> This past Sunday, the new Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, answered
> Hillary Clinton's criticism of his "more orphanages" solution to
> single-parent families. Ebenezer Newt's Yuletide solution ("Are there no
> workhouses?") was called absurd by the First Lady. Mr. Gingrich suggested
> that she go to Blockbuster Video and rent the film, "Boys Town". Aside from
> the paid commercial announcement, this is a curious solution to 1994's social
> problems.
>  "Boys Town" was a hit film produced in 1938 by M-G-M. Supervising the
> sentimental tale of a dedicated priest finding solutions for youths at risk,
> was the radical right-wing Republican Louis B. Mayer, the highest paid
> executive in the United States at the time and owner of a formidable stable
> of thoroughbred horses. His daughters were married to other studio
> executives. The co-author of the original screenplay (for which he won an
> Oscar) was the studio's token New Dealer, Dore Schary. The film was among
> Mayer's favorites as it promoted his fantasy vision of his adopted country as
> a place where everyone looked alike and no child was too far gone to be won
> over by a good-hearted Irish priest who practiced "tough love". Of course,
> the story was no more accurate in 1938 than it is today. It was part of the
> mythical U.S.A. imagined by the immigrant geniuses who created the studios as
> a kind of wish fulfillment not so different from the new breed of G.O.P.
> "revolutionaries" we have in control of our legislature beginning in January.
>  Of course, the likes of Mickey Rooney (whose chief problems in the film were
> smoking and playing pool) and Spencer Tracy, who were so susceptible to a
> tear in the eye in 1938, would be beaten, robbed, gang-raped and burned on a
> pyre by the grade of criminal we are faced with today. But nostalgic fantasy
> is so much more acceptable to the electorate than reality. Ask any graduate
> of a 1938 reformatory what relation it had to "Boys Town". In fact, today a
> school for young boys run by clerics is much more suspect than it was in
> 1938, when incest and child molestation was no more part of the fantasy than
> were single-parent families subsisting in sub-human conditions. The antipathy
> of the Right towards non-standard "families" in favor of the traditional
> religious-based nuclear family produces, in fact, the greater part of child
> abuse that we know today. While there is nothing about religion or tradition
> that encourage abuse, it is undeniable that it is far more common in such
> contexts than anyone dreamed of (or were willing to speak of) in 1938.
>  But all this brings up an interesting concept. It is certainly cheaper to
> rent a video than to address a problem. So, in the interests of the
> Reaganomics-mortgaged economy, let us make a modest proposal that all of our
> current social problems could be solved by a similar Republican initiative.
> Perhaps Senators Thurmond, Helms and Gramm could address the race question by
> renting "The Birth of a Nation" or "Gone With the Wind". Newt could solve the
> drug problem by urging everyone to rent "Reefer Madness". Urban blight and
> ethical considerations could be solved by a mass viewing of "It's a Wonderful
> Life". Senator D'Amato could stem governmental corruption by having C-SPAN
> run "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".
>  However, my personal suggestion is right-wing Republican Cecil B. DeMille's
> remarkably appropriate "This Day and Age" of 1933. In that pre-Miranda,
> pre-defendants' rights epic, DeMille suggested that the Bill of Rights and
> the Rules of Evidence be eliminated. The climax of the film had teen-agers
> suspending some suspected criminals over a pit of hungry rats until they
> confessed to their crimes. This timely epic could be sponsored by Justices
> Scalia and Thomas in the hope that its moral might spread throughout the
> land.
>  In this way, the calumny that Hollywood promoted an unrealistic view of
> society and its problems could be proved untrue. Or, perhaps, we could see
> the new Washington as it truly is: The Dream Factory.
>
> Gene Stavis, School of Visual Arts - NYC
>
 
thank you Gene Stavis.
miriam gianni