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(1947 - People dressed differently back then, even to get a turkey)

Thanksgiving 1947 - two years after the end of World War 2 and a little over 2 years before the beginning of Korea - that mid point in history where the world is at an uneasy calm while pretending to be normal.

Morgan Beatty: “Around the world today, the news reflects a hard discipline upon the people. In London, the Council of Foreign Ministers tries desperately to achieve a basis for peace. But as they worked, these foreign ministers, their government spoke in alien terms, through news events that hardly seem accidental. In France, the Communist controlled Federation of Labor has called out a million and a quarter French workers out of her six million. And not a striking union among them will listen to government proposals to go back to work. The French government has, with dramatic suddenness pointed a finger at Moscow. Not with mere paper charges but by direct action. Nineteen Soviet citizens in France have been deported for taking too active a part in French internal affairs. Today the Soviet government, stung to the quick, demanded that the French government produce the missing nineteen without delay at the Soviet Embassy in Paris. Supposedly that’s quite impossible now, because the nineteen are believed to be in Berlin.”

Thanksgiving sixty-two years ago and the broadcast News Of The World with Morgan Beatty. The world was, for the most part, a different place.

Well, we don't get formal to buy a turkey anyway . . .

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(Bohuslav Martinu - put Czech music into the 20th century)

I've always been a big fan of the music of Bohuslav Martinu, ever since my teenage years when Manny Aron (of Aron's Records in L.A.) turned me on to an lp of his Sinfonietta Giocosa (coming up in the next few weeks). Although in the 60s Martinu was still largely obscure in the U.S., his reputation has grown steadily to the point where he is now pretty much acknowledged as one of the real beacons of 20th century Czech music.

So I thought today I'd post one of his earlier works, his String Quartet Number 2, composed in 1925. This recording, an Ultraphon set of 78s recorded in 1947 (or 1948, I don't have the exact date) is, I think the first recording made of this work. It features the String Quartet of The National Theatre of Prague. I am pretty certain this hasn't seen the light of reissue anywhere, but there are several more recent recordings if you want something without the age factor attached.

Some people just aren't crazy about 78s.

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(Sarah Vaughan in 1947 - one of the greatest voices in Jazz)

Probably one of the greatest voices in the world of Jazz, Sarah Vaughan had the most incredible phrasing and range of any singer of her generation. Listening to her early recordings, the ones she did for small labels in the mid-1940's are really a wonderful introduction to the artist, at least for me. From 1946 to 1949 she recorded a number of sides for the Musicraft label with a veritable who's who of Jazz greats accompanying her.

This track, the pop standard I Cover The Waterfront, is given the Sarah Vaughan treatment that turns a well worn song into a unique experience. It was recorded on October 10, 1947 and features the Ted Dale Orchestra backing her up. 1947 was also the year Downbeat Magazine voted her most popular Female vocalist.

She's been gone for a while and I imagine there are people who have never heard her or are certainly not familiar with her early material.

In any event, here's a good introduction to a legend - or a nice reminder of one.

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(The Communist Party USA in 1947 - Come Brother, let us go underground together!)

Most people have no idea there was a legitimate Communist Party of the USA from 1919 to the early 1950s. They had candidates for various offices, from President to City Council, had conventions and were rather visible. In fact, they were so visible, a lot of people joined up - and that's what got them in trouble from around 1939, when the Dies Committee started investigating Un-American activities until their official banning during the Cold War period in the late 1940s. At their peak they boasted some 200,000 members, which shrank considerably when the Soviet Union signed the non-aggression pact with Germany prior to the Invasion of Poland. The Communist promise, at least Soviet style, left a bad taste in many mouths.

But in 1947 the debate heated up as to whether such an organization could any longer be considered a legitimate political group, with the current state of frozen relations between the U.S. and the Communist bloc countries. The fear was the American Communists would seek to overthrow the government with direct orders from Moscow and reek havoc in the process of doing it. The argument against banning them was, forcing them underground would make them more difficult to locate, as the actual bomb-tossing, agitating fringe were routinely rounded up and arrested on espionage charges when the group was legal anyway.

It's the old human nature argument that when you tell someone they can't do something, it makes them want to do it more. But there was big fear in the country at the time and this episode of Town Meeting Of The Air from April 3, 1947 asked the question "Should The Communist Party Be Banned In The U.S.?" brought a panel that consisted of Joseph McCarthy, newly elected Senator from Wisconsin. Former Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall, Edward Arthur Hayes of the American Legion and Leo Cherne of the Research Institute of America.

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(Jacques Helian - A taste of Big Band from France)

And now for something completely different.

Jacuqes Helian and his Orchestra (or et son Orchestre if you're so inclined) from February 24, 1947. "Josephine" featuring Zappy Max, Jo Charrier and Ginnette Garcin on vocals.

No doubt, you've probably never heard French Big Band of the 1940's before. Sure, everyone knows Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelly and The Quintet of the Hot Club of France. But Big Band? Probably not.

Jacques Helian (pronounced "eleeyan") was probably one of the biggest names in Jazz and popular French music from the 1930's to the 1960's. He recorded a massive amount of material and was wildly popular all over Europe and South America.

Aside from many of the Jazz musicians who toured or worked in France from the States, he's really not known here at all. None of his records were ever issued here, even though many were issued in French speaking Canada throughout the 1950's. Jacques Helian is pretty much of an unknown in these parts.

So now's your chance.

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(Truman and The Congress Of Nope in 1947)

The 80th Congress, dubbed the "Do Nothing Congress" by President Truman was the result of a Republican majority from the 1946 mid-term elections. Pretty much bent on overturning legislation enacted during the FDR Administration, they managed to stifle almost all the bills Truman introduced during the 80th session of Congress from 1947-1949. This meant, of course Universal Health Care which had been on the books in various forms since 1941 as well as a number of economic packages needed to deal with the Recession of 1947.

Pres.Truman: “On several occasions during the past year I have reported to the Congress and to the Nation on our general economic situation. These reports have told of new high levels of production and employment. Farmers are producing 37% more than in 1929. Industry is producing 65% more. In terms of actual purchasing power, the average income of individuals after taxes has risen 39%. The rapid growth of our post-war activity has exceeded expectations, and has revealed anew the potentialities of our economy. In each of my reports however, I have had to warn of dangers that lie ahead. Today, inflation stands as an ominous threat to the prosperity we have achieved. We can no longer treat inflation with spiraling prices and living costs as some vague condition we may encounter in the future. We already have an alarming degree of inflation.

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(Leslie Bridgewater - almost completely forgotten - even the photo is obscure)

When we think about Classical Music, we instantly think of the "meat-and-potatoes" crew. You know, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms - the usual suspects.

But there exists a vast quantity of composers who never became anything even close to household names, whose work has been almost totally forgotten and most all of it never recorded more than once.

Leslie Bridgewater was one of those names. Primarily known as a film and "light music" composer who did a lot of work for the BBC, Bridgewater did compose a number of serious works and almost none of them have been recorded or performed during his lifetime.

One of those works is his Piano Concerto, recorded in 1947 for the small British label Paxton with pianist Iris Loveridge and an anonymous orchestra conducted by the composer. It has not been performed (at least as far as I know) since this recording and it has never been presented in any recorded form other than the original 78's presented here.

Granted, it's not terribly original - borrowing heavily on Rachmaninoff and much of the film music he was composing at the time, making it a little on the generic side. But still, it's a serious piece of music by a composer who worked a lot in the 1940's and 1950's and he's been totally neglected and you get to hear it, probably for the first time.

That's what we're here for - tossing out discoveries.

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(Sen. Claude Pepper - withstood many attempts at mud-slinging)

It's always interesting (and sometimes gratifying) to hear Sunday Morning talk shows from the past, just as a way of reminding yourself things were never as bad as they are now with mainstream media.

Case in point is certainly Meet The Press. Originally begun in 1946 as a feature on the Mutual Broadcast System Radio Network before switching to NBC in 1947, it was the brainchild of Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak and produced in association with American Mercury Magazine (of which Spivak was Publisher), Meet The Press pulled no punches and offered some serious grilling to whatever guest happened to be invited on. It prided itself in not asking canned questions and sometimes the results were newsworthy in themselves.

This episode, from November 27, 1947 features Senator Claude Pepper (D-Florida), himself an outspoken FDR Democrat, talking about our Post-war foreign aid policy and what needed to be done about it in view of the increasing presence of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Sen. Claude Pepper: “I’m in favor of spreading democracy in every part of the world. But there are many ways to spread democracy. You can’t cram democracy down the throats of people. And you can’t buy them off from Communism. We haven’t got enough money to buy the people of the world off from Communism. The best way, in my opinion, to spread democracy is to establish democracy so firmly here, that we’ll be able to propagate it to all nations and peoples of the world, we’ll be able to help them, we’ll set them a good example and the like . . not to buy them or cram it down their throats. . .

Lawrence Spivak: “ . . but certainly Senator we oughtn’t help those who are spreading totalitarianism . . or should we?

Pepper: Mister Spivak, we and the Communists have been living in this world a good many years together. Karl Marx started talking about Communism as you know in the last century. And it seems to me that unless we are willing to be blown to some other world to get away from a world where communism exists, we’ve got to live in a world with Communism. And they’ve got to live in a world with Capitalism. And the sensible thing to do is to learn to live together. We’ve got to live together whether we like it or not.”

Needless to say, Pepper didn't endear himself to the right wing fear mongers in the Senate, who nicknamed him "Red Pepper" and repeatedly attempted to smear him during the 1950's.

Times have changed - so have the people and so have the politicians.

("It is far easier to make war than to make peace" - Georges Clemenceau - French Statesman, 1919)

2009 is the year for a lot of milestone anniversaries. The Moon landing in 1969, Tiananmen Square, the reunification of Germany, the first open elections in Glasnost-era Soviet Union and Solidarity's sweep to power in Poland - all in 1989. Pretty impressive year.

Post World War 2 has always been a fascination with me. Certainly the Cold War, the dissolving of former colonies and the emergence of Nuclear Superpowers were major factors in shaping Foreign Policy as we know it today. The role of Secretary of State became much more prominent during this time, probably more than any other in our history. George C. Marshall is mostly remembered as the author of The Marshall Plan and the system of Foreign Aid in helping rehabilitate countries devastated by the war.

But antagonisms between the Soviet Union and the former Allies began pretty much from the get-go, when the question of what to do about Germany came up.

Germany was unified in 1989 - it didn't happen overnight. Beginning in 1947, as this clip from Marshall's return from a failed London Conference points out, The Soviet Union was dead against any idea of unification. A stand which would eventually lead to the construction of the infamous Berlin Wall

The issue was simple - it was whether or not Germany was to continue divided, or whether the Allies could agree to recreate a unified Germany. Unless this could be achieved, all other questions relating to Germany would remain academic.