American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA : When FDR Put the Nation to Work (61 page)

Al Smith endorses Landon: ibid., 618. Coughlin: ibid., 627–30; says drought God’s punishment for electing FDR: ibid., 608.

Crowd booing
Chicago Tribune
press cars: ibid., 633. FDR Chicago, New York quotes: Black, 389.

8. H
OPKINS IN
L
OUISIANA

Hopkins dedicating WPA addition to LSU stadium and Hopkins speech: New Orleans
Times-Picayune,
Nov. 29, 1936, 1; New Orleans
Item-Tribune,
Nov. 29, 1936, 1.

Charleston News and Courier,
Jan. 14, 1937;
Laurel Leader Call,
Aug. 29, 1936. From NARA, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information.

LSU football results: LSU football Web site: LSUsports.net.

9. A
T
W
ORK ON THE
T
IMBERLINE
(H
ENRY
M
OAR)

Progress on Timberline Lodge: Griffin and Munro, 1–14. Hopkins visit and comments:
Oregon Journal,
Sept. 15, 1936, 1;
Portland News-Telegram,
Sept. 15, 1936, 3; Wechner and Turner interviews, Friends of Timberline archives.

Hoffman Smith plans: interview online in Archives of American Art, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/hoffsm64.htm.

Addition to Timberline budget: Griffin and Munro, 30, 39.

Henry Moar’s role in the construction of Timberline Lodge and the details of his life are from the author’s interview with Moar, Portland, Oct. 24, 2002.

WPA projects in Portland and northwest Oregon: Neil Barker, “Portland’s Works Progress Administration,”
Oregon Historical Quarterly
101, 4(2000). Wilson and Wolf Creek highways:
Oregon Journal,
May 25, 1936, 1.

Status of Summit Meadow camp: Altorfer interview, Friends of Timberline archives.

Various jobs: Griffin and Munro, 6–14.

Camp menu and cost of meals from Altorfer interview.

Progress of construction: Griffin and Munro, 39–40.

Andirons described in Hoffman Smith interview, Archives of American Art.

Visual tricks employed by architects: Linn Forrest interview, Friends of Timberline archives. “Cascadian” described by Griffin and Munro, 5.

Race against deteriorating weather and incidents: Gano, Wechner interviews, Friends of Timberline. Masons using stoves: Griffin and Munro, 8.

Christmas planning and violinist: Altorfer interview, Friends of Timberline archives.

Lodge roofed: Griffin and Munro, 23.

Part V
The Arts Programs

1. T
HE
D
ILEMMA OF
A
RT AND
P
OLITICS

Federal One potential realized: H. Hopkins, 173–77.

Federal One spending and employees:. “Unemployed Arts,”
Fortune,
May 1937. “Usefulness doubted”:
NYT,
Sept. 1, 1936, 20.

Firebrand arts workers and reaction treated comprehensively in Mangione.

Artists’ expectations: Lynch and Barnet quotes from author interviews with the two artists, Lynch on Oct. 22 and Oct. 25, 2002; Barnet on Mar. 6, 2002.

Houseman on Flanagan: Houseman, 174. Cahill sketch from biographical note to Cahill papers, New York Public Library, online at www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/cahill.htm. Sokoloff sketch: Bindas, 3–14. Alsberg sketch: Mangione, 53–58.

Baker belief in decentralization: Mangione, 40–42.

Flanagan/Cahill vs. Baker, Cahill quotes: Cahill interview on line, Archives of American Art, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/cahill60.htm

2. T
HE
F
EDERAL
T
HEATRE
P
ROJECT
: P
RELUDE

WPA circus opening:
Bulletin of the Federal Theatre Project
1, 6 (1936): 23.

Honest Bill Newton: www.wpamurals.com/wpapools.htm. Elephant reprieve: N.Y.
Daily News,
Dec. 2, 1937, 39.

Preexisting units: Flanagan, 59. Gilbert and Sullivan troupe popularity: Flanagan, 79.

Flanagan ambitions: Houseman, 174. Centralizing service functions in N.Y.: Flanagan, 63.

Elmer Rice, N.Y. units set up: Flanagan, 59.

Federal pay problems: Robert Asure interview, Smithsonian Archives of American Art online: www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/asure65.htm. “Stupidity, inefficiency”: Flanagan, 61. Theaters reluctant to rent to FTP: Buttitta and Witham, 35.

Ticket prices:
NYT,
Jan. 6, 1935, 2nd news sec., N1. Biltmore rental: Buttitta and Witham, 35.

Unit-theater pairings: Flanagan, 62; Buttitta and Witham, 35. Late October move-in: Houseman, 182.

Houseman and McClendon and Negro Theatre units: Flanagan, 62–63. Lafayette condition, restoration: Houseman, 182.

Houseman Harlem background: Houseman, 180–84.

Welles, origins of “voodoo”
Macbeth
: Houseman, 185–86. Witch doctors: Houseman, 190.

Living Newspaper concept: Bentley, 72–73.

Mussolini invasion of Ethiopia:
NYT,
Oct. 4, 1935, 1. Rejection of selective arms sale ban: Kennedy, 395.

Flanagan assumptions regarding politicians: Asure interview, Smithsonian Archives of American Art. White House reaction to script: Bentley, 212.

Flanagan call to ER, Baker decree regarding State Department approval, Rice quitting: Bentley, 211–15.

Model Tenement
shelving: Flanagan, 135–36.

3. T
HE
C
URTAIN
R
ISES

Early FTP presentations: Houseman, 186; Flanagan, 69.

March offerings: Flanagan, 69–70.

Murder
as “religious ritual,” hot ticket, scalper prices: Buttitta and Witham, 46–47.

Dorothy Sherwood history: transcript of ruling by Court of Appeals of New York re
People v. Sherwood,
July 8, 1936.
Triple-A Plowed Under
description, quotes: Meltzer, 34–35. Reactions to
Triple-A Plowed Under
: Buttitta and Witham, 42–45. Flanagan quote: Flanagan, 184.

4. T
HE
V
OODOO
M
ACBETH

The account of the Negro Theatre’s
Macbeth
is drawn from Houseman’s vivid firsthand account, 189–205; also Buttitta and Witham, 64–65, and Flanagan, 74. Houseman’s recollections form the largest part of the account.

Troupe size: Houseman, 193.

Rumors: Houseman, 190–91. Stencils: Buttitta and Witham, 64. Foliage: Houseman, 200.

Dress rehearsal: Buttitta and Witham, 64.

“not next to Negroes” quoted by Houseman, 198. Scene at Lafayette, furs and jewels, and Flanagan corsage: Buttitta and Witham, 64.

Gellhorn quoted in Houseman, 201.

Theatrical workers employed, projects operating, Flanagan quote:
Federal Theatre Bulletin
1, 4 (March 1936): 5–6. Lancaster: Buttitta and Witham, 51; Cotten: ibid., 78–79; Lumet: ibid., 83.

5. S
ELLING THE
T
HEATER
(Y
OUTH
P
UBLICIST
F
RANK
G
OODMAN)

Bank description: Buttitta and Witham, 7–8. Bank failure: Kennedy, 67–68.

Frank Goodman’s account of his early life and the beginning of his tenure with the Federal Theatre Project: author’s interviews with Goodman, July 1, 2002; Mar. 12, 2003.

William P. Farnsworth: Flanagan, 67.

6. T
HE
A
RT
P
ROJECT
: M
URALS AND
I
NTRIGUE

Treasury art programs: Meltzer, 19–20.

Asure quote: interview, Archives of American Art.

Cahill production quotas: Cahill interview, Archives of American Art.

New York City time cards: Meltzer, 60; Cahill interview, Archives of American Art, 11.

McMahon: O’Connor, 56.

Pollock start on project and Sande Pollock name change: Naifeh and Smith, 274–76.

Cahill background: Cahill interview, Archives of American Art.

American Scene painting and practitioners from www.artcyclopedia.com/history/american-scene.htm.

WPA artists: Meltzer, 63–65. “Gloom pervades”:
NYT,
June 28, 1936, 22.

Mural spaces: Meltzer, 68–69.

Laning work at Ellis Island, New York Public Library: Meltzer, 70.

Alston work at Harlem Hospital: www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/wpa/index.htm.

Michael Lenson background, entry into FAP supervisory role: Lenson interview by Harlan Phillips Nutley, online at www.wpamurals.com/lenstrans.htm. Details of Essex Mountain mural: Essex Mountain Web site. www.mountainsanitorium.net/default.htm.

Development of art projects including glassblowing in N.J. and Corning reaction: Lenson interview.

Milwaukee handicraft project:
Milwaukee Journal,
Apr. 5, 1936, 16. New Orleans:
Sunday Item-Tribune,
Nov. 14, 1937 (National Archives WPA clip files, page illegible). Armenians and Turks in SF: www.masreview.org/4403/mlenson_interview.htm. Beach Chalet: author’s site visit, Jan. 30, 2001.

Graphic artists: Meltzer, 76–80.

7. T
HE
I
NDEX OF
A
MERICAN
D
ESIGN (AND
C
OMMUNITY
A
RT
C
ENTERS)

The origins and execution of the Index of American Design are covered in some detail at the pages devoted to it at the Web site of the National Gallery of Art: www.nga.gov/collection/iad/history/overview.shtm.

Cahill approval: ibid.; Meltzer, 81. Harnett, Egyptologist Smith: Meltzer, 83. Delaney quoted: Sam Yates, “Joseph Delaney,” introduction to retrospective exhibit, online at sunsite.utk.edu/delaney/retro.htm.

Researchers and artists in thirty-five states: Meltzer, 82.

Art Project workers as teachers: Meltzer, 84–5. Cahill Chattanooga story: Cahill interview, Archives of American Art.

Community art center push: ibid.

Number of art centers and attendees: Meltzer, 85.

Art centers in N.Y.: Meltzer, 87–8; Harlem Hospital WPA Murals Web site, www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/wpa/index.htm. Chicago: www.wpamurals.com/southside.htm.

8. T
HE
M
USIC
P
ROJECT
: “R
EAL
M
USIC” FOR
A
MERICA

The state of American music at the outbreak of the depression from a variety of sources, of which Andrist et al., 136–37, provides an example.

Professional musicians out of work: Bindas, 2–3. Eleven symphony orchestras: Meltzer, 93.

Work for musicians under FERA and CWA: Bindas, 2–3. Hopkins’s appointment of Sokoloff, reaction: ibid., 3–5.

Kiev orchestra: Meltzer, 92. Sale of Sokoloff violin: Bindas, 3.

Sokoloff background: Bindas, 3–5.

Sokoloff quoted: ibid., 5.

Elinor Morgenthau, California state FMP directors quoted: ibid., 5. Sokoloff comparison of swing with funny papers: ibid., 13. Sokoloff “stupid things”: ibid., 5. Pattison quoted: ibid., 13.

Weber persuades WPA to extend application date: ibid., 6.

Sokoloff favoring classical musicians, “no musical ability”: ibid., 5. Weber role and Sokoloff capitulation: ibid., 8.

Advisory committee: ibid., 6. Hopkins’s goal for music: Hopkins, 176. Sokoloff’s compiling audience numbers: Bindas, 9.

Musicians on payroll in 1935: ibid., 8–10.

Increase in musicians in 1936: ibid., 8–10. WPA brass band at Pier 58:
NYT,
Apr. 26, 1936, sec. 1, 29. Federal Civic Opera of San Diego: Peter Mehren, “San Diego’s Opera Unit of the WPA Federal Music Project,”
Journal of San Diego History
18 (summer 1972). Audience of 32 million:
NYT,
Oct. 11, 1936, sec. 2, 6.

Critics’ dilemma:
New York Post,
June 11, 1936, sec. I, 18.

Harry Hewes role: Bindas, 11. Sokoloff oversight of radio recording: ibid., 21.

Sokoloff avoids left-wing sentiment: ibid., 11. Band fired:
NYT,
Jan. 27, 1936, 1. Reinstated:
NYT,
Jan. 28, 1936, 2.

FMP playing work of American musicians: Bindas, 10.

New works by American composers, “wealth of talent”:
NYT,
Nov. 29, 1936, sec. 2, 7.

Kentucky Mountain Minstrels: Bindas, 13–14.
Tipica
orchestras in Texas: Bindas, 98.

Southwestern music: ibid., 97–98. Joint committee on the folk arts: Meltzer, 99.

Music copying service: Hopkins, 176; Meltzer, 91.

Music education: Hopkins, 176; Meltzer, 97.

Largest of the arts projects: Bindas, xiii.

Frank Gullino:
New York Herald Tribune,
May 19, 1936, 16.

9. T
HE
W
RITERS’
P
ROJECT

Jerre Mangione’s
The Dream and the Deal
covers the Federal Writers’ Project in detail from the author’s first-person perspective and is the major source for the information and anecdotes contained in this chapter.

Writers’ lobbying for a jobs program: Mangione, 34–38.

Origins of Writers’ Project in previous programs: ibid., 46; Selvaggio, 155.

American guides an idea of Marianne Moore: Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration of the State of California.
The WPA Guide to California,
New York: Pantheon, 1984 [1939], xvi. Other originators including Kellock: Mangione, 46.

Kellock background: ibid., 46, 63–68.

Evolution of guide concept, scrapping of other work: ibid., 47.

Alsberg respected by writers, preferences for company, and background: ibid., 53–56.

During the first months, disorder reigned: ibid., 53–93.

Baker quote: Baker interview, Archives of American Art: www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/bakerj63.htm.

At the California project: Mangione, 137. Roskolenko quoted: ibid., 176. In Chicago: Ibid., 84. In Boston: ibid., 105. Radicalism in New York project office: ibid., 155–90.