Who Killed the Federal Theater? - Public TV documentary this fall

[Oscar Christie]

A ninety minute TV documentary on the Federal Theater
will air on PBS in October, financed with $600,000 from the NEH
Project 891 and the Culture Wars

[Lance Morrison]

cant wait to see it, thanks!

[Glenn Anders]

Dear Oscar: Allow me to add my thanks to those of Lance.

While the PR people may need a proof reader and fact checker [-- i.e., "Marc Glickstein"], the documentary sounds highly interesting. It reminds me of Tim Robbins' docu-drama CRADLE WILL ROCK. While Robbins treatment of Welles and Houseman was less than kind or accurate, the movie has considerable merit in dealing with events on the political, economic and artistic scene. Discussions here about the jealous activities of Beatrice Welles have suggested to me that Robbins, who amazing claimed never to have read Welles' screenplay, in order to have a fresh perspective, may have been avoiding any possibility of a lawsuit by dropping "The" from the title. It may also have colored his attitude toward Welles as a character in his film. ("Preserve his reputation, eh. Well, I'll show her.") Another example of how much mischief has been caused by this possibly well-meaning offspring.

If you would like to read my alter ego Macresarf1's 1999 review of CRADLE WILL ROCK, which deals with some Federal Theater and Welles' issues, go to the following URL:

http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-2F84-93E8FE-38629B57-bd1

[Forgive the lack of credit to wellesnet at the moment. Epinions is evidently wrestling with The Big Worm. I'll get it into my update note for the review, hopefully, in a day or two.]

Thanks again.

Glenn

[mteal]

Tim Robbins, in his companion book to the CRADLE WILL ROCK film, claimed that that it was racism more then anything else that killed the Federal Theatre. It will be interesting to see what this new PBS docu says about it.

[Glenn Anders]

Whoops. I see they have made added my Update, but they are holding the revised review "in draft" while they work on the Epinions site. Try the URL tomorrow. They should have things fixed by then. (It must have been a tough problem because they seldom work overtime on Sunday down in Brisbane in recent times.)

Glenn

[Glenn Anders]

Mteal: Does Robbins suggest that it was mixed casts and black theater projects which disturbed Representative Dies?

[Macresarf1]

[Oscar Christie]

"Voices from the Federal Theatre", Edited by Bonnie Nelson Schwartz, will be available this fall from the University of Wisconsin Press. The publication is a tie-in with the Fall 2003 PBS special "Who Killed the Federal Theatre: An Investigation"

The book can be purchased with an accompanying DVD for $45.00 or $19.95 for book only from University of Wisconsin Press, 773-568-1550.

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you, Oscar. I have made note of the information on the book and DVD.

One thing I liked about Tim Robbins' CRADLE WILL ROCK is how it suggests the zany scope of The Federal Theater Project, clear across the country. And then if you check back on the origins of so many of the really distinguished talents of all kinds in American Theater, Movies and Television in the 1940's, '50s, and 60's, you realize how much the Project contributed to their development. The Project, Radio and the Armed Forces were the great training grounds for the Arts in those years.

BTW, I have now been able to put up Macresarf1's Updated review of CRADLE WILL ROCK at Epinions.

Thanks again, Oscar.

Glenn

[mteal]

Glenn,
I have to admit I liked CRADLE WILL ROCK, despite it's negative interpretion of Welles. Not only does Robbins present the zany scope of the FTP, but he also captures - as you said, in Altmanesque style - the chaotic scope of the times in which the FTP existed. I think Robbins probably felt the story of Cradle was too important to live in the shadow of Welles' legend, so he took pains to try and minimize Welles' involvement. He went too far, as most people seem to agree, but it's a good movie nonetheless, and the companion book is filled with very well-written and illuminating articles. Here's an excerpt:

"Voodoo Macbeth scored an early, unequivocal victory for the Federal Theatre Project, and in particular it's Negro unit. It also set a benchmark for (Hallie) Flanagan's goal of making innovative theatre that aroused real-world passions. But in pursuing it's mission, the FTP offended the racial attitudes of many white Americans at the time, represented in Robbins' film by the puritanical Hazel Huffman. As the movie suggests, it was sexual paranoia about "race mixing", even more then virulent anti-Communism, that eventually brought down the FTP".

Robbins then points out that the FTP's seeming willingness to bring blacks and whites together onstage (and in the audience) was particularly abhorrent to southern congressmen who were the source of much of FDR's political power. This is why Roosevelt never made racial equality part of his agenda.

[Glenn Anders]

Dear Wellesnetaddict: Thank you for the additional information from Tim Robbins' book. Does that come with the DVD? Or was it issued seperately?

I can understand the situation more clearly now. Martin Dies, who gave his name to the committee which became HUAC, would have been constrained to equate racial equality with Communism. In fact, to many American minds of the time, it was much worse than Communism.

Robbins' desire to demytholgize Welles' influence on The Cradle Will Rock is understandable, perhaps admirable, but he goes too far. When he lampoons Welles and Houseman as a couple of drunken dilletantes, he creates a new artistic conundrum, far more puzzling than the one he hoped to solve. The actors appear to create their own play and self direct their own performances, entirely without guidance. Director/Producer Welles and Houseman seem only ineffectual proctors, mostly bickering on the sidelines.

If you ever have had any experience in Theater, or almost any group effort, you will agree, I hope, that people need some guidance (and seek it); that they need feedback.

Somewhere recently, I observed that Robbins may have been affected by the zeal with which, as I understand it from discussions on Wellesnet, Beatrice Welles guards the financial possibilities of her father's early properties. I can think of no other reason for him to drop "The" from the title, and to claim that he never even read Welles' screenplay, than that he wanted to avoid being help up by injunctons, on a project which necessarily must have been on a tight budget.

You might note that in CRADLE WILL ROCK, an actor appears representing Jack Carter, who played the title role in Welles' earlier "Vodoo" Macbeth theatrical production. It is a shame that Robbins does not identify him and give him more business because he fits into the Federal Theater Project theme he was dealing with. Carter appeared in other Welles' productions; indeed, Welles took him to Hollywood; and if memory serves, he appears (also uncredited) in the Union Hall scene of THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI.

In fact there exists, a short subject, made by the FTP in 1937, "We Work Again," in which Carter appears (uncredited still) as Macbeth.

Thanks again.

Glenn.

[71-1045893605]

Tim Robbins' THE CRADLE WILL ROCK was god awful and inaccurate. The only saving grace was the production design (like in most bad movies with one saving grace). It's comparable to RKO 281, another abysmal piece of poseur cinema filled with inaccuracies. Tim Robbins is just another arrogant actor from the "new" Hollywood who thinks his lame-ass actors gang theatre is more important than other theatres
and that his films are "important". BOB ROBERTS was mildly amusing and ERIK THE VIKING was the one of the worst films ever made. Am I one of the only people that think actors like Robbins are over-rated and given too much clout in tinseltown?

GA

[Glenn Anders]

Well, Gregory, I wasn't entirely pleased with the film either, his characterization of Welles and Houseman to one side, but he made a movie, an independent movie about a great period in the history of American popular arts. CRADLE WILL ROCK has to my mind a provocative thesis and many good things in it.

If I might plug my "friend" Macresarf1's Epinions review, here you will find a partial defense of the film, and why it had some importance, in my opinion, and should have been given a little more credit:

http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-2F84-93E8FE-38629B57-bd1

Consider all the praise heaped on FRIDA, a film compable to CRADLE WILL ROCK, which was nice enough but turned away from every serious issue of relevance raised (but the relationship between Rivera and Kahlo). Somebody might actually learn something from CRADLE WILL ROCK, no matter if it was distorted. That is more than can be said about FRIDA, which is a decorative encyclopedia entry.. Beside the point, I suppose, but I needed to say it.

As for Robbins, he does not seem a very pleasant personality, and he may be more full of himself than the average actor, but it is hard to gauge the pressures he is under, in an industry which goes along with the lowest common denominator to get along. It might embitter anyone.

Too much influence? You mean that in his prime years Tim Robbins has succeeded in financing and making *three movies, BOB ROBERTS, DEAD MAN WALKING and CRADLE WILL WALK, which I doubt few others would touch? Yes, without Welles, Robbins would not have been able to make them, but if Welles had, many would be saying, as they said in his time, that he had "too much influence."

I would judge that CRADLE WILL ROCK was Robbins vision of how the Arts began to be changed into a mass commodity in the late 1930's. The film gave us a little more than the complete misconception which RKO 281 offered.

Individuals should be given a shot to succeed or fail, if they have a track record like Robbins' has. It has often been pointed out that we make a mistake in America of insisting an artist produces in every work both an artistic and a financial success, and as in the stock market, if his/her present project is not more successful than your last one, you the person is labeled a failure.

Welles knew that, too, Gregory.

Enough.

Glenn

*You can hang on Robbins only that he acted in ERIK THE VIKING; he did not direct it.

[Jeff Wilson]

I received my copy of the Voices from the Federal Theater book with accompanying DVD, and before I say anything about the book, let me give a brief review of the doucmentary, "Who Killed the Federal Theater?" The documentary is quite interesting overall, though it might suffer with some reviewers as it lacks the polish of the typical PBS show; this one seems more intended for classroom use than general entertainment, based at least on the look of it. The show is hosted by Judd Hirsch, and is filled with new and archive interviews with various personalities involved with the Fed Theater, including Welles associates Houseman, Norman Lloyd, Howard Da Silva, and Rosetta LeNoire (actress in Macbeth). The achievements of Welles and company are put within the larger context of the project, but given their due. One of the more interesting elements of the show is re-enactments of some of the productions, including the Living Newspapers and The Cradle Will Rock. Archive footage of Macbeth is included. In the end, Tim Robbins' assertion that race was the motivating factor in killing the Federal Theater is not borne out by the conclusions drawn by the makers of this show, who conclude it was a large numbers of factors, from actors and writers using the project to push radical agendas, to anti New Deal politicians using perceived wastefulness of the project as a weapon against FDR, to anti-Communist politicians like Martin Dies actively working against it and so on.

The DVD suffers from some dodgy mastering, but it's decent, with project posters, photographs, and further interview material provided as extras.

Oh, and the book. The book is good; it is basically where the interviews done in the film come from, with much more material not used in the documentary; interviewees include those mentioned above, as well as Jules Dassin, Jeff Corey, Studs Terkel, Arthur Miller, and Katherine Dunham, among others. A fair number of photos, of productions, as well as the interviewees at the time of their interviews, are included as well. It is only interviews, aside from the introduction, so don't expect an in depth history of the Federal Theater.

Overall, worth picking up if you're interested in the subject.

[Glenn Anders]

An excellent review, Jeff. Did I miss a postal address or an Email address where we might purchase the set?

Ah! Now I see it. Thanks, Oscar.

Regards.

Glenn

[Jeff Wilson]

The book can also be ordered through Amazon.com at a cheaper rate than the publisher, which will put some money back into this site. The link is on the Wellesnet News page.