July 2019 – Ann S. Epstein Writer

Learn History Through Fiction: Oops! Grauman Accidentally Steps in Wet Cement

Theater magnate Sid Grauman opened Grauman’s Egyptian Theater in 1922 on Hollywood Blvd. It was the site of the first Hollywood premiere, Robin Hood, with Douglas Fairbanks. In 1927, Grauman’s Chinese Theater opened farther west on Hollywood Blvd., where Cecil B. DeMille premiered King of Kings. The entrance is renowned for its elaborate pagoda, dragon, and two Ming Heaven dogs guarding the door. Jean Klossner (later dubbed Mr. Footprint) was hired to create a concrete forecourt to preserve the hand and footprints of stars. Sid Grauman got the idea when he accidentally stepped in wet cement during construction. Read more Hollywood and Los Angeles history in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Grauman’s Theater has been a Hollywood attraction for nearly a century

Grauman’s traditional hand and footprints began as an accident

A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (Alternative Book Press) by Ann S. Epstein

Learn History Through Fiction: Topeka Schools After Brown v. Board of Education

After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, Topeka encountered little resistance to elementary school desegregation. Its middle schools had been integrated since 1941. The high school had been integrated from its 1871 inception and its sports teams since 1949. A new school board was voted in which moved quickly to integrate students, soon followed by teachers and principals. Unlike the South and many cities in the North, there were no demonstrations in Topeka. Nevertheless, throughout the country today, de facto segregation is reinforced by neighborhood housing patterns and school district boundaries. Read more about race relations in Topeka 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Segregated Topeka elementary school before Brown v. Board of Education

Tazia and Gemma (Vine Leaves Press) by Ann S. Epstein

What I’m Reading: Mama’s Last Hug by Frans de Waal

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves (Rating 5) – All in the Family. In Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves, primatologist Frans de Waal’s fascinating and accessible book fulfills the title’s promise. Although we generally use “emotion” and “feeling” interchangeably, he begins with a useful distinction. Emotions drive behavior and can thus be observed. Feelings, the internal states that accompany emotions, can only be inferred. Recounting the behaviors he and his colleagues have observed in our fellow primates and other species, Dr. de Waal makes a convincing case that humans are not that different animals, most notably, we are not “superior.” He has documented this claim elsewhere with regard to cognitive capacities; here he extends the comparison to affective behavior. As a developmental psychologist, I was reminded of my own field’s chronic underestimation of the capabilities of young children with regard to such attributes as empathy and morality. Dr. De Waal’s precise delineation of both the similarities and differences between apes and humans is insightful. Similarities abound in everything from laughter and grief, to fair play and revenge (even premeditated murder). One telling difference is the label “alpha male.” Originally the concept, which dates to wolf studies in the 1940s, simply meant the dominant male. However, as the term has been applied to humans, “alphas are not just winners, they beat the hell out of everyone around them.” In the animal world, the alpha male is not the biggest bully. In fact, “this male acts as the healer-in-chief, comforting others, intent on restoring harmony.” Perhaps, in observing our species today, de Waal can be forgiven for occasionally substituting cynicism for science. However, as a fiction writer, I set out to prove that even my most reprehensible characters can change. As a reader, I’m equally inclined to be generous. For optimists like me, de Waal offers hope that people can behave better by citing studies of female primates, who are the primary conciliators of their species. Whereas males physically dominate and intimidate, females stand their ground by exerting a powerful social influence. Females are peacemakers rather than warriors. Thus, de Waal says, it is past time to abandon macho theories of human evolution and embrace feminist ones. Only then we can harness the emotions that facilitate relationships and re-channel the destructive ones.

Humans and primates are emotional kinfolk

“Read everything … like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.” – William Faulkner

Learn History Through Fiction: From Wicked Witch to Soap Opera Star

After her success as the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz, Margaret Hamilton appeared in My Little Chickadee but had only minor film roles after that. She had a long-running radio career from 1944 to the 1950s on Ethel and Albert, where she played the scatter-brained Aunt Eva. In the 1960s and 1970s, Hamilton was a regular on the soap operas The Secret Storm and As the World Turns. She reprised her role as the Wicked Witch on Sesame Street in 1976, but parents complained that it scared their children, so the episode was never reshown. Read more about the making of Oz and the lives of its stars in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

The Wicked Witch on Sesame Street was deemed too scary by parents

Learn History Through Fiction: Kansas Immigrants Drawn to Farming and Freedom

The 1867-1868 great famine in Sweden combined with discontent from a repressive government made the American advertisement of land and freedom in Kansas particularly attractive to Swedes. They became the third-largest group of foreign-born citizens in the state, after Germans and Russians. Italians followed in 1871, coming to the coal-mining regions in SE Kansas. Read more about Topeka and Kansas history, and the immigrants who helped build the United States, in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Swedish immigrants fled famine and government repression for the farmlands of Kansas

“Adverbicide” Online at The Woven Tale Press

My craft article “Adverbicide: Must Writers Eradicate Adverbs?” is now online at The Woven Tale Press. The essay challenges the rule that writers should avoid adverbs. The editors expect the article to generate a lively debate, so please leave a comment. Do you think Stephen King will reply: (A) Promptly; (B) Perfunctorily; (C) Appreciatively; (D) Sarcastically; or (E) Nonely of the Abovely? Read more about my thoughts on writing in REFLECTIONS.

Learn History Through Fiction: Little People Think Big

Little People of America (LPA) is a nonprofit for people no taller than 4’10” and their families. It was started by Billy Barty in 1957, who called on people of short stature to meet in Reno, Nevada. The original gathering of 21 people grew into the organization. A newspaper reporter wrote, “The small people gathered here today are endowed with that good quality which takes them out of the realm of oddity into the realm of humanity.” LPA’s motto “Think Big” was established in the 1960s. Today LPA has over 6,000 members in 70 chapters across the U.S. and internationally and is politically active in the disabilities rights movement. Read more about Little People of America in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (Alternative Book Press), a fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner in The Wizard of Oz (see NOVELS). Munchkin actors were called “midgets,” now considered a derogatory term.

Little People of America was founded in 1957

Munchkin actors were called “midgets,” now considered a derogatory term

Learn History Through Fiction: Early Meat-Packers Union Broke Racial Barriers

In the 1920s and early 1930s, workers were unionized under the CIO’s United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA). An interracial committee led organizing in Chicago, where the majority of industry workers were black, and in other major cities, such as Omaha, Nebraska, where they were a sizable minority. The UPWA secured important gains in wages, hours, and benefits. Other labor unions remained largely segregated however, until the AFL and CIO merged in 1955 and declared in their new constitution that “all workers without regard to race, creed, color, national origin or ancestry shall share equally in the full benefits of union organization.” Read more Chicago and labor history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Chicago meat packers formed the first interracial labor union

Learn History Through Fiction: The Four C’s of Rubies

Rubies get their name from ruber, the Latin word for red. The color is caused by the element chromium. Rubies are one of the four precious stones; the others are sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds. Like diamonds, the value of rubies is determined by 4 C’s: color, clarity, cut, and carets. The brightest and most valuable color is called pigeon blood red. The Smithsonian has a 23.1 carat ruby mined in Burma in the 1930s. Ruby is the July birth stone (Cancer), a symbol of the 40th wedding anniversary, and a sign of good luck in Asia. Read more gems about gems, including Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz, in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

A ruby’s value is based on 4 C’s: color, clarity, cut, and carets

Learn History Through Fiction: Failed Farmers Open Successful Inn

After failing at farming in the Catskills, Selig and Malke Grossinger, Polish immigrants, bought a large house on 100 acres, named it Grossinger’s, and made their daughter Jennie the manager. Malke, the daughter of an innkeeper who knew about hospitality, believed that “a life without sharing is barren.” Grossinger’s served strictly kosher food and attracted winter guests with the first artificial snow machine in 1952. By the time Jennie Grossinger died in 1972, the hotel’s 1,200 acres had 35 buildings and served 150,000 guests a year. The hotel closed in 1986 and only the golf course remained open. Read more about Grossinger’s and U.S. cultural history in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).