08. Socialist America - HUAC Arthur Miller and Marilyn
Well I have been trying to talk about the Beat poets for about three blogs now. And I am almost there . . .
But. . .
I still want to deal with some other events that happened in the 1950's communist witch Hunt which are so fascinating I just can't leave them out.
Introduction
In 1919 there already existed in the USA committees set up to investigate the infiltration of Bolshevism into the USA, the first "Red Scare" after the Russian revolution.
In 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was established as a special investigating committee, reorganized from its previous incarnations as the Fish Committee and the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist or fascist ties.
The HUAC (the House Committee on Un-American Activities)
Became a standing (permanent) committee in 1945 and consisted of 9 members. It's official function was to investigate suspected threats of subversion or propaganda that attacked "the form of government guaranteed by our Constitution".
How to Catch a Spy
A targeted individual who had raised suspicions received a subpoena to appear before the committee. During the hearing, the suspect was interrogated about their political beliefs and activities, they were then asked to name others who they may be aware of as having also been involved in communist activities.
Individuals who refused to answer the committee’s questions or to provide names could be indicted for contempt of Congress and sent to prison.
Subjects of HUAC investigations had the option of invoking their right to avoid self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment, but “pleading the Fifth” created the impression that they were guilty of a crime. In addition, those who refused to cooperate were often blacklisted by their employers. They lost their jobs and were effectively prevented from working in their chosen industry.
In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture industry. After conviction on contempt of Congress charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, "The Hollywood Ten" were blacklisted by the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists - including directors, radio commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters - were boycotted by the studios.
Before we draw any conclusions about this, a quick look at the biographies of these accused men will quickly reveal that many indeed had socialist leanings and had in fact been members of the communist party.
BUT
The point is, under the US constitution they had every right to do so!
Belonging to the Communist Party did not constitute a crime, and the Committee's right to investigate these men was questionable in the first place. The Committee demanded they admit their political beliefs and name names of other Communists.
These men relied on the First Amendment's right to privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought, but the Committee charged them with contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions.
The Alger Hiss Case
In a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 9, 1950, McCarthy claimed to have in hand a list of 205 people in the State Department known to be members of the American Communist Party. In later speeches and interviews he kept changing the figures, depending on his audience and his mood. On February 20 he held the Senate floor for six hours in a stormy session in which other senators tried to get solid facts from him.
In the 1950 elections McCarthy secured the defeat of several Democratic senators who had dared question and oppose him. He began to spread terror even among his peers and became a wily and dangerous opponent who would stoop to any level to discredit and eliminate competition.
In 1953, at the beginning of his second term as senator, McCarthy was put in charge of the Committee on Government Operations, which allowed him to launch even more expansive investigations of the alleged communist infiltration of the federal government. In hearing after hearing, he aggressively interrogated witnesses in what many came to perceive as a blatant violation of their civil rights.
A Step too Far. . .
First, the Army undermined the senator’s credibility by showing evidence that he had tried to win preferential treatment for his aides when they were drafted. A decision was made then to broadcast the “Army-McCarthy” hearings on national television. The American people watched as McCarthy intimidated witnesses and offered evasive responses when questioned. When he attacked a young Army lawyer, the Army’s chief counsel Joseph Welch thundered, in the now famous outburst. . .
“I think I never really gauged your cruelty, or your recklessness… If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I would do so. I like to think I’m a gentle man, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
By the time the hearings were over, McCarthy had lost most of his allies. The Senate voted to condemn him for his “inexcusable,” “reprehensible,” “vulgar and insulting” conduct “unbecoming a senator.”
He kept his job but lost his power, and died a broken man in 1957 at the age of 48 from what appears to be alcoholism.
He married his college sweetheart, Mary Grace Slattery, in 1940; they would have two children, Joan and Robert.
He had some potential and persevered until in 1944, he made his Broadway debut with "The Man Who Had All the Luck," which was a box-office flop that lasted only four performances. Undeterred he persisted and in 1947 his is play "All My Sons," attracted the attention of another rising star Elia Kazan, the director and subsequently became a hit on Broadway, his career as a playwright was taking off at last.
His next broadway production was "death of a salesman", the huge success of the play signaled the beginning of success and fame.
I have watched the 1985 film version and quite frankly found it heavy going. Maybe it's ability to touch a nerve is really rooted in a bygone era I couldn't possibly relate to.
And its on this note that again I find my self wondering what was it about this story that the Americans loved so much? It is slow moving and depressing, without any kind of resolution or redemption at the end.
It appears to be an indictment of the false perception of the so called American Dream, that was being promoted in the USA in the 1950's. This was the very idea that most middle class American whites also aspired to. Why did they enjoy watching one of themselves failing miserably?
The play explores the life of a family that never quite "made it". It is a story that highlights the fears of middle class white America.
Unfortunately Willy is getting old and it seems that the dream has passed him by, even though he still clings doggedly to the hope.
Success, he believes depends on a man being a “well liked” and “personally attractive”. These attributes as opposed to will inevitably and deservedly acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life.
This belief encouraged and promoted by the media and in advertising demonstrates the shallowness and unrealistic values that are used to market the mass produced goods being churned out by the huge American conglomerates.
We witness his inevitable downward spiral into despair as he becomes convinced that he does not match up sufficiently to the superficial qualities he so admires.
These qualities of a successful salesman are so essential to a man's happiness that when Loman realizes he does not possess these in sufficient quantities he subsequently cannot reconcile his mediocrity with his aspirations. Willy definitely goes to his death amid a cloud of delusion. Even after Biff totally lays it out for his dad that all he wants to do is be a cowboy or whatever, Willy refuses to understand. The pitiful salesman kills himself, thinking that Biff will use the life insurance money to start a business.
So much for the happy ending!
It appears that Miller is exploring the relationships in a family that has to accept its mediocrity in a world that cannot live with failure as an option. Miller is also making an early observation and criticism of the mindless exploitation of the consumer public by the American industrial machine hungry for expansion and outlets for their latest gadgets, all designed ostensibly to make life easier. His need to sell products has nothing to do with their usefulness, but rather they are a means to an end, which is this American paradise in which a man may relax in comfort and luxury and have no needs or fears.
Surely it was exposing the deepest fears and insecurities of the white middle class. It is easy to judge in hind site so they may have been blissfully unaware that they were sitting on a bubble which was constantly in danger of bursting, But perhaps many had memories of the crash of 1929 still lingering as indeed this had impacted the personal life of Arthur Miller.
So it is not clear why this play was such a hit! It is well constructed and the story is very well told, a piece of skillful play-craft. But for all its polish, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed a story that showed up the vapid emptiness of what everybody was so strenuously chasing after. "Writing like a man who understands people," theater critic Brooks Atkinson said, "Mr. Miller has looked with compassion into the hearts of some ordinary Americans and quietly transferred their hope and anguish to the theatre."
But they loved it and Arthur Miller certainly would never have to worry about being an unsuccessful mediocrity. Salesman, directed by Miller's close friend Elia Kazan, won the Tony, the Pulitzer and the Drama Critics' Circle Award—the first time a play had ever done so!
Arthur Miller became a sought after playwright after the success of "salesman". But an even larger success was waiting, just around the corner.
This story is set in the time of the earliest settlers in Salem Massachusetts in the year 1692.
So why a play about the Salem witch trials?
This was Miller's protest against the HUAC trials and in particular his answer to the persecution of the Hollywood Ten.
In using the Witch trials of Salem from 1692 Miller places his commentary at a safe distance from current events and is then able to let the audiences draw the parallel without making a direct statement. There already was a real risk of him getting himself accused of being a communist sympathizer.
He found his subject while reading Charles W. Upham's 1867 two-volume study of the 1692 Salem witch trials and proceeded to write "The Crucible" in about a year. The play opened on Broadway to unfavorable reviews but about a year later, a new production, became the familiar hit we know today.
There are two realities that are presented to the audience.
The one view is the reality that the community presents to the world
The other is the underlying reality that lies beneath the surface.
The community at Salem were Puritan Christians, having escaped the persecution of the Catholic Church in Europe they were part of many groups who had arrived in the New World hoping for a new freedom to practice their own version of Christianity.
Unfortunately their theology soon developed into a kind of dogmatic religious legalism that imposed a tightly controlled moral code over the people. It seems their version of Calvinistic Christianity had become completely fatalistic.
According to Historic records their strict Calvinistic theology taught that the fate of all people is pre-ordained, some are going to go to heaven and some are not, no matter how they conduct themselves here on earth. People who are pre-ordained to go to heaven must quite obviously display perfect behavior at all times, if they fell into sin, no matter how petty, then perhaps this was an indication that they had not been chosen. All members of the community naturally wanted to be seen as one the chosen and therefore lived under the constant pressure to exhibit the correct characteristics. Jealousy anger lust and desire, must never be seen and kept carefully locked away. All these unsavory elements were disguised with a veneer of civility and hypocritical righteousness.
Just how long could they continue before the cracks would start to show? Some deep wounds, bitter resentments and long held jealousy as well as some more basic human failings such as lust and greed just needed an outlet, of any kind to let off some steam.
The children who were caught up as 'witnesses' were going to be the one's who provided the perfect catalyst. What better way, in this type of community, to exact revenge on your enemy whilst retaining your religious piety, by accusing them of witchcraft.
The terrified Girls are under severe threat very quickly become experts at "manipulating the system"
Instead of realizing that there is a problem with the system, the local leaders find themselves trapped within their own flawed dogma. Because there is no way for them to examine their own frail natures openly, they instead try and deflect the whole situation onto an external threat.
This threat, no doubt, was the Devil and his Demons who had managed to infiltrate their community. People had wittingly or unwittingly become servants of darkness and could only be freed if they were brought to a place of open confession.
Obviously, the system failure is due to another human trait, that of self preservation, since most people will admit to anything to save their skins. So confessions predictably came, then the demand to name others followed and the more people who were accused the wider the circle of guilt expanded.
Just Like volcano building up pressure, unseen and undetected for a lengthy period, and then suddenly erupting, the Salem trials were about to explode in a human eruption of disastrous consequences.
The play reveals the hypocrisy and absurdity of the situation as the girls start accusing various people who quite obviously are normal, decent and upright.
The word of the girls becomes indisputable as they theatrically act out in the courtroom with all kinds of convulsions, writhing and shrieks which the leaders interpret to be manifestations of demonic activity. There are many who can see through the subterfuge, but because the whole community is so caught up with fear over who could be accused next they have no choice but to go along with the hysteria, any person objecting automatically is accused of compliance.
The Girls unwitting have opened a door for old rivals to legitimize revenge for past wounds, or to find a way to acquire property at no cost, since a condemned witch will by law give up all property rights and whatever is left will be up for grabs.
Therefore respected members of the community join in the finger pointing or at the very least don't try to prevent it.
The whole drama begins with Tituba, a slave import from Barbados.
She is able to enliven the drab oppressive lives of the girls by regailing them with romantic tales of sorcery and witchcraft, she teaches them spells by which they can snare the object of their desires. It is obvious that these girl were not deliberately seeking out witchcraft or occult practices, they are simply bored and frustrated with their inwardly turned lives and desperately long to break out of their tightly controlled religious constraints and have a bit of fun and give expression to their longings and desires. For these girls, Tituba was the source of entertainment and distraction, a welcome relief from the strictures of their everyday lives.
But after a time listening to stories is not enough, Tituba can teach them about potions which can have an effect, good or bad, on the one who takes it, they learn spells which will enable them to win the affection of the person of their desires.
Harmless Distraction Turns Deadly
One of the girls, Mary, makes a doll which she gives to Proctor's wife Elizabeth, it has a pin stuck in it.
We are not sure if the pin was left in it on purpose or by accident, but it's clear she learned this from Tituba.
We all know that Abigail is the one who wants to get rid of Elizabeth since she wishes to continue her relationship with John Proctor. . .
This is clearly a situation in which we see a communities fears, Jealousy and rivalry. . . all hidden undercurrents, like a festering sore, being forced to the surface.
Abigail works as a Char at the Proctors and when Elizabeth is not around has managed to seduce John Proctor who in a moment of weakness has given in to his lustful desires.
His wife, Elizabeth has discovered the affair and Abigail has been dismissed, John Proctor is sorry for his actions and is haunted with guilt, but in spite of himself secretly still desires Abigail, it is this longing he clearly gives him a sense of his own wickedness and he feels hopelessly lost. Abigail on the other hand doesn't have any misgivings, and clearly wants to continue the affair, but obviously without Elizabeth in the picture. She now finds herself in a position to make that happen and wants John Proctor to go along with the plan, which will free them to live their lives together without any accusations or guilt! Now she is in a position of power which she foolishly intends to use to her advantage, but will certainly have disastrous consequences
For Tituba up till then, it was good times
Who was nothing but the lowest kind of person in this society, an indentured slave who spent her days performing menial tasks from morning to night. Now she finds herself being sought out, she actually has some prestige and honor and the excitement of her audience may have inspired her to embellish and make her stories as colorful and as exciting as possible. Her little group began to grow, and then they wanted to try out a ritual or a dance and perform a ceremony. These had to be done in a private place, what better place than the woods where some rituals would have to be performed naked.
Such thrills and excitement. . .
Until . . . one fateful day, in the woods
The local Reverend Samuel Parris's discovered his ten-year-old daughter, Betty Parris, with some other girls with Tituba, engaged in some sort of pagan ritual in the forest. . . and the rest is History.
One could practically guarantee the demise of just about any person in a situation such as the Salem witch trial. Under close scrutiny every person will reveal a skeleton or two in the closet which can then be twisted into "evidence" to fit just about any charge, a witch, a communist or fill in the blank.
Miller makes his point, in the 20th Century our well educated, sophisticated world is just as prone to blind prejudice and the accompanying hysteria. But not everyone was fooled by all the Hysteria and it is these few people that Miller points to as the shining beacons in our society who need to stand their ground perhaps at any cost.
He no doubt would have seen himself as one of these lights during the dark days of the Communist witch hunts in America. But even enlightened leaders may find they are prone to their own bewitchments. . .
Well they say opposites attract. . .
The vapid shallow publicity loving show girl has an intimate relationship with a studious, retiring, publicity shy, intellectual! Two totally opposed natures and personalities! Could this story be a mirror for the seduction of John Proctor in the Crucible? Miller had already been involved secretly with Marylin when he wrote it, perhaps the failings of John Proctor were a little bit autobiographical?
When the couple made their relationship public, the press had a field day and of course nobody expected it to last.
The affair with Miller grew in spite of the Studio's fears that Monroe would be blacklisted over her involvement with a "communist sympathizer". Marylin came out in support of Arthur in the ongoing communist witch hunt when Miller was subpoenaed to appear before HUAC in 1956 and Marilyn accompanied him in spite of criticism from the press.
They made a serious bid to have children, which sadly failed after two miscarriages. It is often speculated that the lack of knowledge or understanding of the psychological effect of losing a child in pregnancy in those days, meant that Marylin's state of mind could have been seriously damaged by these experiences and contributed to her steady downward spiral.
Kazan not Jewish but Greek, (born in Constantinople which was actually part of Turkey) but obviously a very gifted director he was know for such legendary films such as 'A streetcar named desire' and 'East of Eden'.In the early 30's Kazan had been apprenticed to the Group Theater as an actor, and possible director. When he was in his mid-20s, during the Depression years 1934 to 1936, as had many young idealistic Americans he had been a member of the American Communist Party in New York, for a year and a half.
It was an idealogical dalliance taken not too seriously, but in April 1952, HUAC called on Kazan, under oath, to identify Communists from that period 16 years earlier. Kazan initially refused to provide names, but eventually named eight former Group Theatre members who he said had been Communists.
The names he supplied were already known to the committee, but this traitorous act of compliance earned him the animosity of many blacklisted fellow Hollywood compatriots who had resisted the Gestapo tactics of HUAC, including his friend Arthur Miller.
Following Senator McCarthy's censure, however, and his subsequent departure from the Senate, the American public grew increasingly wary of the "redbaiting" techniques employed by HUAC and others. The work of the committee continued to decline in importance throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s until the committee itself was renamed the House Internal Security Committee in 1969, prefiguring its eventual abolition in 1975.
In 1956 Marylin was at the height of her career - in her bid to become more independent she had started her own production company with her photographer Milton Greene, moved to New York to study method acting with Lee Strasberg. All this and her involvement with Miller as a serious endeavor to free herself from the "dumb-Blonde" persona and be seen as a serious actress.
The next year she was poised for success and her new company filmed "The Prince and the Showgirl", but she became pregnant during the filming and miscarried during the filming. After the completion of the film. She then took a Hiatus to concentrate on her marriage it was during this time she became pregnant and miscarried again.
In 1958 she began work on "Some Like it Hot" which probably became her greatest success in retrospect. After this it seems her relationship with Miller became strained, exacerbated with her constant need for barbiturates to function.
During her next film "lets make Love" she had an affair with her co-star Yves Montand, which was widely reported in the press. Something had gone seriously awry and her star was beginning to descend.
Miller was involved in writing for her last film "The Misfits" and his involvement was an attempt to create for her a role worthy of her talents. But the relationship faltered, Miller withdrew and began a new relationship with Inge Morath a photographer who had worked with John Huston in 1960 on the set of The Misfits. Monroe and Miller were divorced the next year.
In 1962, Monroe began work on what was going to be her next film, ironically named "somethings got to give". It was during this time that she was allegedly involved with Robert Kennedy (and his brother Ted) On May 19, she took a break to sing the famous "Happy Birthday" on stage at President John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Three months later - she was dead.
But. . .
I still want to deal with some other events that happened in the 1950's communist witch Hunt which are so fascinating I just can't leave them out.
Introduction
In 1919 there already existed in the USA committees set up to investigate the infiltration of Bolshevism into the USA, the first "Red Scare" after the Russian revolution.
In 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was established as a special investigating committee, reorganized from its previous incarnations as the Fish Committee and the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist or fascist ties.
The HUAC (the House Committee on Un-American Activities)
Became a standing (permanent) committee in 1945 and consisted of 9 members. It's official function was to investigate suspected threats of subversion or propaganda that attacked "the form of government guaranteed by our Constitution".
 |
| Anti HUAC demonstrations |
How to Catch a Spy
A targeted individual who had raised suspicions received a subpoena to appear before the committee. During the hearing, the suspect was interrogated about their political beliefs and activities, they were then asked to name others who they may be aware of as having also been involved in communist activities.
Individuals who refused to answer the committee’s questions or to provide names could be indicted for contempt of Congress and sent to prison.
Subjects of HUAC investigations had the option of invoking their right to avoid self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment, but “pleading the Fifth” created the impression that they were guilty of a crime. In addition, those who refused to cooperate were often blacklisted by their employers. They lost their jobs and were effectively prevented from working in their chosen industry.
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| After 1947, HUAC assumed new heights of prominence and notoriety, and the committee conducted a series of high-profile hearings alleging that Communists disloyal to the U.S. had infiltrated government, schools, the entertainment industry and many other areas of American life. |
The Hollywood 10
In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture industry. After conviction on contempt of Congress charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, "The Hollywood Ten" were blacklisted by the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists - including directors, radio commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters - were boycotted by the studios.
 |
| In 1947 HUAC Turned its attention to the movie industry, claiming that some filmmakers were inserting Communist propaganda into their films. |
BUT
The point is, under the US constitution they had every right to do so!
Belonging to the Communist Party did not constitute a crime, and the Committee's right to investigate these men was questionable in the first place. The Committee demanded they admit their political beliefs and name names of other Communists.
These men relied on the First Amendment's right to privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought, but the Committee charged them with contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions.
The Alger Hiss Case
The most infamous case began in August 1948, when a self-confessed former member of the American Communist Party named Whittaker Chambers (1901-61) appeared before the committee.
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| One of the members of HUAC in the late 1940s was a first-term U.S. representative from California named Richard Nixon. Nixon played a prominent role in the Alger Hiss spy hearings in 1948; 20 years later, he was elected the 37th president of the United States. |
During his dramatic testimony, Chambers accused Alger Hiss (1904-96), a former high-ranking State Department official, of serving as a spy for the Soviet Union. Based on allegations and evidence provided by Chambers, Hiss was found guilty of perjury and served 44 months in prison. He spent the rest of his life proclaiming his innocence and decrying his wrongful prosecution.
This new Witch-Hunt took on an ominous new twist when an ambitious and unscrupulous Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy climbed on the bandwagon
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| HUAC’s work served as a blueprint for the tactics employed by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s. McCarthy led an aggressive anticommunist campaign of his own that made him a powerful and feared figure in American politics. |
In a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 9, 1950, McCarthy claimed to have in hand a list of 205 people in the State Department known to be members of the American Communist Party. In later speeches and interviews he kept changing the figures, depending on his audience and his mood. On February 20 he held the Senate floor for six hours in a stormy session in which other senators tried to get solid facts from him.
In the 1950 elections McCarthy secured the defeat of several Democratic senators who had dared question and oppose him. He began to spread terror even among his peers and became a wily and dangerous opponent who would stoop to any level to discredit and eliminate competition.
In 1953, at the beginning of his second term as senator, McCarthy was put in charge of the Committee on Government Operations, which allowed him to launch even more expansive investigations of the alleged communist infiltration of the federal government. In hearing after hearing, he aggressively interrogated witnesses in what many came to perceive as a blatant violation of their civil rights.
 |
| Despite a lack of any proof of subversion, more than 2,000 government employees lost their jobs as a result of McCarthy’s investigations. |
A Step too Far. . .
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| 1954, McCarthy decided to "expose" communist infiltration in the armed forces. It is not clear why he should have picked on the army but it totally backfired on him. He had appeared completely untouchable up till this point and by now he must have felt invincible, but things took a different turn soon after the hearings began. |
“I think I never really gauged your cruelty, or your recklessness… If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I would do so. I like to think I’m a gentle man, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
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| Joseph N. Welch, chief council for the US Army |
He kept his job but lost his power, and died a broken man in 1957 at the age of 48 from what appears to be alcoholism.
Enormous Damage was Done
Thousands of alleged communist sympathizers saw their lives disrupted. They were hounded by law enforcement, alienated from friends and family and fired from their jobs. It maybe true that a small number might have been involved with revolutionary aspirations, most others were the victims of false allegations or had done nothing more than exercise their democratic right to join a political party.
Thousands of alleged communist sympathizers saw their lives disrupted. They were hounded by law enforcement, alienated from friends and family and fired from their jobs. It maybe true that a small number might have been involved with revolutionary aspirations, most others were the victims of false allegations or had done nothing more than exercise their democratic right to join a political party.
Though the climate of fear and repression began to ease in the late 1950s, the Red Scare has continued to influence political debate in the decades since and is often cited as an example of how unfounded fears can compromise civil liberties.
Introducing Arthur Miller
Born in Manhattan in 1915 of Polish Jewish immigrants, who were doing quite well until they lost everything in the 1929 financial crash which precipitated the great depression.
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| He started his career as a journalist but became fascinated with the world of theatre and began writing plays. |
He married his college sweetheart, Mary Grace Slattery, in 1940; they would have two children, Joan and Robert.
He had some potential and persevered until in 1944, he made his Broadway debut with "The Man Who Had All the Luck," which was a box-office flop that lasted only four performances. Undeterred he persisted and in 1947 his is play "All My Sons," attracted the attention of another rising star Elia Kazan, the director and subsequently became a hit on Broadway, his career as a playwright was taking off at last.
His next broadway production was "death of a salesman", the huge success of the play signaled the beginning of success and fame.
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| "Death of a Salesman" opened at the Morosco Theatre on broadway New York on February 10, 1949. |
And its on this note that again I find my self wondering what was it about this story that the Americans loved so much? It is slow moving and depressing, without any kind of resolution or redemption at the end.
It appears to be an indictment of the false perception of the so called American Dream, that was being promoted in the USA in the 1950's. This was the very idea that most middle class American whites also aspired to. Why did they enjoy watching one of themselves failing miserably?
The play explores the life of a family that never quite "made it". It is a story that highlights the fears of middle class white America.
 |
| Willy Loman is the main character of the tale who dreams of being a successful salesman. |
Success, he believes depends on a man being a “well liked” and “personally attractive”. These attributes as opposed to will inevitably and deservedly acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life.
This belief encouraged and promoted by the media and in advertising demonstrates the shallowness and unrealistic values that are used to market the mass produced goods being churned out by the huge American conglomerates.
We witness his inevitable downward spiral into despair as he becomes convinced that he does not match up sufficiently to the superficial qualities he so admires.
These qualities of a successful salesman are so essential to a man's happiness that when Loman realizes he does not possess these in sufficient quantities he subsequently cannot reconcile his mediocrity with his aspirations. Willy definitely goes to his death amid a cloud of delusion. Even after Biff totally lays it out for his dad that all he wants to do is be a cowboy or whatever, Willy refuses to understand. The pitiful salesman kills himself, thinking that Biff will use the life insurance money to start a business.
So much for the happy ending!
It appears that Miller is exploring the relationships in a family that has to accept its mediocrity in a world that cannot live with failure as an option. Miller is also making an early observation and criticism of the mindless exploitation of the consumer public by the American industrial machine hungry for expansion and outlets for their latest gadgets, all designed ostensibly to make life easier. His need to sell products has nothing to do with their usefulness, but rather they are a means to an end, which is this American paradise in which a man may relax in comfort and luxury and have no needs or fears.
Surely it was exposing the deepest fears and insecurities of the white middle class. It is easy to judge in hind site so they may have been blissfully unaware that they were sitting on a bubble which was constantly in danger of bursting, But perhaps many had memories of the crash of 1929 still lingering as indeed this had impacted the personal life of Arthur Miller.
So it is not clear why this play was such a hit! It is well constructed and the story is very well told, a piece of skillful play-craft. But for all its polish, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed a story that showed up the vapid emptiness of what everybody was so strenuously chasing after. "Writing like a man who understands people," theater critic Brooks Atkinson said, "Mr. Miller has looked with compassion into the hearts of some ordinary Americans and quietly transferred their hope and anguish to the theatre."
But they loved it and Arthur Miller certainly would never have to worry about being an unsuccessful mediocrity. Salesman, directed by Miller's close friend Elia Kazan, won the Tony, the Pulitzer and the Drama Critics' Circle Award—the first time a play had ever done so!
Arthur Miller became a sought after playwright after the success of "salesman". But an even larger success was waiting, just around the corner.
This story is set in the time of the earliest settlers in Salem Massachusetts in the year 1692.
So why a play about the Salem witch trials?
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| One Day a Group of young Girls are caught cavorting in the Woods. . . |
This was Miller's protest against the HUAC trials and in particular his answer to the persecution of the Hollywood Ten.
In using the Witch trials of Salem from 1692 Miller places his commentary at a safe distance from current events and is then able to let the audiences draw the parallel without making a direct statement. There already was a real risk of him getting himself accused of being a communist sympathizer.
He found his subject while reading Charles W. Upham's 1867 two-volume study of the 1692 Salem witch trials and proceeded to write "The Crucible" in about a year. The play opened on Broadway to unfavorable reviews but about a year later, a new production, became the familiar hit we know today.
There are some very Obvious Parallels and some very subtle ones. . .
There are two realities that are presented to the audience.
The one view is the reality that the community presents to the world
The other is the underlying reality that lies beneath the surface.
What is the Underlying Reality?
The community at Salem were Puritan Christians, having escaped the persecution of the Catholic Church in Europe they were part of many groups who had arrived in the New World hoping for a new freedom to practice their own version of Christianity.
Unfortunately their theology soon developed into a kind of dogmatic religious legalism that imposed a tightly controlled moral code over the people. It seems their version of Calvinistic Christianity had become completely fatalistic.
According to Historic records their strict Calvinistic theology taught that the fate of all people is pre-ordained, some are going to go to heaven and some are not, no matter how they conduct themselves here on earth. People who are pre-ordained to go to heaven must quite obviously display perfect behavior at all times, if they fell into sin, no matter how petty, then perhaps this was an indication that they had not been chosen. All members of the community naturally wanted to be seen as one the chosen and therefore lived under the constant pressure to exhibit the correct characteristics. Jealousy anger lust and desire, must never be seen and kept carefully locked away. All these unsavory elements were disguised with a veneer of civility and hypocritical righteousness.
Just how long could they continue before the cracks would start to show? Some deep wounds, bitter resentments and long held jealousy as well as some more basic human failings such as lust and greed just needed an outlet, of any kind to let off some steam.
The children who were caught up as 'witnesses' were going to be the one's who provided the perfect catalyst. What better way, in this type of community, to exact revenge on your enemy whilst retaining your religious piety, by accusing them of witchcraft.
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Events have now conspired to bring all these hidden aspects of the community right out to the open. |
Instead of realizing that there is a problem with the system, the local leaders find themselves trapped within their own flawed dogma. Because there is no way for them to examine their own frail natures openly, they instead try and deflect the whole situation onto an external threat.
This threat, no doubt, was the Devil and his Demons who had managed to infiltrate their community. People had wittingly or unwittingly become servants of darkness and could only be freed if they were brought to a place of open confession.
Obviously, the system failure is due to another human trait, that of self preservation, since most people will admit to anything to save their skins. So confessions predictably came, then the demand to name others followed and the more people who were accused the wider the circle of guilt expanded.
Just Like volcano building up pressure, unseen and undetected for a lengthy period, and then suddenly erupting, the Salem trials were about to explode in a human eruption of disastrous consequences.
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| The cast of The Crucible at Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh Photo: Drew Farrell |
The play reveals the hypocrisy and absurdity of the situation as the girls start accusing various people who quite obviously are normal, decent and upright.
The word of the girls becomes indisputable as they theatrically act out in the courtroom with all kinds of convulsions, writhing and shrieks which the leaders interpret to be manifestations of demonic activity. There are many who can see through the subterfuge, but because the whole community is so caught up with fear over who could be accused next they have no choice but to go along with the hysteria, any person objecting automatically is accused of compliance.
The Girls unwitting have opened a door for old rivals to legitimize revenge for past wounds, or to find a way to acquire property at no cost, since a condemned witch will by law give up all property rights and whatever is left will be up for grabs.
Therefore respected members of the community join in the finger pointing or at the very least don't try to prevent it.
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| The Girls initially trying to deflect blame from themselves have completely beguiled the leaders of the community and have no choice but to persist with the escalating subterfuge. |
The whole drama begins with Tituba, a slave import from Barbados.
She is able to enliven the drab oppressive lives of the girls by regailing them with romantic tales of sorcery and witchcraft, she teaches them spells by which they can snare the object of their desires. It is obvious that these girl were not deliberately seeking out witchcraft or occult practices, they are simply bored and frustrated with their inwardly turned lives and desperately long to break out of their tightly controlled religious constraints and have a bit of fun and give expression to their longings and desires. For these girls, Tituba was the source of entertainment and distraction, a welcome relief from the strictures of their everyday lives.
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| They find a welcome outlet from Tituba whose tales ignite their imaginations about far away romantic and pagan Barbados. |
But after a time listening to stories is not enough, Tituba can teach them about potions which can have an effect, good or bad, on the one who takes it, they learn spells which will enable them to win the affection of the person of their desires.
Harmless Distraction Turns Deadly
One of the girls, Mary, makes a doll which she gives to Proctor's wife Elizabeth, it has a pin stuck in it.
We are not sure if the pin was left in it on purpose or by accident, but it's clear she learned this from Tituba.
We all know that Abigail is the one who wants to get rid of Elizabeth since she wishes to continue her relationship with John Proctor. . .
This is clearly a situation in which we see a communities fears, Jealousy and rivalry. . . all hidden undercurrents, like a festering sore, being forced to the surface.
Abigail works as a Char at the Proctors and when Elizabeth is not around has managed to seduce John Proctor who in a moment of weakness has given in to his lustful desires.
His wife, Elizabeth has discovered the affair and Abigail has been dismissed, John Proctor is sorry for his actions and is haunted with guilt, but in spite of himself secretly still desires Abigail, it is this longing he clearly gives him a sense of his own wickedness and he feels hopelessly lost. Abigail on the other hand doesn't have any misgivings, and clearly wants to continue the affair, but obviously without Elizabeth in the picture. She now finds herself in a position to make that happen and wants John Proctor to go along with the plan, which will free them to live their lives together without any accusations or guilt! Now she is in a position of power which she foolishly intends to use to her advantage, but will certainly have disastrous consequences
For Tituba up till then, it was good times
Who was nothing but the lowest kind of person in this society, an indentured slave who spent her days performing menial tasks from morning to night. Now she finds herself being sought out, she actually has some prestige and honor and the excitement of her audience may have inspired her to embellish and make her stories as colorful and as exciting as possible. Her little group began to grow, and then they wanted to try out a ritual or a dance and perform a ceremony. These had to be done in a private place, what better place than the woods where some rituals would have to be performed naked.
Such thrills and excitement. . .
Until . . . one fateful day, in the woods
The local Reverend Samuel Parris's discovered his ten-year-old daughter, Betty Parris, with some other girls with Tituba, engaged in some sort of pagan ritual in the forest. . . and the rest is History.
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| This bleak but thought provoking play revived a colonial story that had long been forgotten but from this day on the kind of mindset that Miller was addressing was recognised in a more universal sense. |
Miller makes his point, in the 20th Century our well educated, sophisticated world is just as prone to blind prejudice and the accompanying hysteria. But not everyone was fooled by all the Hysteria and it is these few people that Miller points to as the shining beacons in our society who need to stand their ground perhaps at any cost.
He no doubt would have seen himself as one of these lights during the dark days of the Communist witch hunts in America. But even enlightened leaders may find they are prone to their own bewitchments. . .
Well they say opposites attract. . .
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In 1956 Arthur Miller dumped his wife Mary and got married to the hottest star in Hollywood. |
The vapid shallow publicity loving show girl has an intimate relationship with a studious, retiring, publicity shy, intellectual! Two totally opposed natures and personalities! Could this story be a mirror for the seduction of John Proctor in the Crucible? Miller had already been involved secretly with Marylin when he wrote it, perhaps the failings of John Proctor were a little bit autobiographical?
When the couple made their relationship public, the press had a field day and of course nobody expected it to last.
The affair with Miller grew in spite of the Studio's fears that Monroe would be blacklisted over her involvement with a "communist sympathizer". Marylin came out in support of Arthur in the ongoing communist witch hunt when Miller was subpoenaed to appear before HUAC in 1956 and Marilyn accompanied him in spite of criticism from the press.
They made a serious bid to have children, which sadly failed after two miscarriages. It is often speculated that the lack of knowledge or understanding of the psychological effect of losing a child in pregnancy in those days, meant that Marylin's state of mind could have been seriously damaged by these experiences and contributed to her steady downward spiral.
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| Miller had actually met Marilyn through a Hollywood director Elia Kazan, |
Kazan not Jewish but Greek, (born in Constantinople which was actually part of Turkey) but obviously a very gifted director he was know for such legendary films such as 'A streetcar named desire' and 'East of Eden'.In the early 30's Kazan had been apprenticed to the Group Theater as an actor, and possible director. When he was in his mid-20s, during the Depression years 1934 to 1936, as had many young idealistic Americans he had been a member of the American Communist Party in New York, for a year and a half.
It was an idealogical dalliance taken not too seriously, but in April 1952, HUAC called on Kazan, under oath, to identify Communists from that period 16 years earlier. Kazan initially refused to provide names, but eventually named eight former Group Theatre members who he said had been Communists.
The names he supplied were already known to the committee, but this traitorous act of compliance earned him the animosity of many blacklisted fellow Hollywood compatriots who had resisted the Gestapo tactics of HUAC, including his friend Arthur Miller.
Following Senator McCarthy's censure, however, and his subsequent departure from the Senate, the American public grew increasingly wary of the "redbaiting" techniques employed by HUAC and others. The work of the committee continued to decline in importance throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s until the committee itself was renamed the House Internal Security Committee in 1969, prefiguring its eventual abolition in 1975.
In 1956 Marylin was at the height of her career - in her bid to become more independent she had started her own production company with her photographer Milton Greene, moved to New York to study method acting with Lee Strasberg. All this and her involvement with Miller as a serious endeavor to free herself from the "dumb-Blonde" persona and be seen as a serious actress.
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| Frank Ritter - In your eyes |
The next year she was poised for success and her new company filmed "The Prince and the Showgirl", but she became pregnant during the filming and miscarried during the filming. After the completion of the film. She then took a Hiatus to concentrate on her marriage it was during this time she became pregnant and miscarried again.
In 1958 she began work on "Some Like it Hot" which probably became her greatest success in retrospect. After this it seems her relationship with Miller became strained, exacerbated with her constant need for barbiturates to function.
During her next film "lets make Love" she had an affair with her co-star Yves Montand, which was widely reported in the press. Something had gone seriously awry and her star was beginning to descend.
Miller was involved in writing for her last film "The Misfits" and his involvement was an attempt to create for her a role worthy of her talents. But the relationship faltered, Miller withdrew and began a new relationship with Inge Morath a photographer who had worked with John Huston in 1960 on the set of The Misfits. Monroe and Miller were divorced the next year.
In 1962, Monroe began work on what was going to be her next film, ironically named "somethings got to give". It was during this time that she was allegedly involved with Robert Kennedy (and his brother Ted) On May 19, she took a break to sing the famous "Happy Birthday" on stage at President John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Three months later - she was dead.
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