Jezebel Doesn't Weather Well

 

 

 

 

 

Jezebel (1938)

Directed by William Wyler

Warner Brothers, 104 minutes.

★

 

In 2009, Jezebel was added to the National Film Registry as a culturally significant film. A lot of cultural changes have happened since then and one wonders if the culture in question is that of the post-Confederacy Lost Cause. In its day, Bette Davis won a best actress Oscar for her role as Julie Marsden and Faye Bainter as best supporting actress as her aunt Belle Massey.

 

Aunt Belle has raised Julie, but not well; she's a spoiled, pig-headed belle of a different sort. Julie is also the film's Jezebel. In the Bible, an Old Testament Jezebel is the wife of King Ahab and convinces him to become a Baal worshipper. In Revelations, Jezebel is a sexual temptress. In the film, Julie is more like a cross between a tease and the little girl who cried wolf. She's engaged to the banker Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda) all the while keeping Buck Cantrell (George Brent ) dancing on the puppet string as a possible fallback. The year and setting is 1852 New Orleans. Locals worry about a possible new outbreak of “Yellow Jack;” that is, yellow fever.

 

Julie is so spoiled that she goes into a snit when Pres attends a bank meeting instead of joining her for her final gown fitting for the Olympus Ball. He tantrum leads to an ill-advised decision. Although high society protocol required that ladies dress in white, Julie impetuously decides to wear a red gown. Yes, socialites actually worried about such trivialities. She won't be talked out of out of wearing red by her aunt or anyone else around her. (The film is in black and white, so the red dress was actually bronze.)

 

When Julie enters the ballroom Pres is embarrassed and everyone else is so shocked that they shun her. Pres gallantly dances with her, but he is losing patience with Julie. What ensues is a good girl/bad girl dance that ultimately results in a slap that leads Pres to leave New Orleans. Julia is ultimately crushed and resolves to reform and marry Preston, although Buck's still sniffing around the old plantation. Belle warns Julie that she may have finally overdone things, but Julie insists that Preston will return to her. One year later she hears he's back in New Orleans (as is Yellow Jack). She can't wait for Pres to show up and see her in her proper white gown and fall madly in love with her. When he finally arrives, though, it's with Amy Dillard (Margaret Lindsay), his new wife.

 

Assuming you still care–and why would you–here' are some more things that will make you reach for the air sickness bag: a good old Southern duel, a happily enslaved house staff, some mighty cute ragged black kids serenading ‘Miz Julie, New Orleans citizens trying to chase away yellow fever by firing cannons and smudging the streets with smoke, and patients being quarantined at a leper colony. Can Julia atone for her stupidity and commit a selfless act?

 

None of the principal actors came from any closer to the Deep South then Nebraska. I suppose you could say that Bette Davis was really cute back in 1938 and did her best with the accent but overall, Jezebel has as little cultural capital as a ward of Confederate bills has economic value. Henry Fonda had only been in Hollywood for three years in 1938 and had trouble bending his flat Midwestern accent into something vaguely Louisianan. Poor George Brent was actually Irish and sounded like he practiced by reading William Faulkner passages in front of a mirror.

 

I'd gladly don a red ball gown and rush into a leper colony before consuming this piece of Southern deep-fried racist nonsense a second time.

 

Rob Weir

Samuel Slater Experience is Goes Down Easy History

 

 

 

The Samuel Slater Experience

31 Ray Street

Webster, Massachusetts

 

You’ve probably seen dozens of individuals tagged as “The Father of X” or “The Mother of Y.” Generally that’s as much hype as reality, but Samuel Slater (1768-1835) was indeed the “Father of the American Industrial Revolution.” Depending on your point of view, he was either a boy genius or a thief. In Britain, he’s “Slater the Traitor.” 

 

Arkwright waterframe

 

 

Young Slater might have been brilliant, but his low stature as an indentured servant in an English textile factory meant he could never be a mill owner or superintendent. In response, he memorized the designs for the Arkwright water frame and an automatic spinning machine that propelled Britain to the fore of European industrial production. In 1789, just a year after the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Slater risked imprisonment to slip out of England and sail to the United States. He went into partnership with Moses Brown (of Brown University fame) and after a few false starts, set up the first successful textile factory on American soil at Pawtucket Falls, Rhode Island. 

 

Slater’s model of small-scale factories employing children and families was dubbed the “Rhode Island System” and dominated textile production until it was surprised by the larger investment capital mills of the “Waltham System.” (The latter shifted to the giant mills in Massachusetts–Lowell, Lawrence, Holyoke–and New Hampshire cities such as Nashua and Manchester). But until 1814, American industrialization was centered in Blackstone River mill villages such as Slatersville, RI and Dudley, Oxford, and Hopedale, MA. Not coincidentally, Slater made a fortune.  

 

One of Slater’s most successful ventures was launched in Webster, MA hard by the Connecticut line. Early textile mills depended upon water and Webster sports a large lake the Nipmuc called Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. It’s still officially called that, but you try saying it! Most just say Lake Webster. 

 

 

The Samuel Slater Experience (SSE) tells his story and the industrial history of Webster. It departs from other similarly-themed museums in that it’s more interactive. After an opening gallery that displays an Arkwright frame and a hand spinning machine, one follows a path to various stops where holographic figures appear. Early we see Slater in conversation with his master, Jedediah Strutt, who tells Sam to be happy with his lot. Another display takes us to a mock ship’s deck fronted by rolling waves. A seasick Slater walks to the front of the hold, the waves swell to wild storm pitch and (small) sprays of water “splash from the ceiling. 

 

Slater's Office

 

From there it’s a series of animations that tell of his rise to fortune and influence. As is generally the situation in museums dedicated to successful individuals one can get a bit tired of perseverance and glorification; those who have studied industrial history sometimes take umbrage with theme park-like hokeyness. Yet, it’s wise to remind yourself that a majority of Americans don’t have college educations and need a bit of Disneyesque flash to hold their attention. 

 

To the SSE’s credit, it does display an older Slater as more ruthless in his business decisions. One display of actors-in-role gives various take on life in Webster. These include several workers, a female Polish immigrant, a child laborer, residents of Webster, admirers, and a few Slater detractors. These, of course, are somewhat sanitized because, once again, the audience is not academia. You could say, with merit, that the SSE is melodramatic in places and historically inaccurate in others. For instance, many of the photos used to call attention to child labor are from Lewis Hine in the early 20^th century, not from Slater’s time on earth. (There were no American photographs until four years after Slater died.) 

 

 

 

On another level, one could make the case that such images are justified as they hold the essence of the industrial system that Slater unleashed and portend what developed in the city of Webster. This is grounded in some truth; places such as Webster and Lowell were atypical. Thomas Jefferson held the view that machines should remain forever in Europe. He lost that debate, but agrarian ideals reigned for most of the 19^th century and it wasn’t until 1920 that a census revealed more individuals making their living in something other than agriculture. 

 

 

The last part of the SSE is dedicated to the history of Webster. It celebrates the era of trolley cars, movies, thriving retail trade, and nightlife–most of it fueled by industrial dollars. If it is a romanticized version of the past, why not? Webster still has a nice lake, but it’s a toss-up if a postindustrial Webster is an improvement.

 

Rob Weir