Some thoughts on Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m., Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson

NY Times review of Wasson's book
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/books/14book.html


In my book, A Sixties Story, I devoted a good deal of space in the first part of my chapter on New York explaining how "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (B at T) and Audrey Hepburn had influenced my image of what New York was all about. This book explained to me why I felt that way. 


I was only 15 when I saw the movie. I grew up in the age of conformity, aka the fifties. Rock 'n' Roll and I came of age at about the same time, except I was young, probably 10, when it got going for white people. B at T came along at a time in my life when I was questioning who I was and who I wanted to be. I never read the Truman Capote book it was based on, and I'm glad. According to Wasson, the movie was very different from the book, something Capote apparently wasn't happy about, but that difference is what made it so important to the inner workings of my teenage psyche.


I don't remember if I understood why Holly got $50 for trips to the powder room, but I know I didn't care. What mattered to me was that she was incredibly glamorous, lived the glamorous life on her own terms and it looked good on her and ended well. In the movies before B at T that were about free-thinking, free-living women, those women seemed to wind up wise and alone or punished for their sins. Not Holly. Despite her considerable what we would now call "emotional baggage," she found love and understanding and presumably lived happily ever after, at least in my mind.


Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m. is full of anecdotal information that flows like a novel. Wasson is a good writer who did a great deal of credible, solid research and wrote a fine book that covers all the bases. From the memorable stories of how Collette found Audrey and knew instantly that she was Gigi ("Voila, Gigi!"), to the difficulties of putting together a movie with a happy ending about a hooker in fifties America, Wasson weaves his story well. As the Times review says, ""Mr. Wasson approaches his subject from many angles. His book winds up as well-tailored as the kind of little black dress that “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” made famous."" 


At the end of the book there is an interview with founding editor of MS. magazine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin. She is about ten years older than me, I think, and was out of college and working at the time B at T was released. She talks about how after she graduated from college, although she was educated and qualified for many positions available, she could only answer want ads in the Help Wanted-Female section of the paper. So she began her career as a secretary, but soon moved to another publisher and was able to rise in the ranks. 


Pogrebin knew that in order to succeed, it was very important to make the men feel important. One way she devised for doing that was by not making it obvious that a woman was buying them lunch. Knowing that would be hard on their egos, she set up charge accounts with the restaurants. For Pogrebin, Holly Golightly was important because Holly was like her in that she was independent and making her way on her own. And Holly was unapologetic about having sex, which was totally different from how women were taught to be at the time.


I thank women like Pogrebin for their determination. They paved the way for me to have a chance to make it in the business world. Although I didn't experience discrimination that was as bad as she faced, I remember the silence that greeted me at meetings when I spoke and I was made aware that it was harder for me to be taken seriously since I was a woman. As it turned out, because of women like Pogrebin, the business world came around more quickly than many other fields, and women at least had access and a chance. 


I wasn't interested in marriage until my fifties and never wanted children, perhaps in large part because B at T made me aware that I could choose my road. I was also lucky too to have had a single mother who made it on her own and taught me the value of independence and, without her knowing the song, the meaning of "God Bless the Child That's Got His Own." Holly Golightly was a free spirit who lived the way she wanted to and because of her, I knew I could too.


Available at IndieBound and other bookstores online. http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061774157/sam-wasson/fifth-avenue-5-am

Occupy Chicago

Today we went to Occupy Chicago
It was a beautiful late fall afternoon. Occupiers rounded the northeast corner of Jackson and LaSalle Streets. Next to the building, there was a cadre of people in twos and threes . On the street side of the sidewalk was a small clean stand of plastic containers filled with fresh fruit, water and other food. Next to them were boxes filled with handwritten signs on a cardboard and poster board, a few had sticks to hold the signs up. The middle of the sidewalk was left open so people could walk through.

We picked our signs from the box and took our places on the light

metal barricade along the building side. At the corner there was an informal spin area where people with fairly large video cameras interviewed occupiers. People drummed on buckets around the corner from where we were. Often you would hear cars honk, hopefully in support of what we were doing.

The first thing that struck me was that this is a new concept in protest. Occupy is just that. Instead of speakers and chants, songs and bongo drums, like we had in the sixties, there was a wide variety of people holding signs, occupying either side of the sidewalk and talking quietly among themselves or to people who came up and asked questions.

The second thing thing that struck me was that there was one police car parked across the street and a little down the block from where we were. There were no police in uniform visible on the street. This was in stark contrast to the last demonstration I'd been to, which was against the war in Iraq, where speakers spoke through bullhorns to enough people to fill Federal Plaza and chanting broke out intermittently. Police appeared at that demonstration in full riot gear, surrounded the demonstrators and could be seen lining the surrounding blocks.

My question about the Occupy movement has always been, what are we doing? What is the overall goal? Clearly important issues are represented--from taxing the rich, to ending the wars, to fair wages and jobs for the middle class, to getting wall street out of politics, and more. All valid issues.

My main issue for the Occupy movement that we need to reform Wall Street so that they can never again bring the world to its knees by selling fraudulent products and ponzi schemes to an unknowing public. I'm for regulating the financial system, but I'm also for getting the big corporate money out of politics. I'm old enough and cynical enough to know that these things may not happen in my lifetime, but I do believe we must keep trying make them happen.

And I'm also very concerned that a jobs program has been blocked by the Republicans for political reasons while millions of people lose their jobs and homes--and so businesses lose their customers. Something has to break the spiral. People working and spending money will generate consumption so businesses will not be afraid to produce more goods and banks will not be afraid to lend money to businesses. First you need a market--consumers. That's where it starts.

However unfocused the movement my seem, the underlying theme seems to be that it is time to get the middle and lower "classes" on a more fair playing field with the rich. And the feeling harnessed in the Occupy movement has resonated all over the country and the world so it should not be dismissed.

Perhaps it resonates because it doesn't try to focus on a single issue, because it is simply people exercising their right to be dissatisfied and let the world know it. Maybe it isn't the job of the occupiers to have specific solution to all problems, but to let lawmakers--our representatives--know that we see there are problems and we elected them to fix them. And while they are at it, they are not to take advantage of those who aren't rich to do things that only benefit the rich.

We spent some time talking to a young man who was there with a busload of students from his college. The first thing he asked me was, what's a SuperPAC? I'm glad to report that because I'd watched Stephen Colbert give a very good description last week, I was able to talk somewhat intelligently about how they are a way of laundering money before it goes into PACs. PACs are required to disclose their sources of money. SuperPacs are not. So if you give your money to a SuperPac, the SuperPac can give money to a Pac, without disclosing the sources. So it's about transparency, the student responded. Transparency is the issue with the SuperPACs..

Then he asked me what a PAC was. I was a little fuzzier, I'm sorry to say. A political action committee, I could say with some certainty. And I said that PACs were able to sponsor ads with stands on issues. I forgot to mention that PACs lobby Congress furiously and with lots of SuperPAC money backing them up. We didn't get into the recent Supreme Court ruling that corporations can contribute just like people, which seems to admit that corporations vote in our elections--and have power in government. As much as money can buy.

We didn't stay very long. I didn't realize there was a marched planned for 7:00pm, but we probably wouldn't have stayed. We'll be back, I'm sure. I do miss speeches, guitars, bongo drums, singers and chanters. But this is a different movement and it's finding its own way--very successfully--to be heard.Occupy Chicago   Photos are from the Occupy Chicago website.

I decided to put all of these things on the blog so I could link it to FB and Twitter.  I know some of you won't care or already know about them. So, forgive me for the overlap and just skim through those parts that don't interest you.

(1) I just checked the the Occupy Together website and it looks like there's an ongoing demonstration at 230 S. LaSalle. Check it out if you're interested in a list of Chicago events as well as other dates planned in other cities.   

    http://www.occupytogether.org/

    No arrests planned. After going through the 68 convention, I think peaceful protesting is the most productive.

(2) A Touch of the Poet. An O'Neill play that isn't performed very often. Our friend (and maybe yours), Larry Garner, is in it. Here's a website URL for the play: 

http://www.theatreinchicago.com/playdetail.php?playID=4904

Russ and Jeannie's performances for the next couple of months are:

(3) Jeannie will be at Katerina's on December 5. (Due to a conflict in bookings, Jeannie, our favorite jazz singer--standards are her forte--won't be at Katerina's in November for her regular first Monday of the month gig.)

    In the meantime, visit Jeannie's fantastic brand new website. It's well worth it.

http://jeannielambert.com/

(4)  Russ will be performing with Petra's Recession 7 (a great Dixieland band) at Katerina's on the third Thursday of the month. This is a really good group. If you missed them at the Jazz Festival this year, here's your chance to see them.

    And here's a URL for a live performance of the Recession 7:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv-t-SpPg5U

Here' the URL for Katerina's: http://katerinas.com a jazz bar we know and love. We also saw Ponticelli's group there a couple of months ago and loved it.

(5) Russ will be at Andy's with the Windy City All Stars on Wednesdays in November and December, from

5:00pm to 8:30pm. (However, Russ will be at another gig on November 9th.). For those of you who were at our wedding, the Windy City All Stars, featuring Jeannie Lambert as bandleader, was our wedding band at Andys, and a great time was had by all. Lucky for us, Jeannie usually sits in on a couple of tunes with the Windy City All Stars when they are at Andy's. 

    To see the Windy City All Stars playing one of our favorite tunes on YouTube (and the tune that was the recessional at our wedding), go to :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHARlSSiF4I

Russ's website is where you can be treated to hearing him on his trombone on great standards from his CDs:  russphillips.net

(6) While I'm at it, I have to mention that last week we went to see a great group at a really fun place: The Deep Chicago Rhythm Owls at the California Clipper.

    For a taste of the Owls "eclectic mix of traditional American Roots music," here's a website you can hear them on. (For starters, I recommend Hey, Hey, Daddy Blues):  http://www.purevolume.com/deepchicagorhythmowls

    The California Clipper is a Chicago bar that shouldn't be missed. It's a beautifully "restored retro cocktail lounge that will take you back to the 1940s." Here's the URL. 

I love the home page:  http://www.californiaclipper.com/

And, moving on in our eclectic list of events:

(7) Performances we're going to the Lyric:

Boris Gudunov
Ariadne auf Naxos

The Magic Flute

URL for the Lyric: http://www.lyricopera.org/

(8) MetLive performances we're probably going to at Kerasotes City North, 2600 N. Western 

in Chicago:

Siegfried

Satyagraha

The Enchanted Island

Gotterdammerrung

URL for MetLive:  http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/unitedstates.aspx

Hope to see at something. Let us know what you're doing!

Toni

This is the beautiful flower that blooms at night in the back yard of our wonderful neighbors across the street. He called us last year to let us know it was blooming and we went over to take this photo. 

We all miss you, Phil. You were the greatest!

These are photos from our European adventure (and it was a great adventure). The photos bring back such great memories. Mark will be working on the captions. See more on Flickr--you don't have to join.

http://www.flickr.com//photos/2martins/sets/

Denmark Viking Museum

Schoenbrun Glorietta

Berlin Pergamon Museum

Copenhagen

Pisa

Please comment and let us know how they work out.

Toni