February 14, 2007

The Weedpatch Gazette

Romance: The real power and greatness of America

Charles Schulz understood Valentine’s Day; he knew how to make Charlie Brown’s disappointment reach out to all the boys who wished they would receive a Valentine from some little girl whatever the color of her hair. But, alas, poor Charlie Brown never got that Valentine.

However, when I was a kid we all looked forward to this special day at school. Our teacher would supply the red construction and white lacy paper and paste with which we would all make Valentines. There would be those small, heart-shaped candies with the tiny mottos on them like “Will you be my Valentine?” Boys with real courage might give one of these to one of the girls in class.

Children are transparent in their likes and dislikes, so despite there being a lot of Charlie Brown’s who won’t get that Valentine from the little red haired girl today such disappointments won’t dilute the importance of this special day dedicated to romance, and Charles Schulz certainly understood this. And I believe he would have agreed “Casablanca” is the consummate romance film.

Today being Valentine’s Day it’s appropriate to mention Casablanca being thought by many the most romantic film ever made. In fact, I’m delighted to learn the FOX Theater in Bakersfield is having a special showing of the film, a tribute to the high regard so many of us have for the film, most especially those of us who remember seeing it when it first appeared in the theaters of America. Three years ago I wrote a column from which I quote the following excerpt:

A new movie was getting some attention toward the end of 1942 titled Casablanca. Mark Hellinger in his column “Best Bets” appearing in the Los Angeles Examiner of December 6, 1942 as a first anniversary issue of the attack on Pearl Harbor said of it:

A gripping and timely film is heading your way under the title of Casablanca. Here are Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid and Clara Rains heading a superb cast in as fascinating a movie as has been turned out by Hollywood in some time. A skillful blending of spy stuff, action melodrama and intelligent romance, Casablanca is guaranteed to bank the box office bell the nation over - and it rates all the praise that will unquestionably be heaped upon it. The Bergman lady has never been better in her entire life, and Bogart’s performance is brilliant throughout. Henreid and Rains are also excellent. And Mike Curtiz’ direction is outstanding. I recommend Casablanca to you most heartily.

Readers may note the typo “Clara” for Claude Rains, but I use the article as it actually appeared in the paper. Thanks to my mother, who was in Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack and was nearly killed by a shell landing and exploding in her kitchen, I have a complete, original Pictorial Review section, all twelve pages in the Los Angeles Examiner of December 6, 1942 she kept for so many years as a keepsake. As the first anniversary edition of the Day of Infamy, this section has pictures of the devastation of the ships at Pearl Harbor including the actual photo of the explosion of the U. S. S. Shaw at the very moment of being bombed. But it also contains the film review of Casablanca by Mark Hellinger below a large picture of Ingrid Bergman. One of the unique features of this article by Hellinger is the typo I mentioned of “Clara” instead of Claude Rains.

Mark wrote even better than he could possibly know at the time when he said the film was “guaranteed to bank the box office bell the nation over- and it rates all the praise that will unquestionably be heaped upon it.” Can you imagine what he would say today of his insights about the film? I find it amusing that there are people who think they know something of films and try to tell me Casablanca was not very notable at the time of its release. Wrong! Like GWTW it got a running start and never stopped!

As to Casablanca being voted number 2 by the AFI of the 100 best films ever made and nearly as old as GWTW, I can only wonder what the original Best Bets column by Mark Hellinger in the December 6, 1942 Pictorial Review section of the Los Angeles Examiner complete with the large picture of Ingrid Bergman is worth to a collector. But it belongs in a proper collection of such memorabilia to be preserved.

This issue of the Pictorial Review is unique. It is twelve pages and filled with events and pictures of the attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as the usual film and entertainment sections such as Hellinger’s reviews with great pictures of Rita Hayworth, Cornel Wilde, and Ida Lupino among others, along with the various advertisements of the time. The first page with a full color photo is of the actual strike on the U. S. S. Shaw,”The uncensored U. S. Navy official photograph hailed as one of the most remarkable pictures of all times. It shows the U. S. S. Shaw at the exact moment it blew up during Jap attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 1941.” The caption: “Remember Pearl Harbor.” There are other pics of the actual harbor following the attack, and the devastation of the battleships. (End)

Before she passed away and my being the last member of the family to whom she could entrust the various photos and mementos mom held so precious all her life I was given her scrapbook of WWII memorabilia along with the edition of the Los Angeles Examiner mentioned. But with the passing years and no one left to whom I could pass these things on, some of real historic value, a decision had to be made, especially, what to do with this very important edition of the paper? Selling it on eBay was one suggestion since it would undoubtedly have fetched a princely sum, but I knew it was too important a historic document to simply sell it to strangers.

My family had strong ties to Kern County; I was born in Weedpatch and have made contributions of my own writing to the Weedpatch Memorial Library, much of my other writing is steeped in the history of Kern County, of life in Bakersfield and here in the Kern River Valley. So some of the photos and other artifacts my mother left in my trust might properly belong in some museum. But when I began to make inquiry about the special edition of the Los Angeles Examiner it was Mike Jenner of the Bakersfield Californian who suggested I contact Ken Hooper, a Bakersfield High School history teacher. As I understood it, Ken was deeply involved with such historical documents and his classes were being instructed in their importance and preservation.

Whatever the disposition of the paper and other things, I believed my mother would be pleased to know something she had faithfully saved for so many years would find a home in Bakersfield and serve such a noble purpose in preserving what was now a valuable historical document of the time that had been of such monumental importance to both my mother and America.

After exchanging emails and phone calls, Ken agreed to come to my place and look at the paper. In the meantime my friend Mike Turner came over and took digital photographs of the entire paper so I would have them available to share with others online, the Mark Hellinger blurb for Casablanca being one example, and when Ken arrived he agreed to be the caretaker for the paper and I entrusted it to him where it is now being put to good use as a historical document in memory of my mother India Joyce Caldwell. My decision on behalf of my mother was not the “smart” thing to do since I did not profit from it; but it was the romantic thing to do, and by that measure the right thing to do.

This may seem an odd Valentine’s Day story, but for those sensitive to such a story the romance of it cannot fail to reach the hearts of such people. Casablanca and my mother belong to an America that saved the world from the Axis Powers, an America steeped in the culture and heritage of the Founding Fathers and Norman Rockwell. But as Margaret Mitchell wrote of her beloved antebellum South, a time that would be “Gone With The Wind,” never to return, so did Harper Lee in capturing and preserving a vital part of our history. But it takes the real romantics like these women and my mother to realize the historical importance of those things that made America what it was to win the war against the Axis Powers.

A younger generation cannot view Casablanca through the eyes of those of us who lived the events described in the film and were drawn to it in droves when it was first released. A younger generation can be excused for seeing the film as unbelievably altruistic and naive, but those of us who lived the time of the film certainly did not see it as such. For those of us at the time it was a living and breathing document of our era ever as much as the newspaper my mother saved for posterity. And it took Americans who believed in the message of Casablanca and that special edition of the Los Angeles Examiner, who believed in the America these represented to win WWII. Such an America is now gone with the wind never to return, betrayed by politicians and their corporate bosses; but that America now betrayed and gone believed in the power and greatness of romance, and that more than anything was the real power and greatness of America.

But for you ladies out there on this special day who are the romantics and understand my telling this story: “Here’s lookin’ at you kid.”