PBS Film Premieres Tonight
And everyone everywhere can watch for free. Plus: companion book now available. And live "labor" songs by The Band, Bruce Springsteen and Woody Guthrie.
"So important. Another piece of forgotten history and lesson in the manipulation of truth." --David Maraniss, author of bestseller Path Lit by Lightning, biographies of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and other books
My latest PBS film titled Memorial Day Massacre: Workers Die, Film Buried, premiered over KCET, but will also emerge online and streaming around 11 pm (ET) for everyone everywhere to view for free at the station’s site—and for several weeks there and via PBS.org and PBS apps. (It will also air later in the month at other public TV stations, check your listings.) I wrote and directed and Lyn Goldfarb produced, as she did our previous PBS film last October.
It’s narrated by actor Josh Charles and runs for 27 minutes.
A companion book (my 13th) with same Memorial Day Massacre title just published—as both an e-book ($6.95) and as a paperback ($12.95)—at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It’s the first oral history and features everyone from wounded strikers to observers Studs Terkel, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn, Dorothy Day, John Hope Franklin, even Ayn Rand, and more. Plus, a couple of dozen photos. Briefly: Chicago police shot 40 steel strikers and supporters (mainly in the back) and killed ten in 1937—and then the only footage of it was suppressed.
Amazing article this week (excerpted from my book) by chief advisor to the film and contributor to book, Carol Quirke—whose uncle was wounded by a police bullet in the Massacre. My own new article pulls it all together.
Then there’s this: the site for the film with raves from various notables who have seen it, ranging from David Maraniss and Rick Perlstein to directors Rod Lurie, Oliver Stone and Sarah Kernochan and singer-songwriter Allison Russell. And 2-minute trailer.
The book in a nutshell below.
It explores a largely forgotten episode in labor--and media--history, all the more vital today as union organizing catches fire after years of decline.
This is the first oral history devoted to the tragic and highly influential events in Chicago in 1937, when police opened fire on striking steel workers and their supporters in an open field, killing ten (nearly all shot in the back as they fled). Press accounts generally accepted false police accounts that the unionists attacked first and were "rioting." A cameraman for a leading newsreel, Paramount News, was at the scene, however, and captured the truth on film. But Paramount then suppressed its newsreel devoted to the incident.
When a famous reporter revealed the cover-up, a Congressional committee held hearings and screened the unprecedented footage for the first time, inspiring national outrage—with after-effects, both positive and negative, that endure to this day, as union activity surges, police violence draws new attention, and media “cover-ups” continue.
Featured in the very lively and often shocking oral history accounts are numerous eyewitnesses and injured activists, along with well-known writers Studs Terkel, Gore Vidal, Ayn Rand, Meyer Levin, Dorothy Day and Howard Fast, and historians Howard Zinn and John Hope Franklin.
Carol Quirke, a professor and author who grew up near the site of the massacre (and had an uncle wounded by a police bullet that day) provides a unique and compelling Foreword and Afterword that meld labor history and a close analysis of the once-buried Paramount News footage.
If anyone wishes to interview me about the film or book let me know at gregmitch34@gmail.com.
A few more of the the early comments on film, and more here:
"Riveting, moving, infuriating and ultimately inspiring." -- Nina Bernstein, longtime investigative reporter, The New York Times
"Stunning." -- Rick Perlstein, bestselling author of Nixonland, Reaganland, and other books
"Excellent…this is Oscar-level stuff.” -- Rod Lurie, director of The Outpost, The Contender and other movies
"A fine piece of work on American history, film history. and human history. Powerful indeed, on a subject that's as timely as ever." -- David Sterritt, editor-in-chief, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, esteemed movie critic at The Christian Science Monitor for several decades.
"Excellent. You’re doing an outstanding job in reminding us of these incidents we forget."-- Oliver Stone
“Astonishing footage-–fascinating film!” — Geoffrey C. Ward, Emmy-winning writer of Ken Burns films, including The Civil War, The U.S. and the Holocaust, Jazz, The Roosevelts and The Vietnam War
Site for both film and book. Remember you can watch online or via PBS apps starting late tonight.
And now, a favorite “union” song by The Band in stunning “live” version, “King Harvest,” plus Springsteen’s “Youngstown” and Woody Guthrie’s “Union Burying Ground.”
Guest commentary:
