American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA : When FDR Put the Nation to Work (62 page)

Eleanor Roosevelt: Alsberg quoted in ibid., 81.

State directors, interference generally and in Missouri and Nebraska: ibid., 76–77.

Named writers: ibid., 97–152.

Deadline for guide copy, deadline missed: ibid., 92.

From the outside: ibid., 92.

10. A
T
W
ORK FOR THE
W
RITERS’
P
ROJECT
(R
ESEARCHER
T
HOMAS
C. F
LEMING)

This material comes entirely from the author’s interview with Thomas C. Fleming, San Francisco, Jan. 28, 2001. Recollection of Harlem riots on page 300 supplemented with
NYT
reports, Mar. 20, 1935, 1, Mar. 21, 1935, 1.

11. O
NE
N
ATION
, O
NE
P
LAY

The material in this section comes primarily from Hallie Flanagan’s descriptions in
Arena
in the chapter entitled “States United: It Can’t Happen Here,” 115–29, and from Buttitta and Witham, 79–92.

Flanagan quote: Flanagan, 116. Project anniversary, film rights: Buttitta and Witham, 79. Lewis expected even-handedness from FTP: Flanagan, 117.

Telegram quoted: ibid., 117.

“free, inquiring, critical spirit”: ibid., 129.

12. A
T
W
ORK
O
FFSTAGE
(A
NTHONY
B
UTTITTA AND
M
ILTON
M
ELTZER)

Both Buttitta and Meltzer have written accounts of, or (in Meltzer’s case) touched on, their work for the Federal Theatre Project, both of which are listed in the bibliography. The author also has talked with both men. Tony Buttitta was a neighbor in Greenwich Village for several years before his death in 2004. During this time we spoke often about Buttitta’s background and his role in the project, which he describes in more detail in his book with Witham. Meltzer’s book covers all the WPA arts projects, and my interview with him on Mar. 1, 2002, provided additional details about his background and the circumstances that led to his theater project job.

As soon as he arrived: Buttitta and Witham, 7.

Flanagan was out of town: ibid., 8–10.

Older actors petitioning Flanagan: ibid., 12.

Magazine start in November: Flanagan, 63.

Conversation with Marvin, meeting de Rohan: Buttitta and Witham, 26. Called back: ibid., 32. “Box Score”:
Federal Theatre Bulletin
1, 5 (April 1936): 21.

Milton Meltzer background and arrival at FTP: Meltzer, 1–17.

Duration of stays at the FTP: ibid., 151; Buttitta and Witham, 239.

13. T
HE
A
MERICAN
G
UIDES
: I
DAHO VERSUS
W
ASHINGTON
, D.C.

Kellock role: Mangione, 65–66.

Contents of California guide:
WPA Guide to California,
viii.

The nation seemed determined: Mangione, 360–61.

Alsberg decided on Washington, D.C., as first guide: ibid., 201.

Fisher working against odds: ibid., 73, 203.

Fisher background: Utah History Encyclopedia online, www.media.utah. edu/UHE/f/FISHER,VARDIS.htm. Traffic movement: Mangione, 202. Cronyn duties: ibid., 59; Cronyn quoted: ibid., 203.

Editor to Idaho, Fisher response as described in novel: ibid., 204–5.

January publication: ibid., 206. Pages by Fisher: ibid., 203.

Reviews and
Saturday Review
quoted in ibid., 207.

14. L
AYOFFS AND
P
ROTESTS

Unemployment from 24.9 to below 17 percent: McElvaine,
The Great Depression,
297–98. 315–16 Roosevelt July 1936 cuts: ibid., 297. Hopkins rescinding exemption granted arts projects: Flanagan, 188–89. Arts workers laid off: Mangione, 165.

New York protests covered generally in Mangione, 164–66; Buttitta and Witham, 96–99. Also
NYT,
Dec. 2, 1936, 1. Egri quote: telephone interview by author’s assistant, Mar. 5, 2001.

Writers’ Project stay-in:
NYT,
Dec. 4, 1936, 4.

Theatre Project shutdown, FBI appearance:
NYT,
Dec. 8, 1936, 1.

La Guardia and Somervell to Washington:
NYT,
Dec. 3, 1936, 4. Picket line sign:
NYT,
Dec. 10, 1936, 5.

Music Project protests:
NYT,
Dec. 25, 1936, 4.

Hopkins eases layoffs, Somervell quoted: Buttitta and Witham, 98–99.

Inauguration weather from www.weatherwise.org/inaugday.htm.

FDR second inaugural address: New Deal Network, newdeal.feri.org/texts/92.htm.

Advisors to argue for spending cuts and deficit reduction: Black, 398.

Part VI
The Phantom of Recovery

1. F
LOOD ON THE
O
HIO

Ohio Valley weather:
NYT,
Jan. 15, 1937, 10. Branham: www.biblebelievers.org/lohio.htm.

Rain drummed down:
NYT,
Jan. 15, 1937, 10.

Predictions of flood slowing:
NYT,
Jan. 16, 1937, 19. Increased flooding:
NYT,
Jan. 18, 1937, 3.

WPA, other disaster responders marshaling:
NYT,
Jan. 18, 1937.

Jennings and Indiana WPA response: Indiana University’s Lilly Library, “The WPA in Indiana,” virtual exhibit online at www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/wpa/wpa.htm. (The Lilly Library houses the papers of John K. Jennings, who later became Indiana’s WPA administrator.)

Illinois response: Judith Joy,
Illinois,
November 1977, quoted online at www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1999/oi991202.htm.

1927 Mississippi flood: compiled from Barry. Reybold quoted:
NYT,
Jan. 26, 1937, 1.

Ohio River flood levels: Bennett Swenson, “Rivers and Floods,” NOAA
Monthly Weather Review,
Feb. 1937, 71–77: docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/065/mwr-065-02-0071.pdf.

Hunter wired offer of WPA help: Hunter wire to Hopkins, Jan. 25, 1937, National Archives, NARA RG 69, General Subject Series, Disaster Relief.

Surplus commodities to flood zone: Hunter wire to Hopkins, ibid. Commodities on way: Woodward wire to Kerr, ibid. WPA building boats in street: WPA film
Men Against the River,
Prelinger Archive, 1937.

Flood crests: NOAA
Monthly Weather Review,
Feb. 1937, Table 1, 71;
NYT,
Feb. 2, 1937, 10. Status of flood, evacuations:
NYT,
Jan. 26, 1937, 1;
NYT,
Jan. 27, 1937, 1. Jeffersonville/Branham: www.biblebelievers.org/lohio.htm. Postponement of
It Can’t Happen Here
:
Federal Theatre Bulletin
2, 4 (undated, 1937), 13. Evacuation of Shawneetown from www.illinoishistory.com/hamradio.htm.

Cairo, Illinois; levee blast at New Madrid; Coast Guard evacuation boats:
NYT,
Jan. 28, 1937, 1. Evacuation of Cairo: author’s telephone interview with George Pomeroy, June 2005. Population remaining:
NYT,
Jan. 28, 1937, 1.

Cairo work:
NYT,
Jan. 28, 1935, p. 1. Pomeroy buying boots for workers, danger from sand boils: author’s interview with Pomeroy (grandson of subject).

New Madrid WPA work, barge pickup:
NYT,
Feb. 1, 1937.

Workman quote:
NYT,
Feb. 1, 1937, 2. Selvidge quote:
NYT,
Feb. 2, 1937,2.

Five bodies recovered:
NYT,
Feb. 2, 1937, 9. Twenty-four bodies recovered and six still missing; WPA employees, compensation:
NYT,
Feb. 14, 1937, gen. sec., 32.

Hopkins departs for flood zone:
NYT,
Feb. 1, 1937, 2.

Tour of flood zone:
NYT,
Feb. 2, 1937, 9. Feiser quote: Feiser letter to Red Cross chapter chairs, Feb. 13, 1937, WPA files, National Archives, RG 69, General Subject Series, Disaster Relief.

Aftermath of flood, Hopkins quoted:
NYT,
Feb. 4, 1937, 1. Jennings quote: www.indiana.edu/rulibililly/wpa/wpa.htm.

New Harmony, Ind.: WPA files, National Archives, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information.

WPA cleanup work:
NYT,
Feb. 9, 1937, 2; Feb. 13, 1937, 28. WPA theater and music groups entertaining flood victims:
Federal Theatre Bulletin
2, 4 (undated, 1937); Flanagan, 166. Woodward directing sewing room output to flood zone: WPA Files, National Archives, RG 69, General Subject Series, Disaster Relief.

Hugh Johnson quoted: Sherwood, 88.

Evansville Retail Bureau ad: WPA files, National Archives, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information.

2. WPA F
IGHTS THE
“F
EROCIOUS
F
IRE
D
EMON”

WPA rolls: Charles, 171.

WPA work cited:
Boston Globe,
Jan. 26, 1936;
Manchester Union,
Sept. 24, 1936, 8;
Baltimore Sun,
Oct. 4, 1936, sec. 1, 5;
Washington Morning Herald,
Apr. 28, 1936, sec. 2, 21;
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle,
Oct. 15, 1936, 18;
Seattle Times,
Feb. 5, 1938, 5;
Manchester Union,
Mar. 1, 1937, 1.; www.kiwanisskiclub.com/pages/History.htm.

The account of New Straitsville, Ohio’s colorful history that appears in these pages is drawn primarily from Bogzevitz and Winnenberg. An earlier work of local history,
Journey Through the Years: New Straitsville Centennial, 1870–1970,
covers the fire under the heading “World Famous Mine Fire of New Straitsville,” 24–38. The author also interviewed by telephone residents Jack Shuttleworth and Ruth McKee about their recollections of the fire, Feb. 2001.

Ruth McKee quote from interview with author.

Geiser report: WPA Files, National Archives, RG 69, General Subject Series, Mine Fires.

$360,000 granted to fight fire:
St. Louis Star-Times,
Oct. 26, 1936, 11. Cavanaugh and Laverty: Shuttleworth interviews.

Outhouses replaced: Shuttleworth interviews.

Uncle Sam’s Fire Rescue Station: Shuttleworth interviews.

On October 10, 1936:
United Mine Workers Journal,
1939, date and page illegible (from Penn State University archives).

Plummer Hill, Rush and Andrews families:
Cleveland Plain Dealer,
Feb. 28, 1937, magazine, 5.

The Plummer Hill firewall: ibid.

The smoking hills:
St. Louis Star-Times,
Oct. 26, 1936, 11.

Newspapers cited: WPA Files, NARA, RG 69, Records of the Division of Information.

Cavanaugh pronounced fire “whipped”:
Columbus Dispatch,
Apr. 9, 1937, 5B.

Work on two remaining coal seams:
New York Herald Tribune,
Apr. 2, 1938, sec. 2, 1;
Columbus Dispatch,
Jan. 15, 1939, 9A.

3. T
HE
C
OURT
-P
ACKING
D
EBACLE

Hopkins had testified: Charles, 170–71.

Supreme Court history: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 449–52.

FDR response to court’s NRA decision: FDR news conference, May 31, 1935, New Deal Network, newdeal.feri.org/court/fdr_5_31_35.htm. Analysis of “horse and buggy”: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 285–87; Burns, 222–23.

Makeup of Supreme Court: Kennedy, 326.

Cases pending review and FDR frustration: Kennedy, 330–31.

Court “packing” plan and feasibility: Kennedy, 325–26.

Court reform on White House agenda: Schlesinger, vol. 3, 490–94.

Frankfurter to FDR: Frankfurter letter to Roosevelt, Feb. 7, 1937, newdeal.feri.org/texts/781.htm.

The Nation
quote: Feb. 13, 1937.

FDR message to Congress:
NYT,
Feb. 6, 1937, 1.

FDR speech to Democratic victory dinner:
Vital Speeches of the Day
: 3, 11 (March 15, 1937): 324.

Fireside chat on “Reorganization of the Judiciary”: www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/030937.htm.

Cartoon:
Brooklyn Eagle,
Feb. 9, 1937. Letters to Congress: Black, 409. Hughes’s letter to Sen. Wheeler, Mar. 22, 1937: Burns, 301–02.

Wheeler opposition: Burns, 301.

For thorough treatments of the court-packing battles and its aftermath see Black, 404–21; Burns, 293–316 (Garner’s defection to Texas from Burns, 307); Kennedy, 325–38; Leuchtenberg,
FDR,
231–38.

4. WPA C
UTS AND THE
“R
OOSEVELT
R
ECESSION”

Unemployment rate: Brown, 342–43. WPA fund request: Charles, 170–71.

Hopkins closer to FDR since Howe’s death: Charles, 211.

Roosevelt had looked at declining unemployment: Black, 398. Morgenthau on balanced budget: Leuchtenberg,
FDR,
245.

Countervailing views of Hopkins, Henderson, Eccles: ibid., 167.

“More contributions please!”: Charles, 166.

Hopkins had gone after his appropriation: Charles, 161–65. New York arts units strike:
NYT,
May 29, 1937, 6.

Hopkins to Byrnes quoted: Charles, 162. Hopkins’s salary cut: Sherwood, 90.

Baltimore Sun
quoted: Sherwood, 90. Spending breakdown: Charles, 164–65.

Waltman quoted: Sherwood, 91. Barbara Hopkins’s illness and death, Hopkins’s bereavement and own illness: Cook, 475; McJimsey,
Harry Hopkins,
117–18; Sherwood, 92. Age, date of death, hospital, Hopkins at bedside:
NYT,
Oct. 8, 1937, 23.

Members of the administration rallied: McJimsey,
Harry Hopkins,
118. Ickes quoted: Sherwood, 93.

Maestri letter: Maestri files, New Orleans Public Library.

Lasser-Hopkins meetings:
NYT,
Aug. 20, 1937, 8; Aug. 24, 1937, 14. Rolls below 1. 53 million:
NYT,
Aug. 20, 1937, 8. Workers Alliance founding and Lasser quote:
Time,
Aug. 10, 1936. Lasser background: www.cgpublishing.com/Author_Bios/david_lasser.htm. Political action fund:
Time,
Sep. 5, 1938.