michigan, with a few hun dred from Wisconsin), all under British command. They were forbidden, though, to take part in any aggressive military action but were there simply to "guard" the military stores and to "help" the sup posedly stranded Gzechs. They could also help "steady" old Russian efforts at "self- government and self-defense" and "render such aid" as Russia might request, all to be done without further guidance from the president. The inevitable happened. No sooner did the 339th debark at Archangel on Sep WHS Archives, PH 4988, WHi(U621)164 tember 6, 1918, than it found itself in com Strongly opposing intervention were equally determined bat. Goming off the ship with arms and full packs, the men voices. The Russians were thoroughly sick of the war, oppo were put aboard trains and promptly parceled out along the nents charged, and would stay out of it no matter what hap sweeping four-hundred-mile curve of the Allied front lines. For pened. Further, plunging a small Allied force into the vast, the next ten months—until the Allies finally withdrew, their densely wooded, snow-covered North Russian territories mission a failure—life for the men of the 339th was a painful amounted to suicide. A million men would not be enough. The blur: at one moment fierce fighting, attacking a succession of Bolsheviks, opponents also pointed out, were not the military villages and towns in boggy forests, against a relentless, well- bumblers the West thought, and their hold on the country was armed foe often ten or fifteen times their number, then tense probably unbreakable. Finally, the chaotic economic and polit lulls of inaction, all in impossible weather, frost and snow and ical situation in Russia doomed every sort of plan to uncertain muddy roads, and in daylight lasting at most three or four ty. hours. Facing this welter of cross-purposes, pressed to act by Mick's outfit, K Gompany of the 339th's Third Battalion, Britain and France, President Woodrow Wilson in the summer was assigned to what was called the Railroad Front, stretching of 1918 made his fateful choice. Wholly a political decision south from Archangel along the ancient, narrow-gauge tracks.
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Barely a week after coming \'^i^^^^:..:;:.-, ashore he was under fire at a vil lage called Obozerskaya, where the Americans took their first casualties, three men kiUed and a dozen wounded. A few days later he was in his first fuU-blown bat tle, a week-long engagement at the village of Seletskoe, a straggle of log-built houses on the Emtsa River. Here he earned the first of his two medal citations for lead ership and gallantry in action. During a quiet moment before the start of the battle, whUe the men of K Gompany were sheltering behind snow banks and fallen trees, platoon leader Lt. Gharles Ryan and Mick were crouched down beside each other. As they wait ed they talked ofthe strange sit uation in which they found themselves and the battle to come. "It was hardly an hour for levity," Ryan later wrote in a letter to his wife, "and I don't think the sergeant meant it for such when he remarked 'I only want to get back to the States to ^^ey\^ f vote for Bryan, because Bryan Milwaukee Leader, P71-1619 By tbe time this editorial cartoon appeared in the socialist Milwaukee was right.'"^ (William Jennings Leader on 21, 1919, the war in Europe had been over for Bryan, Wilson's Secretary of more than three m,onths. State, opposed America's entry into the war and had resigned Sgt. Kenney with the left outpost was cut off. . . . his post in 1915 in protest ofthe administration's policies. About 2 P.M. a Bolshevik airplane circled around He'd already lost three tries for the presidency, but another us, and a few moments later they opened up on us was being talked of.) with their artillery. . . . We spent a most miserable For each day ofthe battle of Seletskoe, Lt. Ryan made night in the trenches without overcoats or eats or entries in his diary, providing a rare picture of the fighting. fires. ^ Mick he mentions once as having had a close call: Help was soon sent to Mick, and he and his men fought About 10 A.M. the alarm was sounded and we their way back to the main body. The rescue was managed [attacked and] took over the system of outposts only at a price, however: "We have one man missing," wrote and trenches. Our cavalry patrol was driven in, the lieutenant, "Pvt. Staley, one ofthe men sent to Sgt. Ken one man killed. We did not know their strength. It ney's aid." It was two days before word came on the missing is almost impossible to patrol the flanks on account man: "A patrol brought back information that Staley's body ofthe swamps and dense woods. I had the support was found. He had been shot and bayoneted." After the bat trench on our right flank. No sooner were we in tle, in the little Seletskoe cemetery Pvt. Staley was buried. there than the M.G. [machine guns] opened up. "We stood at Parade Rest, the Captain said the funeral serv-
WlNTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY ice, then taps and we came fast of hardtack as it moved back." through the dense forest. Sev How Mick and his small eral miles short of Kodish, the detachment happened to be company heard firing and soon cut off is made clear in the cita "ran into something ... a reg tion written up afterward: ular battle, there must be 1000 On the 16th Sept 1918 of them." K Gompany he withheld a vigorous promptly joined the fight and flank attack upon the vil within minutes had suffered lage of Seletskoe. By his seven casualties, five men coolness of thought, wounded and two killed (Lt. energy and steadfasmess Gharles Ghappel and Sgt. John in the direction of his Agnew). That night was again detachment of 15 men, spent sleeping on the wet outnumbered tenfold, he ground, weapons handy. prevented a movement An unexpected order and an attempt to occu directly from headquarters py commanding ground now instructed K Gompany to by the enemy, the success improvise rafts, cross the of which would have Emtsa River, and attack a Bol been disastrous to the shevik position on the far bank. Allied troops then "This will be suicide," noted defending the village.^ Ryan mournfully, "as they are Twenty miles from Selet laying for us. The crossing is to skoe, also situated on the be made at noon." Hastily they Map by Joel Heiman Emtsa River, was the town of threw together several rafts Kodish. The focus of strategy for both sides because of its size from fallen or cut-down trees, but at the last moment anoth and location, it would see more and fiercer fighting than any er message arrived "ordering us to stand pat." A two-day rest other battle site in North Russia, the two armies advancing period followed, at a tiny village called Mejnovskaya, where and then retreating, only to advance again, and again retreat, "we immediately took possession ofthe half-dozen houses and each briefly occupying the hill-encircled site. "Kodish was the dried out our blankets and equipment. . . spent the first warm epitome of North Russia," remembered Lt. John Gudahy, night in a week alongside a fire and under a roof" Here the "bought with toiling effort, incredible privation and cruel loss bodies of Lt. Ghappel and Sgt. Agnew were buried. es, to be lost and won again time following time, in the bit On October 11 came the first direct attack on Kodish, and terest winter days with moving heroism and a moral grandeur here again Mick distinguished himself In fact, according to an that at times reached a sublime estate."^ eyewitness, Gaptain Mike Donoghue, Kodish was taken by the With Seletskoe under Allied control, Kodish became the Americans on that occasion largely because of Sgt. Kenney's prime target. Gautiously, for three weeks the Allies edged intrepid leadership. "The woods and swamps are so thick," their way through impossible terrain in that direction, slog recorded Lt. Ryan of the battle's start, "that we can't see 20 ging through thick, swampy forests and deep snow, less con feet ahead. Moved in squad column as best we could [and] cerned about enemy fire than with getting enough to eat and about noon we struck a Bolsh outfit building houses. . . . We finding warmth against the bitter cold. "Thursday at 9:30 we killed two of these birds and captured 20 more . . . formed a left Seletskoe," wrote Lt. Ryan in his diary, "marched out line along the road, it looks well dug in. . . .Just at dark about with light packs andjust ammunition carts. Our stuff is to fol 5 P.M. they attacked our flank. We had no machine guns but low in 6 hours. . . slept or tried to sleep in the wet grass with 15 rifles stood them off, looked bad for a few minutes." out any blankets, raining all the time. About midnight our In that entry Mick is not mentioned, but as the official cita wagons came along with blanket rolls." tion states, he was in the thick of that flank attack: "The ener Next day the company set out at five A.M., eating a break gy and dash of his detachment of grenadiers, due to his
WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY keenness, bravery, and coolness under the most hazardous conditions, was largely responsible for the success of the Allied force in the attack and capture ofthe village of Kodish on Oct. 12th and 13th, 1918."^ At the bottom ofthe citation a handwritten note is added: "I was a witness to the above. Gapt. MichaelJ. Donoghue." (Donoghue himself was to gain medals and promotions for his role at Kodish.) The men of K Gompany were spared the latter stages ofthe bloody, seesaw campaign at Kodish when they were sent to the rear for much-needed R&R, two weeks of hot food and soft beds at Archangel. They were still there when on November 11, 1918, the Armistice in Europe was proclaimed, bringing an end to World War I. Joyously the crowded city gave itself up to cel ebration as church bells rang and solemn services of thanksgiv ing were attended by grateful thousands. The war was over! For the men of K Gompany, for every one, there would be no more fighting, nor more dying.
VERY winter for about four months the port of Archangel, ninety miles south of the Arctic Gircle, Ebecomes icebound as parts of the White Sea freeze solid. From late December to May no vessel can get in or out, not even the largest and most powerful. That fact, known to every soldier in the 339th, raised troubling questions. What would happen, they asked anxiously, now that with the war's end they were no longer needed in Russia? Would the Novem the settlement of internal dissentions in a foreign ber Armistice allow them to depart before the December country, if not interfering with our national rights, freeze? Afterwards, until the breakup ofthe ice, there would be was inherent with their power of self-government. no simple or safe way out. An exit overland by train and truck If that is the case, what moral justification have the from the vast isolated rural north could be managed only with Allied forces, and particularly our own, in Russia the greatest difficulty, and not without the consent and cooper since the cessation of hostilities? If it is not the case, ation ofthe Bolsheviks. what is our national policy here? That consent was never granted, never sought. The blind There has been no open dissatisfaction, the men confusion that had created the Russian intervention still oper have gone through hardships and fighting cheerful ated. Withdrawal ofthe Allied troops was not even attempted. ly, but will soon begin to say among themselves, The fighting and the dying went on. Eight decades later no "why are we here." It is my business to answer that one can be sure exactly why. question and I cannot.^ Still in existence is a letter written by an officer of the The letter reached the desk of General Finlayson, Ghief of 339th, Gapt. Robert Boyd, and sent through channels to the Staff, who routed it to Gol. Stewart, 339th Gommander. "I American ambassador. Bluntly asking "Why are we here?", agree with him," Stewart noted approvingly, "in feeling that it Boyd writes boldly: would ease men's minds & make them fight better & more One question which is asked by the intelligent readily if they could read an authoritative statement of fact, enlisted man, and I ask it of myself . . . While a which would put them wholeheartedly anti-Bolshevik." state of war existed with Germany our mission, Three weeks later the American ambassador to Russia gave ostensibly at least, was to create an eastern front a talk to the 339th's officers, making matters just a bit plainer: against Germany by developing a new Russian "You men want to know what you are doing here. You are army. That state of war is now over, and I have protecting one spot in Russia from the sanguinary Bedlam of always thought it one of our national policies that Bolshevism. You are keeping safe one spot where the real pro-
• WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
Europe and even to the United States. The 339th had been drawn into America's first, if undeclared, anticommunist cru sade. By now, more than a month since the Armistice, there was serious grumbling in the ranks, a fact quickly picked up by American newspaper correspondents. The U.S. troops in North Russia, commented the New York Times on December 29, "are ready to carry out the wishes of the President, but marooned out here in some peasant villages, with only vistas of the snow-covered pine forests on all sides for endless miles, and with the world at peace, they are becoming a bit discour aged and lonely. They feel that they have been side-tracked . . . and forgotten. Our soldiers here as well as the Russian peo ple would like a clear statement, and then some definite action."^o That same day, under a blaring headline—"Rescue Boys in Russia, Is State's Plea"—the Detroit Free Press reported that several Michigan organizations, including the War Prepared ness Board, "made what is virtually a demand on the govern ment today to withdraw the forces now battling against the Red Guards at odds of 15 to 1. . . .A rescue ship could get through the ice, with the help of ice-breakers, before Archangel is entirely isolated, which will be about January 15th." Ghillingly the story added that, as soon as they were WHS Archives, PH 4988, WHi(U622)43 wholly cut off, "the Reds have threatened to massacre the These sleighs, pulled by reindeer or Arctic ponies, supplied the troops Allies," then beyond all hope of reinforcement. ^ ^ on the front and when needed evacuated the wounded from battle. In Detroit a mass meeting was called, and hundreds of On February 24, 1919, Lt. John A. Commons, son of University of Wisconsin labor historian and political economist telegrams went to Michigan's senators and congressmen in John R. Commons of Madison, wrote in a letter to his parents: Washington, urging that something be done. "For heaven's "The awful little wooden-axled droshkys have now given way to sake get action on the 339th Infantry rescue in Russia," the funny as well as little sleighs. It is surprising how far and how long the little horses can go, even in the coldest weather. " begged one wire quoted by the Free Press, "cut the red tape, smash the ice, and get the boys out."^^ gressives ofthe Russian Revolution may begin to lay the foun The anxious head ofthe War Preparedness Board, as quot dation ofthe great free Russian state which is to come." In a ed in the New York Times, admitted that every day he weak effort at encouragement he added: "Don't think you are received "hundreds of letters and telegrams from the thou forgotten. Washington knows what you are doing, what you sands of parents and friends in Michigan of these soldiers, who are up against. You may be sure that the President has thought feel that their boys and their husbands are in that godforsaken of you, and in good time will tell you and the rest of us what country practically lost, so far as the United States is con he expects."^ cerned."^^ In other words, the Allies were to stay on in Russia and help In the U.S. Senate chamber, Wisconsin's Robert La Fol rid the country of its Red oppressors, a far cry indeed from the lette announced his strong opposition: "No reasons have ever expedition's original intent. Wilson sent American soldiers to been advanced to this body as to why we should go to war with Russia to guard military stores, to tie up German soldiers, and Russia." Michigan's senator Gharles Townsend paid a call on to "steady" the old Russian government. Aggressive military the Army's Ghief of Staff, Gen. P. G. March, and was told that action was explicitly forbidden. Now, well after fighting else "the matter was entirely out ofthe control ofthe War Depart where in the world had ceased, they were being asked to fight ment." President Wilson, then in Paris, March explained, against an entrenched Bolshevik regime. Seeing Bolshevism as would bring up the question of Russia at the Peace Gonfer- a dire threat, the Allies feared it would spread to Western ence: "Meanwhile the boys must stay there at his pleasure. We
WINTER 2001-2002 A Land of Extremes Wisconsin and World War I
ISCONSIN citizens held a wide array of opinions Wisconsin socialists joined La Follette in opposing Ameri about American participation in the Great War. The can involvement. Socialists had a well-formulated theory about W state was home for two of the country's most promi the causes of the war. They believed that the European conflict nent opponents ofthe war, a large German immigrant population was the inevitable result of the expansion of capitalist with strong ties to their homeland, and a cadre of hyperpatriots economies; they opposed the war as one driven by the com intent on proving Wisconsin's loyalty to the rest of the nation. petition for markets and resources, at the expense of the work When war broke out in Europe in 1914, the United States ing class. Victor Berger, editor of Milwaukee's socialist daily, tried to maintain its neutrality. As the conflict intensified, howev the Leader, became Wisconsin's most outspoken socialist crit er, commercial ties to the Allies drew the country ever closer to ic of the war. He wrote frequent editorials in his paper protest war. Wisconsin's most prominent politician. Senator Robert La ing American participation in the war and denouncing it as a Follette, quickly established himself as a leader of the campaign ploy by capitalists to make money in the war industries. "This is to keep the country out of war. La Follette believed that the Unit the time," charged Berger, "when the Congress ofthe United ed States had to stay out of the European conflict. According to States is simply a rubber stamp of Mr. Woodrow Wilson and of La Follette, the people who stood to gain the most from Ameri the Wall Street Clique that is behind Wilson and directs his can involvement were the bankers who had loaned millions to actions." the Allies and the munitions manufacturers who had provided Berger's loud and repeated protest of the war brought him them supplies. La Follette was also concerned that American into conflict with the government's "loyalty campaign"—a series participation in the war would take momentum away from his of acts and policies designed to curb dissent The most famous own cause—furthering political reform. Behind all this was the of these laws was the Espionage Act of 1917, which made pub unshakable belief that the war was fundamentally undemocratic: lic criticism ofthe war a criminal act In September 1917, the the majority of Americans opposed it, and intervention would Milwaukee Leac/erwas charged with violating the law, and its merely be aiding one monarchy against another. second-class mailing privileges were revoked; the newspaper La Follette voiced these ideas on the Senate floor. In March could no longer be sent through the mail. In February 1918, 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for Berger and four other socialists were charged with conspiring authority to arm American merchant ships to protect them from to break the Espionage Act and with writing and circulating German submarine attack. La Follette successfully led a fili seditious and pro-German literature. The case came to trial buster that prevented the measure from coming to a vote. His later that year; Berger was convicted and sentenced to twenty actions provoked death threats, and he even carried a revolver years in prison. Berger appealed his conviction to the United to the Capitol for his own protection. Congress adjourned at States Supreme Court, charging that the judge had been noon on March 4 and did not return until a special session in biased from the start ofthe trial. The Supreme Court overturned April, called by Wilson. Wilson vilified La Follette for his actions, the conviction in 1921. calling him one of "a little group of willful men, representing no When Victor Berger won a seat in the House of Represen opinion but their own, [who] have rendered the great Govern tatives from Wisconsin's Fifth District in 1918, his opinions ment of the United States helpless and contemptible." On April became even more significant. The House refused to seat him, 2 Wilson asked for a declaration of war against Germany, and however, because of his antiwar stance and his recent convic La Follette was one of six senators to vote against the war res tion. Berger was unapologetic for his views: "I have nothing to olution. On April 4 La Follette declared: "I believe that this war, retract from the articles that I have written or from the speech like nearly all others, originated in the selfish ambition and cruel es that I have made.... This incident of being found guilty ... greed of a comparatively few men in each Government who saw for exercising my constitutional right of free speech and a free in war an opportunity for profit and power for themselves, and press should have nothing to do, however, with my being seat who were wholly indifferent to the awful suffering they knew that ed in the house of representatives." Still, the House voted not war would bring to the masses." Nine of the eleven Wisconsin to allow Berger his seat In 1919 the residents ofthe Fifth Dis representatives in the House also voted against the war. His trict reelected Berger in a special election, but the House again vote on the war made him one of the most hated men in the refused him the seat The Housefinallyagreed to seat him after country, but in 1922 an overwhelming majority reelected him to his third election victory in 1922. the Senate. La Follette and Berger had much support in Wisconsin for
^ WINTER 2001-2002 For an Early, General and Lasting
Tax the Profiteers ^
for U. S. Senator For Free Speech Socialist Ticket Against Race Hatred
WHS Archives 5-1487, WHi(X3)26012 Before Milwaukee Leader editor Victor L. Berger was elected to serve in the House of Representatives in the fall of 1918, he ran that spring in a special election for senator on an antiwar platform. Loyalty was the dominant issue in this election, and this campaign poster, altered by the addition ofthe Kaiser's mustache and a Prussian helmet, reflects the extremes of opinion that existed in Wisconsin during the war.
their antiwar positions. Although most of the faculty signed a and the Wisconsin Loyalty Legion circulated pamphlets detail letter opposing La FoUette's position, the University of Wiscon ing German wrongdoing, promoted patriotic speeches, and sin campus, led by intellectuals who opposed any war as a issued pledges and petitions designed to ensure support for the breakdown of civility inappropriate for the modern era, devel war effort and counter Wisconsin's disloyal image. "The time oped into an early center for the pacifist movement. The heart has now come," one circular read, "when a decided stand must of Wisconsin's opposition to the war, however, lay in the state's be taken to offset the work of the anti-American party, who German heritage. Seven hundred thousand of Wisconsin's 2.3 under the guise of 'peace' meetings are spreading dissention million residents traced their ancestry to Germany, and many of [sic] and disloyalty in all parts of the state." People who refused them held conflicting opinions about the war. They strongly to sign petitions, purchase war bonds, or support the loyalty supported President Wilson's initial position of neutrality and campaign risked placing their own loyalty in doubt. Occasional continued to advocate neutrality as the country drew closer to ly, loyalty campaigns degenerated into acts of vigilante vio war. German Americans found themselves trapped between a lence. For example, residents of Ashland County held cultural affiliation with their ancestral homeland and a contin tar-and-feather parties that targeted those suspected of oppos ued allegiance to their new home. ing the war, and a Rock County mob smeared yellow paint on In part because of the state's national reputation as an anti at least one man who refused to purchase a Liberty Loan bond war stronghold, some Wisconsin residents loudly denounced to finance the war. Although events like these represented the anyone who opposed the war—La Follette, Berger, the social attitude of hyperpatriots, they illustrate one extreme of the ists, and German Americans—as disloyal and potentially dan range of opinions held by Wisconsin citizens about the Ameri gerous. Organizations such as the Wisconsin Defense League can role in World War I.
WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
Lt.John Cudahy, on the far left, leads this snowshoe patrol. In Archangel, he wrote: "The customary patrol was one that went out every day, a band of three or four, along a trail of padded snow just wide enough for single file. . . . It was like a game runway that leads to a salt lick, fresh signs show that deer pass every day, and it is only a question of time until the hunter gets his chance for the fatal shot."
are absolutely at the mercy ofthe President and Great Britain, 22. Since temperatures of twenty, even thirty below were not and they do not tell us anything."^^ uncommon for a North Russian winter, on that day the mer cury must have touched nearly forty below. It was later that CCT^ HIS was the coldest day that I ever experi same day that K Gompany received orders that the "big enced," wrote Lt. Ryan in his diary while sit push," rumored for weeks, was on, and a disgusted Lt. Ryan ting in a hut in Obozerskaya on December took due note ofit: "The dope is out. We are to make anoth- m WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
pany did their best to lose themselves in the Ghristmas season, Lt. Ryan readily joining in. But his diary entry for the day shows how hard it was to forget. "Ghristmas Day. My first one away from home ... a gloomy day for me. ... At 4 o'clock we had dinner of roast beef and two Rabchicks [a Russian fowl] that we got hold of, some canned apricots. Made a fair meal ofit, but nothing like what they are having in Detroit and Bay Gity (would that I were there today)." Early on the night ofthe twenty-ninth, K, L, and E Gom panies moved quietly into position before Kodish, then spent miserable, fireless hours waiting in the snow. It was still dark when the artillery opened up at 6 A.M., so that the skies were made lurid by the flashes of the big guns and the resulting explosions and fires that flared in the town. A half-hour later the three companies began moving forward. Their orders were to take Kodish, then push on to take the small nearby vil lage of Avda. It was expected that by noon on the thirtieth, when the skies would have lightened, both Kodish and Avda would be subdued.^^ It wasn't that easy. In Kodish the Bolsheviks, though heav ily pounded, held on. Daylight came and went and it was dark again before they gave ground. Not until five or six that evening did Kodish fall, and not for another hour or so did the push to Avda start. When it did, Sgt. Kenney was among its leaders as units of K Company fought their way along the road leading south out of Kodish. It was almost midnight when his detachment halted for a brief rest in the snow, and he went the rounds encouraging the men, weary after some eighteen hours of almost continuous fighting. A quick skirmish at Avda, he told them, and they'd have houses to sleep in and warm fires. A burst of machine gun fire tore through the darkness. Hit in the neck and chest, Mick crumpled into the snow. When the deadly chatter ofthe Bolshevik gun ceased, two men crawled through the drifts to his side and found him still alive. They dragged him back to the shelter of a building beside the road, where they stretched him on the floor in front of a cold fire WHS Archives, PH Series 1704 place. A medic hurried in and began working on him and on er advance [on Kodish]. The same old stuff. We made it once, several other wounded men lying in a bloody sprawl. got chased back, and now we are to try it again." One of the men who helped bring Mick in, Gorp. Fred The start ofthe offensive was set for December 30. At six Kooyers, also kept a diary. In it he briefly records the frantic o'clock that morning mortar fire and small artillery would efforts made that night outside Kodish to rescue the wounded. open up on Kodish. Advance of the infantry would begin "We got into a church," he wrote, "which we made into a hos about a half-hour later. Estimates put the number of Bolshe pital while we were there, and got these men taken care of, vik defenders then in the town at some three thousand. The when 1st Sgt. Gomstock of Go. E came to us for some men to Allies, led by the 339th's K, L, and E Gompanies, mustered take care ofthe wounded. We got out on the front line and got barely five hundred. four men that were badly wounded and carried them back to Sorely conscious of what was coming, the men of K Gom our hospital." One ofthe four was almost certainly Mick.^^
WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
Two houijlsta an sdisusted Lt. Ryan came to the churdi to ^'^Dil'nvF^iP'i:^. IfczonhaZy, l^lS diaii: on hi? wounded. After 3 look at eadi man, offering sym l^lhrf IfczonhaiiJ, lyiS pathy and aicoursgement, he sat down to gain 3 few moments' ^Wt\v Yorii n^i:; Conjntj 31, WlS ^'•Dil'nvF^iP'i:^. Ifczonhail, l^lS rfft, pulling out his llltle diary. "We had an awful time," he 1^ KIT flic hinfc dfKdIth, m ildilidn U pimb] idUiCTi Itlcd hoc in RcidUiCTi iiJ fui wrote, "have had about 55 wounded and many killed. Lt Berg Iha Readme I hil^ uad icpdJt hy Cap! Mitc CdndPhU: {flioi Majdr), CSpl B. Piii>:c, iiJ LlJJhn Biha, dn^mit in flic IJihdnil flidnl^, Rccdrd OidUp UiJ s' and Sgt. Kenn^ are dead. Sgt. Coulter Is wounded. Hddhers 1° rh: l^dyoi diiiy t in flic OoJr^c fllhoi fapoS, Boilfcy iHtUiiOl Lihriiy, UniV df Midn^ flimy iKdnt ihJI" fliil Sg OoJr^c Cdmildct, df ftudil, l"ii dKdJib] fjj iilnn? all night In the snow." •"dUiJcd il l^diih UiJa mtnic oiony fijc dn CK 3IJ 31 I\"i(c h: •"•il tjrlUiid ildnc UiJa hcai^ file, '^n indl" fidm tire U l"itl ±cp," U him^ iQct i min {l^lKiiQl flidnl^, Rondrd The soldier who afterwards spoke to my molha^ said that for OidUp UiJ) Il li pJiiihfc fliil Mid: I^Qi dTC df flicic a while Mick stayed conscious and could talk, but said little. At about three In the morning on Nsv Year's Eve he whispered R€»iirc€^ ^nd Further Reading some words that sounded like "Happy New Year." Then he ft] icrtiJn, Ralph Fi^fOfS'yiBfailo 'Vo' l^tiU Ydit HiicJJrt, Bflcc, iiJ HdUt 1 y?ll dceed his eye? and died. Ten days later his coffin was lowered Cirfiny, Jdhn A-ulM/^sti DJ l.ii.anj^ Htaf iiviJi If iiuflj Chirafd A C McCJJrf i Oj . 1 ^^ llUdlcn, Rii:}Qid R MIC'H^VI'L POIO'BBI'Z DM Ayyw:ca^ E^piO^Ofvi /D !^•!l^ Rnao, Into a grave m ihe Allied cemetery at Archangel. jWa JUJU ftiniAfadr UnlVoiCy df Mchif ii, 1 ^5 fiamilSnd Emi^o f-u.A B^ A,-u':ca^ E;ibo^JI" iQidy dtCTJinlilc fill nx-j prJintci Id myznif J^aii i^d Id 5:1 lory," IS Bulhor of sevenleen books and odpn^ lE^c IViuil tjj ndlhinr. I'IEI ^IQIEHIJ Id sy A ^niSy lEHUEibi] dlVnJ i odp^ df llicico many srlicles His 1993 volume, The dJiJ p}idldr|^p}i lE^d: l}i^l ^y III 1^1^ Il ^ppc3ii ^1 l}ic dpcmn^ df Ihii ^ibot ^ Cliiiki RjQn Id Mii ClQilci Ryin, l+Hanhad, WlS, C B Ryip fapai, B oilfcy S/iaDotvs rase, was 3 finslisl for Ihe Iihriiy, UiDloiliy df Midn^ Ilic NdrUi RuiiQn cdllKhdn ilUt Boillcy HiildnOl Lihiiiy, 3nnLi3l$5D,DDD Lincoln Prize His 1959 UiilVaii^ dfMriiiPin, flim flibJj, li diizntd m iJJdloi, /^l^cl^^ga•'^ Polay Bmy^ 1C B Ryip diiiy, Ryip fapai book, Poe the DetecOVe, wonan Edgar ^ Qudlcd frjm Ut dupuiil lypcd aiahdJi, ilcd Ndlanha E, l^lS, m Ut NilKiiQl ^ from Ihe Mfstery Wrileis of Amenca, flidilVci RKdrd OidUp l?iJ A fiiJui^ iid |Qinplili:lpi]lilths] hy Ut IJihdJiil flidilVci df&ji •liSj ^o?:^ Id It lE^mJ^iiipl }id]Jm^ dn IntiViuilKiii m.^/i'tai Ff>i.^ of Bii A^Aiicai E^i and tivo of his mosI recent books were tfiso^arf/ Fotct^ m Sla'a, iViS SflD. rh: ailuc l+ijlli Ritiiin cdlb:lKiii t iViibhfc dn similarly nominated In September Ihis y^ar his book The lElKldfillEl ^ Jdhn CiHihy, A^Ja^f ri I? I A idn df faUKt Cuihy df Ih: feiTFJit^^1ll^"il]tc c irnai Execution of M^or AnUre appeared, offering a revisionist iQotm^ hJitc, Cul^hy icliimij i^fJ, ^IEI RiJiii^ h^Viii^ iizmi lEiiJdi Qmc Shilling view of Ihe familiar slorfof Ihe British officer hanged for his ^ l*lKiiQl flidilVci Rondid OidUp UiJ {ih: airn: im^c |Q^ iJcilnail IJQI cdnBiit MKti ^cklitCp: dQlUn) Bii 3JI pciidnir] file IV^ K^l^dn^ l^^l}l miDKiit df dlhui m ^ £ic pari in Benedict Arnold's treason Father of four, giandfalher il llic fliiny RKdrdi Ccnla m SI Ldilii MtiJiln, m WTi^ iJ ilOn 1 h: aid jUil l"lQI irnslit of three, he lives wilh his wife, Dorothy, m Monroe I^^IC il^QIdcJ fiimly U^bdn ii^ |]QIiflciKddiih heIV^ piilm fjjpjdiEFJIidn Id (3pl3in, i lEFJVch^ dcaih fjic^QlkJ ^ Qudlcd frjin flic dngiQl Iclla, ilcd Conjnti 13, WlS, m Ih: l*lidnil flidilVcS, RKdrdOidUp I3J Wllh Bd^ i fcltj iic Ih: i>Jfci df Oaioil fmbyiJn iiJ Cdl Sll:I^QJL
WINTER 2001-2002 Wisconsin in the Midnight War
(Editor's note: Wisconsin soldiers and their families were an important part ofthe story of the 339th Infantry Regiment during the Russian Intervention of 1918—19, as the following images from the Society Archives and quotations from John Cudahy's Archangel reflect.)
WHS Archives, PH 4988, WHi(U621)65 WHS Archives, PH 3757 Lieutenant Robert Colton Johnson, adjutant and chief photographer for Lt. John A. Commons (right) celebrates Christmas 1917 with his the Engineer Corps serving in Archangel, donated a large collection of family. Nine months later, when stationed in North Russia, he his photographs of this campaign to the Wisconsin Historical Society in wrote home: "Still going strong. We are in the throes of the rainy 1957• Johnson grew up in Madison and attended the University of season, and a hundred percent season it is, too. Indeed, this coun Wisconsin College of Engineering. try, which is perfect 7th heaven for antedated and defunct swamps, and morasses, is supersaturated now. It is on the average knee-deep anywhere off a road, and the mud on the road covers one's ordinary shoe-tops."
"In a few crowded weeks, so many stirring events had thronged their heretofore placid lives that these recruits from Michigan and Wisconsin were buried beneath a bewildering wilderness of amazing 4 impressions through which confused, alien scenes Lt. Edm,ond Richard Collins from Racine died of wounds received in the battle fought and persons and places trooped in phantom and near Bolsheozerki, Russia, on March 29, 1919, more than fantastic muticolored parade, until their minds were four months after Armistice Day. stunned beyond the power of further perception." WHS Archives, PH Series 1704 -/ ^mM''. "The High Command passed out word that Arctic conditions would preclude any active fighting but the prisoners spoke differently. They said that the Bolshevik Staff expected the Allied soldier to die like flies in the cold winter, that the enemy intended to strike when the cold was most bitter, the snow deepest, and so they did."
Below: The men of Company D and Company B, 559th Infantry, constructed this blockhouse on the south bank of the Dvina river for the protection ofthe village ofChamova. On the left is Lt.fohn Cud ahy, a scion of the famous meat-packing family. Though Cudahy was a leader of the Wisconsin Defense League, an organization devoted to supporting the American war effort and opposing the pacifist influence of Robert M. La Follette and Victor Berger, his book. Archangel: America's War with Russia, is an impassioned account ofthe Russian Intervention and his disagreement with the policy that brought it about. The photograph was taken on December 51, 1918, the day that Sgt. Michael Kenney was killed near Kodish.
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WHS Archives, PH Series 1704 WHS Archives, PH Series 1704 WHS Archives, PH Series 1704 Above left: Lt. Marcus T. Casey was nearing the end of his third year of law school at the University of Wisconsin when the United States entered the war. Above right: Capt. Joel R. Moore from La Crosse served in Company M, 339th Infantry. He is one of the authors of The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki; Campaigning in North Russia, 1918-1919 (1920), and his papers are part of the Polar Bear Expedition Collections in the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library. Left: Captain Horatio G. Winslow of Madison stands in front of Company 1 of the 339th Infantry in preparation for eight of its members receiving the French Croix de Guerre on February 17, 1919.
WHS Archives, PH Series 1704
WHS Archives, Name File Malcolm K. Whyte of Madison (right) poses with his mother and father before embarking for Archangel. Whyte was an engineer and WHS Archives, PH Series 1704 served in Russia with his college friend Robert Colton Johnson. His Zi^. Marcus T. Casey hailed from New Richmond and was the father, William F. Whyte, served as a doctor and was discharged on first American soldier to die on Russian soil during the mis November 3, 1918. In a letter to his family dated December 23, sion, a victim of pneumonia. The photo of the funeral proces 1918, Malcolm wrote: "The temperature has dropped down to Zero sion was taken in Archangel, Russia, on September 18, 1918. and the Russians are looking at us curiously, wondering if we will be able to stand it." --f
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Edith\l7eack9^-fnqiiS-^s^sff)i'^}^ call boards delivered far more than XI small, individual sketches. This design tool placed charq^r^in^X^.^,.^yju\, />j^ f\jL various settings so the filmmakers could assess the overall costume j^^^^A-i^ design. Head invented the call boards to help her determine iftloe \ '• ^ ;\ ,.^^ Q ,-^ designs worked well together. Pictured here is one of many costume call boards from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Courtesy of WCFTR, Edith Head Collection, Box 4 Ele2;ance bu D £ S ] Tne Eaith Head Collection in Wisconsin
By Maxine Fleckner Ducey
HE was there when Grace Kelly, silhouetted in fluid ice blue against a Riviera night, tempted SCary Grant with jewels and more in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller To Catch a Thief. Audrey Hepburn went from gamine to gorgeous in Sabrina and won the heart of Humphrey Bogart—but she didn't do it alone. Bette Davis, already a legend herself, could not have captured the onscreen legend of Margo Channing in Aii about Eve without her there. Who could have such an impact on this extraordinary list of Hollywood's who's who? A spiritual advisor? A super-agent? A therapist? No, those supportive roles belong to the Hollywood of today. In the golden age of Hollywood, the transforma tion of an actress or actor into a screen presence was the work of many, but most notably a woman named Edith Head.
The signature design for Edith Head was the costume designer for films that Breakfast at Tiffany's is Audrey Hepburn in simple, created some ofthe most enduring images in American elegant black, sporting a jeweled tiara and cigarette cinema, and the costumes the actresses and actors wore holder, completely personifying the carefree in those films produced some ofthe most popular trends nature of Holly Golightly.
Courtesy of WCFTR, Film Title Stills' WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
Courtesy of WCFTR, Fiim Titie Stiiis "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night," Bette Davis (as Margo Channing) warns her guests in All About Eve. The guest list includes her rival. Eve Harrington, played by Anne Baxter, and, in the background, Gregory Ratoff (far right), Gary Merrill (far left). Celeste Holm (top), George Sanders (center), and a still relatively unknown Marilyn Monroe (bottom center). in American fashion. Head's vision and eye for design garnered Through this partnership, the WGFTR gives the public her thirty-four Oscar nominations, eight Academy Awards, and access to thousands of documents of the film and theater a career that spanned more than fifty years. industry. Since 1968—when Miss Head donated her collec Head's original sketches for the films noted above as well as tion of original costume designs, the manuscripts for her auto other classics including The Ten Commandments, Notorious, biography The Dress Doctor, and clippings documenting her and Breakfast at Tiffany's—?i total of 1,700 costume render career—hundreds of design students, fashion scholars, work ings—are preserved in the Edith Head Gollection of the Wis ing designers, and interested members of the public have consin Genter for Film and Theater Research (WGFTR). The viewed this significant collection at the Wisconsin Historical WGFTR is a University of Wisconsin program, part of the Society's Archives. Department of Gommunication Arts, and has a unique rela If it seems a bit curious that the papers documenting the tionship with the Wisconsin Historical Society: the university professional life of the premiere Hollywood designer, a and the Society cosponsor the WGFTR, with the university pro woman who created screen legends, should be in the Mid viding archival materials and professional staff and the Society western community of Madison—a fine place to live but hard providing space within the headquarters building in Madison to ly a mecca for either stage or screen—remember that both the house the Genter's archives. University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Historical Society
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By the time she was ready for college, Edith had lived in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas, as well as in southern Galifornia. She chose UGIA for college, earning a degree in Romance languages in 1920. She immediately went on to Stanford for a master's degi'ee in French and Spanish. After graduation. Head found employment as a French teacher at the Bishop School for Girls in La JoUa. When Bish op's staff informed her that in addition to French she was also expected to teach art, she began taking art classes in the evening, first at Otis Art Institute and then at Ghouinard Art School, both respected commercial art schools located nearby. The story of Edith Head's transformation from school teacher to arbiter of fashion is itself worthy of a Hollywood film. Among Head's students at Bishop's were the daughters of famed director and producer Gecil B. DeMille, who invit ed teacher and students to visit his set several late spring after noons. Head was instantly entranced by the work of the dressers and wardrobe mistresses, watching as the costume designers' fashions came to life. She learned quickly the power of dress to convey a character's personality, to allure the audi ence, and to establish historical accuracy. When she saw an ad for an assistant designer position at Paramount, she want ed to take a chance. She had one small problem; though skilled in art theory, Edith Head could not draw. © Bettmann/Corbis Although she could not draw at the time she lauded hei fust job at She turned to her fellow students at Ghouinard for help. Paramount in 1923, Edith Head learned quickly, and by the early She borrowed portraits, costume designs, character studies, 1940s she was designing for leads and entire casts. landscapes, even mechanical drawings. Howard Greer, head were among the first scholarly institutions to realize the sig of the Paramount costume department, examined Head's nificance of documenting the art and industry of twentieth- portfolio at her interview and, saying that he had never seen century entertainment. For more than forty years, the so much talent in one student, hired her on the spot. The next WGFTR has been collecting and preserving primary source day, she had to deal with the consequences of her borrowed materials generated by motion pictures, television, and the resume. Head recalled her first day on the job in 1923 for theater. Films, photographs, posters, designs, and manu journalist Gharles Oxton, who wrote; scripts studied at the WGFTR have revolutionized the under [S]he was sitting at her drawing board, her face as standing of American film history and culture. blank as the paper in front of her, when Greer Among those cultural icons constantly sought by came in. "What's the matter," he asked, "no ideas?' researchers is Edith Head. Miss Head (as she was always Edith fixed him with a sorrowful glance. "No tal addressed) was born Edith Glare Posener on October 28, ent. I don't know how to draw." 1897, in Los Angeles. Her father was a mining engineer who She went on to explain the deception. Instead of worked to improve the life of Native Americans on reserva being angry, Greer found her explanation tions in the American Southwest and northern Mexico. Head absolutely hilarious. spent most of her childhood in the high desert, surrounded by If his reaction had been different, Edith Head may have an intensity of color and light. She always credited the bril returned to teaching French, one of countless unknown Holly liant colors, natural designs, and unique qualities of South wood dreamers. Instead, she assumed a new name to go with western light and shadow as the major influences on her work. her new career and began a fascinating journey that lasted Their influence can be seen throughout her entire career, nearly sixty years, moving her from the classroom into a world both in the costume renderings she drew and the fabrics she of legendary actresses and actors, directors, and producers. chose to realize her designs. Admittedly, this career began with a few less-than-legendary
WINTER 2001-2002 ^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY characters. The first cinematic designs Edith Head created were wardrobe warehouse helped her determine which garments for animals; trappings of gold for an elephant, a jeweled cat col and accessories she could reuse and which she needed to lar, and wings for (humans dressed as) butterflies in Peter Pan design and create anew. In developing clothes for any picture. (Paramount, 1924). With the guidance of mentors like Howard Head would create some fifty or sixty costumes. She often Greer and his assistant Travis Banton, she soon graduated to worked like a manufacturer, designing an entire line of cloth designing for human subjects—not yet for the leads, but for "the ing for each picture, down to the costumes of the bit players. grandmother roles, the aunts in the background." But when designing specifically for the leads, she also had to When the opportunity finally arose to design for a leading work like a couturier, designing for individuals. As always, her lady, the lady was none other than Mae West, who was not philosophy of designing for both the character and the indi about to blend into the background. Musing about her cos vidual actress came into play. Head would submit her designs tumes for She Done Him Wrong (Paramount, 1933), West to the producer and director, then to the leading lady. With suggested that Head design dresses that were "tight enough so approval, finished sketches went back to the workroom for I look like a woman, loose enough so I look like a lady." costume construction. Taking this advice to heart, Edith Head's philosophy of At just over five feet tall, Edith Head was not a physically costume design began to take shape. She tailored the clothing imposing woman, but she commanded the respect of a large of the screen character to complement the actress's corps of sketch artists, wardrobe women, seamstresses, own traits, features, and off-screen identity. and cutters—the team sometimes running as large as Glothes had to bring the character to life while at the t\\() hundred people, depending on the picture—and same time remaining compatible with the way supervised all details of fashion, including jewelry and the actress moved, her body type, and her natural accessories. Her responsibilities were not simply artistic; coloring. Given this approach, it's not surprising that Edith she also had budgets, ongoing management concerns, Head believed it was essential to work closely with the e\'en the most prosaic details with which to stars for whom she designed. She considered a contend. For instance, during the shooting strong personal relationship the only way to learn of a picture, clothes could take quite a about the individual traits an actress might beating. On lengthy production shoots, bring to a role. She used this information it was often necessary to make several to make actresses happy about and copies of the original costumes. It was comfortable in the clothes they wore Head's job to keep track of the minutest on screen. As she described her own detail, down to the tiniest frayed edge, and role, "I don't consider myself a designer. see that repairs or replacements were made I'm a scientist using fashion as the catalyst \\hen needed. to bring out the best in a person, to develop During World War II, Head learned to work a whole new character." She became best \\ith hand-me-down costumes. A cocktail dress friend and confidante to generations of originally designed for Dorothy Lamour in one screen and television performers, who loved picture would be remodeled for a lesser known her frankness and her jokes and trusted her actress in another picture and then finally passed fashion sense without question. on to bit players and extras, each time camouflaged Although these personal connec \\ ith slight alterations. tions were important, they were only Ln 1933 Edith Head received her first assignment part of a long and complex series of steps designing for a leading lady, Mae West in She leading from page to screen. Well before the Done Me Wrong. West's request—"Make [the shooting started. Head would spend weeks costumes] tight enough to make me look like a woman, loose enough to make me look like a studying the script, doing research on period lady"-—planted the seed that became the costumes—from Samson and Delilah (Para designer's philosophy: to create costumes that took mount, 1949) to The Man Who Would Be King into account both the character and the natural assets of the actress or actor. (Allied Artists, 1975). For contemporary produc tions, her comprehensive knowledge of the cos Courtesy of WCFTR, Fiim Titie Stiiis tume inventory stored in Paramount's three-story
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Edith Head ultimately did learn to draw, as well as cut, pin, and drape, though she never sewed on a machine, only by hand. But she went far beyond these basic elements of design and costume creation. Working with director Alfred Hitch ^rt- cock, Edith Head developed the original concept of a costume "call board," so that she could visualize the costumes of all the characters appearing together in a scene. Head and the direc tor would pore over tiny color sketches, ensuring that the clothes would photograph harmoniously on the screen. Gos- tumes that showed too much duplication of silhouette or color would then be eliminated as the final wardrobe was construct ed. These costume call boards, by both their creation and their use, sig nify Edith Head's level of mastery and artistry. She fully appreciated that the costumes were part of a larg er picture, constructed by elements of design that included sets, lighting, various camera angles and perspec tives, and even sound. She balanced these external needs of the film with Se, /7 the internal needs of the individuals whom she costumed, giving to the director, the actor, and the audience a character who was fully realized, both visually and psychologically. Directors like Alfred Hitchcock, master of the suspense Courtesy of WCFTR, Editln Head Coiiection, Box 15 thriller, valued Head's expertise, and her professional relation Kim Novak played two characters in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. ship with Hitchcock was significant. Their partnership is an Head's design for "Madeleine" in scene 178 included the following excellent example of the level of professionalism she offered. details, as noted on the sketch: color, type of fabric, cuff varia She designed the wardrobes for many of his best-known films. tions, and wet or dry look options. These specifics met with the director's own highly developed sense of detail. Although she did dress some ofthe most glamorous women in the nation. Head preferred to work within a "real life" budg Head often said, "If people notice the clothing, then I haven't et. Her responsibility was to create clothes that helped establish done my job." As a studio designer, she did not strive primari the character as a real person, not as a fantasy fashion model. ly to design trend-setting fashions, but rather to interpret and Working with ''Hitcii" 1 The following is an excerpt from an and make the clothes without dis interview in the IVIay 1978 issue of cussing them with him. It's so com American Film magazine: pletely lucid. For example: "She's in Q: You've done the costume a black coat, she has a black hat, designs on a good many of Hitch and she's wearing dark glasses." cock's films, haven't you? That's from Family Plot, the last one EH: Not for the early ones, but I've we did. . . . Unless there is a story done all the later American ones, reason for a color, we keep the col except for Psycho. ors muted, because Hitchcock Q: Are his meticulous scripts a spe believes they can detract from an cial help to your work? important action scene. He uses MPTV.net images EH: Alfred Hitchcock is the only per color, actually, almost like an artist, Edith Head with Alfred Hitchcock on son who works on a script with such preferring soft greens and cool col the set o/"Family Plot in 1976, the last detail that a designer could go ahead ors for certain moods. project that teamed these two masters of their crafts.
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Sketch courtesy of WCFTR, Edith Head Collection Box 15 Despite the obvious appeal of Grace Kelly in a gorgeous golden ballgown, it is Cary Grant's costume of a nubian servant (opposite page), complete with black mask, that helps his character lay a trap forle Chat, the cat burglar ofthe Riviera, in To Catch a Thief. help build a character. Nonetheless, Head's success "because they might as well be interesting." in understanding and producing a perfect look for It was this attitude about personal style that so many actresses sparked several fashion trends helped her earn more Academy Awards than any over the years, from Dorothy Lamour's sarong to designer in the history of Hollywood. She received Audrey Hepburn's boatneck top and toreador her first Academy Award for The Heiress in 1949, pants. her last for The Sting in 1973. She worked steadi Edith Head had the gift of making the world ly until her death in 1981, and her final project. aware of the power and beauty of fluid lines and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, was released sleek elegance, drawing classic long lines that -—" posthumously the following year. made an indelible impression. It was significant _ She was devoted, but not married, to her work. then that she chose to wear understated business Edith Head lived and worked with her beloved clothes, which, although they could not add to her height, husband of more than fifty years until his death in 1979. served to accentuate her quick grace. And she always sported Wiard "Bill" Ihnen was a skilled architect and painter. At her trademark dark glasses: "Harlequin shaped," she noted. their home in southern Galifornia, Head's eight Oscars were m WINTER 2001-2002
WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY accompanied by two more Academy Awards that Bill had won for art direction. Edith Head was many things to many people: a wife, an artist, a confidante, a consummate professional, and a quick witted friend. All of these roles allowed her to give the world of film an elegance and a grace that remain on screen today and have yet to be challenged by any other designer in the field. Although anyone who has the opportunity to view a film for which she designed the costumes can appreciate her skill and artistry, those who knew her and benefited directly from those skills ventured appreciation ofthe most personal nature. When Edith Head died of a bone-marrow disease at the age of 84, those whose screen identities she had helped create spoke of her with great respect, recognizing her in all of her roles. At her funeral Bette Davis herself eulogized: "A queen has left us, the queen of her profession. She will never be replaced . . . her contributions to our industry in her field of design, her contri bution to the taste of our town of Hollywood, her elegance as a person, her charms as a woman." Edith Head is gone, as are many of the stars whom she helped to create, but the creative spirit and elegant grace of her work live on in the Archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society. iMd
Edith Head's sketch of Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina wearing a daytime coat arrived at the WHS Archives with the Courtesy of WCFTR, Film Title Stills fabric swatches still Edith Head received her final Oscar for work on The Sting, attached. A still from the which starred Robert Redford (shown here) and Paul Newman. film shows the now-sophisticated Head amassed an incredible thirty-five Academy Sabrina wearing the same coat. Award nominations and won Oscars for The Heiress, Samson and Delilah (both 1949), All About Eve {1950), A Place in the Sun (both 1951), Roman Hol iday (1953), Sabrina (1954), The Facts of Life (1960), and The Sting (1973). She was the most honored woman in Academy Award history.
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The Author Maxine Fleckner Ducey has been the archivist for the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research since 1979. She graduated from NYU with a degree in theater and film history and received her master's degree from UW-Madison in the history of film and photography. She has given many pre sentations on the theory and practice of archiving film, photos, and theatrical manuscripts. In 1995 she was elected president of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Fleckner Ducey has been fascinated with costumes and costume design since childhood and has had a chance to work with, and appreciate, many talented designers over the years in her second career as an actor.
Resources and Further Reading There are many books and magazine articles written both by and about Edith Head, and one of the treasures of the Head Collection at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research is the clipping file, a scrapbook-Hke collection of news clippings and articles on her career that Edith Head herself donated. She told the story of her life to many writers, and though the story changed a bit over the years, the basic facts remained the same. Some of the books on Edith Head were written by the designer herself; these include The Dress Doctor by Edith Head and Jane Kesner Ardmore, with sketches by Edith Head (Boston: Little, Brown, 1959) and Edith Head's Hollywood by Edith Head and Paddy CaUstro, with a foreword by Bette Davis (New York: Dutton, 1983). Women in Management by Douglas C. Basil, with the collaboration of Edna Traver, included a foreword by Edith Head (New York: Dunellen, 1972). One book that was helpful in writing this article but that appeared after Head's death was Voices from the Set: the Film Heritage Interviews, interviews by Tony MackUn, edit ed by Tony MackUn and Nick Pici. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000.) The other resources, mainly articles and interviews, were written by those who followed Head's career. They include "Head of Fashion" by Charles Oxton, in Catholic Preview of Enter tainment, August, 1961, pp. 4-7; "Dialogue," interview in May 1978 issue of American Film magazine; Edith Head Microform: An American Film Institute Seminar on her Work, held June 22, 1972, (Glen Rock, N.J.: MicrofiUning Corp. of America, 1977).
Courtesy of WCFTR, Film Title Stills
Above: Head designed the costumes for many of Hollywood's epic films, including this one for Yul Brynner as the Pharaoh Ramses in The Ten Commandments, Because ofthe vast number of costumes necessary for such projects. Head directed a team of designers rather than sketching each outfit herself. Left: Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurry in the classic film noir Double Indemnity, Head crafted many costumes that complemented the distinctive techniques of light and shadow employed in this film genre. She designed for several film noir jobs in the 1940s: This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key, and^YiQ Blue Dahlia,
Courtesy of WCFTR, Film Title Stills
WINTER 2001-2002 s yf'^ft
1 ? tm¥y mm-, isalif ii^a £9X11: ^^^ mm^nm #*• Miiir- •A^* ^^0«i< mm mm m%^ | ^. ...^^t/ltmmtk ? «< M 1 n 1 n of Salt the Earth By James J. Lorence
OR thirty-five years I have Salt of the Earth (1953) 94 m. history as I do. In my effort to stoke taught American history at ii-ii-ii-V2 [Directed by] Herbert Biberman. the fires of inquiry, I am forever look the college level, mostly to . . Taut drama about striking New Mexico ing for tools that will engage my stu the sons and daughters of mineworkers, with a refreshingly dents' attention and enliven classroom WisconsinF. From the beginning of my pro-feminist viewpoint. Director Biberman, discourse. teaching career at the University of Producer Paul Jarrico, actor [Will] Geer, Long ago my search for the "magic and screenwriter Michael Wilson were all Wisconsin—Marathon Gounty in bullet" led me to explore nontradi blacklisted when the film was made. Wausau, I have felt privileged to have —Leonard Maltin's tional sources, including motion pic a job that brings me into daily contact 1998 Movie & Video Guide tures produced for the American with bright young people who inspire domestic audience. Convinced that me to be at my best. From my own days as a student at the movies are vivid historical documents that reveal much about University of Wisconsin—first in Racine, then in Milwaukee, the societies in which they are produced and consumed, I and finally in Madison—I have always been captivated by the developed a course entitled "The Film as Social History" process of intellectual discovery and driven by the excitement (History 198), which is now taught on several University of of research and writing. Wisconsin campuses. Since the mid-1970s I have selected Yet teaching has always been my first love, perhaps course topics that lend themselves to analysis through exami because ofthe unique and formidable challenge it presents. nation of motion pictures as primary sources. For example, I Research and writing are solitary pursuits, but classroom explored the social experience of the Great Depression by communication is a distinctly interactive enterprise that exposing students to such films as Wild Boys of the Road demands all the energy a teacher can muster. Instead of (1933) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940), among others. Sim addressing one's professional colleagues, the classroom ilarly, the impact of World War II became clearer to students teacher is confronted with a frequently passive, sometimes who studied Mrs. Miniver (1942) and The Best Years of Our hostile audience. Most ofthe undergraduates who file into my Lives (1946). Analyzing the films people viewed at a time classroom every fall are there not because of any burning when movies meant much to the American public can desire to explore historical issues, but rather to fulfill a social enhance our understanding ofthe interests, issues, and con science requirement. cerns of earlier generations. The classroom results have some times been remarkable, not only for students, but also for I try, of course, to ignite a spark of interest through my their teacher. own enthusiasm for history, but I recognize that few students will be transformed into history majors, a reality that lends an In the late 1980s I chose images of "Communism in Amer even greater sense of urgency to my work, especially since this ican Film Since 1919" as the topic for History 198. As I is usually the one opportunity I have to persuade them to love searched for representative Cold War—era movies, I stumbled onto Salt ofthe Earth, an independent production crafted in Although national boycotts kept Sak of the Earth out of U.S. theaters, the film played in China for over fifteen years, as well as 1953—1954 by a disparate collection of Hollywood artists in Eastern and Western Europe, the Soviet Union, Central and blacklisted by the motion picture industry for communist South America, and Canada. Despite the film's pofmlarity, no activity. For those unfamiliar with this dark chapter in Holly profits made their way into the pockets of its creators—the U.S. government blocked earnings from foreign markets. wood history, it is important to remember that the House Un- American Activities Committee (HUAC) held hearings in Courtesy of WCFTR, Film Tille Slills
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1947 on the alleged influence of Gommunists in the motion choose to strike, and despite a corrupt sheriff and seemingly picture industry. The hearings were followed by the Motion endless resources on the part of the company, these under Picture Producers' Association's Waldorf Statement, which dogs prevail, largely due to the Mexican-American women's declared the industry's intention to deny employment to any decision to join the picket line. one who advocated the overthrow of the government by The strike actually serves as the backdrop to the main plot, force—which referred specifically to Gommunists and fellow the relationship between Esperanza Quintero and her hus travelers but in practice includ band Ramon, who have a mar ed left-liberals of all shades. riage of love and affection, but The result was an industry not respect. As one ofthe strike wide blacklist and a wounded leaders, Ramon is articulate generation of Hollywood and dynamic, but for all that, artists that included hundreds the story is Esperanza's to tell. of men and women—screen The decision to make the per writers, producers, directors, spective of the film female actors, and stagehands—who allows Salt ofthe Earth to tran were unable to fmd work. scend other film fare. Almost overnight these unfor What makes Salt of the tunates found themselves Earth so different is the unemployed and unemploy women's role in changing the able in an industry bent on outcome of the strike. When Courtesy of WCFTR maiming itself The damage to In the early 1970s Will Geer became known to a generation as the the company wins a court the industry was disastrous, venerable Grandpa Walton on the successful television program injunction barring all miners whether measured in terms of The Waltons. Twenty years earlier the entertainment industry had from picketing, the strike blacklisted him for his refusal to testify before Congress; the part of the motion picture industry's appears to be over. The sheriff the pro-company sheriff in Salt was one of the few roles he had moral collapse or ofthe subse during this time. Geer remained a dedicated friend ofthe workers has the right to arrest and jail quent film fare ofthe 1950s, a throughout his life. In 1974 Geer remarked: "Things haven't any miners who continue to changed much in twenty-one years. Men who live in New York are bland product shorn of its post picket the mine entrance, and still trying to run the lives of people here in Grant County." war social comment. For the without the picket line the way blacklistees, including some of Hollywood's most talented is clear for strikebreakers to return the mine to business as artists, the result was more than a decade in the wilderness, usual. The members of Local 890 immediately meet to decide stigmatized as "un-American" and publicly humiliated. whether to return to work. It is during this dismal session that Because of its topic and the circumstances under which it was one ofthe women speaks up, alerting the community that the made. Salt ofthe Earth seemed tailor-made for my class. injunction bans only mine employees from picketing. A small The movie caught my students' imaginations from the first group of women offer to take up the picket line, deny the showing. Viewing it and studying it as history was a reward strikebreakers access, and keep the strike alive. Despite the ing experience for all of us because of its strikingly modern objections of many ofthe men, several women are on the line themes as well as the clear social commitment it revealed. Salt the next day. Esperanza's growing involvement in the strike, ofthe Earth is set in New Mexico. It is based on the true story from observer to participant, and her gradual awareness of ofthe Empire Zinc strike ofthe early 1950s, which pitted pre her own worth as an individual allow her to view herself as an dominantly Mexican-American Local 890 ofthe Internation equal to her husband. Their confrontation and the revelation al Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers against a that they experience about their marriage form the true cli subsidiary ofthe Newjersey Zinc Gorporation. The film por max ofthe film. trays the experiences of a small group of miners who stand up The militancy of both Esperanza and the real women is to a company that, despite their hard work and dedication, doubly impressive when viewed against the background of a treats them unfairly. The Mexican-American workers are male-dominated Hispanic family culture, church opposition, paid less than their Anglo counterparts, are subjected to far and local community disapproval. Ultimately, the union won more dangerous situations on the job, and are allowed far modest wage increases, seniority protection for strikers, fewer amenities in their company-provided housing. They important fringe benefits, a uniform contract renewal agree-
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a beginning to the process of inquiry. Intrigued by the film and deeply impressed by my students' enthusiasm, I resolved to learn more about the origins and pro duction of this important cellu loid document. What followed was a voyage of discovery unlike any previous research or learning experience of my academic career. Ultimately it led me to write an entire book entitled The Suppression of "Salt of the Earth": How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America. Struggling to stay ahead of my students in our analysis ofthe film and its historical context, I had turned to the seemingly Hmitless collections of the Wisconsin His torical Society. Guided by sec ondary sources to the Society's
Courtesy of WCFTR Archives division, I discovered In the film, the strike changed gender relations. Before the strike, the the rich collections deposited in union hall had been an exclusive sanctum for men. Here Teresa Vidal the Wisconsin Center for Film rises to address the union meeting. Henrietta Williams, who played Vidal, had been the picket captain during the actual Empire Zinc and Theater Research, one ofthe strike in 1951. Biberman cast in the film many workers who had nation's premier centers for participated in the 1951 strike. research on motion picture histo ment, and an end to the discriminatory "Mexican wage ry. There I found an array of manuscript holdings relevant to scale." Their dramatic victory was a landmark in the Chicano the Hollywood blackhst unmatched anywhere in the United struggle for social, economic, and political equality in the otates. Southwest. This story and the film that retold it provide us a Of greatest immediate interest to me were the papers of record of a civil rights struggle largely ignored by the main Herbert Biberman, director of Salt ofthe Earth, and his wife, stream media of Cold War America. The strike was marked the gifted actress Gale Sondergaard. Biberman (1900-1971), by the extraordinary acts of ordinary men and women in a a director, stage manager, and erstwhile playwright, was a real place—a place not very different in some respects from native Philadelphian whose preblackHst films included Meet industrial Racine, Wisconsin, where I had grown to maturity. Nero Wolfe (1936) and The Master Race (1944). Sonder As a stimulus to class discussion and serious thought, Salt gaard (1901-1985), the daughter of Danish parents, grew up ofthe Earth was a smash hit. When my students and I worked in Litchfield, Minnesota. By 1947 she had appeared in forty through the film, we learned a great deal about racial dis films, mcludiing Anthony Adverse (1936), for which she won crimination and union organizing. As our focus shifted to the an Oscar. While Biberman had enjoyed only modest success film's blacklisted creators and their experiences in shooting, es before the HUAC hearings, Sondergaard's star was clearly processing, and distributing the film, we saw clearly the per rising when Hollywood leftists came under attack in 1947. vasive influence of domestic anticommunism in the early Both she and her husband were politically active in the 1930s years of the Cold War and the courage and cowardice that and 1940s as members of liberal groups such as the Motion accompanied it. Picture Artists' Democratic Committee for Roosevelt. Biber My classroom experience with Salt ofthe Earth was only man was also active in the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and
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in Russian War Relief He fg^ ^jj^ HackUstm, tht USUlt WUS mOU thafl "^^^^' ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ was indeed a member ofthe had been inflicted" meant Communist Party, and after a decade in the wilderness. that he and his colleagues he adopted a First Amend "were through." ment defense and refused to answer questions about his polit While the intimacy and humanness ofthe personal corre ical beliefs, he became one ofthe so-called "Hollywood Ten." spondence drew me into the joys and sorrows ofthe creative He served six months in prison for contempt of Congress in experience, the equally valuable and comprehensive papers of 1951 and was blacklisted throughout the remainder ofthe the IPC conveyed a complete picture of Salt ofthe Earth as decade. A similar ostracization befell Gale Sondergaard after part of a larger business venture actually intended to break the she took the Fifth Amendment before HUAC in 1951. It was blacklist. The legal records documenting the company's a mean season for progressive activists, and this talented cou antitrust suit against the motion picture industry further rivet ple paid a high price for their political convictions. ed my attention on the grubby details of censorship as they As I discovered in their papers, from the time of Biber came to light. man's imprisonment onward, Biberman and Sondergaard It is the task ofthe historian to interrogate the sources with carried on a literate and revealing correspondence that laid probing questions that test the evidence in order to uncover bare the callousness and hypocrisy ofthe disease that infected the fullest possible account of events and their underlying Hollywood at the height ofthe Cold War. Most valuable to causes. In the case of Salt ofthe Earth, the brutal suppression my effort to unravel the story of Salt of the Earth were the of what seemed a progressive cinematic production immedi pathos and vulnerability reflected in Biberman's studied effort ately raised further questions. Why the assault on this film at to reassure his wife and family ofthe project's ultimate success, this time? Who were its creators, and what were their agen from the months of location filming, throughout the pro das? What was the relationship between the historical events longed processing ofthe film, and even as a sweeping boycott portrayed on screen and the realities of life experience the film of Biberman's Independent Productions Corporation (IPC) purportedly documented? What were the social and historical condemned the film to a disastrous first run in 1954. Faced contexts for the film? What was the character ofthe Mexican- with the dismal reality of a total commercial blackout in American worker community whose struggle for justice was Detroit and Chicago, he assured his family that if only he the theme that gave life to the film? It soon became clear that could make adequate preparations for an August opening, real insight into the troubled history of Salt ofthe Earth would Detroit "might yet turn out to be a sensational success." require an intensive effort to understand the worker culture Despite his bravado, in his heart Biberman knew that the and union history ofthe Southwest. My task had only begun.
The Wisconsin Historical Society Thomas Mouat Jeffris II, Janesville Vice-President: Margaret B. Humleker, Ellen D. Langill, Waul ^ WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Courtesy of WCFTR Members of the Hollywood Ten and their supporters, c. 1950, including Herbert Biberman, director of Suit ofthe Earth, at far right. Biberman, Hollywood Ten producer Adrian Scott, and producer Paul Jarrico banded together with other blacklisted artists in 1951 and formed the Independent Productions Corporation, which financed the making o/Salt of the Earth. This exploration of worker experiences and organization ity, I was comfortable but always aware of financial pressures al struggles was consistent with my ongoing research in labor I never quite understood, at least until my father's small man history, which stretched back to pubhshed work on Wisconsin ufacturing business succumbed to corporate competition in sociahsm, the Progressive-Farmer-Labor coalition, and the the 1960s. An experienced machinist too young for retire organization of the unemployed. More than that, it touched ment. Dad decided on a move to the Fox Valley, where he on deeper personal interests rooted in my family history. Dur started at the bottom again as an unskilled millhand. It was ing my early years in heavily industrial Racine, the echoes of there that he embraced unionism, which was to save his job labor activism were never far from my childhood conscious near the end of a long work life. His early brush with corpo ness. The violence ofthe strikes at J. I. Case, the charge that rate power, and his subsequent conversion to the union reli Racine was "Little Moscow," and the looming presence ofthe gion, helped shape my own perception of the harsh ubiquitous CIO had left an indelible imprint on my mind. As competitive struggle. the only child in a family grasping at middle-class respectabil Nowhere was the raw brutality of economic exploitation WINTER 2001-2002 "g WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY more evident than in isolated Grant Gounty, New Mexico, focused on the creative experience and the important civil where Mexican-American workers struggled against work liberties issues its suppression had raised. As a labor historian, place discrimination and social segregation comparable to the however, I was drawn to the historical events that preceded better-known variety that prevailed in the American South of the creative process and helped explain the massive reaction my youth. Here, the aggressive International Union of Mine, against the completed film. Moreover, I was fascinated by the Mill, and Smelter Workers spread the gospel of democratic convergence of interests that made the movie possible—an industrial unionism among hard-pressed copper and zinc astonishing collaboration between blackballed unionists and miners who extracted red gold from the parched earth. To blacklisted Hollywood artists. the workers ofthe Southwest, it mattered little that Mine-Mill Once the fruitful correspondence in the Biberman-Son had been expelled from the GIG in 1950 as a result of alleged dergaard collection had whetted my appetite, I realized that Gommunist leadership and influence. More significant to multi-archival research was necessary, as were efforts to iden Grant Gounty miners was the union's commitment to full- tify, locate, and interview the surviving members ofthe origi community organizing that encompassed the entire fabric of nal group of unionists that had participated in the making of social and economic life. Out of this militant unionism sprang Salt ofthe Earth. Without access to the relevant manuscripts the dramatic Empire Zinc strike of 1950—1952, which pro and key personalities, a full-dress study would not be possible. vided the story of gender equity and racial solidarity upon What followed was two summers and several academic-year which Salt ofthe Earth was based. breaks devoted to research in distant locations, typically on a From almost the beginning of my research, it became clear shoestring budget and often accompanied by an impatient that any serious historical analysis of Salt ofthe Earth had to partner less enthralled than I with reading dead peoples' mail. begin with the people themselves and the union they created: One person more than any other opened my eyes to labor's Amalgamated Local 890, lUMMSW. Most ofthe scholarship story in the Southwest and led me to the key surviving source pertaining to the production and distribution ofthe film had persons. Glinton E. Jencks, a battle-scarred veteran ofthe Gold Howard Hughes Letter, March 18, 1953 If the motion picture industry—not only in Hollywood, but throughout the United States—will refuse to apply these skills, Dear Gongressman Jackson: will refuse to furnish this equipment, the picture cannot be com In your telegram you asked the question, 'Is there any action pleted in this country. that industry and labor in motion picture field can take to stop Biberman and Jarrico have already met with refusal where completion and release of picture and prevent showing of film the industry was on its toes. The film processing was being done here and abroad? by Pathe Laboratories, until the first news broke from Silver My answer is, "Yes." There is action which the industry can Gity. take to stop completion of this motion picture in the United But the minute Pathe learned the facts, this alert laboratory States. And if the Government will act immediately to prevent immediately refused to do any further work on this picture, even the export of the film to some other country where it can be though it meant refunding cash paid in advance. completed, then this picture will not be completed and dissemi Investigation fails to disclose where the laboratory work is nated throughout the world where the United States will be being done now. But it is being done somewhere, by someone, judged by its content. and a great deal more laboratory work wiU have to be done by According to newspaper reports, photography of this motion someone, before the motion picture can be completed. picture has been finished at Silver Gity, N. Mex. Biberman, Jarrico, and their associates cannot succeed in However, completion of photography of a motion picture is their scheme alone. Before they can complete the picture, they only the first step in production. must have the help of the following: Before a motion picture can be completed or shown in the 1. Film laboratories. aters, an extensive apphcation of certain technical skills and use 2. Suppliers of film. of a great deal of specialized equipment is absolutely necessary. 3. Musicians and recording technicians necessary to record Herbert Biberman, Paul Jarrico, and their associates working on music. this picture do not possess these skills or equipment. 4. Technicians who make dissolves, fades, etc. Q WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY War era's labor wars, was the ^^J^ Q£ ^J^^ £^J.^1^ JJ^^ beCOMe U VOWefful ^'""^'^ "^^ '^^^^'"^ ^'"^^^ most valuable source I telephone interviews, during encountered in my research. symbol ofthe Mexican-American which he recounted in Jencks had spent the decade remarkable detail the uplift from 1945 to 1955 immersed community's drive for human equality. ing experiences of men and in the very real world of the women, both Ghicano and labor movement, and it was he who in 1947 had gone into Anglo, who grew together in mutual respect as a result ofthe bit Grant Gounty, New Mexico, to help organize the Mexican- ter Empire Zinc Strike. More depressing, of course, was his dis American community, establish Local 890, and participate in mal story of the intimidation and censorship that marked the the Empire Zinc Strike. Most important, it was Jencks who had production and suppression of Salt ofthe Earth. The decision by persuaded Paul Jarrico, a screenwriter and aspiring producer the leadership of the various unions involved in the motion pic for Independent Productions Gorporation, to visit Grant Goun ture industry to keep critical technical processing from being ty during the strike. After Jarrico returned to Los Angeles, he completed, coupled with the political posturing of Gongressman convinced his colleagues at IPG to make a film based on the Donald L.Jackson, made the successful completion ofthe film a struggle he had observed firsthand. Like many of the actual near-miracle. Perhaps the best example ofthe obstacles the film Mexican-American mine workers and their families, Glinton makers faced was the letter written by movie mogul Howard Jencks and his wife Virginia appeared in the film itself; they por Hughes in response to Jackson's plea for help (see sidebar). trayed the Barneses, characters based upon themselves. Hughes coolly listed possible steps to censorship and intimidation Glinton Jencks was the key that unlocked the door to Salt of at every level. His letter did not mention deportation ofthe film's the Earth from labor's perspective. His list of union veterans and star, Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas, but the Department of Hollywood figures whom I might approach for their accounts of Immigration later did just that, days before the film's shooting the events I hoped to describe was invaluable. Moreover, Jencks was over. THE VOICE OF THE HEW WEST _ 5. Owners and operators of sound re-recording equipment and dubbing rooms. frontier 6. Positive and negative editors and cutters. 7. Laboratories that release prints. If the picture industry wants to prevent this motion picture from being completed and spread all over the world as a repre sentative product of the United States, then the industry and particularly that segment ofthe industry listed above, needs only < CO CO to do the following: V) Be alert to the situation. V) Investigate thoroughly each applicant for the use of services SILVER or equipment. who Caused ihe Trouble?—By ELIZABETH KERBY Refuse to assist the Bibermans and Jarricos in the making of I this picture. Be on guard against work submitted by dummy corporations Frontier magazine featured Congressman Donuldl. Jackson's charges of communist influence in the filming of Salt of the or third parties. Earth in 1953. Tipped off about the filming by a New Mexico Appeal to the Gongress and the State Department to act schoolteacher, Jackson claimed that the film and the Indepen immediately to prevent the export of this film to Mexico or any dent Producers Corporation were part oJ an attempt to under mine the U.S. war eJJort in Korea. As an active member oJ where else. HUAC, he urged the Jilm industry to ban the movie Jrom the aters and the government to harass its production and distri Sincerely, bution. Shortly aJter, two Immigration Service ojjicers arrested Jemale lead Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas on charges that Howard Hughes her passport was not properly stamped. Her subsequent incar From the Congressional Record, March 19, 1953, 83d Cong., 1st Session, p. 2,127, ceration prevented her Jrom completing the picture. appendix one of Tbe Suppression of ''Salt ofthe Earth" by James J. Lorence. ^ AUTUMN 2000 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Courtesy of the author The author, James Lorence, outside the headquarters of Local 890 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (bet ter known as Mine-Mill). This local union led the 1951 Empire Colorado Zinc strike. In 1967Mine-Mill was absorbed by the United Steel Workers of America. Until the late 1980s the leadership of USWA Omi tried to suppress the leftist leadership and rank and file of Local 890, but they came to celebrate the militancy and radical heritage of Local 890. I was acutely aware of Jencks's value as an eyewitness to his ALBUQUERQUE tory, and as I hstened to the tale of his personal martyrdom at the hands of the professional anticommunists, it became very cCO difficult to avoid identifying with his cause and even his left pol o N itics. And yet, I asked myself, what was radical about his com mitment to the struggle for economic equality and social justice INfew in the Southwest? Jencks, this courageous fighter and unparah leled source, personified the historian's dilemma: how to write SILVER CITY Mexico about people who seemed indeed to be the "salt of the earth" without abandoning the objectivity essential to scholarly analy sis. Not long after my encounter with Clinton Jencks, the tra Texas jectory of my research took a rather unexpected turn. During the summer of 1996, I was fortunate to receive a summer research grant that supported two months of reflection and writing within the nurturing intellectual environment provid Map by Joel Heiman ed by the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the Uni Silver City was one of many small, company-controlled mining versity of Wisconsin-Madison. There I set about the task of towns in the Southwest. ^ WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Courtesy of Lia Benedetti Jarrico Above: Paul Jarrico, producer o/Salt of the Earth, c. 1980. Left: The key figures in the Independent Produc tions Corporation on location dur ing filming o/Salt of the Earth: producer Paul Jarrico (far left), director Herbert Biberman (center, sitting in front ofthe camera), and screenwriter Michael Wilson (lower right). Courtesy of WCFTR, Film Title Stills writing what I thought was to be a scholarly article on the fate Zinc strike and the filming of Salt of the Earth had taken of Salt ofthe Earth. As I began to organize and give structure place. Consequently, I spent my next spring break in New to my story, Paul S. Boyer, director ofthe Institute, suggested Mexico. that the film and its suppression constituted such an impor My Southwestern sojourn was important in several ways. tant episode in the cultural history of Cold War America that First, I became familiar with the geography and economy of the topic warranted full-dress scholarly treatment—that is, a New Mexico's copper country. No amount of reading could full-length book. I was of course flattered, but also somewhat possibly have duplicated the impact of observing the vast hesitant when I considered the amount of work before me. open-pit copper mine at Santa Rita, that deep red gash in the After reviewing my materials, as well as the remaining earth that gave meaning to Jencks's assertion that the great pit sources, I threw myself into the task of drafting and redrafting "gobbled up people" while producing copper "at a cost that several chapters of a larger manuscript. By this time I had also we cannot alFord." Even more valuable was meeting at least reviewed thousands of pages of FBI files on Salt ofthe Earth some of the surviving participants in the strike and filmmak and its director, Herbert Biberman. These materials deep ing experiences. Direct contact with union veterans like Vir ened the base of sources for what emerged by summer's end ginia Chacon, Arturo Flores, Clinton Jencks, and (later) as a seven-chapter manuscript. Alfredo Montoya revealed a deep commitment to Local 890, Paul Boyer observed—and I soon came to agree—that in Mine-Mill, and the union cause more profound than any order to write with authenticity about the Southwest and its thing to be found in the written record. Moreover, the words people, it would be wise to visit the region where the Empire of these people and others clarified the strike's meaning to the WINTER 2001-2002 la WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY As the Mine-Mill women walk and dance on the picket line during the actual strike of 1951, scab workers (right) watch and attempt to disturb them, with no effect. One woman was hospitalized after an automobile driven by a scab worker struck her. Among the women pictured are picket captain Henrietta Williams (at left); Anita Torrez (in the foreground), and Dolores Jimenez (dancer on left). Mexican-American community and to the women of Local 890 as a milestone on the road to racial equality and gender equity. From these contacts I gained a clearer appreciation of the ways in which the Progressive Party of 1948, various members of the Gommunist Party, and the militant Asociacion National Mexico-Americana (ANMA) played a crucial role in community organizing in the postwar Southwest. It was equally clear that the democratic socialist ideas embraced by some Grant County workers had little to do with the Stahnist "line" or Soviet foreign policy objectives and everything to do with the improvement of the economic and social conditions that confronted them in their daily lives. And it was evident that Sait ofthe Earth had become a powerful symbol ofthe Mexican-American community's drive for human equality. Deeply impressed by what I had learned in New Mexico, I Both photos courtesy of Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, Western Federation of IVIiners Box 567 ^ WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY both shooting and production phases. As a result, I was able to resolve at least one ofthe outstanding questions about the early attack on Salt of the Earth: it was clear that executives of the Screen Actors Guild had launched a national publicity cam paign against the film by leaking an exclusive story detailing IPG's onsite shooting in New Mexico to the anti communist labor columnist Victor Riesel in February 1953. A final link in the chain of expla nation fell into place as a result of a fruitful interview with Salfs producer, Paul Jarrico. Jarrico's intellectual presence dominated our conversation as we chatted in his sunny living room Courtesy of Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries in Ojai, Galifornia, where he had Western Federation of Miners Box 562 retreated to rebuild his professional At a time when Hollywood practiced "Jim Crow" segregation, the set of life after a self-imposed exile during Salt of the Earth was racially integrated. the blacklist years. On that day in returned to Madison and the Wisconsin Historical Society to October 1997,1 learned much about production details and the flesh out the details of my story. Supported by a timely fellow mechanics of the boycott. Most revealing, however, was his ship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, I now frank treatment of the Gommunist Party's limited role in the revisited these original sources with a new and enhanced appre creative process surrounding the film. Jarrico's remarks rein ciation of the film's meaning to the people whose lives it por forced my growing perception that the party had, if anything, trays. My travels and interviews had increased my impeded the production process and, as it turned out, had failed understanding of the miners' struggle, and my manuscript had to help the Salt group when the opportunity arose. Our conver begun to come together. Now, a final research task involved an sation was infiuential in shaping my view that the artists had suc efibrt to perfect my understanding of the artists who had com cessfully maintained full control of their intellectual property as mitted their lives and personal fortunes to IPG's proposed end- they shot and edited their film. I also realized that despite the run around the Hollywood blacklist. filmmakers' interaction with communist politics, ultimately, the Despite Hollywood's general rejection of Salt ofthe Earth in Gommunist Party as an official body had no direct creative 1954, it was essential that I explore the sources available in and impact on the film itself. It was at best an uneasy liaison. around the world capital of the movie industry. In preparation After that critical interview I spent four months revising, pol for my final manuscript revision, therefore, I ventured West to ishing, and integrating my new research findings into the man round out my inquiry into the mysteries of Gold War Holly uscript. At that point, my work was ready for professional review wood, with a judicious use of the voluminous oral history col and, if that proved fruitful, the selection of a publisher. lections at the University of Galifornia at Los Angeles. My study of the papers of screenwriter Michael Wilson advanced my N terms of regional, ethnic, and labor studies. University understanding of the creative process immeasurably. Wilson's of New Mexico Press appeared the perfect fit for the book. papers also revealed both the closeness and the tensions of the IM y relationship with their editors was excellent, and by IPG-IUMMSW relationship through the eyes of Wilson and early 1999 the copyedited manuscript had been read, captions Jencks, who corresponded regularly in 1953 and 1954. written, pagination arranged, galleys proofed, and marketing Yet another perspective on the Salt controversy was evident questionnaires completed. In late spring, eighteen months of in the records ofthe Screen Actors Guild, which shed consider feverish work against periodic deadlines ended. The Suppres able light on the origins of the campaign against the film during sion of "Salt ofthe Earth" was published in October 1999. ^ WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY Courtesy of Kathleen McElroy, Project Manager of Esperanza Esperanza, the opera based on the movie, had its world premiere in Madison. The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the Wisconsin Labor History Society sponsored its production. In keeping with the goals ofthe film's sponsors and creators, the research and writing of The Suppression of "Salt of the Earth" was a truly pubhc humanities experience. The pubhc activity surrounding the publication of my book mirrored the universal appeal and enduring quality of its central themes: social justice, racial equahty, and sexual liberation. Vivid evi dence ofthe film's continuing relevance appeared in 1998 when the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, the Wisconsin Labor History Society, and a group of socially committed creative artists com missioned the writing of Esperanza (Hope), an opera based on the Empire Zinc strike. The opera dramatized the worker issues and gender conflicts central to the Salt of the Earth story through a blend of musical theater and opera designed to bring a blue-collar message to a wider public audience. Meanwhile, in Hollywood film projects based on Salt of the Earth have appeared. In 2001, One ofthe Hollywood Ten was screened on the Starz Channel. The struggle of Local 890, it would seem, contained a message for all seasons. As my students had told me long before, this film, while set in Eisenhower's America, speaks Courtesy of WCFTR to us of equality in terms that transcend the generations. This still Jrom Salt of the Earth demonstrates how a strike initially For me the research experience brought many satisfac waged over sajety issues Jor male workers was transjormed into a tions: positive early reviews in the press, mixed but intellectu- struggle to improve the lives oJ women as well. WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY Casting Esperanza and Ramon ^p HE author of Thie Suppression of "Salt of the Earth" describes the critical casting decisions that resulted in hiring a professional actress for the female lead and a local amateur for the male: It is possible to find in Biberman's agonizing over the lead actor and actress an element of Anglo condescension. Concerned about one Mexican candidate's "authority" and "stature," the troubled director worried that "the choice is so limited here—so very limited." . . . Even Rosaura Revueltas, whose professional credentials were strong, presented problems for a brief time. Although Biberman finally concluded that she "may be very good," his approbation, tinged with unconscious racism, came only after she had "cast off the Spanish sentimentality." Even the dedicat ed Marxist, it seems, was capable of borderline racist thoughts. While the Revueltas decision was made in Sep tember, the male lead remained a headache until January 1953, when the issue was settled with the selection of Juan Chacon, Local 890's newly elected president. The decision for Chacon was not taken without substantial debate. While Biber man harbored serious doubts, Revueltas and Courtesy of WCFTR [associate producer] Sonja Dahl Biberman lobbied Herbert Biberman directs Rosaura Revueltas hard for him. Sonja Biberman saw Chacon as a in her portrayal oJ Esperanza. man who "exuded a certain amount of posture" until Biberman reluctantly accepted their advice. . and "commanded respect." Both she and . . Chacon's self confidence became evident in the Revueltas agreed that he could play the role "with finished product, in which both lead actors commu great simplicity, but with real understanding ofthe nicate a striking quality of simplicity and dignity, character." The two women "pushed and pushed" which remain the hallmarks of Salt ofthe Earth. ally challenging responses from professional peers, public issue of The National Guardian, Jarrico, Wilson, and Biber notice not always accorded the professional historian, even man were "themselves a portion ofthe salt ofthe earth." Ulti unanticipated awards from the Western History Association, mately, did their battie against the blacklist matter? One thing the Council for Wisconsin Writers, and Wisconsin Humani is certain: their dissent documents the reality of resistance to ties Council. The response to the book was undeniably grati the 1950s culture of conformity. In retrospect, the assessment fying and seemed to me reward enough for the five years' of Simon Lazarus—a financial backer of the film company— hard work and self-discipline I had invested in the project. resonates with clarity: the battie to make the film and exhibit Even more significant, however, were the lessons in life that it in American theaters was, in fact, an "honorable chapter" were taught me by so many direct contacts with the people in recent American history. Thanks to my students, and to the and communities about whom I wrote—people who were, in many institutions and individuals who assisted me along the the truest sense, the "salt of the earth." For these people, a way, it became my privilege to reacquaint modern readers labor union was much more than an instrument to achieve with the Salt group's principled struggle for artistic freedom in greater creature comforts; beyond that, it became an institu Cold War America. tion that solidified and elevated an entire community. like Finally, my work on The Suppression of "Salt of the wise, the experiences of IPC and the artists who created Salt Earth" enabled me to contribute in a small way to a cause I ofthe Earth reminded me ofthe fragility of civil liberties and have long espoused: the effort to encourage historians and the reality of censorship in Cold War America. In their own readers to consider seriously the immense value of motion way, as critic Barrows Dunham observed in the June 5, 1965, pictures as primary sources. Analysis ofthe historical context ^ WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Courtesy of WCFTR Juan Chacon, playing Ramon in the Jilm, threatens Esperanza (Rosaura Revueltas) as she declares her equality. Chacon had worked the mine since the age oJ 18 and had been a veteran oJ World War II, but he had no acting experience. Biberman called his performance Just incredible." As the women walked the picket line, the striking men took up the domestic chores. Through this forced reversal of gender roles, the male characters gradually became more sensitive to the concerns of their wives and their demands for equal ity. Although the movie paints a roman tic vision of potential gender equality, the women who participated in the strike in 1951 experienced few permanent gains once the strike ended. Courtesy of WCFTR m WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY for the production of this or any other film testifies to the T^e A^uthor vahdity and potential in celluloid documents for enhancing our understanding of history. It was my good fortune to be in James J. Lorence is Eminent Scholar of History at Gainesville College in the a position to exploit the Society's resources with a minimum University of Georgia System. In 2001, he of inconvenience. In the process, I believe I've grown, as both retired from his position as Professor historian and teacher, by investigating and incorporating new of History at the University of Wiscon sources in ways I never contemplated as I prepared for a sin-Marathon County. A native of Racine, career in history more than forty years ago. he received his bachelor of science and Yet in some respects I've done nothing more than return to master of science degrees from the Uni versity of Wisconsin-IVIilwaukee and his the first duty of the historian. The bitter, sometimes heart doctorate from the University of Wiscon- breaking struggle between the workers and management of sin-IVIadison. He has published in the the Empire Zinc Company made a great story—a story well fields of American foreign relations, film studies, and Wisconsin told in a movie entitled Salt ofthe Earth. The raw suppression history. Lorence's recent research has focused on labor history. of that movie was a different kind of story, but it too was a tale In 1996 he published Organizing the Unemployed: Community worth telhng. In the final analysis, we historians are essential and Union Activists in the Industrial Heartland. His The Suppression of "Salt ofthe Earth": How Hollywood, Big Labor, ly storytellers. As my first graduate school mentor always and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America (1999) maintained, "History is literature." IM4 won the Western History Association's 2000 Robert G. Athearn Book Award for best book on the twentieth-century West. Resources and Further Reading There are several hooks ahout the making of the film Salt ofthe Earth, and readers who are inter ested in this topic will find Lorence's own hook helpful for hoth its content and its hihUography, which Hsts hooks, journals, articles, archival sources, and the extensive resources that the author researched to bring his hook to life. For this article in particular, the Biherman-Sondergaard Papers of the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives were instrumental in providing a view into the very personal consequences of blacklisting in Hollywood. The WHS Archives holds the papers of other movie industry artists who were affected, including screenwriters Dalton Tmmbo and Albert Maltz. The labor activism of CHnton E. Jencks, along with his persecution during the 1950s at the hands of the FBI, Justice Department, and Senate Internal Security Committee, is succinctly described in chapter 9 of Ellen Schrecker's Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1998). Jencks gave an interview on November 20, 1993, which is available from the Oral History of the American Left CoUection, Series IV, Filmmakers' Tapes and Transcripts, A Crime to Fit the Punishment (film). New York, Tamiment Library, Draft 3. The artifacts of direct intimidation can he found in the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Archives, Salt of the Earth file, located in Los Angeles. Several communications, including memos and telegrams between columnist Victor Riesel and SAG pubHc relations director Buck Harris, are fine examples, especially February 5 and 8, 1953 (telegrams); Harris, "Memo Re Movie Being Pro duced by Commies at Silver City, New Mexico," February 3, 1953; Harris to Riesel, February 2, Courtesy of WCFTR 1953. For information ahout the opera Esperanza, the Winter 1999-2000 issue ofthe newsletter of In their attempts to suppress the strike, the mining company and the Wisconsin Labor History Society is helpful. Material on Simon Lazarus, the film's key finan cial hacker, can he found in the Michael Wilson Papers, Los Angeles, Department of Special Col local police spared no one, including the children accompanying lections, Arts Collection, University Research Library, University of CaHfomia-Los Angeles, Box their picketing mothers. The little actors seen in this movie still 48. At the WHS Archives, see the Independent Productions Corporation Papers. were the children oJLocal 890 activists. THE SOCIETY'S CORPORATE SPONSORS Fleetguard Nelson Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Accurate Business Service Grunau Project Development Pleasant Company ADMANCO, Inc. Harley-Davidson, Inc. The Printing Place Advertising, Boelter & Lincoln Highsmith, Inc. QTI Group Aid Association for Lutherans Hufcor, Inc. Racine Federated, Inc. The Alexander Company IDS Sales & Engineering Rural Insurance Companies Alliant Energy Corporation Impressions Book and Journal Services, Inc. C. G. Schmidt Construction, Inc. Alpha Consulting Group Innovative Resources Group Sensient Technologies American Family Insurance Group Jones Dairy Farm Sheboygan Paint Company Appleton Papers, Inc. Kohler Company Stark Company Realtors Robert W. Baird & Associates Lands' End, Inc. St. Francis Bank Foundation Banta Corporation Foundation, Inc. M&l Bank of Southern Wisconsin Sub Zero Foundation Beyer Construction Madison Gas and Electric Foundation Svedala Industries Chem-AI, Inc. The Marcus Corporation Foundation, Inc. Trapper's Turn, Inc. The Coburn Company, Inc. Marshall & llsley Foundation, Inc. Twin Disc, Inc. CUNA Mutual Group Foundation, Inc. Marshall Erdman and Associates Voith Fabrics Custom Tool Service, Inc. Mead & Hunt Webcrafters-Frautschi Foundation, Inc. Delta Storage Mead Witter Foundation Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C. Firstar Bank Foundation Michael Best & Friedrich Windway Foundation Firstar Bank Wisconsin Northern Lake Service, Inc. Wisconsin Physicians Service WINTER 2001-2002 ^ A$ she KncHi^Tfiem '-.•c^^^i^-::^^:'^ Jf/'S. J. A- Kiuxie del JulieUe Kinzie and^ Ho-Chunkj mO-md By Margaret Beattie Bogue N the published history of Wisconsin, we have in the I literature ofthe Black Hawk War of 1832 much about military action, the pursuit of Black Hawk, the bungling and conflict between army regulars and militia, the brutality of Indian and white alike, and the terrible slaughter at the Battle of Bad Axe on the first two days of August of that year. We do not have nearly enough published about those indirectly involved and about the immedi ate consequences of the conflict for the people who called this area of Wisconsin home, principally the Ho-Chunk. Juliette Kinzie witnessed with compas sion and clarity the treatment of the Ho-Chunk people (then called Winneba go) in the advent and aftermath ofthe Black Hawk War. Her sketch of Fort Winnebago in 1831, one ofthe many images in her memoir Wau-Bun, demonstrates her skills of observation as well as artistic expression. WHS Archives, 3-3153 LiTH.oF SAHONY 8: C? New-yoHH WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Lithograph from Ttie Aboriginal Portfolio ... by J. O. Lewis; WHS Archives, WHi(D485)10190 This lithograph oJthe "Great Treaty at Prairie du Chien, 1825" emphasizes the signijicant number oJ Indian people who gathered Jor the negotiations and suggests how leadership and decision-making were Jar more communal than the Jederal government's single-headed military hierarchies. So it is that readers of Wisconsin history will ever be tions focus on the Ho-Chunk people, but the voice is always indebted to Juliette M. Kinzie for her autobiographical mem her own; the perspective reflects her identity and experience, as oir, Wau-Bun, the "Early Day" in the North-west, for the they were affected by the world around her. Considered as a insights it gives about life in frontier Wisconsin from whole, Wau-Bun is a story, with a well-defined beginning and 1830-1833, the years of Black Hawk's last resistance to white end, minor climactic events along the way, and a major climax. settlement. Published for the first time in 1855, today Wau- The central narrative recounts the tragic experiences of the Bun remains in print and in steady demand. Ho-Chunk (then called the Winnebago) Indians associated Why has the memoir continued to attract readers over four with the coming ofthe Black Hawk War, the conflict itself, and teen decades? The author's spirited attitude toward the chal its aftermath as perceived by JuHette and John Kinzie, from the lenges of life, her sprightly depiction of Wisconsin frontier fall of 1830 through June 1833. It was during those years they living during a critical three-year period, her powers of obser lived at Fort Winnebago, located near the portage between the vation, and her sense of humor are part of the answer. Her Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, where he served as the newly ability to tell a good story is the larger part. With skillful writ appointed United States Indian Sub-Agent for more than four ing, she developed the main narrative using dozens of small thousand Indians. stories and vignettes along the way, each of which added diver Wau-Bun is especially valuable because it offers perspec sity and vitality to her account. Her interest and her observa tives on the meaning of the Black Hawk War for the Indian m WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY people living in the area to the south and east of the Fox and deserved an educational experience equal to that available to Wisconsin Rivers. The lives lost, the physical suffering, and men. Privately she studied music, natural history, and sketch the surrender of beloved tribal land combined to produce ing. She was very impressed by what she learned about fron devastation for the Ho-Ghunk. In Wau-Bun, we see these tier life, and when she met handsome young John H. developments through the observations and thoughts of a Kinzie—fresh from Michigan Territory—at her grandparents' well-educated, cultured, middle-class New England woman home in Boston, she found him most attractive. They were married to a seasoned fur trader and federal Indian agent. married in August 1830. Both ofthe Kinzies had a deep affection for the Ho-Ghunk, a John Kinzie, born at Sandwich, Upper Ganada, in 1803 clear understanding of their enormous problems in the face of into a family of fur traders, had served the American Fur white settlement, and a real interest in their well-being and Gompany at its Mackinac (Michilimackinac) Island head their culture. During their thirty-three months at Fort Win quarters and then at Prairie du Ghien, assisted Governor nebago, Juliette and John Kinzie clearly had come to feel very Lewis Gass of Michigan with Indian treaty negotiations in critical of the way the United States government handled 1825, and thereafter served as his secretary. His understand Indian affairs, and yet they agreed in general principal with ing of Indian languages and culture made him a natural the idea of land cessions and removal to minimize contact choice in 1829 for sub-agent to the Ho-Ghunk. with white culture, which they perceived to be a degrading The tribe's ancestors had interacted with the ever-growing influence on the Ho-Ghunk. The only problem with that posi numbers of Euro-Americans for almost two centuries. At first tion, given the rapid development ofthe continent, was that it French explorers and fur traders came their way. After 1800 turned out to be virtually impossible to keep the cultures from their British fur trading allies, successors to the French in each other. But that could not be foreseen in the early 1830s. 1763, declined in influence as Americans in search of lead and The principal actors in the narrative are the Kinzies. Juli farmland came closer and closer to tribal territory and even ette Kinzie was born Juliette Magill in 1806 into a respected, into it, precipitating abrasive and violent episodes in the strug middle-class Gonnecticut family. She attended an avant- gle over who would occupy and use the land. By the time the garde women's school, Emma Willard's Troy (New York) Kinzies arrived at Fort Winnebago the tragic drama was Female Seminary, founded on the principle that women nearing its final act. Both images, WHS Archives, Name Fiie Juliette Magill Kinzie and John Kinzie came to Fort Winnebago in 1830 as newlyweds, and John's service as the sub-agent to the Ho-Chunig involved them both immediately in the lives oJ the people living in the area. WINTER 2001-2002 -Q WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Specifically what had brought John beautiful twenty-four hour passage and Juliette Kinzie to Fort Winnebago northward on Lake Huron, the Henry was the Treaty of 1829 between the Clay encountered terrible rainstorms in United States and the Ho-Chunk, a set Thunder Bay that soaked the cabins tlement following the Red Bird Upris and created utter misery for all aboard. ing of 1827. This uprising occurred as As the boat incessantly pitched and the direct result of incidents between rolled, the seasick passengers endured settlers—especially lead miners who until the lights of Mackinac Island came into unceded Indian territor\ appeared in the dark night sky. Robert including that of the Ho-Chunk—and and Elizabeth Stuart, long associated the Indians who resented such intru with the American Fur Company and sions. The truth about which side in the friends by virtue of John Kinzie's work confrontations committed the most for the firm, greeted and welcomed severe murderous acts will never be their guests to warm, dry quarters. The known. Several such retaliatory inci next morning Mackinac Island inspired dents led by the Ho-Chunk chief Red Juliette Kinzie to use her fine powers of Bird in 1826 and 1827 led to a coordi description: nated push by federal troops and militia MICHILIMACKINAC! that gem from Fort Snelling in present-day Min of the Lakes! How bright and nesota, Green Bay, and Prairie du beautiful it looked as we walked Chien. In early September 1827 they abroad on the following morning! overtook Red Bird at the Fox-Wiscon The rain had passed away, but sin portage, where he surrendered. had left all things glittering in the IVIargaret Beattie Bogue The United States built Fort Win Red Bird, the Ho-Chunk chiejwho in 1827 light ofthe sun as it rose up over nebago at Red Bird's surrender site to retaliated directly against Euro-American the waters of Lake Huron, far further protect the strategic, well-used settlers, was ajorerunner to the Sauk leader away to the east. Before us was the Black Hawk. Unlike Black Hawk, Red Bird Fox-Wisconsin water route between the did not survive imprisonment. He is lovely bay, scarcely yet tranquil Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. commemorated in bronze at High CliJJ State after the storm, but dotted with Red Bird died in prison, and the Amer Park, Calumet County. canoes and the boats of the fisher ican government negotiated a series of land cession treaties men already getting out their nets for the trout and with Wisconsin Indian groups in 1829, which cleared the lead whitefish, those treasures of the deep. Along the fields of all Indian claims. This treaty included the Ho- beach were scattered the wigwams or lodges ofthe Chunk, who on August 1, 1829, relinquished an enormous Ottawas who had come to the island to trade. tract: 1.76 million acres located in present-day southern Wis From Mackinac Island the Henry Clay moved west and consin and additional land in northern Illinois. Part ofthe set southwest through Lake Michigan and into more rough, tlement was payment of a little over half a million dollars in rainy fall weather before arriving at Green Bay. The little thirty-year annuities. John Kinzie carried the first installment steamboat grounded "fast and hard" on the flats about three of that money to Fort Winnebago in the fall of 1830. miles below the settlement. After a short time in Green Bay in the company of the ULIETTE Kinzie opened her narrative on a dark and Grignon and Baird families, with Judge James Duane Doty as rainy evening in Detroit when the newlyweds boarded their host, the Kinzies set off up the lower Fox River to make the steamer Henry Clay bound for Green Bay. They the well-known hard passage to Lake Winnebago, notorious J carried with them the annuity payments for the Ho- for its many rapids. The Fox is a northeastward-flowing river Chunk and their household possessions, among them her whose headwaters reach as far south as Portage. It empties piano! Juliette loved music and decided the piano was a must into Lake Winnebago and descends into Green Bay. The in the home. Jesuit explorer Jacques Marquette had described the difficul The first stop beyond Detroit would be Mackinac Island, ties of ascending the lower Fox in 1673, "on account of both near the juncture of Lakes Huron and Michigan. After a the currents and the sharp rocks, which cut the canoes and WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY the feet of those who are obliged to drag them, especial ly when the waters are low." The Kinzie party boarded a thirty-foot mackinaw boat manned by soldiers and three Ganadian voyageurs to carry the passengers, Juliette's piano, and the silver coin for treaty payments. The furniture and housekeeping articles would follow later. In the early pages of Wau-Bun, JuUette Kinzie -."^ ••>*!!»^ recounted their adventures of passing around the rapids of the lower Fox and making their >r ^ way through the Upper Fox River swamps filled with wild rice and water birds. Along the way Kinzie revealed herself as a keen WHS Archives WHi(W6)13605 observer of plants, animals, and Henry Schoolcrajt's peacejul depiction oJ Mich ilimacliinac Island, natural waters. Near the situated between lalies Huron and Michigan, leaves no question as to why Juliette Kinzie delighted in it. entrance to Lake Winnebago she wrote, "The woods were briUiant with wild flowers, women. They push their canoes into the thick although it was so late in the season the glory of the summer masses of the rice, bend it forward over the side was well-nigh past. But the lupin, the moss-pink, and the yel with their paddles, and then beat the ripe husks of low wallflower, with all the varieties of the helianthus [sun the stalks into a cloth spread in the canoe. After flowers] , the aster, and the soUdago [goldenrod] spread their this, it is rubbed to separate the grain from the husk gay charms around." and fanned in the open air. It is then put in their And on this leg of the journey she took out her sketchpad cordage bags and packed away for winter use. to create views of "The Grand Ghute, Fox River," the site of On the second day of their journey beyond Lake Butte des present-day Appleton, and "Four Legs ViUage, Entrance to Morts, Kinzie depicted the abundance of rushes along the Winnebago Lake," the first two of four Wisconsin landscape shores of Lake Puckaway and described in great detail how scenes she included in Wau-Bun. As she viewed the land Indian women used these to make rush matting to cover their scape, she also revealed her deep interest in the people she wigwams. saw and the activities she witnessed. In Wau-Bun we fmd her Their mode of fabricating this is very primitive and lively impression of the voyageurs and the posturing of simple. Seated on the ground, with the rushes laid Judge John Law at a campsite, where he complained about a side by side, and fastened at each extremity, they speck on his plate. His attendant cheerfully removed it with pass their shuttle, a long flat needle made of bone, an all-purpose "black silk barcelona handkerchief," to which is attached a piece of cordage formed of puUed from his bosom. the bark of a tree, through each rush, thus confin During this part ofthe trip Kinzie also noted carefully how ing it very closely, and making a fine substantial the Ho-Ghunk women gathered wild rice around the shores mat. These mats are seldom more than five or six of Lake Butte des Morts: feet in length, as a greater size would be inconven The water along its shores was green with the fields ient in adjusting and preparing the lodges. of wild rice, the gathering of which, just at this sea Although she could not have known so early in her jour son, is an important occupation of the Indian ney, she did learn about the customs associated with this work WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY and later described them in the pages of Wau-Bun: in the fort, awaiting the arrival of furniture and household It is a species of labor usually assigned to the elder goods for the as-yet-to-be-built agency house. women of the family. When they become broken Many of the players in the drama that unfolded over the down and worn out with exposure and hardship, next eighteen months were highly visible on the day of the so that they cannot cut down trees, hoe corn, or Kinzies' arrival in October 1830. As she looked over the land carry heavy burdens, they are set to weaving mats, scape below the fort, Juliette Kinzie saw the soldiers at the taking care of the children, and disciplining the garrison, many Ho-Chunk people, and the Indian traders. dogs, with which every Indian lodge abounds. She described the scene: Kinzie thus began her tale with a focus on and interest in The woods were now brilliant with the many tints the work of women, especially Ho-Chunk women, awarding of autumn, and the scene around was further it by her attention and description a value that is evident to enlivened by groups of Indians, in all directions, readers today. This interest did not change when, on this and their lodges, which were scattered here and same leg of the journey, she met her first Ho-Chunk person there, in the vicinity of the Agency buildings. On and heard Indian people address John as "father" and her as the low grounds might be seen the white tents of "mother" as a matter of courtesy. In the pages of Wau-Bun the traders, already prepared to furnish winter sup she offered readers her initial response to this new title: plies to the Indians, in exchange for the annuity I was obliged, for my part, to confess that, being money they were about to receive. almost entirely a stranger to the Indian character Encapsulated in the sights and sounds of one day, the and habits, I was going among them with no set results of the pressure of white settlement and United States tled plans of any kind—general good-wiU, and a Indian policy came dramatically to Juliette Kinzie's attention. hope of making them my friends, being the only These included the legacy of subduing the Indians by force principles I could lay and the treaty system of acquir claim to at present. I must ing title to their lands. Apparent leave it for time and a also were the influence of the better acquaintance to traders, whose presence at show me in what way the annuity payment time was tol principle could be carried erated by federal authorities, out for their greatest and the debasing, ineffectively good. regulated sale of alcohol to the With the passage up the Indians. Lower Fox and through Lakes The Ho-Chunk and the Winnebago and Butte des traders had assembled over Morts behind them, the party many days, awaiting the arrival proceeded through the Upper of John Kinzie and the annuity Fox, twisting and turning, the silver. Contrary to federal law passage tedious and difficult prohibiting the sale of liquor to except for the occasional lakes, Indians, some of the traders Puckaway and Buffalo. The had supplied them with alco final seventy miles, "through a hol, and Chief Four Legs, country perfectly monotonous whose village at the head of and uninteresting," challenged Lake Winnebago the author the oarsmen to negotiate the had recently sketched, had narrow channels here and to overindulged and died. force the boat through stretches It was in the wake of Four- nearly blocked by wild rice. At Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of Mrs. Josepin Harrison, Jr. Legs's death that Kinzie discov last they had arrived at Fort ered the status of Ho-Chunk Juliette Kinzie included an appendix in Wau-Bun in an Winnebago where they tem effort to "do justice'' to Black Hawk, the Sauk warrior women in their communities, porarily settled in an apartment who refused to be moved. one of honor and respect that is ^ WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Lithograph from an engraving by Henry Lewis, published in Das lllustrirte; WHS Archives, Name File, WHi(X3)182222 The Battle ojBad Axe. not always apparent from the contemporary descriptions of During the first week in March 1831, the Kinzies jour village life. Kinzie wrote of Madame Four-Legs, a member of neyed to Chicago for a family visit with John Kinzie's moth the Fox tribe and the wife ofthe Ho-Chunk chief Four-Legs. er, two sisters, and brother. During the visit Juliette Kinzie She spoke the court language among all the tribes, Ojibwe. related the early history of a frontier Chicago and created a Kinzie noted, "She was often called upon to act as interpreter, word portrait and sketches of what the village and Fort Dear and had, in fact, been in the habit of accompanying her hus born were like in 1831. She included an account ofthe mas band, and assisting him by her counsels upon all occasions. sacre at Fort Dearborn in April 1812 as told to her by family She was a person of great shrewdness and judgment, and, as members. The story was "in the main historically true," I afterwards experienced, of strong and tenacious affections." according to noted Wisconsin historian Louise Phelps Kel logg, but probably dramatized and likely "biased by family URING the eighteen months between the Kinzies' traditions." After two months in Chicago, the Kinzie party— arrival at Fort Winnebago in the fall of 1830 and including John Kinzie's mother, sister, her four-year-old son, Dthe beginning ofthe Black Hawk War in April 1832, and two small unrelated children—made the return journey Juliette Kinzie became acquainted with the Ho-Chunk and to Fort Winnebago in mid-spring. went on several journeys as far north as Green Bay, southwest As the Kinzies traveled north, the tensions between white into the lead fields, and southeast to Chicago. Her vivid miners and farmers and the Sauk and Fox Indians in the descriptions of each of these trips introduced readers to the Rock River area of northern Illinois escalated. In addition to natural beauty ofthe landscape and the stark realities of trav the Red Bird uprising, a result of white intrusion on unceded el in a very lightly populated region. She described dramati land, white settlement on ceded lands was also a source of cally the challenge of high, almost unfordable streams, the trouble. The Sauk and Fox in the area had previously signed morass of swamps, getting lost in a spring snowstorm, riding a treaty relinquishing their lands east ofthe Mississippi, agree against strong winds, and the challenges of travel in extremes ing to vacate them when settlers arrived, but they had found of heat, burning sun, and intense cold. She vividly portrayed it very hard to leave their homes, cornfields, and burial hunger and hospitality along the way. grounds at Saukenuk, the village located near the mouth of WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY "Ux' Juliette Kinzie's Travel Route "; October 1830 ( 7 I Map by Joel Heiman Juliette Kinzie's initial journey to Wisconsin introduced her to the Fox River, one oJ the Jew in the United States that Jlows northward. Thus she Jound herselj going both south and upriver at the same time and struggling as the trip became more arduous the closer she got to her new home. Fort Winnebago. the Rock River, While one principal leader, Keokuk, a Fox out white settlers there and remain. The Ho-Chunk chiefs tribal chieftain, consented to the move and led all who would also advised her that Illinois was calling out the militia to follow him west ofthe Mississippi in 1829, Black Hawk, a force Black Hawk and his followers back across the Mississip prominent Sauk warrior, resisted. In 1830 and again in 1831 pi, The Ho-Chunk delegation wanted to consult John Kinzie following the winter hunt, he and his followers had returned and to tell him they were doing their best to keep their young to Saukenuk, He tried to fmd outside help for his people, look warriors out of the disturbance. They also came requesting ing to Canada for British assistance. He sought allies far and that John Kinzie use his influence with the military to leave wide among Indian tribes fed up with white pressure. In his them alone just as long as they remained peaceful and quest he relied heavily on the advice of a Ho-Chunk prophet "behaved in a friendly manner," White Grow assured Juliette who lived in a village on the Rock River, Kinzie that should trouble erupt he would come with his peo Black Hawk returned in the spring of 1831 with the ple to protect her and her family. announced determination to oust settlers and reclaim tribal Trouble did not follow immediately. In the face of an over lands. In response, Ho-Chunk leadership visited Fort Win whelming force of federal troops and an undisciplined Illinois nebago during the early summer. While John Kinzie was militia. Black Hawk and his followers quietly retreated west of away. White Crow, Little Priest, and several other chiefs of the Mississippi under cover of darkness. The military show the Rock River bands came to the fort. They told Juliette down was postponed until the spring and summer of 1832, Kinzie that Black Hawk was moving east across the Missis When Juliette Kinzie's brother, Arthur Magill, arrived sippi River to his people's former Rock River village area and from Kentucky in late April 1832 by way ofthe Mississippi, hunting grounds, and that he had announced his plan to drive he brought the news that Black Hawk and his followers had ^ WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WHS Archives, Piace Fiie A view oJ Fort Dearborn, the new home oJJuliette and John Kinzie aJter they departed Jrom Fort Winnebago in 1833. recrossed the Mississippi River to take possession of their old John Kinzie, feeling he should do everything possible to homes and cornfields. Soon, JuHette wrote, "our own Indians dissuade the younger Indians in his charge from joining Black came flocking in, to confirm the tidings, and to assure us of Hawk, made arrangements to meet in council with the Ho- their intention to remain faithful friends to the Americans," Ghunk near Four Lakes, thirty-five miles to the south, the The Kinzies learned bit by bit about the Illinois Rangers' and location of present-day Madison, Despite his family's pleas, the U,S, Army's pursuit of Black Hawk and his followers as he rode forth. He returned the same day, JuHette Kinzie told they retreated up the Rock River, scattering throughout the of the family sitting at a late hour near an open window, lis countryside, eluding their enemies, their presence—or even tening, and "with what joy did we at length distinguish the rumor of it—causing terror, John Kinzie decided to confer tramp of horses!" He returned with leaders' promises to try to with all Ho-Ghunk chiefs available because he knew the Sauk preserve peace among the young warriors and with the would try hard to have the Ho-Ghunk join them. He knew knowledge that all the Rock River bands save one was deter that many young warriors wanted to distinguish themselves mined to remain peaceful. These were said to be abandon by "taking some white scalps," JuHette Kinzie did not blame ing their villages and fields and moving north to keep out them. She explained; of trouble. They did not love the Americans—why should Rumor after rumor of "outrages" and "murders," as JuH they? By them they had been gradually dispos ette Kinzie put it, and reports about Sauk plans to attack Fort sessed of the broad and beautiful domains of their Winnebago floated in, increasing tension and unease during forefathers, and hunted from place to place, and spring and early summer. The fort stood open without pal the only equivalent they had received in exchange isades; it lacked artiUery; nothing defended the barracks or had been a few thousands annually in silver and officers' quarters; and the commissary's store was down the presents, together with the pernicious example, the hill, well away from the other buildings, John Kinzie and fam debasing influence, and the positive ill treatment of ily finally convinced the miHtary to build a stockade. The fam too many of tlie new settlers upon their lands. ily, housed as they were outside the paHsade, developed a plan She felt confident of the loyalty of the older members of the to use in case of attack, whereby JuHette and her sister-in-law, tribe encamped in fifty lodges around their dweUing, They Margaret, and Margaret's child should go to the upstairs, JuH had pledged to protect the family. ette, having recently accidentally shot a "blackbird on the WINTER 2001-2002 "g WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY wing," kept her "little pistols" handy at night and admittedly ming in Juliette's mind, her sister-in-law had the events ofthe was ready to shoot if necessary. She rested uneasily and felt Fort Dearborn massacre fresh in mind from oft-repeated fami renewed terror with the arrival of every Indian party carrying ly memories. When the dancers decided to avoid raindrops and news of troop and possible Sauk movements. A detachment continue the dance inside the house, Juliette and Margaret fled of troops from Fort Howard arrived at the newly stockaded to the upstairs room, thinking death was upon them. John fort in early summer, and John Kinzie and the military Kinzie and the children refused to follow because they were agreed that every night the Kinzies should sleep inside the having such a good time watching the dance. With the dance fort. over, the Indians departed. As she later found out and noted, One incident dramatically illustrates the genuine sense of "the object of our suspicions" was "only some young Winneba terror the women in the family felt. A group of Ho-Chunk go, who had, as is sometimes the custom, imitated them [the arrived one day at the Kinzie home and asked permission to Sauk] in custom and appearance." She thought in retrospect dance for the family. The dance began in front of the house that he probably went back to his village and told a tale about with JuHette and her sister-in-law watching from the open par scaring the "white squaws." lor windows. Margaret spotted one dancer whom she believed Shortly thereafter, John Kinzie insisted that the family, all from paint and ornament to be a Sauk, and she shared this except himself, leave Fort Winnebago for the greater safety of belief with Juliette. Fort Howard at Green Bay, and so they went solemnly with a Knowledge ofthe Ojibwe massacre of British troops in 1763 boatload of furs on July 4, 1832. They proceeded "always in at Fort Michilimackinac came to Juliette Kinzie's mind, and profound silence, for a song or a loud laugh was now strictly her imagination leapt to possible comparisons. In that famous prohibited," until they were far from where Black Hawk's band incident, Ojibwe and Sauk Indians lulled the British troops into might conceivably be. They experienced nothing worse than a watching them play baggattaway (lacrosse) outside the stockade very heavy rainstorm with violent thunder and lightning and with the gates open. With a sudden rush the Indians entered the arrived at Green Bay to fmd people terrified that Black Hawk gates, attacked the soldiers, and captured the fort on June 2, and his followers would come their way in search of British pro 1763. White observers left grim accounts ofthe ensuing slaugh tection in Canada. ter. Was this to be a slightly different version ofthe lacrosse ruse Juliette Kinzie vividly described the panic at Green Bay. "A used there to get into the fort? While these thoughts were swim- portion of the citizens were nearly frightened to death, and were fully convinced that there was no safety for them but within the walls of the old dilapidated fort," even though the troops had departed for Fort Winnebago long before then. Intense heat, mosqui toes, a plague ofthe Green Bay fly (a kind of dragonfly), and the news that cholera not only afflicted Detroit but that it had struck General Atkinson's reinforcements in the war on Black Hawk enlivened the Kinzie party's short stay at Green Bay. After news came ofthe Battle of Wisconsin Heights on July 21 and the Indians' conse quent retreat toward the Mississippi River, the Kinzie party returned to Fort Win nebago. When army forces confronted Black "Medicine Dance of the Winnebagoes" by Seth Eastman from the American Aboriginal Portfolio, 1853; Hawk's fleeing followers near the mouth of WHS Archives, WHi(X3)25006 the Bad Axe on the Mississippi River the Juliette Kinzie did believe her culture to he superior to that oJthe first two days of August, the Sauk experi Ho-Chunk and other Indians, but she wanted to leam about other enced a terrible slaughter by militia, army cultures, and she accepted and oJten supported many oJ their traditions and beliejs. regulars, and the soldiers aboard the ST WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY steamboat Wanior. With so many dead, the war was over. come to Detroit and transport it, but he delayed and delayed, Black Hawk escaped northward to be captured later, impris finally arriving at Fort Winnebago in early November. The oned in St. Louis and then brought east where as prisoners he Indians were already painfiiUy aware ofthe bleak winter before and his party were brought before President Andrew Jackson— them. They had abandoned their gardens and hunting grounds former Indian fighter, now president and great white father to in the summer and moved north to avoid being accused of help the Indians. President Jackson explained to the prisoners the ing Black Hawk. By November they were very short of food, kind of conduct the nation expected them to follow. Then Black and John Kinzie tried to bring two boatloads of corn from Hawk and his party were temporarily imprisoned at Fortress Green Bay to the fort. He planned to stockpile these against the Monroe. On recommendation of General Atkinson, leader of very lean times certain to ensue, but he failed to receive them American troops in the Black Hawk War and William Clark, before the freeze prevented use of the waterway. The Indians Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis, they were sent used their late-arriving annuity payments to secure extra home to Ghief Keokuk, by way of major eastern cities. This ammunition, hoping for a good late fall and winter hunt to sus route was designed to show them the folly of making war on the tain themselves, but the hunt was poor. The Indians came United States, large and overpowering as it was. Indian rebel straggling in all winter long to Fort Winnebago, badly emaciat lion and warfare in Illinois and what would become Wisconsin ed and in search of food from the commander ofthe garrison seemed to be a thing ofthe past. and from the Kinzies, both experiencing extremely short rations. The Kinzies heard reports of dying Indians stretched in the road to the portage. By spring the Ho-Ghunk were trying to HE Kinzies soon witnessed the tragic consequences of stay alive on roots and bark. Juliette Kinzie recounted how their Black Hawk's struggle and its impact upon the Ho- terrible suffering reached a nadir before the boatloads of corn Ghunk. Summoned in late August 1832 to come to T reached the fort: Fort Armstrong at Rock Island with as many chiefs as possible, John Kinzie called them together for the journey. The purpose We were soon obliged to keep both doors and win ofthe gathering was to demand further tribal land cessions from dows fast, to shut out the sight of misery we could the Sauk and Fox and to make a treaty with the Ho-Ghunk not relieve. If a door were opened for the admission whereby they would cede all of their land east and south ofthe of a member of the family, some wretched mother Wisconsin River in exchange for land west of the Mississippi. would rush in, grasp the hand of my infant [Wol- The United States accused the Ho-Ghunk of encouraging and cott], and, placing that of her famishing child within assisting Black Hawk, and the U.S. government demanded the it, tell us, pleadingly, that he was imploring "his lit surrender of specified tribal members accused of murdering tle brother" for food. The stoutest man could not whites; these men would be tried and punished according to have beheld with dry eyes the heart-rending specta white law. The federal government and the tribal leaders con cle which often presented itself It was in vain that cluded the treaty on September 15, 1832. we screened the lower portion of our windows with To John Kinzie fell the task of persuading the chiefs to col curtains. They would climb up on the outside, and lect and surrender those prisoners, which he succeeded in tier upon tier of gaunt, wretched faces would peer in doing. With due ceremony the prisoners came in a "grand and above, to watch us, and see if indeed we were as ill solemn" procession, winding their way up the hill to the agency provided as we represented ourselves. house on a bright autumn day. They surrendered at the front Finally the boats came in sight, and with their landing and steps ofthe Kinzie residence in the presence of John Kinzie and the opening ofthe barrels of corn, the starving time was over. General Henry Dodge, soon to become Governor ofthe Wis The treaty-allotted time for the Indians to live near Fort Win consin Territory. Juliette Kinzie watched the ceremonies nebago also was almost over. They had agreed to leave for their through the window; she reported her doubts about the guilt of newly assigned lands west ofthe Mississippi by June 1, 1833, two prisoners but wondered about the third. The accused were but many of them did not. imprisoned at Fort Winnebago awaiting trial but tunneled their The closing pages of Wau-Bun leave the reader with two way out ofthe "black hole" in late autumn. memorable vignettes: the appearance of one of the escaped The Indians had remained near the fort following the pris prisoners on the Kinzies' doorstep in spring of 1833, and the oner surrender ceremonies because they expected their annuity departure ofthe couple on July I.Juliette recognized the pris payments to be made soon. Governor Porter of Michigan Ter oner in company with others who had come to have the black ritory chose to bring the silver instead of having John Kinzie smith repair their guns, traps, and tools. She told John Kinzie, WINTER 2001-2002 g WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY who made no effort to detain him. Glearly expressing his empa on just a few passages from Wau-Bun that reveal much about thy with the Ho-Ghunk, he replied, "You are right, but it is no Ho-Ghunk culture and Juliette Kinzie, the individual. WhUe she affair of ours. We are none of us to look so as to give him notice felt her own culture superior to that ofthe Ho-Ghunk and ini that we suspect anything. They are undoubtedly innocent, and tially tried to promote knowledge of the English language and have suffered enough already." Ghristianity among the Indians, she found it important to under On July 1, amid the tears and lamentations ofthe Indians, stand why Indians preferred their ideas and ways of life. She the Kinzies departed for Detroit and a new life in Ghicago. In noted: 1832 the family had entered a fractional quarter-section of fed As a general thing, they do not appear to perceive eral land, 102 acres now lying in the vicinity of Navy Pier. It that there is anything to be gained by adopting the became Kinzie's Addition, bounded by Kinzie Street, North religion and the customs of the whites. "Look at State, Ghicago Avenue, and the lake. As for the Ho-Ghunk, them," they say, "always toUing and striving—always their prospective new home was far different. They had been wearing a brow of care—shut up in houses—afraid of assigned new land west ofthe Mississippi in present-day Iowa, the wind and the rain—suffering when they are the "neutral territory" between the Sioux and the Sauk and deprived ofthe comforts of life! We, on the contrary, Fox. By 1837 the Ho-Ghunk would lose all their Wisconsin trib live a life of freedom and happiness. We hunt and al lands by treaties with the federal government, seven and one- fish, and pass our time pleasantly in the open woods half million acres, roughly 20 percent of present-day Wisconsin. and prairies. If we are hungry, we take some game; or, if we do not fmd that, we can go without. If our X /4 TAU-BUN, or "The Early Day," is an intriguing title enemies trouble us, we can kUl them, and there is no • /•/ for Juliette Kinzie's book. Louise Phelps Kellogg more said about it. What should we gain by changing r r suggests on the title page of her edited edition that in ourselves into white men?" the Ojibwe language it means the dawn, or the break of day. Per She brought the same studied approach to Ho-Ghunk reli haps Kinzie named it for that wonderfiil morning, "bright and gion as well: beautiful," at Michilimackinac following their arrival on a very They have a strong appreciation ofthe great fim da- stormy night aboard the steamship Henry Clay in September mental virtues of natural religion—the worship ofthe 1830. Great Spirit, brotherly love, parental affection, hon Whatever she had in mind, that day was the dawn of a com esty, temperance and chastity. Any infringement of pletely new experience in her life, thirty-three months among the the laws ofthe Great Spirit, by a departure from these Ho-Ghunk in frontier Wisconsin. Given her intellectual curiosi virtues, they believe will excite his anger and draw ty, her creativity, and her love of people, she proposed to learn down punishment. These are their principles. That about and to understand Indian people and the lush natural their practice evinces more and more a departure world around her. She used her genteel, well-educated upbring from them, under the debasing influences of a prox ing as an asset rather than a deficit in learning about a rough imity to the whites, is a melancholy truth. . . . frontier setting and opened her mind to comprehend a culture In just those few sentences on culture and religion she indi completely new to her. This is not to say that she had an unlim cated an awareness of her own time with the Ho-Ghunk, a time ited acceptance of all things. She clearly depicted experiences of transition and change for a culture that she valued and for and events when fear and intense dislike for Indian ways domi which she quietly grieved, in her knowledge that it was eroding nated her reactions, the same kinds of responses common among as her own Yankee culture intruded. incoming Euro-American settlers. For example, she vividly Yet that grief did not keep her from capturing the daily expe described how the scalp dance revolted her. Yet she tried very riences she witnessed, and through her writing she helped pre hard to achieve a measure of fairness and objectivity in her writ serve the Ho-Ghunk culture. The subject of women's work ing, a goal that led her to include an appendix to Wau-Bun remained a constant, and very conscious, theme. She recounted designed to do "justice" to Black Hawk. These are the qualities the scene before her when the Ho-Ghunk arrived and departed found in Kinzie's memoir that stUl attract readers in the twenty- at annuity payment times under the terms ofthe treaty of 1829: first century. When the Indians arrived and when they departed, Juliette Kinzie's opinions as both sensitive observer ofthe Ho- my sense of "woman's rights" was often greatly out Ghunk and active participant in frontier life give historians a per raged. The master of the family, as a general thing, spective to be treasured for its insights. It is interesting to touch came leisurely bearing his gun and perhaps a lance in g WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY his hand; the woman, with the mats and the poles of The Author her lodge upon her shoulders, her papoose, if she had Margaret Beattie Bogue is profes one, her kettles, sacks of corn, and wild rice, and, not sor emerita of Inistory and liberal studies unfrequently, the household dog perched on the top at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, of all. If there is a horse or pony in the list of family where from 1966 to 1991 she taught possessions, the man rides, the squaw trudges after. American history and the history of Wis consin. She earned a bachelor's degree This unequal division of labor is the result of no in history at the University of Maryland want of kind, affectionate feeling on the part of the and master's and doctorate degrees at husband. It is rather the instinct of the sex to assert Cornell University. She taught at Vassar their superiority of position and importance, when a College and the University of Western proper occasion offers. When out of the reach of Ontario before coming to Madison. Her books include one on observation, and in no danger of compromising his Lake Superior currently under revision, one on Lake Michi gan, and the most recently published. Fishing the Great own dignity, the husband is willing enough to relieve Lakes, an Environmental History, 1783-1933, by the Univer his spouse from the burden that custom imposes on sity of Wisconsin Press. She lives in Madison. her, by sharing her labors and hardships. And yet, despite the lack of power and control that Kinzie tes tions show her admiration for Ho-Ghunk women whom she tifies to in the pages of her memoir, another example gives read found excellent wives and mothers who bore far more than what ers an insight into her thoughts on the resiliency and she believed to be a fair share of work essential to tribal life, but resourcefulness of Ho-Ghunk women. She told with relish a tale who managed all the same. about the mother of the elder Day-kau-ray, a very old Ho- These few examples do little more than sample the kinds of Ghunk. As Juliette described her: rich social history encapsulated in Juliette Kinzie's experience No one could tell her age, but all agreed that she must living at Fort Winnebago during the years of the Black Hawk have seen upwards of a hundred winters. Her eyes War. Readers of Wisconsin history are the richer for her efforts dimmed, and almost white with age—her face dark to portray the largest segment of Wisconsin's frontier peo and withered, like a baked apple—her voice tremu ple, men and women, as she understood them and their lous and feeble, except when raised in fury to reprove way of life. IM^I her graceless grandsons, who were fond of playing her all sorts of mischievous tricks, indicated the very great Resources and Further Reading The primary resource for this article, naturally, is the work of Juliette Kinzie herself, but readers age she must have attained. She usually went on all should be aware that the many editions that have been published are not equal. Of the many edi fours, not having strength to hold herself erect. . . tions of Juliette M. Kinzie's Wau-Bun, "Tlie Early Day" in the North-west, originally pubhshed in 1855, historians find the one introduced and annotated by Louise Phelps Kellogg, eminent Wis . She crept into the parlor one morning, then straight consin historian, especially satislying. Originally copyrighted in 1948 and published by the National Society of the Colonial Dames in Wisconsin, it has since been reprinted many times and ening herself up, and supporting herself by the frame sold to help maintain the historic Agency House at Portage. Also highly recommended is the edi of the door, she cried, in a most piteous tone,— tion pubhshed in 1992 by the University of Illinois Press, containing an excellent introduction by Nina Baym, University of Illinois professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences with expertise in nine "Shaw-nee-aw-kee! Wau-tshob-ee-rah Thsoonsh— teenth-century women's fiction. The Kellogg edition stresses historical questions and the Baym edition literary expression and author orientation. koo-nee-noh!" (Silverman, I have no looking-glass.) Several other works were critical in the writing of this article, for their data and interpretations My husband, smiling and taking up the same little on land cessions and tribal cultures. These are Charles C. Royce, Indian Land Cessions in the Unit ed States, House Documents; Charles J. Kappler, comp., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (2 tone, cried in return,—"Do you wish to look at your vols., Washington, 1904 edition); and William T. Hagan, The Sac and Fox Indians, The Civiliza self, mother?" tion ofthe American Indian series (Norman, Oklahoma, 1958). For more information on the fur trade, many resources are available, but The Fur Trade Revisited: Selected Papers of the Sixth Juliette told her readers that the elderly woman found the North American Fur Trade Conference, Mactdnac Island, 1991, Jennifer S. H. Brown, W. J. Eccles, and Donald P. Heldman, editors (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994) idea very funny and laughed so hard she had to sit down. Then was especially helpful. she told him it was for one of the boys. Once she received it, Readers will find an excellent survey of Wisconsin Indian history in Robert E. Bieder, Native American Communities in Wisconsin, 1600-1960: A Study of Tradition and Change (Madison: noted Juliette, "She found that she had 'no comb,' then that she University of Wisconsin Press, 1995). The most comprehensive study of the Ho-Chunk is Paul had 'no knife,' then that she had 'no calico shawl,' until it ended, Radin's The Winnebago Tribe, a study made early in the twentieth century for the U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology and reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press in 1970. Highly recom as it generally did, by Shaw-nee-aw-kee paying pretty dearly for mended for understanding the Black Hawk War is Blade Hawtc, An Autobiography, Roger L. Nichols, editor (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1999). The introduction is very insightful. his joke." The old woman was indeed old, frail, and without Both Roger L. Nichols, "The Back Hawk War in Retrospect," and Anthony F. C. Wallace, "Pre much formal power. But, as Kinzie joyfully noted, the elderly lude to Disaster: The Crisis in Indian-White Relations Which Led to the Back Hawk War of 1832," found in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 65 (Summer, 1982), pp. 239-288, are excellent for woman had the powerful, young white man meeting all demands understanding the course of the war and the broad meaning of the war in American development. and enjoying himself as he did so. As a whole, Kinzie's observa- WINTER 2001-2002 M Reviews Battling Demon Rum: The is a synthesis of secondary sources, and he integration into saloon maintenance and Struggle for a Dry America, is quick to thank the many writers and culture, and the impact of political pro- 1800-1933 researchers whose works allowed him to gressivism on Prohibition. All of these beg BY THOMAS R. PEGRAM craft this broad study. for some Wisconsin context. My first inclination was to accept this Pegram's use of Perry Duis's analysis BATTLING short, simple book as a primer for any of saloon culture in Ghicago as a virtual BEWOlf RDM one—scholar or general reader—with an case study for the entire Midwest is also The Struggle for a Dry America, 1800-1933 interest in the topics of Prohibition, work mystifying. Does he believe the city of (Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, IL, 1998. Pp. X, 207. ing-class culture, or national reform Ghicago representative of southwest Wis Bibliography, index. movements. Pegram leans heavily on the consin or central Iowa? The author's ISBN 1-56663-208-0, $24.95, hardcover.) authors whom he initially acknowledges, choices become especially curious when providing moderate interpretation of their he ends the book with an extensive look at data or analyses. The chapters on the the connection between Prohibition poli drinking patterns of the early republic are tics and the Ku Klux Klan in the South. THOMAS R. PEGRAM well written, and the connections between With that, Pegram shows that he is willing S a student of both Wisconsin drinking and voting patterns caught my and able to focus on a particular region if history and the brewing indus interest. As the material moved into the he chooses; why he did not attempt to A try in Milwaukee5 I settled with mid-nineteenth century, I anticipated that give even a small amount of attention to great interest into reading a book with the sections on the impact of German ethnic Wisconsin is inexplicable. stated purpose of examining ''the rela ity on early Prohibition legislation, or an With a sparse index and a bibliograph tionship between American political insti entire chapter titled ''Alcohol and the ic essay that reveals that for each of his tutions and temperance reform." It Saloon in the Progressive Era," would major points, Pegram generally used no seemed obvious that a book with such a yield some Wisconsin-specific informa more than one source, this book's use to purpose would offer basic information tion. I was surprisingly disappointed. the scholar or general reader is limited. about any number of Wisconsin-related Pegram makes only an occasional ref To the student of Wisconsin history, the topics. In the introduction, Thomas erence to Wisconsin. This would be book is perplexing. Pegram makes clear that the brewing and understandable and acceptable if there MARGARET T. DWYER liquor industries, ethnic and immigration were few Wisconsin associations to the Wisconsin Historical Society issues, and the legal wranglings of nation book's themes or subjects. Yet Pegram al Prohibition all play important roles in chooses as his critical points German and The Promise Fulfilled: A this book. He also explains that his work Irish ethnicity, the brewing industry's Portrait of Norwegian Americans Today BY ODD S. LOVOLL (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1998. Pp. XV, 299. Illustrations, maps, notes, index. ISBN 0-8166- 2832-7, $29.95, hardcover.) THE BEEftWrTHASK^P WHS Archives, CF 60831 THE BEER THAT MADE Joseph Schlitz began producing "The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous'' in 1874, and he used this and other stereo MILWAUKEE FAMOUS. N his address to the International typical images ofthe happy German to market his product. like UNEQUALLED FOR TABLE USE. Schlitz, the G. Heileman Brewing Company of la Crosse made Gongress of Historical Sciences in WHS Archives, WHi(X3)48023 great use of German imagery in its advertisements. Stockholm in 1960, immigration m WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY historian Frank Thistlethwaite urged of convenience sampling, pulling prima immigration historians to address new rily from active ethnic groups, and topics at an intimate level, such as the loaded survey questions suggesting that parish and town. In The Promise Ful Nordics are "honest" and "hardwork filled, Odd S. Lovoll bravely assumes ing." In fact, no volume of questions can the challenge of unlayering the patch m fully illuminate the elusive nature of work of Norwegian heritage in contem one's "ethnic identity." Still, this volume porary America by sampling at the most represents solid, systematic research and intimate of scales, the family and the can be appreciated by scholar and non- individual. The project was daunting— scholar alike. Lovoll has challenged us there are about four million persons of to frame new questions and to map the Norwegian heritage in America. Lovoll ethnic identities and expressions of oth collected seven thousand written surveys ers in the great American experiment. to gather data on the group's social and The wide-ranging research cache gener WHS Archives, Lot 4973.2 demographic character, as well as on Ministers and congregation at the ated for the book will be housed in the the more nebulous concept of changing dedication of East Blue Mounds archives of the Norwegian-American ethnic identity. The written surveys Norwegian Lutheran Church, Dane Historical Association at St. Olaf Col County, c. 1876. were supplemented by oral interviews lege in Northfield, Minnesota. (nearly eight hundred), field observa nocentrism. He explores the gamut of ANN MARIE LEGREID tions, and library and archival research classes, generations, and geographic Central Missouri State University completed throughout the United locations, collecting voices that range States. from bland to pungent and politically This goliath of a project was a natu controversial. Lovoll steps outside the The Oneida Indian Journey: ral extension of Lovoll's many earlier ethnic core and into non-Scandinavian From New York to Wiscon works, particularly The Promise of settings; he includes such nontraditional sin, 1784-1860 America: A History of the Norwegian- subjects as gays and prisoners. He uses a EDITED BY LAURENCE M. HAUPTMAN American People (1984). Raised in Nor broad, interactive social framework, AND L. GORDON MCLESTER III wegian communities on both sides ofthe searches for answers in both Norway Atlantic, Lovoll has dedicated most of and America, and concludes that ethnic (University of Wisconsin his adult life to writing, editing, and lec belonging is still relevant. Lovoll's writ Press, Madison, Wl, turing on topics that have highlighted ing is charged by vivid quotes and 1999. Pp. V, 221. Illustrations, maps, notes, and redefined components of Norwe images, like "Uff da y'all" from Texas bibliography, index. ISBN gian-American culture. and the marketed ethnicity of Nordic 0-299-16144-7, $16.95, paperbound.) Richly illustrated and attractive in Fest held in Decorah, Iowa. With lefse, layout, the book has the outward trolls, rosemaling, and other popular appearance of a best-selling gift book. ethnic symbols, he sketches the kaleido The dust jacket photo of costumed chil scope of Norwegian-American identity. dren dancing beneath the American flag Lovoll calls this project "an experi ULLY seven generations after the is illustrative ofthe book's themes of eth ment in social history" and "a case study 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the nic revivalism and celebration. Lovoll, that presents a comprehensive portrait FAnerican Revolution, the People however, has been attentive to proper of an 'old' immigrant group toward the of the Longhouse, the once powerful Six scientific methods and offers the reader end ofthe 20th century." The fact that it Nations Haudenosaunee Gonfederacy, a daring and penetrating look inside one could be executed bespeaks the enthusi are still dealing with its effects. For con of America's most vibrant ethnic com asm of Norwegian Americans. The temporary Iroquois nations, the Revolu munities. Norwegian Americans can be book's shortcomings are primarily tion is not a distant event obscured by intensely nostalgic in their ethnicity, yet methodological, although Lovoll myth and time, but a source of inspira Lovoll manages to skirt the trap of eth- acknowledges this—for example, the use tion, vexation, anger, and resentment. "g WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Understanding contemporary Iro center of the story. The Oneida Indian quois society requires appreciation of Journey succeeds because ofthe diversity the tremendous impact of the Revolu of its authors; scholars, archivists, and tion on the Gonfederacy. While the Oneida community leaders ofthe present Gonfederacy never issued a formal dec day contributed to the book. All are pas laration of war against the infant United sionate about the subject while in States and tried valiantly to retain neu admirable command of their respective trality, its people were caught up in the sources. The book should stand as a fighting, with most of them electing to model for the writing of Iroquois history carry arms for the British in defense of in general, for it clearly demonstrates their homelands against the land-hun what can be achieved when academic gry colonists. Elements of the Oneidas and aboriginal communicators work in and Tuscaroras were persuaded by a concert. preacher named Samuel Kirkland to The book is important for another oppose their Iroquois relatives and reason: it provides the reader with throw their lot with the rebels. Both insights as to the motivations ofthe Onei groups suffered from their choices. The das during a wild and hectic time and American Revolution was more than a WHS Archives, WHi(X28)1078 tells a grand story of an Iroquois people struggle for independence by rebellious Mohawk preacher Eleazer Williams who retained a collective identity despite colonies—it was an actual Iroquois civil (pictured here in a George Catlin painting) being separated by hundreds of miles, dif led many Oneidas to the Green Bay area in war. The Gonfederacy barely survived, fering religious beliefs, and conflicting the 1820s. although it did have sufficient status to political systems. enter into formal treaty negotiations er named Eleazer Williams led the DOUG GEORGE-KANENTIIO with the United States in 1794. As allies greater part ofthe Oneidas to the Green Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne of the United States, the Oneidas were Bay region. Other factions settled along given assurances that their lands were to the Thames River in western Ontario, Race, Jobs, and the War: The be protected from intrusion or alien among the Onondagas south of Syra FEPC in the Midwest, ation. But no sooner had the war come cuse, New York, and near the Grand 1941-46 to a close than thousands of settlers River west of Toronto. By the 1850s, BY ANDREW EDMUND KERSTEN poured into Oneida land, gobbling up only a few dozen Oneidas remained the most fertile valleys, forests, and upon their aboriginal homelands. (University of Illinois hunting grounds. The Oneida Indian Journey summa Press, Champaign, IL, The Oneidas were torn by internal rizes the remarkable story of the Onei 2000. pp. x, 210. factions, some of which were along reli das from the conclusion ofthe American Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN gious lines. They found it impossible to Revolution to the outbreak of the Givil 0-252-02563-6, $35.00, adopt a singular, national strategy for War. In its ten chapters, a number of hardcover.) responding to the settlers. Exploiting the writers, many of whom are Oneidas, tell divisions was relatively simple. Bribes, the complex story of the People of the booze, and outright fraud characterized Standing Stone. Unlike other historical many land sales, transactions done with texts, the editors wisely make ample r • 1 HE federal Committee on Fair the full knowledge that U.S. federal law room for the Oneida people to write of I Employment Practice (FEPC) was being systematically violated. their own history, mostly in the form of was created in 1941 by President The loyal Oneidas soon found it primary research essays stemming from Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order impossible to continue to live next to stories passed down over generations. 8802. Roosevelt issued this order to head their non-Indian neighbors. In accor The book tackles its subject with sensi off a threatened "March on Washington" dance with a traditional Iroquois prac tivity, objectivity, and flair; its topic is by by tens of thousands of African Americans tice, most Oneidas decided to search for no means a simple one, but neither are the to protest segregation in the armed forces another homeland. A Mohawk preach- experiences of those Native people at the and exclusion from defense employment. ^ WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Black leaders initially hailed the creation of the FEPC as a "Second Emancipation Proclama tion/' but many scholars have subsequently been far more skeptical about its achievements. In Race, Jobs, and the War, Andrew Kersten dissents from this negative assess ment. He argues that the FEPC "made modest—yet solid—strides against em ployment discrimination and eased racial tensions during the war." Kersten focuses on the FEPC's record in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and parts of Missouri and Minnesota. WHS Archives, WHi(X3)40954 He concentrates on major Although some unions resisted the Committee on Fair Employment Practice, various Milwaukee locals had previously integrated. The industrial cities such as members of Milwaukee Local #1 74 of the International Laundry Detroit and Chicago, as Workers thus included two key groups of Roosevelt supporters: well as on smaller manu industrial workers and African Americans. facturing towns such as East Alton, Illi FEPC's achievements than with a height nances after the war, but Kersten himself nois. In Chicago, Cleveland, and ened awareness of the power of white admits that in practice most of them were Detroit, the FEPC resolved many indi supremacy and the fragility of the New "timid, weak, and ineffectual." It was only vidual cases of racial discrimination, Deal state, especially where issues of race with the development of the postwar civil aided by the convergence of a number of were concerned. Thus, in Detroit, Team rights movement that issues of employ positive forces: aggressive grassroots sters' union leader Jimmy Hoffa confront ment discrimination returned to the pressure from civil rights organizations ed the FEPC with the declaration that nation's agenda. For the activists who con and Left-led unions, local governments "we don't permit Negroes in [Local] 299. fronted Jim Crow in Mississippi or de facto that supported the FEPC's work, and . . . What are you going to do about it?" segregation in Chicago, the echoes of the high-profile employers who complied The answer was not much. When the wartime FEPC were very faint indeed. with federal policy. Where these ele committee finally held a hearing in the However, this was hardly the fault of ments were lacking, the committee Motor City to address "dozens of com the FEPC and its small, overworked staff. achieved little. In East Alton, for exam plaints" against the Teamsters, it was a Rather, it reflected a nation whose com ple, the iron-clad consensus that bound "complete failure." mitment to racial justice was reluctant and together white workers, unions, and The fact that this example could be half-hearted. In illuminating the wide management in vehement opposition to multiplied many times over raises serious spread resistance to demands for racial the employment of African Americans questions about the FEPC's record during equality, Kersten has demonstrated what was more than the FEPC—with its limit World War II. And to assert, as Kersten the FEPC was up against and thus has ed resources and lukewarm support from does, that the committee "changed the made its achievements appear all the more other federal agencies—could overcome. course of civil rights history" is even more significant. One can come away from Kersten's problematic. True, many states and munic BRUCE NELSON study less with an appreciation of the ipalities passed fair employment ordi Dartmouth College WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Letters from Our Readers IM Feldman's article, "What Do You diary shows him to be a keen observer of Do Up Here?" [Summer 2001] was the natural world, too; there are numerous J both an accurate account ofthe histo descriptions of the plants and animals he ry of the Raspberry Island lighthouse and notices with the passing of the seasons. an eloquent depiction of the life of a mod One poignant entry confirms author ern light keeper. However, I am pleased to Feldman's impression ofJacker' s eagerness report that recent events have rendered for company on the tiny island. On Sep outdated the author's statement that "we tember 8, 1887, he wrote, "Of late I have don't know much" about early keeper Fran not been alone much, one visitor coming cisjacker. just when the other leaves. Hence the place Shordy after the article's publication, will seem more lonesome now; but few will documents came to light that reveal Jacker visit the island in the fall." to be a fascinating character: not only light- A modern reader suspects that Keeper keeper, but also scholar, linguist, artist, and Jacker would thoroughly approve of Keep musician. Born in Germany in 1840, Jack er Feldman's efforts in sharing stories of er studied art as a youth, then emigrated to their island. the United States at the age of nineteen. He —BOB MACKRETH, Apostle Islands made his way to Michigan's Upper Penin National Lakeshore sula to be near his brother. Rev. Edward Jacker, who was assis tant to the renowned missionary Bishop Frederick Baraga. (The ELLO from the Montauk [NY] Lighthouse! A friend sent Edward Jacker who became assistant lightkeeper at Raspberry, H me the Wisconsin Magazine of History recently. I can't tell we learn, was not Francis's brother, but his son.) you how much I enjoyed your article about the Raspberry Light. Before entering the Lighthouse Service, Francisjacker spent All light keepers can relate to one another in some way. It is so some two decades farming at Portage Entry, Michigan. Married true that one must love solitude and nature to live in such remote to Ikwesens, an Ojibwe woman, he immersed himself in her cul locations. ture, learning the language so well that years later, a daughter I have been the caretaker/keeper of the Montauk Light since recalled that the family spoke only Ojibwe at home. Seeking out 1987, when the Goast Guard automated the light and moved out. the recollections of tribal elders, he published accounts of their The local historical society now owns the buildings and tower and tales in American and German periodicals and corresponded reg runs a wonderful museum. I live on the second floor of the keep ularly with scholars from the Smithsonian Institution. er's house. I'm here alone, although for many years I had my Jacker's other pursuits included composing music on the gui beloved Newfoundland dog. Murphy, for company. (She died in tar and organ and working in a variety of crafts. Visitors to the February.) It has been an exciting adventure filled with breath Baraga Gounty (Mich.) Historical Society Museum can inspect an taking sunrises, whales and seals, incredible storms and hurri intricately detailed world globe, three feet in diameter, that Jack canes, star-filled nights, and even some bizarre human visitors! er fashioned. His artistic specialty, however, was etching elabo I've met so many wonderful people who reside in lighthouses, too. rate portraits and scenes on the surface of shelf fungi collected in In June I traveled to Scodand and the Shetland Islands to meet the surrounding forests. Gontemporary accounts tell of his fme the keeper of the Esheness Light. work and the substantial prices his fungus etchings fetched from Wisconsin is very dear to my heart, too. I worked for the Inter eager collectors. Several are now on display at the Peter White national Grane Foundation in Baraboo years ago and spent a Library in Marquette, Michigan. summer living in Aldo Leopold's famous "shack." What a time Most fascinating of the Jacker papers is a diary he kept while that was—it included being hit by lightning one night during a keeper at the Raspberry Light. Entries speak of his duties as light- vicious storm—the bed I was sleeping in was struck. I have had a keeper, his etchings, and his progress building the aforemen healthy respect for lightning ever since! tioned globe. He sets down an account of his near-disaster on It was a wonderful article. Oak Island, adding detail to our knowledge of the incident. The —MARGE WINSKI, Montauk, New York WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY FTER reading Mr. Feldman's article in the Summer issue I My main objection to Mr. Feldman's article is that it contains A was surprised to learn that he is the book review editor, too much irrelevant personal detail. because his article could have benefited from the services of a I remain a loyal and generally satisfied reader of the Wiscon good editor. The previous sentence is a terrible way to begin this sin Magazine of Histoiy. letter for at least three reasons. First it is snide and thus surrenders —DENNIS DOTY, Richland County my privilege of being taken seriously. Second it implies that good editors do not need the services of an editor when they write, was delighted to see a picture of Raspberry Island Light station which I know to be false. Third it strives too hard to be literarily I on the cover of your Summer issue plus a lengthy true story of clever, a characteristic my high school English teacher called lighthouse living in the early days including photos; one my moth "cuteness." Mr. Feldman is being "cute" when he writes "Histo er had taken of my young friend. Donna Mersy. Our father, A. G. ry shrouds Raspberry Island like a Lake Superior fog." Basically Carpenter, was head keeper there in the early '40s. "What do you the simile is inappropriate because it compares Raspberry Island do up here?" is a question I have answered hundreds of times to a corpse. through the years. Mr. Feldman is being literary in the best sense when he builds High school . . . the days of the bobby-soxers, Sinatra, juke the essay around the question that is its title, setting the asking of boxes, jitterbug dances, and basketball games. Since little sister the question in the middle ofthe piece, and returning to it in the and brother, Lucy and Frankie, were too small to play games, I final paragraph. The question "What do you do up here?" is dreamed of a more social life. However, I found contentment in linked to the more personal question "Do you love it?" by the summer's twilight, sitting on the dock watching an occasional observation that visitors' questions generally came in twos. This is bonfire across the channel or playing my guitar and singing to the an interesting observation that could easily form the basis of a sparkling waves, pretending they were my vast and endless audi separate essay, but here it appears to be merely a literary device, ence. Once, I rowed around the small island imagining being a especially when Mr. Feldman ends the article with the contrary pirate seeking treasure, nearly drowning in a sudden summer suggestion that visitors would have asked either one or the other squall. Learning to swim in "ice-cubed" Lake Superior almost ofthe questions. The "Do you love it?" question could have been cost me my life as well. Father, too, all but froze going ashore for omitted along with many of the observations which make this a food and supphes during a blizzard. personal memoir of a recent summer. Mr. Feldman's description Luscious raspberries grew on this island, which I picked and of a severe storm on the island lacks historical interest but strives sold for $3.50 a crate! Finding a crate of emptied pop bottles filled for literary effect with wind howling and slamming windows and with rain, I discovered that tapping them with a metal object I doors, driving the curtains into a frenzy. It is a disappointment to could make up a dull musical scale that satisfied my love for learn in the next paragraph that sometimes this same wind will music. Today at my piano I still play out the various moods we all merely seep around windows rustling the curtains. have, remembering the rain-filled pop bottles. A nit picker would have a field day with Mr. Feldman's punc . . . Boat whistles, buoy bells, deep-throated boom of a fog sig tuation and rambling sentences. While some of this contributes to nal, rays of a lighthouse waving past my bedroom window, or sit a casual and unrestained style, much ofit, like the excessive use of ting on a sunbleached log burying my feet in the hot white sand parentheses, is confusing and distracting. Mr. Feldman's diction . . . daydreaming . . . are only part of my colorful lingering mem raises distracting questions like "Why would a hghthouse keeper ories of Raspberry Island Lighthouse. chop an 'inordinate' amount of wood?" and "What makes cook Lonely? No! I was given my own space in time to be in a place ing, cleaning, and laundering tasks associated with isolated rural surrounded by wholesomeness, crystal-clear water, pure air, life?" quiet, and the eternal beckoning call in the sound of the surf. I like the new look of the magazine, but even the colorful Nature had nurtured my spirit. Here my imagination soared. graphics could benefit from better editing and careful proofread Thank you, Mr. Feldman; you have walked well where the ing. The map on page 15 does not show all forty-six lighthouses Keepers once trod. in Wisconsin and lacks a key explaining the several colors of the —FRAN CARPENTER PLATSKE, Kalamazoo, Michigan lighthouse icons. The graphic on page 9 lacks the number 9, The Wisconsin Magazine of History invites your letters and which presumably would go in the circle attached to the arrow, comments. Write to Editor, WMH, Wisconsin Historical and the caption exposes the imprecision ofthe historical research Society, 816 State Street, Madison, Wl 53706-1482, or with"c. 1940s." e-mail [email protected]. Q WINTER 2001-2002 Back Matters On History, Writing, and Polar Bears F you ask John Evangelist Walsh of Monroe what he does of the airplane by the Wright brothers and the search for St. for a living, he'll tell you that he's not a historian but a Peter's bones in Rome. He has examined as well the lives of "writer whose subject happens to be history." It's a dis such figures as Robert Frost, John Paul Jones, Emily Dickinson, tinction that merits scrutiny. In my reading, writing, and Edgar Allan Poe, and Abraham Lincoln. His publishers range Iediting, I have long considered the differences and similarities across an impressive spectrum that includes both university between writing and history, and though I presses and trade publishers, and in all of his can't say that I have arrived at any defini work, he has striven for a synthesis similar to tive conclusions, I can say that I find the the one I have described. subject endlessly interesting and often rely Why, then, would he say that he is not a on it for the ample grist it supplies the edi historian? This excerpt from a New York torial mill. Times review of his 1996 Random House In imagining the perfect article for an book. Unraveling Piltdown^ offers a clue: illustrated state history magazine, I would "Mr. Walsh's fine book is an occasion for hope to find a synthesis of such seeming reflection on the human propensity for dualities as journalism and history, art and deceit and self-deception, of which Piltdown science, image and word, past and present, Man is far from the only example." Unlike emotion and rationality. The perfect story traditional historians, who become expert in would offer readers a perspective on the particular times and places, Walsh's area of past that connects with their present lives. The perfect story would expertise is human nature, traditionally the It would reflect the thoughtful distillation realm of the writer. This focus is why his and artistic presentation of research con offer readers a perspectivetopic s are so diverse and why he is not like ducted according to the most rigorous aca on the past that connects ly to run out of material any time soon. It is demic standards. It would display a also what connects his article, "The Strange recognition that the interplay of image and with their present lives. Sad Death of Sergeant Kenney," about an word have the potential to create a whole uncle from Detroit, with everything else that that is a good deal greater than the sum of its parts. It would he has done and what makes the story pertinent to the Wiscon provide engaged readers, whether multigenerational residents sin Magazine of History. It is not likely that the emotions felt by or complete newcomers, with insight into what it means to live families on this side of Lake Michigan whose loved ones served where they live. And it would, at times, in addition to offering in the Russian Intervention as part of the 339th Infantry, or insight, also incite something, such as a tear, a smile, or a chuck Polar Bears, differed significantly from those on the other side, le. It would, in other words, not preclude feelings. whose fear and loss were compounded by a misguided and ill- It's a tall order, I know, and, like any ideal, it is not neces defined cause. sarily meant to be fully realized. For author and editor, howev If Walsh prefers to be designated a writer rather than a his er, it is a goal to strive for within each article and across issues, torian in this case, it's probably because, as he explains, this volumes, and careers. For this magazine, it represents the work article is "more a labor of love than almost anything I've writ of generations. ten." Nevertheless, it still comes admirably close to the ideal, As for Walsh, let's just say that if he's not a historian, he dis illuminating not only what it meant to live here during the plays an extremely reasonable likeness to one. For the last forty Russian Intervention, but also how it felt. That's good history, years, he has written nearly a score books of history and biog as far as I'm concerned. raphy based on original research. His topics span the invention —]. Kent Calder BT WINTER 2001-2002 Historical Images on the Web http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/archives/vismat/index.html representative sample of the Visual Materials Col lections at the Wisconsin Historical Society is now A available on the Society's Web site. You can browse and search for images, view them online, or purchase them for home or commercial use. Categories for which we have images online include: Agriculture • Political Activity Domestic Life • Recreation Education • Transportation Ethnic Groups • War Native America • Wisconsin Places WHi(V22)1387 Personalities • Work Staff of domestic workers, Black River Falls, c. 1895. Photograph by Charles Van Schaick. The Visual Materials Collections include approximately two million photographs, negatives, films, cartoons, litho graphs, posters, and ephemeral materials from private, busi ness, and governmental sources. These collections document the rich social, economic, and political history of Wisconsin and the upper Midwest as well as those ethnic groups, includ ing Norwegian Americans and German Americans, who helped shape its history. Daily life, timber operations, farm ing, town life, and transportation are just a few of the many subjects found in the collections. WHi(X3)38099 Fauerbach's Brewery sign, Madison, c. 1884-1892. Under Overhanging Rock. Photograph by H. H. Bennett, c. 1987. WHS Archives, PH Series 1704 "When the last battalion set sail from Archangel, not a soldier knew, no, not even vaguely, why he had fought or why he was going now, and why his comrades were left behind—so many of them beneath the wooden crosses. . . . Life will always be a crazy thing to the soldier of North Russia . . . and the glory of youth has forever gone from him." —John Cudahy, Archangel: The American War with Russia, 1924 T. John Cudahy of Milwaukee, a member of the 339th Infantry, appears on the left in this photograph taken December 31, 1918, during the Russian Intervention of 1918—19. On that day, author John Evangelist Walsh's uncle Michael Ken ney was killed in action as part ofthe same campaign. In this issue, Walsh tells the moving story of his uncle's par ticipation in "America's first undeclared, anticommunist crusade," an unfortunate episode that took the lives of many men from Michigan and Wisconsin. WISCONSIN magazine of Wisiory I Wisconsin Historical Society Press • 816 State Street • Madison, Wl • 53706-1482j