Headlines and Footlights
May 22, 1943
p. 24
Since reviewing Mission to Moscow two weeks ago, letters have been pouring in on the subject both pro and con. I ran across a review on the picture in the May 10 issue of the New Republic which I thought interesting enough to answer and again reiterate my stand. Manny Farber, who is its author, gives Ambassador Davies, Warner Bros., and the picture holy hell.
“Now I’m ready to vote for the booby prize: I have seen the Mission to Moscow.” This is the opening statement made by Farber. He goes on to say that “any truth that has been told about Russia therefore now has this obstacle to face. We didn’t deserve that Mr. Davies should have met the Warner Bros. At no point does this truth about the Soviet Union show that Communism is an ideology, a way of living, what victory in this war would mean to it and those of us who are allied to it.”
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I did not know that Mr. Davies, or Warner Bros.[,] even entertained the idea of schooling the American public in the ideology of Communism. Mr. Farver forgets that the general public knows no more of Communism than the Hearst newspapers have taught them, which is a pretty inaccurate and unjust picture of a great people.
This Republic reporter particularly was annoyed with the little everyday interest of the little guy as evidenced by this statement: “Its two revelations about Russian Communism are that Soviet women use cosmetics and that Soviet workers get paid extra for extra work—hurrah for the Revolution.” This one scene from my point of view (and I’m one of the little ignorant Americans on this complex subject), [sic] will do a lot more to cement relations between Americans and Russians than many of the volumes written about the Soviet Union.
If you ask me, Mr. Farber needs to forget some of the vast knowledge he has accumulated long enough to get a clear perspective of Johnny Q. Public’s ability to grasp and understand the politics and a people whom they had been lead to believe so vastly different from them. Mission did a good job, Mr. Farber, and if you don’t think so, get out of the realms of the intelligen[t]sia long enough to discuss the matter with a few of the non lettered folks who are the backbone of this country and you will be amazed to find a new respect for the Russian people.
Actors’ Fund of America held its annual meeting last Friday at the Lyceum Theatre to elect officers and report on the affairs of the year. This organization is one which Negroes in the theatre should know and support, for the fun has given untold assistance to us for burials, illness and destitution. Members voted unanimously for the straight ticket. Walter Vicent, president; Katherine Cornell, vice president; Vinton Freedley, treasurer; Robert Campbell, secretary; and Alfred Lunt, trustee. It was reported that gross income for the year from benefits, bequests, donations, interest and dividends from real estate was $107,923.75; $46,100 worth of bonds were purchased, and $52,122.79 was expended for relief and burials with overhead expenses kept to a minimum; $500 was given to the American Theatre Wing.
The fund maintains a home for indigent and aged actors in Englewood, N.J. Some of the distinguished members present were: Gene Buck, Arthur Hopkins, Vinton Freedley, Father Riley, Rabbi Bernstein and Prof. William Lyons Phelps, now retired from Yale University who gave the main address. To be privileged to hear Dr. Phelps, is to receive a broad and liberal education. He talked for one hour, every moment of which was like a magic carpet and never once did he use words of more than two syllables. Dr. Phelps, in his eighties, has the vigor of a man of forty.
B’way received a lecture on democracy one night last week when a young Negro Chief Petty Officer of the Merchant Marine entered one of the night spots along the street. After being seated by a not too cordial head waiter and ordering a drink, the house photographer who happens to be white, and a girl, came to his table and asked if he wanted her to make a photo of him. Insolently watching from a not too far distance, the head waiter evidently thought the officer was trying to make a date with the girl and rudely pushed her from the table and told her to move on. Where upon the officer proceeded to inform not only the head waiter but patrons as well, that he had not been risking his life in the defense of a country which accorded its defenders such treatment nor did he intend to take such treatment and that if this procedure is democracy, then [H]itler is a democrat. Shore Patrol was sent for but again the officer had the upper hand because an S.P. cannot arrest a man in the Merchant Marine.