Mothers Through the Eyes, and the Years, of TV and Movie Makers
Some examples of how the mothers created by Hollywood have become more independent. Transcript of radio broadcast:
03 May 2009
VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. This week, our subject is mothers and how their image has changed over the years in film and television.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
In the United States and a number of other countries, the second Sunday in May is celebrated as Mother’s Day.
Early in the nineteen hundreds, a woman named Anna Jarvis began a campaign to honor mothers in America. She talked to friends and friends of friends. She wrote to congressmen, local leaders, teachers and newspaper publishers.
Finally, President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution in May of nineteen fourteen that officially established Mother’s Day.
VOICE TWO:
Anna Jarvis thought mothers should be honored with expressions of love and respect.
Professor Robert Thompson at Syracuse University in New York state is an expert on American popular culture. Fifty or sixty years ago, he says, the popular media image of mothers was the so-called perfect mother.
This was a woman who gave all her time to her husband, home and children. Many women in society felt pressure to try to be this kind of mother.
VOICE ONE:
Like many observers, Professor Thompson uses the example of the imaginary June Cleaver, the mother on “Leave It to Beaver.” That was a TV series from nineteen fifty-seven to nineteen sixty-three.
The Cleavers were a happy family. June Cleaver always had time and patience for her two sons, Wally and “Beaver.” His real name was Theodore. And if there was ever a problem she could not handle, her husband put things right.
The same was true on another nineteen fifties television show. The name said it all: “Father Knows Best.”
VOICE TWO:
A different image, though, could be found in films like the nineteen forty-eight motion picture “I Remember Mama.” It was set in San Francisco, California, in nineteen ten.
It was about a family that came from Norway. The Hansons were poor and they struggled to make their way in their new land.
Mama Hanson, played by actress Irene Dunne, had little education. But she knew a lot about dealing with people. She guides her family.
VOICE ONE:
Mama hates “going to the bank” — she means borrowing money. But she also recognizes the importance of staying in school. We listen as Mama and her family are sitting around the table, counting money.
(SOUND)
MAMA: “Yah, is all for this week. Is good. We do not have to go to the bank.”
SON: “Mama, mama, I’ll be graduating from Valley School next month. Could I — could I go into high, do you think?”
MAMA: “You want to go to high school?”
SON: “Well, I’d like to, very much, if you think I could.”
MAMA: “Is good.”
VOICE TWO:
“I Remember Mama” earned Irene Dunne an Academy Award nomination for best actress of nineteen forty-eight.
Two years later, in the lighthearted film “Cheaper by the Dozen,” Myrna Loy played Lillian Gilbreth, a mother of twelve. The father is an efficiency expert, an expert in doing things better and faster.
Lillian Gilbreth obeys her husband, or at least appears to. But she also has a mind of her own.
At one point, the husband, played by Clifton Webb, plays a joke on their son Bill. The father honks the horn just as the boy crosses in front of their car. Bill jumps. His father laughs and says the boy jumped six and nine-tenths inches.
VOICE ONE:
A little later, Bill plays the same joke on his father. This time his father does not laugh.
The mother has to save Bill from getting punished and, in the process, she teaches her husband a lesson.
(SOUND)
FATHER: “Who did that?”
BILL: “Uh, that was a good joke on you, Dad.”
FATHER: “Listen, young man. There’s a time and a place for jokes and a time and place for spankings. And the sooner you learn — get out. Get out!”
MOTHER: “Mercy Maude, Frank, I’ll bet you jumped six and nine-tenths inches that time.”
FATHER: “You’re right, son. That was a good joke on me. By jingo, I’ll bet I did jump six and nine-tenths inches. Oh these kids, these kids.”
(HORN SOUNDS AGAIN)
MOTHER: “Excuse me, dear, I did it. It was accidental.”
VOICE TWO:
The Gilbreths were a real family. “Cheaper by the Dozen” was the name of a book written by two of the twelve children.
Their mother, Lillian, was a psychologist and herself an expert in the area of industrial management. In fact, Lillian Moller Gilbreth is known as the mother of modern management.
A woman who graduated from a women’s college in nineteen fifty-three remembers hearing her as a graduation speaker. She remembers Lillian Gilbreth urging the young women to have full lives, with professions if they wanted them.
When Lillian Gilbreth received her doctorate in psychology, she already had four young children who attended the ceremony.
VOICE ONE:
Over the years, as mothers and American women in general became more independent, more and more of them entered the job market. They did so by choice or because of financial need or both.
Pop culture expert Robert Thompson says the changes could be seen in film and television as well. For example, working women used to be shown mostly as nurses or teachers, because those were the jobs that many held in real life.
But these days, whatever new jobs are written into movies or TV shows, some images of mothers are timeless. One is the image of the overprotective mother who gets too involved in her child’s life, even after the child grows up.
Diane Keaton plays just such a mother, a single mom named Daphne, in the two thousand seven film “Because I Said So.” Mandy Moore plays her daughter.
Daphne is supposed to be seen as one of those moms who mean well even if they make their kids crazy.
MAGGIE: “Mom, you have to leave her alone.”
DAPHNE: “Fine, but I just want you girls to understand something about motherhood. It’s the most impossible love. You tell me when it ends. You tell me when it stops!”
VOICE ONE:
For years, almost all leading movie and television stars, male or female, were white. Activists say members of racial and ethnic minority groups are still not well represented enough.
But the social gains that minorities made in the nineteen sixties and seventies led the way to shows like “The Jeffersons.” This was a comedy on CBS television from nineteen seventy-five to nineteen eighty-five. It about a newly wealthy black family that moved into a New York City high-rise with mostly white neighbors.
VOICE TWO:
One of the most popular TV shows ever was “The Cosby Show,” on NBC from nineteen eighty-four to nineteen ninety-two. It starred Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad as his wife, Clair.
He was a doctor and she was a lawyer. The Huxtables were presented as a strong, loving, successful African-American family. Still, pop culture expert Robert Thompson notes that Clair Huxtable was often shown more as a wife and mother than as a successful lawyer.
VOICE ONE:
“Mississippi Masala”"Mississippi Masala” was a nineteen ninety-one film about an ethnic Indian family exiled from Uganda when Idi Amin comes to power. The family lives in Mississippi, in the American South.
Daughter Meena is in love with a black American named Demetrius, played by Denzel Washington. Their parents strongly disapprove.
The family decides to return to Uganda, but Meena does not want to go. She calls her parents to tell them she is running away with Demetrius. Her mother, played by Sharmila Tagore, recognizes that they have to let their daughter lead her own life.
(SOUND)
MEENA: “Ma, I’m not coming back. I’m sorry, but I can’t go to Uganda. What would I do there?”
FATHER: “Are you alone?”
MEENA: “No, I’m with Demetrius. Pa, are you there? Ma, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. Why did he put the phone down?”
MOTHER: “I’ll talk to your father.”
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Barbara Klein. Transcripts and audio archives of our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Be sure to join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you with a song from a classic film from nineteen sixty-seven. It was about a relationship between a recent college graduate and what popular culture today would call a “hot mom” — a sexy older woman. The young man feels regret, which only grows as he falls in love with her daughter. The actress who played the mother was Anne Bancroft, the lover was Dustin Hoffman and the movie was “The Graduate.”
The Spoken Word is Still Heard After 35 Years At Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City
This non-profit arts organization is on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Transcript of radio broadcast:
27 April 2009
VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. This week on our program, we go to New York City to visit the thirty-five year old Nuyorican Poet’s Café on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
(Poem)
READER:
I search the chemistry of specific emotions,
a combination of earth and air
that evokes the vital detail,
the phrase that heats the frying pan,
the look that smiles,
offering signals that localize,
where I am, and clarify what I see.
I’m child of the Electronic Frontier.
I learn off the radio waves
of 98.7 Kiss F.M. salsa/disco jams,
that come from a Sony,
bought even though I need a coat,
even though I’m behind on my payments
for the Trinitron Remote Control Color T.V.
that I picked up at Crazy Eddie’s last month.
I’m child of the Columbia Space Shuttle,
and I need to know all the electronic gimmicks
invented yesterday
that are already primitive cousins
to those developed today
from eight to five P.M. in Japan.
VOICE ONE:
That poem, “Electronic Frontier,” was written by Miguel Algarin. The native of Puerto Rico is a founder of one of New York City’s oldest poetry centers — The Nuyorican Poets Café. Nuyorican is a mix of the words “New York” and “Puerto Rican.” It describes Puerto Ricans in America, whether they are in New York or not. The Nuyorican Poets Café is a non-profit arts organization in Manhattan.
Miguel Algarin is sitting in his special seat at the end of the bar in the Café. He has a deep warm voice. He appears exactly as a poet should — dreamy and intellectual, emotional and distant, humorous and dark.
VOICE TWO:
The Nuyorican Poets Café is in the Loisaida neighborhood of Manhattan. Its borders are debated. Generally, however, they stretch from Fourteenth Street on the north side, Avenue A on the west, Houston on the south and the East River. Loisaida is a “Spanglish” term, or English with a Spanish sound. Loisaida means “Lower East Side.” The area is also known as Alphabet City, and sometimes considered part of the East Village.
Historically, the Lower East Side has been home to poor immigrant populations. The area has seen German, Jewish, Polish, Italian and Irish populations come and go. In the forties, Puerto Ricans arrived. And this group stayed.
Loisaida was one of New York’s most dangerous neighborhoods in the nineteen seventies and eighties. It was filled with illegal drug sellers and users. The drug trade led to other crimes including stealing and violence. The crime became so bad in Loisaida that its lettered avenues got nicknames. Avenue “A” was for assault, “B” was for battery, “C” was for coma and “D” was for death.
VOICE ONE:
Loisaida was poor and dangerous. But the neighborhood was also home to undiscovered poets, playwrights, and musicians. These included Miguel Pinero, writer of the award-winning Broadway play “Short Eyes.” He abused drugs and was jailed for robbery by the time he was a teenager. His work speaks to the short, hard life he lived. Mister Pinero died of alcohol-related disease in nineteen eighty-eight at the age of forty-one. He was a co-founder of the Nuyorican.
The Reverend Pedro Pietri was another. A former soldier in the United States Army, the Puerto Rican native wrote protest poems and plays about civil rights issues in America. His work and his performances were always exciting. He wore clothes of a Christian clergy member and called himself “Reverend.” He died of cancer at the age of fifty-nine.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen seventy three, Miguel Algarin opened up his apartment to these men and other artists. They would gather to read their work and discuss social issues. His home became very crowded quickly. And there was another problem.
Miguel Algarin was working as a professor of English at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “The thing about poets,” he says, “is they like to stay up and talk until about four in the morning. Well, that is when I would be getting up to get ready for class.” He says he realized it was time to find a separate space where the poets could gather and he could still get some sleep.
Loisaida
Reverend Pedro Pietri helped found the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe.
At first, the Nuyorican moved to a rented space on Sixth Street in Loisaida. Then Miguel Algarin and the others were offered a nearby building on Third Street between Avenues B and C. Ellen Stewart, an experimental theater founder, owned the building.
This local arts supporter saw the promise the Café held for new poets. So, she sold the building for only one dollar. The Nuyorican Poets Café remains at Two Thirty-Six East Third Street today. However, in two thousand six, New York City officials renamed Third Street in Loisaida “Reverend Pedro Pietri Way.”
(MUSIC)
ROLAND LEGIARDI-LAURA:
“The mission of the Café has always been to support and nurture the arts of the spoken word. So poetry, plays, screenplay readings, and we’ve expanded to music and visual arts. Our deepest concern is to serve the underserved communities; the people who don’t normally get access to arts in the city. Poor people, youth, people of color, so we try to keep our prices very, very low. We try to speak to those communities and provide them with artistic experiences that they can relate to.”
VOICE ONE:
That is Roland Legiardi-Laura, a poet, filmmaker and member of the Café’s board of directors. And he leads many of the Café’s educational projects.
One of those he is especially proud of is the Nuyorican Power Writers Program. The year-long program involves at-risk children in troubled New York City schools. Mister Legiardi-Laura, poet and writer Joe Ubiles and arts education expert Amy Sultan founded the program in two thousand one.
The program aims to empower young people by making them masters of language and reading. The Power Writers’ motto is: “If you don’t learn how to write your own life story, someone else will write it for you.” Roland LeGiardi-Laura says life feels out of control for a lot of the children he works with. He says the program can help them take control, make changes and imagine a future. They can become “warriors of words.”
VOICE TWO:
Mister LeGiardi-Laura’s first Power Writers class was in the Bronx area of New York City. He opened it by telling the children: “The prisons in our country […] are filled with people who can’t read or write or speak well. In fact, this is the single most common distinguishing characteristic of an American prisoner — illiteracy. Not race, not economic background, not an abusive childhood. If you want to have power in this society you must master the three literacies […] this is a class about power, your power.”
The Power Writers program is the subject of “To Be Heard,” a film that will be released soon. It was paid for by the public television network.
VOICE ONE:
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Currently, the Nuyorican Poets Café is best known for its poetry slams. They are held Wednesday and Friday nights. Poetry slams are competitions where poets perform their poems in front of an audience and judges. The poems can be no longer than three minutes and are rated from zero to ten, ten being the best score possible.
Former Nuyorican board member Bob Holman brought slam to the Café from Chicago, Illinois, where it was born. The first slam at the Nuyorican was held in nineteen eighty-nine.
VOICE TWO:
At a slam earlier this month, one poet performed a piece about a girl with a very troubled mother. Here is part of it.
“I used to try on Mommy’s jeans, just to see how they’d fit on me. They were always too big for me, but I knew in my heart, that it was Mommy’s jeans that help me be the best Mommy that I could be.
But now, Mommy wears my jeans, adorned with glitter belts and shirts that say hottie and sexy. You see, my Mother’s not a hottie nor is she sexy. She’s more than that. She’s beautiful.
I just don’t think anyone’s ever told her so. She’s cocoa brown with the red undertones. She’s got the night sky in her eyes, but she wears glitter shirts so she can shine. Not knowing that she’s got the shine of the stars and moon in her eyes. Fire on her lips, Cherokee in her blood and Zulu in her hips, she’s a Goddess, who has never been told.”
VOICE ONE:
The Café also has hip-hop poetry and music events, poetry readings and theatrical productions. And Executive Director Dan Gallant says there is room for expansion. The Nuyorican Poets Café is in a three- level building. Mister Gallant says the two top floors could be turned into rooms for workshops or studios or more performance space.
All in time, he says. Mister Gallant notes that the Nuyorican is very lucky as a non-profit organization to own its own building, especially in a recession. “We don’t have to worry about paying rent,” he says. “We still can keep our entrance prices low. We don’t depend so much on money from donors.”
VOICE TWO:
Over the years, Loisaida has changed. It is now a desired place to live. Crime has been reduced. Housing prices have increased.
There are still some public housing apartments for poor people, but many fewer than in the past. Developers have bought a lot of empty properties and have re-built costly apartments. There are many popular restaurants and stores in the area.
The Nuyorican Poets Café looks and feels a lot like it did many years ago. But Dan Gallant did get the Café to modernize one way this past year. “We now accept credit cards,” he says proudly.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Our reader was Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for This is America in VOA Special English.
How the Web Could Save Newspapers, or Kill Them
U.S. papers search for ways to redesign an industry that helped incite the American Revolution. Transcript of radio broadcast:
19 April 2009
VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. This week on our program, we talk about the newspaper industry in the United States and its history.
(SOUND)
VOICE ONE:
The new movie “State of Play” is a political murder mystery. Ben Affleck plays a congressman whose assistant — and lover — is killed. Russell Crowe investigates her murder. Does he play a Washington police officer, a federal agent, a private investigator?
No, a newspaper reporter — a reminder, in this age of new media and social media, not to forget the importance of the old media.
VOICE TWO:
American newspapers are reporting what some fear is the slow death of their own industry.
Newspapers in the United States earn most of their money from selling space for advertising. The rates they charge are tied to the number of readers. But the number of people who buy newspapers has been falling for years. And this traditional business model has not worked very well on the Internet, especially not in a bad economy.
VOICE ONE:
Industry profits are shrinking, and many newspaper companies have large debts from buying other papers. Some papers have recently closed or declared bankruptcy or reduced their operations.
Newspapers are looking for new ways to reinvent themselves, new ways to earn money. That includes giving new consideration to an old idea — charging for at least some of the material that most papers now publish online for free.
Internet access to newspapers means that more people may read the news, which is good for society. But good reporting costs money. The question is how much are people willing to pay for news that they have gotten used to receiving for free?
Another suggestion is for newspapers to become nonprofit organizations. That way they could seek tax-free donations. But the industry has never worked that way.
VOICE TWO:
Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick
The first newspaper published in Britain’s North American colonies appeared in Boston, Massachusetts, in sixteen ninety. It was called Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick. It began with this news:
READER: “The Christianized Indians in some parts of Plimouth, have newly appointed a day of Thanksgiving to God for his Mercy in supplying their extreme and pinching Necessities under their late want of Corn, & for His giving them now a prospect of a very Comfortable Harvest. Their Example may be worth Mentioning.”
VOICE ONE:
Publick Occurrences appeared only once. The National Humanities Center in North Carolina explains on its Web site that the newspaper was banned for three reasons.
One was the failure of its editor, Benjamin Harris, to get permission to publish. Another reason was his criticism of the abuse of several French prisoners captured by Indian allies of the English. And the third reason was the publishing of rumors about the moral behavior of the French royal family.
VOICE TWO:
Newspapers that came later reprinted information from papers in Europe so as not to offend colonial officials. Politics and public policy issues were avoided until the New England Courant was published in Boston in seventeen twenty-one. It accused the colonial government, for example, of not doing enough to protect ships from pirates.
The editor, James Franklin, was arrested and barred from publishing the paper. So he appointed a new publisher — his younger brother Benjamin. And that was how one of America’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, came into public life.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Historians say a trial in the colony of New York in seventeen thirty-five went a long way toward establishing this freedom.
The trial of John Peter Zenger
Trial of John Peter Zenger
The trial involved, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal. The newspaper had criticized the colonial governor. Zenger was arrested and charged with seditious libel. English law defined seditious libel as criticizing the government in such a way as to reduce public confidence. It made no difference whether the criticism was true or not.
Zenger admitted criticizing the governor. But his defense lawyer asked the jury to decide if citizens have the right to criticize public officials. The jury found Zenger not guilty. Historians say the trial formed the beginning of the legal idea that a statement is not libelous if it can be proven true.
VOICE TWO:
Some newspapers in colonial America supported British rule. But historians say the criticisms of other newspapers helped lead to the American Revolution. After the war, newspapers supported different political parties and felt free to express opposition to the government.
Yet the government of the new nation did not always accept freedom of the press. The Sedition Act of Seventeen Ninety-eight made it a crime to criticize the government with the aim to damage it in the eyes of the public.
Three years later Thomas Jefferson became president. He permitted the act to end. Jefferson spoke about the importance of a free press. He said “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
VOICE ONE:
Newspapers in the early eighteen hundreds cost about six cents — too much for many immigrants and working people. Then in the eighteen thirties came the “penny press.” These newspapers cost just one cent, a penny. Also, they published a lot of crime and court stories to get more attention than other papers.
The penny press cost so little because businesses paid to advertise in the newspapers. The idea spread.
The Newspaper Association of America says advertising sales today provide about eighty percent of the money for newspapers. Advertising sales dropped sixteen percent last year, and the group expects another ten percent drop this year.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
In eighteen forty-six a group of New York newspapers agreed to share news. That alliance became known as The Associated Press. By that time, the use of the telegraph meant that newspapers could report on recent events.
Publishers often used their papers for political causes. Anti-slavery activist William Lloyd Garrison started a paper in eighteen thirty-one with the purpose of ending slavery. Historians say the first paper published by blacks in the United States was Freedom’s Journal. It appeared in eighteen twenty-seven. And immigrant groups created newspapers in their native languages.
VOICE ONE:
The hunger for news of the Civil War in the eighteen sixties increased the need for reporters. After the war, the purpose of newspapers slowly changed. They began to consider that their job was mainly to provide information. Still, they helped to influence events.
Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World in eighteen eighty-three and used it to improve the lives of workers and the poor. He helped start the practice known as investigative journalism. For example, the reporter Nellie Bly was working for him when she investigated the cruel treatment of patients at a mental hospital.
In eighteen eighty-nine, Pulitzer sent Nellie Bly on a trip around the world. He wanted to see if she could do it in under eighty days. She did it in seventy-two days.
VOICE TWO:
Joseph Pulitzer competed with another powerful newspaper publisher — William Randolph Hearst. Hearst published the New York Journal. At times, both of them seemed more interested in selling newspapers than in respectable reporting.
VOICE ONE:
No history of journalism is complete without discussing the work of two young reporters from the Washington Post. They wrote a series of stories after a break-in at Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Office Building in nineteen seventy-two. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein discovered wrongdoing that led President Richard Nixon to resign.
Robert Redford played Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman was Carl Bernstein in the movie based on their book “All the President’s Men.” In this scene, their editors are trying to decide if the paper has enough to support a story that the reporters want to print.
Dustin Hoffman, left, and Robert Redford in
Dustin Hoffman, left, and Robert Redford
EDITOR: “We’re about to accuse Haldeman — who only happens to be the second most important man in this country — of conducting a criminal conspiracy from inside the White House. It would be nice if we were right.”
OTHER EDITOR: “You double-checked your sources?”
EDITOR: “Bernstein, are you sure on this story?”
BERNSTEIN: “Absolutely.”
EDITOR: “Woodward?”
WOODWARD: “I’m sure.”
EDITOR: “I’m not. It still seems thin.”
OTHER EDITOR: “Get another source.”
VOICE TWO:
The look of American newspapers changed after USA Today arrived in nineteen eighty-two. Most of the stories were short. There was heavy use of color and images and things like opinion polls. People who compared it to television did not necessarily mean that as praise. But the new design succeeded and influenced many other papers.
Now newspapers are looking to redesign themselves for an increasingly online world. Millions more people read papers like USA Today and the New York Times for free on the Web than pay for a printed version. Publishers who chose that business plan might regret it now, but they might not have had much choice.
VOICE ONE:
Survival means changing as conditions change. Like any other business, newspapers have to balance their needs with the needs of their customers — the readers they need to keep.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.
