July 5, 2013

DATELINES: FINEST HOUR 128, AUTUMN 2005

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LONDON CAN TAKE IT

LONDON, JULY 7TH— We are deeply saddened at the news of the London bombings and our hearts and prayers go out to the victims of this barbarous tragedy and to our many friends in the UK. It is perhaps ironic that the “Quotation of the Day”on our website today, from The Sir Winston Churchill Birthday Book, should be this: “People who are not prepared to do unpopular things and to defy clamour are not fit to be Ministers in times of stress.” —DANIEL N. MYERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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IT TAKES A VILLAGE

NEW YORK, JULY 8TH—Yesterday’s bombings in downtown London are profoundly disturbing. In part, that is because a bombing in our mother country and closest ally, Britain, is almost like a bombing in our own country….Every Muslim living in a Western society suddenly becomes a suspect, becomes a potential walking bomb. And when that happens, it means Western countries are going to be tempted to crack down even harder on Muslim populations….And because I think that would be a disaster, it is essential that the Muslim world wake up to the fact that it has a jihadist death cult in its midst. If it does not fight that death cult, that cancer, within its own body politic, it is going to infect Muslim-Western relations everywhere. Only the Muslim world can root out that cult. It takes a village.

The greatest restraint on human behavior is never a policeman or a border guard. The greatest restraint on human behavior is what a culture and a religion deem shameful. Many people said Palestinian suicide bombing was the spontaneous reaction of frustrated Palestinian youth. But when Palestinians decided that it was in their interest to have a cease-fire with Israel, those bombings largely stopped. The village said enough was enough.

The Muslim village has been derelict in condemning the madness of jihadist attacks. When Salman Rushdie wrote a controversial novel involving the prophet Muhammad, he was sentenced to death by the leader of Iran. To this day—to this day—no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden. The double-decker buses of London and the subways of Paris, as well as the covered markets of Riyadh, Bali and Cairo, will never be secure as long as the Muslim village and elders do not take on, delegitimize, condemn and isolate the extremists in their midst. —THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDENFIELD, LANCASHIRE, JULY 9TH— What an end to last week. After the euphoria of getting the Olympics, the bombings in London. Mr. Blair handled it well, even if the G-8 conference appeared to take somewhat of a back seat. The consensus seems to be that an attack was inevitable, but four bombs within such a short time, and so indiscriminate….The emergency services were wonderful, as they had been fully trained for such events, but even they were stretched to their limits. There are some really evil people about at present in this world.

On a happier note, the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe was celebrated, mainly in London, but around the country too. London put on a superb show. There were enactments of wartime entertainment and Churchill’s speeches, delivered by Robert Hardy, who is looking more and more like WSC. The Queen looked to be enjoying the show. She really does work hard, with services to attend, memorials to unveil, veterans to meet, and then the appearance on the balcony at Buckingham Palace for the Fly Past and the dropping of a million poppies. The cameras depicted an amazing sight from the top of the Palace, with people down the Mall as far as the eye could see. Who says the monarchy’s on its way out? —DOROTHY JONES

ANCHORAGE, JULY 10TH— Stoicism says more eloquently than words that terror cannot change Britain’s values or way of life. Words do have power, however, and that’s why people around the world have been remembering Winston Churchill’s words during World War II. Prime Minister Tony Blair is not Winston Churchill, but he spoke with a simple directness that the wartime leader would have appreciated when he said on Thursday, “We shall prevail and they shall not.” —ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS

ONLINE HISTORY LESSON

LONDON, APRIL 4TH— The family of Sir Winston Churchill has put one of his most famous speeches online in a project to bring new technology to history lessons. A new website combines the full audio recording of Sir Winston’s “Sinews of Peace” speech of 1946 with his annotated transcript, background information and interpretation, maps and photographs. It breaks the 45-minute speech into themes and interprets them against both events of the time and their relevance today.

The project is a culmination of an 18-month collaboration between the Churchill family and MWR, a company that specialises in using digital archives in education. MWR spokesman Martyn Farrows said, “We will now look at doing the same with other Churchill speeches and speeches by other world leaders.”

The oration, known as the “Iron Curtain” speech because Churchill used the phrase to describe the barrier enclosing the Soviet sphere in Europe, may be found here. (You need broadband and Macromedia Flash Player to access this material; the website offers downloads.)

BOW TIES ARE BACK

NEW YORK, JULY 14TH— When Tucker Carlson and producers at MSNBC sat down to talk about the image he wanted to project on his new show, “The Situation,” one issue trumped all others. Would Carlson exchange his trademark bow tie for something less annoying: a conventional tie, an open shirt or even, say, a bolo? There was what Carlson called the “effete weenie factor” of the bow tie. It was hard to see the upside of that. But despite obvious drawbacks, Carlson couldn’t bring himself
to change neckwear.

Jack Freedman, bow-tie wearer and director of planning at men’s clothier Paul Stuart, says there is nothing inherently bothersome about bow ties. Wearing one, he says, is simply a way of standing out in a crowd: “It’s a statement maker because it’s not generally in fashion. It tells people you’re an individual.”

A list of bow-tie devotees reads like a Who’s Who of rugged individualists: Theodore Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill and Fred Astaire wore bow ties, as did Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Paul Simon of Illinois. These days, Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam; columnist George Will; Charles Osgood of CBS News; and OutKast’s Andre 3000 and Big Boi wear bow ties. Boi even has a song called “Bowtie.” Another class of bow-tied men is the comedians who wear them ironically, such as Mark Russell, Pee-wee Herman and Mo Rocca.

Freedman says about ten percent of his store’s customers buy bow ties, which he says offer more opportunities for expression than a simple necktie. Bow ties come in every imaginable color and fabric and there is no end to bow-tie shapes. —WARREN ST. JOHN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

CHURCHILL TRIVIA EDITOR NEEDED STARTING 2006

CALIF- I have decided to donate my Churchill library to the Huntington Library, which they will transfer to their possession at the end of this year. I have submitted Trivia columns through Finest Hour 130, which should provide enough time to find a suitable replacement for me. It has been great to work with you and I enjoyed every minute. —CURT ZOLLER

Editor’s response: Curt Zoller has done a wonderful job extending our long-running “Churchilltrivia” column from Barbara Langworth, to the point where we now have enough questions and answers to fill a Churchill version of “Trivial Pursuits.” (Now there’s an idea….) The column is not easy to do, and requires constant reference to past columns, which we can provide. Though popular with readers, it will be retired unless someone would like to step forward and take Curt’s place. Please contact the editor.

OUR CRATEST BRITON

LONDON, MARCH 18TH— Finest Hour 124 (p. 7) asked when the BBC was going to produce its memorial to Churchill, promised for the winner in its moneymaking “Greatest Briton” contest in 2002. Now we know. The BBC has spent £50,000 to portray Churchill as a pile of old boxes.

The memorial, by sculptor Paul de Monchaux, first lay in state in Westminster Hall. Its twenty pieces of oak form a see-through “timber tower.” De Monchaux refers to oak’s “resilience” and the shape of the pile to represent “the step-by-step, blocked way that Churchill liked to lay out the paragraphs of speeches for his texts.”

Sir Winston’s grandson, Nicholas Soames MP, said: “My family think it is absurd. It is not serious, not sensible, not dignified, just BBC silly. Will I take my children along to see it? Of course I bloody won’t. Why would you take any child to see such a ridiculous thing?” Mr. Soames said he was speaking for most of his family.

Years ago when Churchill was asked how he wished to be memorialized in London, he said he would like to see a park bearing his name for East End children to play in. Forty years on, batches of mixed-quality memorials and an old orange crate later, we are still waiting for the park.

ANNE BANCROFT R.I.P.

NEW YORK, JUNE 6TH (AP)— The actress whose portrayal of Lady Randolph Churchill in Carl Foreman’s “Young Winston” rivalled that of the late Lee Remick in “Jennie,” died today of uterine cancer, leaving her husband of four decades, Mel Brooks, and a son, Maximilian, born 1972.

In a long list of memorable film and stage roles, Bancroft was best known for her role as Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate.” It was a part she almost didn’t take. She said in 2003 that nearly everyone discouraged her from playing the role of Dustin Hoffman’s middle-aged seductress “because it was all about sex with a younger man.” Yet Bancroft saw something deeper, viewing the character as having unfulfilled dreams and having been relegated to a conventional life with a conventional husband. “Film critics said I gave a voice to the fear we all have: that we’ll reach a certain point in our lives, look around and realize that all the things we said we’d do and become will never come to be—and that we’re ordinary.”

Anything but ordinary, Bancroft was among the most lauded actresses of the 1960s and 1970s, earning five Academy Award nominations and one Oscar, for playing the teacher of a young Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker,” a role that also brought her one of two Tony Awards. “Her combination of brains, humor, frankness and sense was unlike any other artist,” said Mike Nichols, who directed her in “The Graduate.” “Her beauty was constantly shifting with her roles, and because she was a consummate actress she changed radically for every part.”

Bancroft married comedian-director-producer Brooks in 1964. They met when she was rehearsing a musical number, “Married I Can Always Get,” for the Perry Como TV show. She told her psychiatrist the next day: “Let’s speed this process up—I’ve met the right man. See, I’d never had so much pleasure being with another human being. I wanted him to enjoy me too. It was that simple.” —DINO HAZELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS

TWO-FINGERED SALUTES

NEW YORK, APRIL 26TH—What do you do when you cut off a car you didn’t see in your blind spot? How do you say you’re sorry going 65 mph on the highway? The National Motorists Association, a Wisconsin-based lobbying group, wants you to give peace a chance: hold your two fingers in a “V” with the palm out. This “apology” signal, they insist, “can defuse the destructive anger and frustration that follow these unfortunate encounters.”

The peace sign, as it is now mainly known, has a curious past. Vietnam War protesters supposedly took the gesture from President Nixon, who used the “V for victory” in imitation of Winston Churchill, who made it universal in World War II. (The symbol was originated long before, allegedly by English archers at Agincourt, who held up their bow fingers to prove that the enemy French had not cut them off, as threatened.)

But Churchill’s advisers had to caution the Prime Minister to keep his palm out when he flashed his signal; when he occasionally forgot and flashed it palm in, he was giving what the British charitably describe as “the forks”—a variation of which Yanks know as “the one-fingered salute.” And there’s the rub. Something simple can be easily misconstrued. As Joanne Gorman of the Twin County Driving School in East Northport, New York, says: “There are too many nuts out there. I’d keep my hands down and just have a look on my face that says, ‘I’m sorry.'”

Robert Sinclair of the Automobile Club of New York says some European drivers point three fingers of their right hand horizontally at their own head to make an “E” for “Excuse me!” But that gesture “hasn’t made it across the pond,” he says. —SPENCER RUMSEY, NEW YORK NEWSDAY

CHURCHILL IN CHICAGO

CHICAGO, MAY 11TH— “For the crowd at the Pritzker Military Library,” wrote Jon Anderson in the Chicago Tribune, “there was no doubt who was The Man. ‘What do you call yourselves?’ Edward Tracy, the library’s executive director, wondered before introducing the evening’s speaker. ‘Churchillians,’ they replied, to a person.”

Members and friends of The Churchill Centre had come to see FH editor Richard Langworth and to hear news of the 23rd annual International Churchill Conference, to be held at the Drake Hotel from September 27th to October 1st, 2006. “We’ll also be going out to Cantigny,” said TCC executive director Daniel Myers, referring to the Robert R. McCormick Museum, whose library includes the Churchill Hidden Room (a secret bar). “There, the longtime Republican publisher of the Chicago Tribune and his British guest would bend elbows for hours even though, as Langworth observed, Churchill probably would have voted Democratic in the last twelve presidential elections of his life, had he been eligible to vote for U.S. presidents,” Anderson continued.

The main focus was on Churchill’s The Dream, which has just been republished by Levenger (FH 125:41): a strange 1947 story which covered the misfortunes of the 20th century, as related in a fictional conversation between Churchill and his father, Lord Randolph, who had died over half a century before when Churchill was only twenty.

The artifice of Churchill’s tale is that, before he can explain his own substantial role in preventing even worse disasters, his father says it was a shame he didn’t go into politics—”You might have done a lot to help.”

Then, he disappears. Levenger kindly supplied some fifty copies of the book which sold to benefit the Centre.

No hagiographer, our Editor fielded a wide variety of questions from the audience on a myriad of topics with expert recall and candor: “Churchill wasn’t always right, or even admirable—-but the average wasn’t too bad.” Asked about Charles de Gaulle, he recalled Churchill’s statement that “He thinks he is Joan of Arc—but my bishops won’t let me burn him!” Yet despite their disagreements, Langworth added, their relationship was one of respect, and when Churchill died de Gaulle sent a message: “In the great drama, he was the greatest.”

Many questions involved Churchill the writer, whose collected works cover some 19,000 pages. Churchill would work late at night, padding up and down in his slippers, dictating to teams of secretaries.

A video of the talk is viewable here. —PHILIP AND SUSAN LARSON

MORE CHICAGO NEWS

WHEATON, JUNE 26TH— Philip and Susan Larson spoke by invitation at Cantigny, the former estate of Robert S. McCormick, in celebration of the Chicago Tribune’s Robert R. McCormick Fiftieth Anniversary. They spoke in the mansion’s library on the long and unique relationship Churchill and McCormick shared over nearly forty years. Other speakers included McCormick biographer Richard Norton Smith and Rick Kogan of WGN Radio.

The Larsons revealed many interesting comments by McCormick such as after his first interview with Churchill in 1915: “…he is the most aggressive person I have ever met.” They told about the Tribune’s front page article in 1900, entitled “Winston Spencer Churchill Who May Some Day Be Premier of England.” They indicated that the relationship was unusual in that McCormick was well known to be decidedly anti-British. A feature article on the Churchill-McCormick relationship will be published in FH next year.

In November, Churchill Friends will join others around the world to celebrate Winston Churchill’s 131st birthday in Chicago. Details are still being developed. A mailing announcing the meeting will be sent to all CC members. For further information, please call the Larsons at 708-352-6825 or email [email protected].

WSC AS DUMBLEDORE

NEW YORK, JULY 15TH— The Wall Street Journals Jonathan Last contends that the latest “Harry Potter” book is an allegory based on Churchill, Hitler and Roosevelt: “The parallels between this book and Britain’s prewar dithering are so great that the book is perhaps best read as a light companion to Alone, the second volume of William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill,” writes Last. The archfiend-spook Valdemar is based on Hitler. Dumbledore, the kindly but wise and righteous master of the school for little wizards, is Churchill in his Wilderness Years, warning of the impending assault by evil, to the annoyance of the witchly establishment. Potter, the student, is an immature and undeveloped, but quickly growing and potentially mighty force, who can tip the balance: thusly FDR/America.

Terry McGarry writes: “The putative allegory gets quite detailed (often the sign of barmily manic allegory-detectors) and there are people/things match-ups for, among others, Halifax and The Times of London. Maybe this is the way to bring Churchill to the younger generation: ‘You’ve read Harry Potter—but have you read the original? Here’s the exciting true tale of the real Dumbledore!'”

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ERRATA, FH127

P13 paragraph 2: It should not be inferred that Pamela Digby Churchill was American at the time of Sir Winston’s grandson’s birth, although she was an American citizen from 1971 to 1997.

P47 caption: “King’s Navee” is from HMS Pinafore, not Pirates of Penzance. Apologies to Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan.

P49: The UK publisher of the official biography is Heinemann. not Cassell.

P50: Question 1521 should refer to the grandfather of Pamela Plowden’s husband, not Pamela. His name is complicated. Born Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer in 1.803, he wrote The Last Days of Pompeii in 1834. In 1844 he changed his surname to Bulwer Lytton. Raised to the peerage as Lord Lytton in 1866, he died, as stated, in 1873.

 

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