Like rhythm and blues or the weather, some things ain’t what they used to be. When I first arrived in the United States in the early 2000s, History Channel (or HISTORY as it now insists on being called) was a reliable guilty pleasure, like eating leftover lasagna for breakfast. Despite the derision of certain snobbish historians, for many viewers (including my recently-immigrated self) History Channel provided a digestible and stimulating diet of TV infotainment, ranging from solid documentaries on the American Revolution to the excellent Modern Marvels series. Then, slowly, things went downhill. Whether from simple laziness or cynical dumbing-down, the History Channel began churning out a sludge-tide of reality shows and conspiracy-theory garbage ranging from the formulaic (Pawn Stars) to the downright silly (Ancient Aliens). At some point, I confess, I lost interest.
If nothing else, History Channel’s new three-part miniseries Grant is a welcome attempt to reconnect with history buffs whose attention might otherwise be lost. In this regard, it outshines History’s other recent efforts to break loose of its self-imposed reality TV bubble, including the glossy America: The Story of Us. Though not quite attaining the Ken Burns standard of American historical documentary, Grant is not too shabby either. Executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and written by Grant and Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow, the series blends Hollywood narrative with some serious scholarly fixings. Its release in the middle of a global stay-at-home pandemic could not have been better timed for ratings, but cynics should note that this was no rushed production. (Reportedly, Chernow, DiCaprio, and Steven Spielberg have been collaborating on a Ulysses S. Grant biopic, with DiCaprio in the leading role. Whether COVID-19 hammers a coffin nail into these plans remains to be seen). The docudrama format, a push-me-pull-you of dramatic reenactment with expert commentary, is inevitably a compromise. The dramatization lends some spice to the talking-head flow, but the to-and-fro between historical action and commentary comes at the expense of both imaginative immersion and in-depth reflection. Unlike, for example, Spielberg’s 2012 Lincoln biopic, the dramatization in Grant serves more as a gilded frame than as a landscape populated by living, breathing people. Take the relatively unknown Justin Salinger, who serviceably portrays the title character in Grant. Salinger’s Grant is tough, stoic, yet curiously underfed, the glowing tip of a fat cigar telegraphing his man-of-action credentials as much as his acting. Compared to other portrayals (most notably the excellent Jared Harris in Spielberg’s aforementioned Lincoln), Salinger just doesn’t quite convey the gravitas evident even in Grant’s earliest daguerreotype portraits. Much the same could be said of South African-born actor Carel Nel (Abraham Lincoln), though Nel pulls off a creditable vocal impersonation of Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of our 16th President in Spielberg’s splendid movie. Other characters, including Julia Dent Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Frederick Douglass are nicely represented, but Grant’s docudrama format never fully allows these characters to spread their wings. On the plus side, Grant’s talking heads, while sometimes reduced to soundbite, lend real insight to the show. Ron Chernow cannily places himself front and center, and at times the series feels like a subliminal advertisement for his 1,100-page biography of the same title. Nevertheless, the series showcases a broad array of leading scholars to explore Grant’s life and legacy. On a personal note, I was delighted to recognize some past speakers from Miami University Hamilton’s own Colligan History Project, including Allen Guelzo and Caroline Janney. Unlike previous History Channel documentaries, Grant wisely steered clear of “celebrity” commentators. The most publicly recognizable expert was General David Petraeus, a former professor at Grant’s alma mater, the United States Military Academy. Another strong addition was essayist Ta-Nehisi Coates, who reflected sympathetically on Grant’s struggles to confront problems of racism and slavery in American society, including his epic struggle against the Ku Klux Klan. Grant’s duration lets viewers sink their teeth into the life and career of this iconic general. Despite the military focus of the first two episodes, the detail and strategy never gets overwhelming. The series ranges from Grant’s cadetship at West Point (contemporary with future friends and foes such as Sherman and Longstreet), to his service in the Mexican War, and subsequent struggles with alcohol and poverty (after resigning his commission, Grant was at one point reduced to selling firewood to support his family). Launching into his meteoric rise during the Civil War, episode one concludes with the bloody crucible of Shiloh, and the series faithfully relates the major campaigns of Grant’s career including Vicksburg, Fort Donelson, Chattanooga, and Cold Harbor. Most gruesome of all were the Battle of the Wilderness—where Union and Confederate soldiers battled amid a burning forest—and Fort Pillow, where future KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest commanded the massacre of African American POWs. (Such historic violence is addressed frankly, but never gratuitously.) Grant’s postwar career, including Reconstruction, and his troubled two-term Presidency, feel a little shoehorned into last hour of the final episode. Such abridgment is understandable, given the demands of commercial TV (by contrast, Ken Burns’s Civil War on PBS showed what could be done with a nine-episode documentary, without breaking a sweat). Though not perfect by any means, Grant is definitely worth a few hours of pandemic lockdown viewing. Hopefully it marks the beginning of a return to some form for the History Channel. More please! GRADE: B
0 Comments
Each week The Extraordinary Times catches up with friends from the historical community. This week’s guest is renowned bluegrass author, organizer, and broadcaster Fred Bartenstein. A native of Virginia and a graduate of Harvard College, Fred teaches courses on the history of country and bluegrass music at the University of Dayton’s Department of Music. His many roles have included magazine editor, broadcaster, musician, festival emcee, talent director, and scholar. In his previous professional life, Fred managed his own organizational consulting firm; the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio; Books & Co.; the Dayton Foundation; and the Victoria Theatre Association. He co-authored The Bluegrass Hall of Fame (Holland Brown, 2014) and edited Josh Graves: Bluegrass Bluesman (University of Illinois Press, 2012), Roots Music in America: Collected Writings of Joe Wilson (University of Tennessee Press, 2017), and Lucky Joe’s Namesake: The Extraordinary Life and Observations of Joe Wilson (University of Tennessee Press, 2017). * How have you been doing during the pandemic? My wife and I are mostly retired, so the stay-at-home program hasn’t affected us much. I taught bluegrass history this last term to eighteen University of Dayton undergraduates. They were sent home on March 11, and we finished the term using Zoom online software. That was a steep learning curve, but we all got pretty good at it by mid-April. * We got to know each other through the Southwestern Ohio Bluegrass Music Heritage Project. How did this project come into being? In 2002 I was invited to join the board of Bgrass, Inc. (an organization documenting the history of bluegrass in the Cincinnati-Dayton region) and ultimately became its chair. Notable accomplishments included a partnership with Miami University; creation of a website encyclopedia profiling significant individuals, organizations, and locations in bluegrass history; and a nationally distributed radio special on the history of the Osborne Brothers. Participants included Barbara Brady, Wayne Clyburn, Joe Colvin, Kevin Feazell, Bernie Fisher, Al Jamison, Grady Kirkpatrick, Tom Kopp, Katie Laur, Mary Jo Leet, Mac McDivvit, Joe Mullins, Lisa Mullins (no relation to Joe), and Jon Weisberger. After a period of inactivity, Bgrass, Inc. evolved into the Southwestern Ohio Bluegrass Music Heritage Project. Our project is a multifaceted, ongoing initiative. A coordinating committee includes Bgrass, Inc. stalwarts Mac McDivitt and broadcaster/ bandleader Joe Mullins, as well as artist and local historian Sam Ashworth (Middletown Historical Society), Valerie Elliott (Smith Library of Regional History in Oxford); Brian Powers (Public Library of Greater Cincinnati and Hamilton County), and Matthew Smith (Miami Appalachian Studies). I co-chair the project with Curt Ellison, a historian and author with a focus on country music and the previous director of Miami Appalachian Studies. Knowing that Curt was preparing to retire from Miami University, I tried convincing him to author a book on this region’s bluegrass heritage, offering my services as a researcher. He countered with an alternative proposal: a public lecture series that would commission multiple authors to each prepare a topic and then submit their work in chapters that could be anthologized. Miami University Regionals Appalachian Studies endorsed the project and became its primary sponsor. The resulting volume, Industrial Strength Bluegrass: Southwestern Ohio’s Musical Legacy (pictured), will be published by University of Illinois Press in January 2021. Curt and I serve as coeditors. Beyond the lecture series and book, project achievements to date include a live concert with Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers and guest Bobby Osborne, an updated online encyclopedia (swohiobluegrass.com), and an eight-panel traveling display supported by the Smith Library of Regional History and the Greene County Public Library. A permanent archive is housed at the Smith History Library in Oxford. With Miami’s support, Joe Mullins is spearheading a Smithsonian Folkways recording project to showcase important bluegrass songs associated with the region.
* What made the Greater Cincinnati-Miami Valley region a bluegrass hotbed in its heyday? First, let’s define the heyday. Our book spans the years 1947 to 1989. Bill Monroe brought his classic edition of the Blue Grass Boys to Dayton, and Middletown radio station WPFB went on the air, both in 1947. The Dayton Bluegrass Reunion retrospective concert was held in 1989, regathering a score of the essential musicians from earlier decades. By 1989 most of the local bluegrass labels and bars were gone, and the number of nationally prominent bluegrass acts in the region had dropped to a handful. Three factors accounted for the heyday: 1) a critical mass of recent Appalachian migrants drawn to the industrial economy of southwestern Ohio; 2) local entrepreneurs able to build an economic infrastructure of radio, recording, and live performance; and 3) a remarkably gifted core of musicians and singers who either already lived in the Cincinnati-Dayton corridor or who moved here for the rich musical opportunities. In roughly the same years and under the same conditions, a parallel bluegrass capital emerged in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region. While our Appalachian in-migrants were primarily from Kentucky and Tennessee, theirs were from Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. * How has southwestern Ohio's bluegrass music scene changed since you first got involved? In Bluegrass: A History, Neil V. Rosenberg classifies musicians as apprentices, journeymen, and craftsmen. When I arrived in this region in 1975, the local bluegrass community still boasted one of the world’s densest populations of craftsmen—virtuosos whose recordings and appearances gained national and even international attention. It was a remarkable scene, analogous to New Orleans’ jazz heyday of the 1920s or Chicago’s blues heyday of the 1950s. Today Cincinnati, Dayton, Hamilton, Middletown, Springfield, and environs still support one of the world’s epicenters for bluegrass fandom, as well as hundreds of journeyman musicians. But we and Baltimore-Washington are no longer creative or music industry centers for bluegrass. That torch has passed to Nashville, Boulder, northern California, Asheville/ Bristol/ Kingsport/ Johnson City, and the Czech Republic. * What are your earliest musical memories? My father, by the time I came along a pharmaceutical executive in northern New Jersey, grew up on a Virginia apple orchard where he and his brother learned the traditional music that predated bluegrass. Among my earliest memories are my father singing those songs to me, tapping gentle rhythmic accompaniment on my stomach. Spending my first-grade year with relatives in the Shenandoah Valley, I encountered on the radio the very sound that would soon be named “bluegrass” (we called it “mountain music” then). I fell in love with it and my passion and involvement have grown over the succeeding six decades. * Do you have a favorite southwestern Ohio bluegrass recording? The album Country Pickin’ and Hillside Singin’, by the Osborne Brothers and Red Allen (Dayton residents at the time), came out in 1959. The repertoire, performances, and vocal harmonies of that album are, to my ears, celestial. The tracks include "Ruby, Are You Mad?,” "She’s No Angel,” “Is This My Destiny?,” "Once More,” "Down In The Willow Garden,” "Lost Highway,” and six others. * Any projects on the go? Curt and I are still checking copyedits and proofs on the Industrial Strength Bluegrass book. I’ll teach country music history in the fall, online and/or in person; that remains to be seen. Bob Batchelor is a critically-acclaimed cultural historian and biographer whose works explore contemporary American culture. His recent book, The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition’s Evil Genius, won the 2020 Independent Press Award for Historical Biography. Bob’s next book is Rookwood: The Rediscovery and Revival of an American Icon--An Illustrated History. He earned his doctorate in English Literature from the University of South Florida and has taught at universities in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as Vienna, Austria. Bob lives in Cincinnati with his wife Suzette and their teenage daughters.
* How has the current pandemic changed your daily routine? Many writers are natural social distancers, so the COVID-19 pandemic might be slightly more normal for me than many others. At the same time, though, the constant anxiety never lets up…the CNN death count updates, obfuscation at the highest levels of government, and (most sadly) the seeming indifference of people to act in ways that are compassionate and empathetic. I find the idea of “coronavirus fatigue” reprehensible because it means people’s selfish desires are more important to them than doing what is right for one’s fellow human beings. Despite all this, however, I’m attempting to stay productive and safe while staying at home. Burying myself in editing my next book or researching new ideas feels good and keeps me focused on some better future. * How did you arrive at the subject of your latest book: George Remus? Although it seems hard to believe, a famous historian (Stanley Cutler) asked me to write a short essay on Bootlegging for a new edition of The Dictionary of American History. This was 18 years ago! I ran across George Remus in the research for that little piece and he stuck in my mind. Then, much later, I again encountered Remus when I wrote a book on The Great Gatsby, a kind of biography of Fitzgerald’s amazing novel. When I started thinking about a follow-up to my bestselling biography of Stan Lee, it seemed natural (with the centennial of the Roaring Twenties at hand) to find a topic at the center of that decade. Eureka! Back to Remus, who turned out to be a great choice, especially since I had recently moved to the Cincinnati area. Being in southern Ohio, I could walk where Remus walked and feel history come to life by being here and in Northern Kentucky, where so much of the story takes place. Finally, I got my chance to tackle Remus and he turned out to be a fantastic subject. * Why does Remus remain overshadowed by his notorious contemporary Al Capone? This is one of the most perplexing questions about Remus’s story and one I’ve spent countless hours contemplating. I think it boils down in large part to timing. Remus was from an earlier generation and came to power as Prohibition took root. As a result, he was more of a gentleman bootlegger than Capone (though Remus certainly was violent, had people murdered, and committed murder himself). By the time Capone came to power, bootlegging had changed. Whereas Remus would confront a slight first with his fists, Capone would start shooting or have his men fire away. Capone’s empire was more violent and that somehow captured the public’s attention. In addition, Capone was headquartered in Chicago (a larger media hub than Cincinnati) and had constant media coverage, including films made that were loosely based on him, so he was in the national spotlight later than Remus. After Remus won release in mid-1928, he did not have the funds to rebuild his empire and slipped from the spotlight versus where he had been from 1920-1928. If Remus had written a memoir or worked with a producer to film his life story—both ideas that he claimed where in the works but never completed—then he might have gone down in history as notoriously as Capone. * How did Remus's early career (in pharmacy and later becoming a trial lawyer) prepare him for the life of a bootlegger? George Remus couldn’t have had a better career trajectory or preparation for becoming America’s “bootleg king.” Having passed the state licensure pharmacy exam at 19 and running his several drugstores, he knew the business intimately, including the regulations that existed in what determined “medicine” and “medicinal use.” When I talk to audiences about Remus, they are always really intrigued at how he transitioned from pharmacist to lawyer, but it’s pretty simple: Remus viewed himself as an important person and he could fulfill that destiny by becoming an attorney. By the time he graduated from law school, he worked with Clarence Darrow, one of the most important human rights crusaders in American history. Though it’s hard to imagine, Remus used that connection to become a top-flight attorney, first a labor lawyer, then switching to a criminal defense lawyer, and ultimately becoming one of the best in the nation. So, by the time Illinois passed prohibition laws in 1919, Remus had the perfect background to take advantage of the money that could be made illegally. When he defended small-time bootleggers and realized how much cash they carried (thousands in tightly-wound rolls, just like the movies), he had an epiphany and went to the dark side. * You've also written about The Great Gatsby. Do you see any evidence that Remus inspired Fitzgerald's fictional bootlegger, as some have asserted? Lazy journalists and writers over the years started inflating Remus’s use as Fitzgerald’s role model for Jay Gatsby. Without real evidence, they moved from saying Remus was a model to the model for the fictional bootlegger. Some reporters and writers even claimed that Fitzgerald had partied with Al Capone and Remus at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville. Well, the dates don’t work out and there is no evidence (at this point) that it ever occurred, though we do know that Remus and Capone frequented the Seelbach, as did Fitzgerald, but in the years before Prohibition, long before Remus or Capone were household names. Is George Remus one of the role models…certainly. There are too many similarities and just enough evidence to prove that is the case. However, Arnold “Big Brain” Rothstein is a much more convincing case, as are several gentleman bootleggers who Fitzgerald met in his drunken escapades on Long Island. I think the most compelling piece is that Jay Gatsby and Remus both operated false-front pharmacies. This was Remus’s big idea and it kind of solidifies the connection. I will add, though, that while I researched The Bourbon King more than a half a dozen people told me that they had seen a photograph of Capone, Remus, Fitzgerald, and the mayor of Louisville taken in the Seelbach. If that photo ever turns up, then we’ll have to reexamine the evidence, but until then, one of America’s great literary mysteries is still up in the air. * Any new projects in the works? My next book will be published in September, titled Rookwood: The Rediscovery and Revival of an American Icon--An Illustrated History. This is another Cincinnati-based tale and one that shocks me people in the region and across the country don’t know. Rookwood is significant for two important points. First, Rookwood more or less launched art pottery in the United States from its Queen City headquarters in 1880. At that time, America copied European styles and few thought the young nation would ever compete with the Old World and Asian potteries. Rookwood, however, won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition in 1889, becoming one of the best in the world in less than a decade. Any museum that features American art pottery has Rookwood. Its artists were famous and the company itself quickly became the crown jewel in the Queen City. In the early twentieth century, Rookwood was as famous as say Nike is today. More important, perhaps, is that Rookwood was founded by Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, making her the first woman in the United States to found and run a manufacturing company. I’m not sure how or why this has slipped into history’s dustbin, but I think it is significant that a female entrepreneur and artist was able to accomplish this feat in 1880 at a time when such a notion was unheard of. Maria believed that Rookwood could help establish “home art” for American families, accentuating the idea that a pleasant home environment would help people physically and spiritually. Rookwood really ushered in home décor. For Cincinnati and the nation, it’s kind of a travesty that Storer isn’t recognized for her pioneering entrepreneurism. I am working on a new book idea as well, but it’s under wraps right now. Authors are notoriously nervous about talking about new books before our literary agents and editors have had a crack at it, but I will say I’ve discussed it with several trusted advisors and they love the topic, so hopefully it will eventually make it to the bookshelves! Finally, I’d just like to finish this great interview up by saying “stay safe and healthy.” Thanks for the chance to talk about The Bourbon King and my work, which is deeply appreciated. |
AuthorMatthew Smith, PhD (History). Public Programs at Miami University Regionals. Historian of Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, & the early American republic. Archives
February 2024
Categories |