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A Deeper Dive

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Fannie Lou Hamer speaking to a crowd from a flatbed of a truck.
Hamer talks about attempting to register to vote and being expelled from her job and housing.

From the documentary Stand Up

Fascinating conversation with Mrs. Hamer about the formation of the Mississippi Democrat Party she co-founded. Listen carefully for the conversation about Martin Luther King/

A poster of Hamer’s 1970 run for Senator.

A letter informing Hamer she didn’t qualify to run for office. She ran anyway.
This song became a crowd favorite and a standard rallying cry. The title of the album if Hamer singing is called, “Songs my mother taught me.”

Here’s Latosha Brown one of Mrs. Hamer’s inheritors. The name of the organization she co-founded is Black Voters Matters. Show them some love. Love, Hugs, and Thank you, Ms. Brown.

Oh did I mention like Fannie Lou Hamer Ms. Brown is an inspiring singer?

A little note about freedom and Juneteenth.

The Apology of Socrates by Plato - YouTube
Click the pic to access Plato’s Apology of Socrates
The Death of Socrates painting by Jacques-Louis David

This is some fairly new sound of Martin Luther King talking about apologies and reparations due. The Root via Youtube

Letter from H.N. Moss Patrick Hosking via Twitter

Chevron pizza coupon. This story sparked demands from around the world for better compensation for the community, yet man people in the community didn’t want to upset the cart. Small town major employer.

After months of accusations of sexual assault and a hostile workplace this is Ellen’s responds. Youtube

Gordon says there are three pillars to a sincere apology.

  1. Acknowledgment. That starts with the word I. “I’m sorry, I was wrong…”
  2. Remorse and Empathy. “I’m going to work to be a better person whether you forgive me or not.”
  3. Restitution. In relationships, this means rebuilding trust, and defining what that means with your partner or friend.

Check out Brown’s new podcast.

Finally Words!

Here’s what I’d from life and from researching this episode. 

Don’t apologize unless you mean it and if you do decide to apologize go deep, bare your soul.

Don’t worry about the outcome.

Apologies are about giving something heartfelt not getting something ego-soothing strokes. 

Go for it.

Négritude

Me and my very 1970s afro

Professor John A. Powell leads the UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute.

Brené Brown’s now famous lecture on shame.

A Dialogue Between Wole Soyinka and Senghor about the conceo

Bjork and the all women Inuit Choir of Greenland. This encore music starts at 1:14.

Season One – Bonus Episode 02

Sex and the Zipper

The original design for the zipper by Whitcomb Judson. The problem is the zipper was nearly impossible to keep closed.

It’s true Gideon Sundback didn’t invent the zipper he just had the vision to see the future.

Marlon Brando leader of a motorcycle gang in the 1950 film The Wild Ones in the lusty leather jacket.

Elaine Stritch singing Zip. Have a listen it’s terrific.


Season One – Bonus Episode 01

The Hayes Valley Carnival of 1911

A map of the foot race that started the carnival. Illustration by Sergio Giovine

When the marathon was first thought of the idea of school children participating wrangled people.
The race was made of amateur runners from across the city. When it was over they were all beaten by a 14-year-old.

The King and Queen of the Carnival after the controversy surrounding Rose Cohen’s legitimacy.

Mrs. Richard Rees sang what the papers called a Scotch ballad called Bonnie, Sweet Bessie accompanied by 300 Hayes Valley school children. The newspapers, and crowd, loved her version and her voice.

California Boy’s Band were also featured performers at the carnival . Here they are about to perform at the White House.

The winners of the beautiful baby contest.
See, I told ya, known of these children look terribly happy, including the twins who won, look happy to be here.

The Hunt for The Doodler

Cops, Queers, and Serial Killers

Updated sketch including an aged photo of the suspect. Photo: San Francisco Police Department

Gerald Cavanaugh, Jae Stevens, Klaus Christmann, Frederick Chapin, Harald Gullberg
Report of Jae Steven’s death. A woman interviewed at the time says she heard cries of help around 11:30 p.m.


Frederick Elmer Capin was found on May 12, 1975



Press reports said the diplomat met and invited the Doodler back to his home in Fox Plaza at a “truck stop cafe.” I searched high and low for a truck stop cafe, as it turns out it was a restaurant and bar at Church and Market in SF called Truck with a bar in the back called The Rear End.

I made this map to show you how close the locations were to the individual victim’s activities.
1. Mr. Cavanaugh worked in a mattress factory McCloskey’s one of the few in San Francisco in the 1970s
2. Reports said one survivor met the suspect at a truck stop diner. The Truck Stop was a newly opened, 1974 gay eatery with a bar called the Rear End attached.
3. Fox Plaza is the scene of four knife attacks. One resulted in Mr. Gilbert’s death.
4. 1225 Folsom was the address of the Ramrod leather bar one of the places Gilbert was last seen. Finally, the Tenderloin district is a brisk nine-minute walk from Fox Plaza.



The approximate location of the five victims. These were all known gay cruising spots. A 17-minute drive from the locations above.



The Ramrod was one of the most popular leather clubs south of market and one of the last places George Gilbert was seen. In the podcast and in reported accounts the Doodler met one of his victims at a truck stop cafe. Actually, the Truck Stop, which opened in 1974, was a restaurant/bar at Church Street and Market. The bar was called the Rear End. Both the diplomat and Mr. Cavanaugh lived and worked just 15 minutes away from the Truck Stop.
Clarifications and updates to help investigators jettison old ways of thinking, adopting and adapting to the new. A great read. Sure SFPD will consult this as they work to find the suspect.

A poster from the one of the first gay pride parade in San Francisco

Life At The Movies

Hitchcock said he wanted to make a fun movie after the intensity of Vertigo.
With North By Northwest Hitchcock is at the top of his McGuffin game.



The dance sequence from the film Living Out Loud starring Holly Hunter stands in stark relief to all the other corny dance performances in none dance films.
One of the first great works that delved into the connection between our psychological state and the movies.
Here’s one of the great numbers from the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Swing Time the song is Pick Yourself Up without the lyrics. Compos Jerome Kern and Lyrics by Dorothy Fields

12 films that move and inspire me. What are yours?

Notes on a Scandal

Dec 1925 Photo: Mrs. Alice Rhinelander and her family Left to right: Mrs. Jones, Alice, Grace, Jones, and Emily awaiting a verdict. Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
A courtroom sketch of the moment Alice Rhinelander disrobed in court to determine her race. No one covering the trial could remember this level of degradation in a courtroom. This moment helped change the press sentiment towards Alice.
This little item appeared in the Times on December 15th 1924. not sure what the plan was had they found her.
One of the resources I just for this episode. Great book painstakingly researched.

Here are a few others:
Hidden Traps Scandal

From the moment this crime happened the press led a firestorm that resulted in the conviction of five teenagers who were completely innocent.

Check out the beautifully elegiac film When They See Us directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix. It captures the time and the coverage well.

This expression was unintentionally coined by an all-white newsroom that mistook the word and meaning of wild-n-out
which means acting silly or in a humorous way, a good time not a violent rampage as the other term was used to convey.

Jelly Roll Morton was one of the great jazz composers and pianists in the world.
Squeeze Me by Fats Waller written in 1923. Fats Waller’s comical deliver sometimes covered is brilliant musical ability.

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide

When the Rainbow is Enuf


The original cast recording with a eight of the poems. The musicians playing on the recording are all major jazz folks. My sister and I still have our copies of this album we got soon after seeing the show. Check it out.
Here’s a link to Ntozake Shange’s complete works.
The 1982 teleplay. Patti Labelle sings the first poem Dark Phases.
A terrific website listing all of the plays in Broadway history that have been written, directed, or starred black people.
A discussion about the film version of For Colored Girls. Shange was suffering from the effects of a stroke but her mind is clear and strong. Great conversation.


Pink On Purpose

We so rarely see images of teens of color from in the 1950s and early 1960s. Love this clip. From the Kino film collection.
Baby yourself with Ban-Lon!
Issac Hayes wrote the theme song for the film Shaft and it’s as funky now as it was then.

A list of great reads on women, clothes, and sexual politics.

Dougla

I dedicate this episode to my pal Jonny a dancer in every part of her life.

Nijinsky 1912
Nureyev’s production of The Afternoon of a Faun.
This is a scene from the film Nijinsky (George De La Pena) and playing the impresario Sergei Diaghilev (Alan Bates). The film is not great but this scene of the debut of the ballet is pretty gorgeous. Note: The last movement here is not what survives today.
This a film of Meguri the last performance I saw of Sankai Juku

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Gohatto, A Beautiful Mystery

The American trailer for the film.
The haunting theme. Note the tick-tock. it reminds me of time going backwards.
This is the woodblock that lead to one of the most famous ukiyo-e artist in Japan to jailed. Utamaro and all artist were warned not to create images of Hideyoshi. Utamaro used nanshuko to satirized him as a lusting fool and he paid a heavy price.

27 Wagons of Tennessee Williams

This episode is dedicated to a brilliant playwright in his own right. RB.

I have never understood the appeal of 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. Often referred to as a dark comedy. The character of Flora is used by the male characters brutally and she only gets a glimmer of agency by the end.

Meryl Streep played Flora early in her career and was nominated for a Tony. Leslie-Ann Warren play her in A&E’s production for TV. That production.

When Baby Doll, an adaptation, was made into a film Williams wanted Marilyn Monroe Kazan wanted Carroll Baker. He won. The Catholic League condemned the film and it was pulled from theaters. It went on to be among the highest money earners in its year.


Earthquakes and Consequences

Preparations are well under way here to move the 8,000 ton building 200 feet to its new location.
William Gottlieb’s photos were installed in the building’s windows. To see more of them.
Photo take to commemorate the school before the move. One of the reasons that the name kept changing is that students resented the dedication to Tharp and wanted the school to remain the High School of Commerce.
Newton J. Tharp was consulted on the rebuild of city hall apparently, he dissuaded fellow architects from using the remaining bones of city hall to save on costs as the original building was poorly built. The dome was the only thing used in the new structure.
This plague was commissioned by students at the cost of $290 to commemorate their school’s storied history. This plaque used to be just outside the door of the Van Ness street building but it has since been removed.
African American parents protesting school segregation in San Francisco as Brown vs. Board of education roiled in the courts. Photo: San Francisco Library
Principal Carl Bash saying goodbye to Flory Zanatta and Joe Rubino both of Commerce High School’s last class. When this new building was built in 1928 the student finally got their wish of a school with the name they preferred.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
The High School of Commerce as it stands today. Notice it has been renamed. Photo: Reggie
San Francisco’s Chinese Primary School. After the 1906 earthquake, the school was renamed The Oriental School to accommodate the expanded inclusion of Japanese, and a few Korean students are now banned from attending mixed schools. Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)

In February 1905, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper launched an anti-Japanese editorial campaign. In May 1905, The Japanese and Korean Exclusion League, a group composed, mostly of labor unions, was established to push for the segregation of Japanese and Koreans and the legal exclusion of additional Asian immigrants. Photo: San Francisco Library


Children paint at a WPA Chinese nursery school in San Francisco, California. March 14, 1938. Photo: National Archives
The Newton J. Tharp Commercial School today. Photo: Reggie
I took this photo of the buildings only external crack. You can see a glimpse of the William Gottlieb photos. See more of them here.

Creating High-Quality School

Here’s a speech Toni Morrison gave about the state of public education.

The Q&A alone is worth a viewing.

Lena Horne Live

The famous Sands Hotel billboard. Photo Credit: The Las Vegas Collection

Lenny Hayton was a conductor and arranger at MGM nominated for six Oscars winning two. Hayton and Horne were married secretly in Paris in 1947, secretly because it was illegal for whites and blacks to marry in the United States. They were a powerful duo and these two recordings demonstrate that beautifully.

I found these photos on the UNLV Libraries Special Collections site and boy was I shocked. I’ve never heard or read about a floor show while Horne performed. This floor show was constructed for a Vegas audience. Photo donated by private donor: UNLV Libraries Special Collections
I found these photos on the UNLV Libraries Special Collections site and boy was I shocked. I’ve never heard or read about a floor show while Horne performed. This floor show was constructed for a Vegas audience. Photo donated by private donor: UNLV Libraries Special Collections
Sorry, Horne’s head is cut off in this photo but the male backup dancer is something I wanted you to see. Photo donated by private donor: UNLV Libraries Special Collections
A program from one of Horne’s engagements. She and Hayton made a practice of playing Vegas during the holiday months because they paid much more.
A stock photo from the Copa Room in Las Vegas.
photo singer and actress Lena Horne and her husband Lennie Hayton are photographed in their hotel room at the Savoy in London, England. FILE Oct. 12, 1955
The intro and Billy Strayhorn’s tune Maybe open the recording at the Sands Hotel.
Promo photo used in an advert below.
Photo: Waldorf Astoria
That time Lena Horne had it with a racist hotel guest.
Click to enlarge.
WARNING: THIS ACCOUNT CONTAINS A LIBERAL USE OF THE N-WORD.


Here’s Lena Horne in 1956 her last film for MGM.
This gives you a very good idea of the Lena Horne that crowds encountered at the Sands and Waldorf. Click on the pix to watch the number.

The Empire Room Lena Horne and Lenny Hayton

Here is Horne 1960 performing one of those Lenny Hayton arrangements of From This Moment On.
Lena Horne and the cast of the musical Jamaica
My favorite number from Jamaica. A classic Yip Harburg/Harold Arlen tune.
The fellow in the blue britches is Ossie Davis with Ricardo Montalbán, Josephine Premice with Davis, and the great Adelaide Hall with the child. The most diverse cast ever on Broadway. First Broadway show to have both the lead and featured African American actresses nominated for Tony Awards.

This Billy Strayhorn song A Flower is a Lovesome Thing is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. Arranged by Lenny Hayton and performed here on UK TV on the Engelbert Humperdinck show.

Lena Horne SPECIAL aired 9/10/1969. To hear and see Horne perform Surrey with a Fringe on Top starts at 33:31.

In 1970 Belafonte Enterprises Production recorded a television special for ABC  
featuring Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne as double-billed artists. 

Mel Torme said when Lena Horne appeared on the Judy Garland Show it was a festive occasion with everyone working at their best to meet her excellence. This is a great pairing of two extraordinary talents having a ball.
Lena Horne The Lady and Her Music gave Lena Horne to relax and enjoy her audience maybe for the first time. You can see the full concert on youtube.

Here’s Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake’s hit I’m Just Wild About Harry Vaughn de Leath sings the tune. Credit: Library of Congress.

One last thing. Other than the live recordings in the podcast episode this is my favorite Horne studio album. Recorded in 1976 full of gorgeous and dynamic arrangements including the Strayhorn tune A Flower is a Lovesome Thing, My Ship, and the song I’ve got to Have You written by Kris Kristofferson. A little hard to find eBay can be a good source.

References used for the podcast: 
Lena: Lena Horne and Richard Schickel, The Hornes An American Family: Gail Lumet Buckley, Stormy Weather: James Gavin, Lena Horne: 1996 PBS American Masters, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (1981), Lena Horne interview Dick Cavett 1981, Gail Lumet Buckley: Terry Gross, Fresh Air. A special thanks to Su Kim Chung, Head of Public Services at Special Collections and Archives University of Nevada, Las Vegas


The Gay/Trans Panic Defense

One of the first accounts of the murder and a report of the trial date after much delay.




John Stephan Parisie photo credit: Pantagraph Newspaper Photo
Robert “Chip” Jackson photo credit: Pantagraph Newspaper

A newspaper ad for Chetson Motors

The psychological profile of the Golden State serial killer and rapist.
Homosexual panic was used to create a framework for the killer’s state of mind. This was prior to his murder spree.
Press credit: Sacramento (UPI)

Click the image to read the case homosexual panic case studies.


The cases were collected to justify the explosions.

This report served as the predicate to throw lesbians and gays out of the government military.

UPDATE

New York becomes the 5th state in the USA to ban the gay and trans panic defense. California, Illinois, Connecticut, Nevada, and Rhode Island have already passed bans, and several other state legislatures are considering similar measures. read more

For a transcript of Panic a Killer Defense Part One and Part Two.

Episode research resources: School Children Anti-Gay Warning: Youtube (Detective John Sorenson – Dade County Florida Morals and Juvenile Division
Beware of the Homosexual: Youtube
Music used in podcast episodes Free sounds: Segway music,  Art of Silence
Special thanks to: Mathew Helmer for his dissertation (Homosexual Panic), Cynthia Lee (George Washington University Law School), Case Text Notes,

Additional listening and reading: The podcast Making History here’s a link to an interview with the pioneer psychiatrist Evelyn Hooker who put her career at risk to conducted and published a study disproving the idea that homosexuality was a mental illness. If you want to learn more about the Lavender Scare here’s the website for the new documentary film by the same name narrated by Glenn Close.

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Thanks & Hugs!

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