Stag at Sharkey's

Stag at Sharkey’s by George Bellows, American (1882-1925)
1909 Oil on canvas 36 1/4 x48 1/4 in. (92 x 122.6 cm)
Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection - Acquired in 1922
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

The greatest period of activity and influence for the American artists known as the Ashcan School was prior to World War I. The name, taken from the ever-present urban image of the garbage can, wasn't actually coined until the 1930s. The Ashcan School first came to the public's attention as The Eight, but was soon after known by the more colorful moniker "Apostles of Ugliness."

George Bellows, the semipro baseball player-turned-artist responsible for the enduring Stag at Sharkey's, was a disciple of the Philadelphia-born artist Robert Henri (pronounced "hen-rye"). Henri, educated in art in Paris and America, led a movement that rejected French Impressionism and American painting that glorified the American West. Henri and The Eight, a group which included John Sloan and George Luks (Bellows joined the group later) sought realism in art, finding their muse and their home in New York City. At the turn of the century, the reality of urban slums became a more compelling subject for artists than the open prairie or grand Western landscape. Coming about 10 years after such writers as Mark Twain and William Dean Howells had embraced realism in literature, Henri's circle produced paintings that were dark, dirty, and reflective of life in a changing America.

Despite a short career -- he died at 42 or 43 -- Bellows was one of Ashcan's stars. Stag at Sharkey's embodies the grittiness, violence, and masculinity of the new city. In 1909, when Bellows completed this painting, prizefighting was illegal in New York. Athletic clubs such as Sharkey's were the equivalent of Prohibition's speakeasies -- illegal, but they did a booming business. In Bellows's boxing match, the spectators are vulgar; their expressions indicate that they are at least as violent as the match they are watching. But the boxers themselves are reminiscent of stags in nature, still graceful while locked in combat.

Stag at Sharkey's has been part of the Cleveland Museum of Art's permanent collection since 1922, three years before Bellows' death.

This article is from a broadcast of Sister Wendy on American Art. Sister Wendy became well known initially on PBS in England in the 1990s

NOTE: The bald head in the lower right hand side of the painting features a self portrait of sorts - the artist himself at work. 

Slumgullion

Get a chicken if you can catch it
Get a pot if you can steal it
Take that bottle from your pocket
Let me hold it till I can’t feel it
Let me lay down by the fire
Let me get a little higher
Till my head turns to slumgullion

Four a.m. I’m sleeping peaceful
Dreaming of that girl in Billings
And she’s kissing me and crying
And she’s warm and she is willing
Brings me reality again
Turns my dreams into slumgullion

Never laugh at the devil
Cause he ain’t to be outsmarted
Bout the time you think you whipped him
You will find that he’s just started
He will run you off the sidin’
Jump right up from where he’s hidin’
Turn your plans into slumgullion

When you think you are a winner
And a number one all over
Don’t go smilin’ in the mirror
Don’t go rollin’ in clover
Every day’s a brand new mountain
Don’t drink long at any fountain
You’ll be turned into slumgullion

Forever Words Unknown Poems © 2016

A Book of poems by Johnny Cash

This Johnny Cash poem is a gem I know my siblings will enjoy. Mom made something she called Slumgullion. (It was on par with her routine recipes designed to feed six kids.Slumgullion is a word that means several things, most of which would not be flattering to Mom's version.

A watery stew; A watery waste left after rendering of whale blatter; Slurry associated with a mine. The term is derived from "slum" on old world for slime and "gullion" an English dialect term for mud. Mart Twain refers to a drink by that name in Roughing It (1872).

Saint Louis Art Museum Visit

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life With his illness exacting an increasing toll on his daily activities, the last months of Vincent van Gogh's life were nevertheless his most productive. Amid gradually increasing recognition for his work, he entered a period of extreme fruitfulness during his final 60 days on earth. Vincent was establishing an entirely fresh Post-Impressionistic style as he advanced toward the day of his death, July 29, 1890, at the age of 37.

Max Beckmann (1884-1950) Max Beckmann was a German painter widely regarded as one of the major figures of the Expressionist and New Objectivity movements. He was born on February 12, 1884 in Leipzig, Germany. As a young man he studied the works of Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Peter Paul Rubens. Beckmann served as a medic during World War I, his distorted angles, cynical self-portraits, and depictions of the grotesque aspects of humanity are often attributed to the trauma of his war-time experience. In 1933, the Nazi government dismissed him from his teaching position at the Stadel Art School in Frankfurt, and in 1937, he and his wife fled to Amsterdam where they lived for the next decade. After World War II, he was offered a position to teach at Washington University in St. Louis, and so he and his wife moved to America. Beckmann taught in different cities before settling in New York, where he was appointed as a faculty member at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. The artist died on December 27, 1950 in New York, NY.

https://www.pbs.org/video/broad-and-high-max-beckmann-st-louis-art-museum/

Robert Henri (1865-1929) Robert Henri was an American painter known for his use of lively brushstrokes and simplified forms. Henri’s preoccupation with Édouard Manet and his depictions of urban life were influential to the young Ashcan School painters John Sloan and George Bellows. Born Robert Henry Cozad on June 25, 1865 in Cincinnati, OH, the artist changed his name around 1882 in order to dissociate himself from his father who had recently killed a man. Henri went on to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia before continuing his education in Paris. Returning to Philadelphia in 1891, Henri befriended the younger painters Sloan and Bellows, who were working as newspaper illustrators at the time. As the artist began teaching a younger generation of painters, first in Philadelphia then at the Art Students League in New York, he became increasingly interested in pedagogical techniques, and later published the seminal book The Art Spirit in 1923. During his time teaching, he had a number of students that went on to become successful in their own right, including Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Henri spent much of the latter part of his career travelling and painting in New Mexico and Ireland. The artist died on July 12, 1929 in New York, NY. 

Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) Thomas Hart Benton was an American artist whose paintings, lithographs, and murals contributed to the Regionalist movement. Along with John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, Benton captured rural American life during the 1920s and 1930s. His large-scale works functioned as commentaries on societal injustices. Reflecting the values of the working class, the artist often focused his attention on the plight of farmers in the Industrial Age. “I have a sort of inner conviction that for all the possible limitations of my mind,” he reflected. “I have come to something that is in the image of America and the American people of my time.” Born on April 15, 1889 in Neosho, MO, Benton started his career as a commercial illustrator before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1907. Moving to Paris a year later, where he met and fell under the influence of the Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Returning to the United States during World War I, by the early 1920s he had distinguished himself as an outspoken opponent to abstraction. This change in attitude was inspired by a reappraisal of his Midwestern roots and a desire to make work that everyday people could appreciate. He went on to teach at the Art Students League in New York, where one of his pupils included the young Jackson Pollock. The artist died on January 19, 1975 in Kansas City, MO, where his former home and studio are currently a historic site and museum honoring his legacy. 

Morris Louis (1912-1962) Morris Louis was an American painter and founding member of the Washington Color School movement of the 1950s. His inventive painting technique utilizing vertical stains of color on raw canvas, was largely inspired by the work of Helen Frankenthaler.

Born on September 7, 1912 in Baltimore, MD, he went on to study at the Maryland Institute College of Art from 1929 to 1933. Following graduation, Louis found employment with the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project in New York. Returning to Baltimore in 1943, his work became increasingly influenced by Joan Miró’s abstract works. In 1952, the artist moved to Washington, D.C., where, like his contemporary Kenneth Noland, he set out to deconstruct what constituted a painting’s formal properties. Tragically, Louis was diagnosed with lung cancer caused by extended inhalation of paint vapors at the age of 49. He died that same year on September 7, 1962 in Washington, D.C. The following year, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York mounted a memorial exhibition of his paintings. 

Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) was an eminent American artist known for his abstract paintings. His use of bright colors, and simple shapes, contributed to the discourse of 20th-century painting. Born on May 31, 1923 in Newburgh, NY, he went on to study technical drawing and design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In 1943, he joined the army and worked as a camouflage artist, creating painted objects intended to misdirect enemy bombers. After the war, Kelly returned to Europe on a scholarship from the G.I. Bill. While studying in Paris, he befriended fellow American artist Jack Youngerman and saw the works of Pablo Picasso. He returned to New York in 1952, and established himself alongside Frank Stella and Al Held in rejecting the gestural brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionism with his pared-down Color-Field paintings. He died on December 27, 2015 at the age of 92 in Spencertown, NY. 

Art on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum and copy largely courtessy of ARTNET with edits by Wes Morgan. Note also the link to PBS video segment on Max Beckmann collection filmed at SLAM.  

McNea Stories

I have a lifetime of memories that includes my marriage; my two kids and their marriages; and the arrival of remarkable grandchildren. To be sure, my life is full of fond recollections albeit flawed by some lack of accuracy and clarity. One central figure in some positive vignettes of my high school era is the incomparable Jim McNea. Regrettably, I have not been able to stay in touch with Jim as I became an adult. The beauty of that fact is that, for me, thinking of Jim McNea I am a young man with a world of possibilities and dreams for the future. Paraphrasing a famous movie line: When the legend becomes the truth – print the legend.  

The stories I share are consistent with a philosophy I am sure I gained from my mother. I have come to believe that the truth belongs to the teller. Knowing full well that I cannot fully capture the truth of a person from any printed account but I submit that vivid memories that always bring a smile are telling in their authenticity.

The Record Club

McNea’s father was in law enforcement. So, as a high school chum, you might think you could gain some insights on how to avoid trouble in Lakewood, Ohio – the city of homes. But we were not yet fully law-abiding mature adults. It was an age of vinyl  records. Your record collection was part of your identity in high school. Cat Stevens, David Bowie, Elton John, Lou Reed, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Rod Stewart, Led Zeppelin, T. Rex, Chicago, Black Sabbath might be staples that were typically part of the Columbia Record Club advertising that featured some favorites. You get a great deal on a dozen albums in first order and all you gotta do is agree to pay full price for 10 records purchased during your 2 year membership. It was McNea who understood that he could beat that system. He was in until it was time to advise them that they could not hold him to the contract. After all, at 15 or 16 years of age he was a minor. (So, he would keep the initial collection with no further obligation. Thank you very much.)

Cruizin’ with McNea

By the time McNea got his driver’s license and acquired a kind of beat-up car to bomb around town. It brings a smile as I recall one such weekend outing with McNea at the wheel. Remember Jim’s dad was a cop. Getting pulled over on Detroit avenue could have consequences for our friend. He couldn’t have been more than 16 or 17 when he effectively pleaded with the police officer on Detroit Avenue. He didn’t mean to be speeding but the “the big kids were chasing us.” The officer let him go with a warning. When the coast was clear we laughed at Jim’s convincing act about alluding big kids on our tail in front of Manner’s Restaurant.

Scrub Club President

McNea was my teammate on LHS football team when we were in the que as Juniors to hopefully earn a place in the starting line-up. McNea was frustrated by the lack of playing time but made the the best of time as back-up. He declared himself the President of the Scrub Club. (We agreed that 2 minutes of playing time gets you eliminated from that organization. It was so much fun to laugh about our lowly status on the team at that point in time.) Later on, McNea had a playing time highlight. He and another player jumped on a fumble. He was always a team player but not happy about only being able to claim ½ of a fumble recovery after that play.

Rocket Robin   

My brother Greg and I have often recalled the point in time when the only way we would have a shot at playing hockey was to endure the madness of showing up when our club could arrange ice time. It was probably well after midnight on a school night when we found ourselves after a practice gathering at a diner on 117^th street jumping and jiving to Michael Jackson singing Rocket Robin on the juke box. We laughed and rocked like there was no tomorrow. Rockin' robin, (tweet-tweet-tweet) Rock-rock-rockin' robin' (tweet-tweedilly-tweet) Go rockin' robin 'cause we're really gonna rock tonight (tweet-tweedilly-tweet)

Party at the Morgans

Greg and I called McNea when Dave Bruner sent us a message via instant messenger on Facebook.  Denise Deville also got a message like that too. Dave suggested reaching out to McNea as Jim might not be long for this world. Dave Haas had hinted at this news in July at the LHS 45^th class reunion. Without knowing any details we couldn’t help smile at the Jim McNea we knew back in the day. He once learned from us that our parents would be out of town on a weekend night and used that information to declare that our house would be the place to party. His underground telephone chain and word of mouth resulted in a collection of classmates and friends at our house with their 3.2 Stroh’s beers and Boone’s Farm in tow. Our parents arrived home ahead of schedule. McNea was no-where in sight. My mom singled-out Denise saying “I’m especially disappointed in you, Denise.”  I assured my mom it was not Denise’s fault.  McNea was never identified at the instigator of that gathering but we spent some time raking beer cans out to the bushes in the coming weeks.

I ain’t dead yet

Greg and I called McNea and left a sort of rambling voice mail message in Septermber. He called back and assured us “I ain’t dead yet, but I appreciate the call.” The three of us has a pleasant conversation with a mixture of memories and updates. 

Jim McNea passed on October 12, 2019. Rest in Peace Jim. 

Greg - Just Be

We’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.

Not a hair out of place;

Exactly where we’re supposed to be.

That’s why we’re in this space.

Amidst the pain. Amidst The glory.

All the thought…our story!

How can we punish Ourselves as we do?

We Are just being human, through and through!

Release the Story. Release the Pain.

Become one with the present, the Burden will wane

Can’t believe how simple it is.  Hard to believe the joy!

We have access to our spirit! We have access to our core.

Be there for one another!

Be there and listen hard!

For being there for our brother,

We expand the love we guard.

Be still. Be quiet. Escape from all that chatter.

We soon find out.

And there is no doubt.

Our Love is all that matters.

Poem and art (mixed media paint and photo above) by Gregory L Morgan. My brother shared  both via a mobile phone text messages. I have taken the liberty of making a few edits to the poem. My brother is a master of positive reinforcement and mindfulness. No-one I would rather have as my wingman.  

Board Tour 6-29-19

Top images: Donut No. 3, Palm at the end of the parking lot, Herritage Schooner, Donald Judd Untitled 1984, Lipski Ball? Ball! Wall? Wall!, Recess, Robert Morris beams, Sugabus.

I am honored to be chosen to lead a tour of board members from Laumeier Sculpture Park in conjunction with a summer picnic gathering they have planned. They want to focus on some of the works closer to the residential entrance. I’ve narrowed to a list of a dozen sculptures for emphasis. I am sharing notes here. I like to focus on the artist and their early art education, and when possible, a bit of insight. Prompts shown in italics are some things I hope will inspire further thought discussion and perhaps a bit of personal research. (I trust the board tour will not leave 'em bored...hee hee)   

Tom Huck b. 1971 Potosi, MO. MFA printmaking Wash U, BFA SIU Carbondale – Evil Prints Bugs. Let’s start here where the founder of Evil Prints, Tom Huck rose to the challenge of bringing his fantastic prints to life as ride-on toys adjacent to the children’s pavilion.  

Donald Lipski b. 1947 Chi BA Univ Wisconsin, MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art MI – Ball?Ball!Wall?Wall! – 55 steel marine buoys. Lipski uses salvaged marine buoys, each weighing 650 pounds, placed just along the tree line. He’s an artist who brings a smile and you can encounter his work in some interesting places (e.g. Grand Central Station has a piece by Lipski that is a tree that hangs upside down with resin that mimics ice and is suspended above an entrance where hundreds of thousands of people pass in the heart of Manhattan).   

Fletcher Benton – b. Jackson, Ohio 1931 BFA Miami University Donut No. 3 Look up Benton and you will discover his art is part of museum and private collections. I was happy to encounter a Fletcher Benton near Nashville, TN at Cheekwood Botanical and Sculpture Park and a few years ago at a small private collection on Edgewater Drive just west of Cleveland.

George Greenamyer b. 1939 Cleveland – BFA Philly coll of art, MFA U Kansas 30+years MA coll of art – Heritage Schooner for Debra Lakin. This artist was a dedicated fan of our sculpture park and responded with heart to the tragic loss of our public relations and marketing director who lost her battle with cancer in her early 40s. Heritage Schooner is full of symbolism and a nod to our history.  

Geoffrey Krawczyk b. Oklahoma City 1978, Site Specific Recess (bricklayers, masons, carpenters, iron workers etc.). In response to an exhibition called Mound City the artist collaborated with union iron and brick workers and others to create a site specific place that pays homage to our region. 

Robert Chambers b. Miami 1958 BFA U Miami MA NYU Sugabus (6,000 pounds of bronze). I wonderful opportunity to revisit Cerberus (the mythical three-headed dog who guards Hades and the molecular shapes of Sugar). 

Donald Judd b. 1928 college Wm & Maty, Art Students League NY, Columbia – Minimalism Untitled 1984 - Specific Objects. A leader of the minimalist movement who himself eschewed the label of minimalist.    

Robert Morris b. KC 1931 studied at U Kansas and KCAI Untitled 1968-69 Morris's 1966 essay "Notes on Sculpture" was among the first to articulate the experiential basis of Minimalist artwork. It called for the use of simple forms and described Minimalist sculptures as dependent on the context and conditions in which they were perceived, essentially upending the notion of the artwork as independent in and of itself.

Alexander Liberman b. 1912 Kiev (now Ukraine) studied Paris, came to NY 1941 Vogue AD, Exec Dir Conde Nast 1941-1962 The Way – 18 Oil Tanks. We are lucky to have this signature piece. Visit Storm King in New York and see more monumental (often red) pieces by Liberman.

Robert Lobe b. 1945 Detroit, BA Oberlin College Palm at the End of the Parking Lot (inspired by Of Mear Being poem by Wallace Stevens. A lovely poem inspired this work that is not a palm and not really at the end of a parking lot.  

Richard Hunt b. 1935 Chi BAE – Art Institute of Chi – Linked Forms, Tower Hybrid. Visit Chicago and if you are walking along Michigan Avenue from East Wacker you may encounter a brilliant piece of public art just off the main retail way before you arrive at Millenium Park.

Arman (Armand Fernandez) b. 1928 Nice La Libellule I fun place to ponder the global nature of art movements. Here a statuesque woman is a deconstruction and combination with gold propeller blades. 

Of Mere Being – Wallace Stevens

The palm at the end of the mind,

Beyond the last thought, rises

In the bronze decor,

A gold-feathered bird

Sings in the palm, without human meaning,

Without human feeling, a foreign song.

You know then that it is not the reason

That makes us happy or unhappy.

The bird sings. Its feathers shine.

The palm stands on the edge of space.

The wind moves slowly in the branches.

The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down

Bottom Five images: Liberman at Storm King in New York State, Lipski in NYC's Grand Central Station, Richard Hunt just off Michigan Avenue in Chicago, a sample of one of Tom Huck's Evil Prints. 

Color Me Mindful

Be present – presence is the thing.

Be here – here and now.

Relax. Clear your mind.

Leave all of your anxieties behind.

Turn out the lights. Close your eyes.

Just be. Pause a moment and visualize.

Rolling waves onto the shore.

Clouds floating slowly across the sky.

Think about things of which you are thankful for…

Put aside worries. You can do it if you try.

Where-ever you are, just meditate.

Feel the sensation in your arms, fingers, toes. Contemplate.

Notice your surroundings. Appreciate it all.

Give yourself a needed break, before you fall.

The crowd cheers. You’re Casey at the Bat.

Win, lose or draw you are mindful. Imagine that!

Your fans are here. They came to see you play.

Be happy. Be kind. Be peaceful. Have a wonderful day.

Prepared as a “thank you to” the Wellness Committee on Cardinals Opening Day

By Wesley A. Morgan April 5, 2019 

Rachel Whiteread

Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful. This statement is the subject of a painting created by my son that hangs proudly in his New York City apartment. He’s a husband (as of 10/27/12) and father (as of 12/16/16). He carries that sense of things to this day.

I am reminded of his determined optimism as I view the comprehensive survey of the English artist/sculpture Rachel Whiteread (b. 1963) at the Saint Louis Art Museum on display March 17-June 9, 2019. The Exhibition brings together 90 works that charts her career from early works to the present. Ordinary and often overlooked objects are cast like a piece she calls (untitled) Pink Torso, a cast of a hot water bottle, or Line Up, a series of toilet paper rolls with color added to an array of what would be a throw-away items in a typical home. A series of doors or details or floors or the undersides of chairs all are repurposed and represented in resin, plaster, concrete or casts of readymade forms that are arranged on a manner that help one contemplate and reimagine contemporary art.

Whiteread also takes on projects in her practice that are on a scale of architectural magnitude. She has been called master of the miniature and the monumental. I like that. Employing traditional casting methods and materials that are commonly used in the preparation of sculptures rather than for the finished object like plaster, rubber and resin, Rachel Whiteread makes sculptures of the spaces in, under and on everyday objects.

A video available on YouTube gives us a sense of the unpretentious approach Whiteread has applied in over 30 years in her practice. She sips a red wine and is interviewed for Tate Talks in front of an audience at The Tate in London. https://youtu.be/WPalyXFpFLE

Rachel Whiteread became the first woman to receive the Turner Prize with her sculpture House (1993), a replica of the interior of a condemned London house created by filling a house with concrete and stripping away the mold. The Turner Prize (named for artist  J.M.W. Turner) is given to a British artist as an artist working primarily in Britain or an artist born in Britain working globally. Whiteread won the commission to design Vienna's Holocaust memorial.

The Saint Louis Art Museum acquired Detached III, a large-scale sculpture by Rachel Whiteread in 2017. The sculpture can be found near the museum sculpture gatden. Whiteread describes here casting process as mummifying the air. Casts of the negative spaces under and inside everyday objects and structures results in scale and surface detail. These sculptures are uncannily faithful to their molds. Detached III is part of a series of concrete sculptures depicting the space within garden sheds. 

Tour Secret Shopper at Laumeier

“Earthmover” by Marie Watt at Laumeier Sculpture Park

This article appeared in the GO! Supplement of the Saint Louis Post Dispatch on Friday August 17, 2018. The writer did not identify herself as a reporter. Needless to say, I felt like I passed the “secret shopper” test after reading it a couple of weeks after the tour I lead was featured in the story.

LAUMEIER SCULPTURE PARK TOURS WHEN 2 p.m. first Sunday of month – WHERE Laumeier Sculture Park, 12580 Rott Road – HOW MUCH $5 – MORE INFO 314-615-5278; laumeiersculpturepark.org

You can walk around Laumeier Sculpture Park for free any day of the week. So is it worth paying $5 for a one-hour tour? A friend and I went to find out. A regular outdoor tour is scheduled at 2 p.m. the first Sunday of every month. (See the park’s website for groups and other tours). Only five tour takers braved the muggy Summer day to walk around the 105-acre park and view many of its 60 pieces of artwork.

Docent Wes Morgan, wearing a Cardinal’s jerseys says he’s been giving tours for years, but he clearly still loves doing it, happily recalling things like who pursued the purchase of many sculptures and how long the pieces have been at the park. We started at the Aronson Fine Arts Center and soon rambled south, stoping at sculptures to learn more about their history, maker and material.

Sculpture Parks’ allure comes not just from how the art is placed in nature, but sheer size of many sculptures, Against a woody backdrop, a giant deer looks lifelike (if in a science fiction movie). A half- buried tire looks like something one might find on a vacant lot. But when Morgan explains how the artist alludes to both Cahokia Mounds and modern technology, the lowly tire acquires gravitas and its placement seems perfect.

A clockwise walk around the park allowed us to take in a great many of the artworks, and Morgan was still headed toward more after the hour was long spent.

Note that much of the walking was over uneven slightly hilly ground; people in wheelchairs might need to ask if the tour could be modified.

Laumeier has excellent signage for its collection so some of what the tour offered could be read on one’s own. What was extremely helpful, though were answers about previous sculptures (some had been on loan and were gone) and tales about how a few have been damaged by weather or vandalism. The tour not only offered more information and background on the artwork, but it also propelled us out of the air-conditioned indoors and to a captivating destination that caters to art-lovers, families, tourists, and even dog walkers. BY JANE HENDERSON

Is there room in our society for John W. Burns?

Is there room in our society for John W. Burns?

If so why? If not, why not?

At Lakewood High School (OH) our Civics class period periodically featured a movie with some thoughtful questions raised for summative assessment purposes. The question in the title of this blog I remember verbatim and repeated often among classmates with a bit of light-hearted sarcasm. Here are four movies I recall were part of our Civic instruction. In hindsight, it could be part of the reason I am so fond of classic films. 

Lonely are the Brave (1962) - When itinerant cowboy and drifter John W. (Jack) Burns hears that his old friend Paul Bondi has been sentenced to two years for aiding and abetting illegal immigrants, he returns to Duke City, New Mexico to Bondi's home. After a reunion with Bondi's wife Jerry and finding he can't visit Bondi in jail the nonconformist Burns sets out to join his old friend in the county jail on a drunk and disorderly charge. Burns gets into a brawl in a local cantina, but when the police decide to release him because of jail overcrowding, he assaults a policeman and is facing a one year jail term. Burns is disappointed to find that his friend does not want to escape and risk a longer sentence but do his time and return to his family. Using two hacksaws smuggled in his boot, Burns and two cell mates break out of jail and Burns heads for the Mexican border. Now facing a five year term for his escape, a sentence he could not endure because of his fiercely independent nature, he and his faithful horse Whiskey race up the mountain range to freedom with the authorities in hot pursuit. (John W. Burns is played by Kirk Douglas)

The Incident (1967) - Stark melodrama about two thrill seeking tough guys who terrorize late-night passengers on a New York City train. The random victims are more concerned with their own problems than helping each other and pray that they won't be next. But it's going to take a lot more than prayer to end this nightmare of fear and violence. Film debut of both Martin Sheen and Tony Musante as the hoodlums

The Ox-Box Incident (1943) - The Ox-Bow Incident takes place in Nevada in 1885 and begins with Art Croft (Harry Morgan) and Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) riding into the town of Bridger's Wells. They go into Darby's Saloon and find that the atmosphere is subdued, in part because of the recent incidents of cattle-rustling (the stealing of livestock) in the vicinity. Everyone wants to catch the thieves. Gil learns that his former girlfriend left town at the start of the spring and drinks heavily to drown his sorrows. Art and Gil are possible rustler suspects simply because they are not often seen in town. The townspeople are wary of them, and a fight breaks out between Gil and a local rancher named Farnley. Immediately after the fight, another man races into town on horseback, goes into the saloon and announces that a rancher named Larry Kinkaid has been murdered. The townspeople immediately form a posse to pursue the murderers, who they believe to be the cattle rustlers. 

12 Angry Men (1957) - The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young man is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open-and-shut case of murder soon becomes a detective story that presents a succession of clues creating doubt, and a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other. Based on the play, all of the action takes place on the stage of the jury room. This movie starred Henry Fonda as the juror that stood his ground until justice prevailed. 

The Dude Abides with Cecil B. Demille Award

Jeff Bridges gave an epic acceptance speech upon receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2019 Golden Globes (1/6/19). It made me smile. Among other things, he said he was lucky to work with Michael Cimino. Bridges reported going into the first time director’s office before shooting, and saying “Man, I’m so sorry, but I think you made a terrible mistake. I’m not feeling this guy at all. I feel so inadequate. I’m giving you late notice, I know, but please fire me.” Cimino’s response: “Jeff, you know the game tag? ...You’re it. You are the guy. You couldn’t make a mistake if you wanted to. You know, the life of this character is coming through you. It’s a done deal.”  

Bridges went on to say it was a wonderful vote of confidence and a great perspective. Jeff Bridges says he used it in the film — and in all the other movies as well as in his life. “You know, I’ve been tagged. I guess we all have been tagged, right? We’re all alive. Right here, right now! This is happening. We’re alive!”

 Globes

In a way only Bridges can, he added: “One guy, he had nothing to do with the movies, but I’ve taken a lot of direction from him. That’s Bucky Fuller. Bucky, he’s most famous for the geodesic dome, but he made a great observation about these oceangoing tankers.” Fuller noticed that the engineers were particularly challenged by how to turn these huge vessels. “They got this big rudder, it took too much energy to turn the rudder to turn the ship. So they came up with a brilliant idea, to put a little rudder on the big rudder. The little rudder will turn the big rudder, the big rudder will turn the ship. The little rudder is called a trim tab. Bucky made the analogy that a trim tab is an example of how the individual is connected to society and how we affect society. And I like to think of myself as a trim tab. All of us are trim tabs. We might seem like we’re not up to the task, but we are, man. We’re alive! We can make a difference! We can turn this ship in the way we wanna go, man! Towards love, creating a healthy planet for all of us. So I wanna thank the Hollywood Foreign Press for tagging me, and I wanna tag you all. You’re all trim tabs. Tag, you’re it! Thank you!”

Note: I have paraphrased Bridges a bit here, but I think you get the gist. We can all be trim tabs!