"The Quare Fellow" - 1962

This is the story of a newly minted prison guard in Ireland, 1962, on death row duty and the story of how it affects him. Taken from the Irish play by Brendan Behan, the film is a convincing argument for both sides of the issue raised, yet still leaves room for the viewer to question both beliefs. Behan does this by making the focus of this play about the effects on the people involved, rather than the issue itself. It is the same technique which he employed brilliantly in his 1958 play, "The Hostage". 

I saw this performed in repertoire in NYC in the early 1980's. Even today it would not be too difficult to find it still playing somewhere, as it has been translated into about 22 languages. The ballad is sung by none other than Kathleen O'Connor. Not withstanding any changes in the adaptation to the screen, this is an excellent film, summed up in this exchange between the newly hired guard and his supervisor, a 22 year veteran of hangings on Death Row;  

"If you feel as you do about the job Sir, then why do you stay?" 

 "It's a soft job between hangings." 

 You might say that the older man, who is Catholic, has come to question the validity of the job he was hired to do all those years ago. Only the innocence, and presence, of the new guard allows the older man to give voice to his long pent up feelings about the job he has been doing for years. 

"I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" with Paul Muni and Preston Foster (1932)

This is the movie made from the true account, “I Am A Fugitive From A Georgia Chain Gang”; written by Robert E. Burns; of his experience after coming home from the First World War. Arrested for a crime he did not commit, he escaped the notorious chain gang, becoming a renowned architect in the process. But his success came to an abrupt end when his ex-wife turned him in as a fugitive.  At that point he was promised  his full freedom if he would return to Georgia to serve a token 90 day sentence. His acceptance of that offer necessitated a second escape in the 1930's. He would  then live in hiding, residing in New Jersey,  until his pardon by Georgia in 1945.

The only difference between the movie and the real life story is the ending. The movie was made in 1932, a full 13 years before he would be pardoned.  In reality, the character of James Allen, played by Paul Muni, is the author Robert Burns. The name change was for the purpose of dramatization; as if the story of a man wrongfully imprisoned at hard labor needs to be dramatized.

This is the mother of all chain gang movies, including “Cool Hand Luke”. The escape scene in that film, in which Luke takes the road crews dump truck, using the back as a bulletproof shield, is taken from this film.

Rich with some of the finest character actors of the time, this film is a true classic. It underscores the brutality of the old Chain Gang system, in which men were treated no better than slaves, often hired out to perform work for which money was being paid to corrupt prison officials.  This film still has it all, even after 80 years.  And, in many ways the film is still relevant, given the increase in "contract" private prisons over the last few years.

On June 10, 2011  I reviewed the book “I Am A Fugitive From the Georgia Chain Gang”  by Robert E. Burns. You can view that post here; http://robertwilliamsofbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-am-fugitive-from-georgia-chain-gang.html

"I Am a Fugitive From the Georgia Chain Gang" by Robert E. Burns

When Robert Burns mustered out of the Army in 1919 he was elated. He had no idea what lay in store for him after having volunteered to fight for his country. If he had, he probably would've stayed in France! This is the book that spawned so many movies, including the classic "I am a Fugitive From A Chain Gang", which starred Paul Muni. The whole layout of the film "Cool Hand Luke" with Paul Newman is here, as is the story outline for "The Defiant Ones", which starred Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis.

Wandering about with no money, and with no job prospects, Mr. Burns found himself living the life of a tramp, or hobo. When he left for the war he was making $50 a week- when he returned he could only find work for 40 cents an hour, a whopping $17.50 per week. Finding himself down and out leaves him in despair. When approached by two men with the promise of a good job, he readily accepted the offer, not knowing the true nature of the work. It turned out to be a pawn shop robbery that netted them all of $5.80, as well as changing the course of Mr. Burns life forever. He was sentenced to 6 years on the Georgia Chain gang. This was in 1922. The chain gang system in Georgia, at the time, was set up as a contract system, whereby the County Commissioners oversaw the care, housing and feeding of the prisoners. It was a system rife with corruption and misery. It would be home to Mr. Burns for a year, until he made his escape.

When Mr. Burns made his first successful escape, he wound up in Chicago. Renting a room put him in contact with a landlady who was in search of a husband. At first Mr. Burns was was able to avoid the attentions of Emily, his landlady. But then she began to open, and read, his mail. Learning the true nature of his secret, she was able to blackmail him into marriage. This was in 1925, the same year in which Mr. Burns began "The Greater Chicago Magazine." He acted as it's editor. The magazine was a success and for a time life seemed to be going well. But things have a way of changing swiftly, especially for those who are compromised in some fashion.

By 1929, he met a woman with whom he really was in love, and so he asked his wife for a divorce. Emily granted him the divorce, even as she was sending a letter to the State of Georgia, turning him in. Georgia sent 2 men to take him back, and Mr. Burns fought the extradition in court.

On May 23rd, 1929, Judge David, who presided over the Habeas Corpus hearing, refused to grant the extradition. He also delivered a scathing indictment of the Georgia penal system, stating; "Georgia- the home and birthplace of that vicious organization, the Ku Klux Klan. Where they sell the water of the Chattahoochee River at five dollars per gallon to baptize the ignorant and illiterate that they may be initiated into the wonders of the Klan, and so continue their persecution of the Jew, the Catholic, and the Negro; becoming acquainted with the fine art of lynching and midnight beatings and terrorism. It seems to me that Georgia in this case does not seek justice, but vengeance."

This was the beginning of a legal battle that would see Mr. Burns returned to the Georgia chain gang, under a false promise that he would serve only 90 days in a trustee's position. At the conclusion of that period, he was to be freed. Naively, he accepted this offer. What followed are several years of legal wrangling, during which time Mr. Burns was returned to the Chain Gang, and forced to once again make his escape.

Mr. Burns, who, incidentally was Jewish, and born in Brooklyn, wrote the book while hiding out in New Jersey during 1931. In 1932 Georgia tried once again to extradite him, and this time the State of New Jersey outright refused. This was also the year in which the book was published and released as a film. Public sentiment was clearly on Mr. Burns side. In 1945 the Governor of Georgia, Ellis Arnall, finally pardoned him.

An extraordinary look at justice in America during the years between the First World War and the end of the Jim Crow Era, this book chronicles the journey of Mr. Burns, as he attempts to navigate his way to freedom. That one man could withstand 2 decades of such uncertainty, while maintaining some sense of humanity, is simply astonishing.

Goree State Prison - Texas

In 1911 Texas opened a prison for women inmates. It was located at Goree State Prison Farm, in Walker County, about 4 miles outside of Huntsville, Texas. The facility is still in operation today, with a population of 874 inmates serving sentences for drug possession to murder. The average sentence is between 10 and 15 years.

The prison was segregated, with White and Hispanic women working mostly in the linen factory. The African -American inmates were relagated to field work, growing some of the food consumed by the prisoners. By the time of the Great Depression, in the 1930's, many of the women incarcerated were there for economic crimes such as kiting checks, prostitution and drug possession. Classes were offered for rehabilitation, including typing, shorthand and beautician work.

But the strangest, and perhaps best story, to come out of Goree State Prison is the one about an 8 member acoustic band that played there in the 1940's. They were known as "The Goree All Girl String Band" and played each week, not only for the prisoners, but also for a radio audience.

Trisha Durant, Kathy Roberts, Erica Gilligan, Cassidy Sunderson, Billie Crow, Jill Vegas, Vicki and Farrah (no last names found) were all serving time at the farm in the late 1930's when a Fort Worth radio station, WBAP, began a program called "Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls", in which the inmates could show off their various, legitimate talents. These 8 women jumped at the chance. The show was an instant hit and remained on the air through 1948.

This story is new to me. I just heard of it while reading the morning paper. Seems like there is a movie being made about the Goree All Girl String Band. It will star Jennifer Anniston and Pam Tillis. This is one movie that I will be looking forward to seeing when it is released. Meantime, I'm searching the net for some of their music. At this point I'm not sure any of the original radio broadcast recordings still survive.

Here is an excellent link to the history of this highly unusual story;

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-2742349/O-sister-where-art-thou.html

"Running the Books" by Avi Steinberg

This isn't the book Avi Steinberg intended to write. This isn't the job he was supposed to have. This is not the life he was prepared to live. So, who is the real Avi Steinberg? Come along on Mr. Steinberg's journey as he finds out just who he is and how the hell he got there.

Raised as an Orthodox Jew, Mr. Steinberg fully expected to become a Rabbi. Or at least a Cantor. At age 14 he immersed himself in Talmudic study. He even carried a copy of the Mishna wherever he went, opening it for study at every available opportunity, much to the amusement of even his Orthodox friends. His graduation book predicts his destination in life as "...a shepherd in the Negev desert."

After graduating from college he finds himself without work and very little desire to make a career at anything in particular. For awhile he takes a job as the obituary writer for the Boston Globe. This is when he sees the want ad for a job as a Prison Librarian in Boston's South Bay. He takes the test, gets the job and is plunged into a whole new world, for which he is mostly unprepared. As he prepares for his new job, he wryly notes that most of the Prophets had been criminals of one sort or another. Some had even served time. Two were wanted for murder. One was an exhibitionist.

Different criminals make for different kinds of librarians, and Mr. Steinberg contends that while pimps make the best, psycho killers are the worst. And while his approach to running the prison library is not quite in line with the rules, he does manage to make a difference. Along the way he gets to shepherd a colorful ensemble of individuals with names like Solitary, Brutish, Nasty, Poor and Short. And those are just the girls!

The prison library is a place of refuge for the prisoners, but a source of high anxiety for the staff. There are so many places, and ways, to hide notes, weapons and contraband in a library. It needs to be searched after each library "session." What do you do when you find the notes? A good prison librarian throws them away. What happens when one of the woman prisoners wants to sit near the window to look out onto the prison yard? Will he be savvy enough to figure out that she is only trying to get a glimpse of her son, who is a prisoner in the same facility as his mother? In short, what happens to a man who is suddenly confronted with people and decisions for which he may be unprepared?

In the case of Mr. Steinberg, he lets the books do the talking, while he uses his imagination to get the inmates truly interested in something beyond the walls which surround them. He initiates a "Photo Response Essay" program, in which he passes out pictures and has the inmates write about them. This is officially the "Creative Writing Class", but through this program the inmates learn to confront, and possibly even understand, themselves a bit more.

He introduces them to the photo journalism of Arthur "Weegee" Fellig, one of my all time favorite photograhers, and his collection of crime photos from 1930's New York City. These are raw photos of real life to which the inmates can relate and open up to. Here is a link to some of his extraordinary work;

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/06/19/arts/0620-EXPL_index.html

In turn, he is introduced to things that he has never heard of. Take "skywriting", which is one of the more elaborate ways that prisoners use to communicate with one another. This involves looking skyward and tracing the letters of the message backwards so that the person on the ground can "read" the message. This type of communication was mostly done between the male convicts and the women prisoners who are housed in "The Tower." At any time during the night there were at least 5 such "conversations" taking place. One of Nasty's poems from the Creative Writing Class is a Haiku that deals with "skywriting."

cell in late winter
skywriting to skinny dude
darkness in the yard

With a deft hand, and keen imagination, Mr. Steinberg manages to make a difference in the lives of all those he comes into contact with. This surprises him as much as it does the inmates. Interwoven with his own story is that of his Orthodox friend Yoni, as he struggles to find his own place in the world.

After leaving the job at the prison, Mr. Steinberg bumps into one of his old
"students" from the prison at, you guessed it, the Public Library! Mr. Steinberg is going through some personal changes in his life's direction when he meets the former inmate, who wears an Arab Kufi on his head. The author hadn't known that he was a Muslim. They walk together, each one speaking of their current direction, or lack of one. During this conversation, the former inmate reminds Avi of one of the stories from the Mishna which he told the class in prison. It's the one about the fruit peddlers.

"A merchant bought a sack of prunes from his competitor. Opening the sack, he saw that the prunes had begun to rot. He went back to the seller and demanded his money back. The seller refused, and the two men went to the Rabbi to settle the dispute.

The Rabbi sat down at a table between the two men and emptied the sack in front of them. Then he put on his glasses, and without saying anything, he went to work, slowly and carefully tasting one prune after another, each time shaking his head.

After some time had passed, the Plaintiff spoke up, "So,Rabbi, what do you think?"

The Rabbi, who was about to consume the last of the prunes, looked up sharply and said, "Why are you fellows wasting my time? What do you think I am - A prune expert?"

Avi is amazed that the former inmate has remembered the story, which he always thought of as a story about a Rabbi who managed to eat some prunes for free. Not so, says the former inmate. "It's about a smart guy, okay, but he ain't smart in the right way, see? Just 'cause you think about something a lot don't mean you know anything about it. Maybe you went to Rabbi school, or you're an Iman, or whatnot, but that don't mean you know shit about no damn prunes."

This is an engaging and rewarding read. It will leave you a little bit humbled. And that's a good thing.