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| Forgotten: Labor history as operaby Michael G. Matejka“Opera” usually generates images of hefty Teutonic sopranos in body armor or else a hilarious Bugs Bunny episode. But opera is basically story-telling with music, which is the key ingredient of “Forgotten,” a labor-history jazz offering now on CD, set in 1930s Detroit. Written by Steve Jones, “Forgotten” is also a murder mystery, about the death of Rev. Lewis Bradford, a Ford Company employee and union sympathizer fatally injured in the plant on November 30, 1936. Bradford’s death is real and so are many of the characters who populate “Forgotten” -- Bradford’s wife Ella, Henry Ford, his wife Clara, Ford’s top goon, Harry Bennett and Fr. Charles Coughlin, Detroit’s “Radio Priest.” Figuratively present are the rank and file workforce, the real power and the story in this musical. Shortly before World War I, workers flocked to Detroit by the thousands, where Henry Ford promised prosperity by offering the then unprecedented wage of $5 per day for industrial workers. Ford opened job positions to African-Americans, in a age when they were denied many industrial jobs. Ford’s showcase was the River Rouge plant, an industrial power house where every auto part was not only assembled, but also fabricated. In 1929 when the Great Depression struck, Ford cut back his workforce. Detroit, like many industrial cities, badly suffered through the economic outrage, with evictions and hunger. Fearing communist influence, Ford fought unionization. He was aided in this effort by Fr. Charles Coughlin, a Detroit Catholic priest who won a national audience, first supporting Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, but then turning against it, offering race-based and anti-Semitic diatribes. Ford hired a former prize fighter, Harry Bennett, as his security chief, and Bennett ruthlessly went after any union sympathizer. In 1932 hungry Detroit workers marched on the Rouge. The march was organized by Communist Party members and four were killed on the “Ford Hunger March.” Eventually the union came to the auto industry, with General Motors the first to sign after the 1936 sit-down strikes, which began in Flint, Michigan. Ford finally signed a United Auto Workers (UAW) contract in 1941, but not before the “Battle of the Overpass,” where Bennett’s thugs beat Walter Reuther and other union organizers trying to pass leaflets at the Rouge’s gate. This sets the historical scene for “Forgotten,” but the running thread is Lewis Bradford, his wife Ella and their daughter Little Ella. Bradford’s ministry is to the workers. In contrast to Coughlin, he launched a radio show, where the “forgotten people” tell their sad tales of Depression woe. Having to feed his own family, he goes to work for Ford in the Rouge, increasingly suspect because of his union sympathies, until he’s is found dead in a back corner of the plant. His family struggles with his commitment to justice, while still trying to survive the Depression and hold their small family together. Musical author Steve Jones not only dug out a fascinating story, there is a family link, as Bradford is his great uncle by marriage.. The voices are strong on this CD and some rank and file Detroit workers were part of this production, performed last September in Detroit. Jones’ soundtrack mixes jazz and blue. His lively piano script keeps the story moving and effectively helps portray the emotional gamut that people face. The “bad guys” in this drama -- Henry Ford and Harry Bennett -- are more like caricatures, but the average workers are real, not cardboard heroes, but actual people struggling with life and death decisions. This is not necessarily “easy listening.” But a careful listening reveals a rich tapestry and a too-long forgotten story, mixing mystery, history and strong human emotions to show the heart’s battleground and commitment needed to build a union. To order the CD, visit www.forgottenshow.net or send $20 to: "Forgotten Show" Donna Jones P.O. Box 386 Garrett Park, MD 20896-0386 |