Patty Hearst and the Tension of the 1970's

The 1960’s were a time of peace and filled with social justice. The 1970's had a transition to where people began to become apathetic and absorbed with themselves. Americans confidence is now completely gone because of the Vietnam War. Gas went from 30 cents a gallon to one dollar. Drug abuse was more common, along with divorce and teen pregnancy.  Leading up to the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, several events seemed to create just as much controversy in the public eye. Kent state, Apollo 13, 18 year olds can vote, Nixon’s china trip, Watergate, death penalty is now ruled unconstitutional, tragedy at the Olympic Games, and the Vietnam Paris peace talks.

It all started with a very rich man, William Randolph Hearst. He was rich with power, as well; some might call him the father of newspaper. He had a kid, that had a kid, and that little girls name was Patty Hearst. Patty was born in 1954, and she was a cheerleader at Sacred Heart School in California. She was living with her fiancé in Berkley, CA on February 4^th, 1974 when her fiancé was beat up and she was kidnapped. Patty’s kidnapping was solely meant to be a trade for imprisoned men Joe Remiro and Russ Little, but it turned into so much more.

Joe and Russ and the kidnappers were all part of the Symbionese liberation army, a left-wind revolutionary group, led by Donald DeFreeze. Their motto was “Death to the Fascist insect that preys upon the life of people.” The SLA wanted to destroy the capitalist state of the 1970’s, and Joe and Russ had already killed two school superintendents. This group was no joke, and DeFreeze realized that Patty’s kidnapping got so much public attention, that he could use her for more than a return on imprisoned members.

Patty was now going to be killed if her father did not pay 400 million dollars worth of food to the California bay area. “I am quite willing to carry out the execution of your daughter to save the life of starving men, women, and children of every race.” –DeFreeze. After hearing this, Patty’s father immediately put his power and money into donating 6 million dollars of food. Still, there was no return of Patty. The public began to think that the SLA was not a hero to the people, but instead as revolutionary freak extremists.

Patty finally showed up, but she made her grand re-appearance as a bank robber. This was the Hibernia Bank Raid of 1974, and Patty was now "Tania.” Could this be true? Was this a genuine conversion? Hearst's lawyer would later argue that security cameras show Patty being held at gunpoint and forced to rob the bank. Later, Hearst had a recording saying that she had not escaped when she had the chance to, making it seem as if Patty robbed the bank by choice and had joined the SLA. The SLA ended stealing 10,000 dollars from the Hibernia Bank. Tania was now known throughout headlines as “Heiress Joins revolution.” This made the SLA well known, and she was used for propaganda and as the poster child of the revolution. She even claimed she was a “soldier in the people’s army.” Then, a counterculture iconic picture was released of her holding a gun in front of the SLA’s insignia.

The police were now ready to find and arrest her, and they found the SLA’s safe. There was a very tragic shootout, 6 died including DeFreeze, but still no Hearst. She was found 17 months later in San Francisco. She had escaped with SLA members Emily and Bill Harris. She was put onto trial for 7 years in prison, but only served out around two years because Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential clemency. This was because she was represented by F. Lee Bailey, and claimed that she was brainwashed.

People’s opinion really shaped how Hearst explained her crime. Hearst said she was kept in closet, tortured, given propaganda and revolutionary rhetoric, sleep and food deprivation, and even rape and death threats. Hearst called her father a pig before she was found, and claimed she was in love with named Willie Wolfe. The public took this information as reason to doubt her brainwashing, but they still had sympathy for her harsh sentence, even though they began to think she was an urban guerrilla.

Stronger and harsher opinion was shared by Harry Kozol, a psychiatric doctor used during the case. He said the idea of “Heiress Joins Revolution” was used for propaganda of the left wing group. Kozol says that Hearst was “embittered, discouraged, unhappy, and ready to lash out.” She was a “rebel in search of a cause, and that cause found her.” He diagnosed her with Traumatic Neurosis, and the people diagnosed her with Stockholm syndrome.

Traumatic Neurosis is described as any functional nervous disorder after an accident or injury.(drugs.com) Stockholm Syndrome is the psychological tendency of a hostage to bond with, identify with, or sympathize with his or her captor.(Merriam-webster.com)

Patty now has two daughters and wrote a book called Every Secret Thing in ’82. She had a song written about her called “Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart” by Camper Beethoven in ’88, and the title was about the SLA’s press manifestos. In 2001 Bill Clinton Pardoned her. Patty Hearst is now known as the heiress that joined the revolution, and I think it is ironic that her grandfather being who he is, that slogan was probably a headline in a newspaper. Tension in the 1970’s was filled with apathy and selfishness, but also sympathy towards people like Patty Hearst.

I never really had to change my focus, nor did I face any obstacles. My most useful source was PBS. I was drawn to this topic because of the crime and rebellion aspect of the case. What was surprising to me is that Patty seems to live a normal life currently, and also the video of her at the Bank was pretty cool.

Patty Hearst; SLA insignia 

1974 Hibernia Bank Robbery-Hearst and DeFreeeze

William Randolph Hearst

Patty Hearst Now

Patty Hearst arrested   

SLA

sources:
501 Most Notorious Crimes by Paul Donnelly
Encyclopedia of The Modern World: 1900 To The Present by William Keylor & Michael McGuire
misterSF.com
infoweb.newsbank.com
fbi.gov
imdb.com
topics.nytimes.com
infoweb.newsbank.com
pbs.org
pbs.org

WWI era hollywood

Did you know that 12 million people daily go to see a movie in the united states? Films must be able to conform to the biases of the audience, otherwise, who would go see the movie if you do not relate to it? This is very true to the time of cinema during the first world war. Films could promote the war, and change the audience members view of the war in seconds. War films were "said" to be accurate, because they claimed they got their information from the newspapers. Propaganda was very easy to create in Hollywood during the WWI era. 

So where did Hollywood come from? Film makers were attracted to the land because it was cheap, there was cheap labor, varied scenery, and a good climate. I would want to make movies there! Hollywood was started in 1910 by a man named Whitley, thus leading to the golden age of film in 1915. Men like Laemmle (Universal) and Zukor (Paramount) came to this Hollywood in search for fame. When the war began, all the Hollywood writers like Laemmle and Zukor responded with 'artistic rage.'  So by the 1920's Hollywood was the film capital of the world!

Hollywood became anti-German very quickly. The government asked the film makers to use propaganda in their films to make the U.S. look better. (Like the good guys in the war) Film makers in the war brought their cameras and got actual footage, but because it was so raw, most films didn't make it to the screen. The government wanted to encourage war, not make it look like a huge bloody murder of innocent American soldiers. For these war films there were no directors, interesting, right? Most films they recorded did not seem to make "dying for your country" look glorious. The war started to seem pointless, almost a disappointment to these film makers. Emotions portrayed in silent films were like no other, and most scenes were not exaggerated because they were in the newspapers!

Many Films released addressed the issue of national loyalty. Would immigrants remain loyal to their place of birth or remain loyal to the U.S.? Movies like The Kaiser, To Hell with the Kaiser, Beast of Berlin, The Immigrant, and Italian, were all against immigration during WWI. Most movies, however, all had one villain: Germans. Film makers like Laemmle, who was German, wanted to prove their true 'Americanism.' Laemmle, who did Beast of Berlin, very much proved their loyalty. In a newspaper article in 1917, they advertised for this very movie. 

"Keep your eye on the people around you. Should anyone make remarks that you can construe as sedition or unfriendly to the United States CALL THE POLICE and have him arrested. Watch the enemy aliens. Save your country."

This newspaper article also called the Kaiser one who "Murdered womanhood, humanity  youth, civilization, and freedom." As you can see, this propaganda certainly changed the view of Americans who went and saw these types of movies on the weekend. After these films were seen, people began to treat German-Americans with disrespect. This could be compared to how the Blacks were treated in the 60's, they were spit on, and people wouldn't even eat at the same restaurant as Germans. A huge impact like this caused a real issue of loyalty to ones country.

Film makers were eventually told to cut out all German astrocities in movies, and this is when they knew the war was over. This is when I wonder why would any human being treat another like a pointless fly, swat at until its dead, and get disgusted how it lands our our food. Should we befriend the flies, or continue to be the bigger and better ones. (That is, if flies could communicate..this is merely an analogy.) I think how Americans treated Germans after the terrible propaganda was wrong, and that things like the Sedition act are messing with the right to freedom of speech. Movies, however, continue to make an impact on us. Whether you like it or not, you will probably conform to what everyone else does. (This is just an opinion- you could be different and cool..this is not meant to offend you)

Movies like All Quiet on the Western Front (1930-trench warfare), Paths of Glory (1957-ant hill), Legends of the fall (1994-trench warfare) and Joyeux Noel (2006-Christmas truce) all have been made after the war was over, so in the film world, the WWI era has not ended.

All quiet on the Western front

Hollywood early 1900's

Beast of Berlin

Carl Laemelle

Sources:
digitialhistory.uh.edu
laemmle and zukor, reason film makers came to hollywood
wsws.org
information about war films, cinema facts
digitalhistory.uh.edu
movies about immigration during war period
www3.northern.edu
Movies about the anti-german war, HW is anti-german
school.ebu.com
AVL source: about the golden age, who started hollywood
chronolingamerica.loc.gov
PRIMARY source: newspaper article about beast of berlin
empireonline.com
different movies WWI movie
youtube.com
true story about filmers in war, hollywood, and the anti-german propaganda
IMAGES: (also captioned)
wikipedia.org
solarnavigator.net
missourioverthere.blogspot.com

Sources for Great White Fleet

Greatwhitefleet.info
this was my main source as it had every place they visited in such detail!
americahurrah.com
I got how many ships there were from this website and little more info on san franciso
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
I used this for a news article on the ships coming to san francisco, and what it meant to the city. A great primary source
loc.gov
awesome site for dates and it provided a great reason why the great white fleet wanted to sail around the world
The Great White Fleet: Military History, Dec2007, Vol. 24 Issue 9, p44-51, 8p (AVL: ebsco)
Great source for dates- great pictures and descriptions

Great White Fleet project

I am currently researching the great white fleet! During class I have finally decided from where I will send my postcards. In order: San Francisco, Hawaii, New Zealand, the Philippines, Ceylon, and Egypt! I've learned a lot of random facts like, each vessel is basically the size of a city. That they all wanted to see the world, but the whole way they didn't stop thinking of home:( they met the ex-queen of Hawaii. Pretty cool! Time to make some post cards gotta go!!!

Typhoid Mary:

Mary Mallon detained

 Mary Mallon

City life in the 1900's was becoming more than it had ever been. New York's population increased from around one million to three million, and Chicago from around 100,000 to one million. With such a mass population in a smaller area than what could be considered rural, natural increase did not always come with positive effects. Lack of adequate public services led to not being able to control the growing death rate due to disease. Immigrants who traveled to the United States were detained for 3-4 hours to be checked for disease, if they were free of disease, they could safely come to the USA. If they were suspected carriers, they were sent back to their countries. Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant to the new city life of the United States, and like many others, moved for better opportunities. She was let in, thus assuming when she came she had no disease.

A common disease of the early 1900’s, was Typhoid Fever. In the 1920’s over 35,000 cases were reported, and today there a fewer than 400. When someone carrying typhoid doesn’t wash their hands, touches someone else’s food, and then the other person consumes it, they catch typhoid. A carrier of a disease is someone who has no visible sickness on the outside, but inside carries the disease around with them, and they are still highly contagious. In the 20^th century, carries, if found, were locked into isolation. Often these carriers deteriorated mentally by the conditions they lived in, rather than from the disease. The first vaccine for Typhoid was created in 1896, but was not in general use, meaning most populations were without, until around 1948. Reasons for death of Typhoid include pneumonia, intestinal bleeding, and infection.

In 1906, Mallon was hired to cook for a family on Long Island. As the family started to get sick, the question was who was first spreading the disease? Mallon left the family after they started questioning, was it the cook? The family hired an engineer in Typhoid outbreaks, Souper, to find out. Souper soon found that it was Mary Mallon who was the carrier of Typhoid, as his research found that throughout 1900-1907, 22 outbreaks of Typhoid occurred wherever she was working. He became more curious, as he didn’t have blood samples to prove she was a carrier, and she had already left the family. Mallon at this time had a job to cook for an Oak Park High School banquet. Many cases of Typhoid from these students were reported thereafter. She denied ever cooking that night, saying she just washed dishes. This gave Souper an opportunity to get the police to come enforce a blood sample. Under the Illinois state board of health, in 1907, she was detained to the hospital in which they found typhoid bacilli in her. She was moved to a cottage in North Brother Island, and she sued the state board of health for not having the right to isolate her. She was released under one condition-that she can never be a cook again. 5 years later there were more typhoid outbreaks, as Mallon did return to cooking because it paid better than a domestic job. She was isolated again because she broke the agreement. 23 years later she began helping in the hospitals lab. She suffered a stroke, later, in 1938, Mallon died of Pneumonia.

Mallon’s friends had wondered if the health authorities just needed an alibi for all of the typhoid outbreaks for letting an epidemic develop. As Mallon was not the ONLY carrier. There were 3,000-4,500 cases around this time and 3% percent become carriers, so 90-135 a year. She wasn’t the worse either, a man named Tony Cabella caused 122 illnesses and 5 deaths rather Mallon only cause 47 illnesses and 3 deaths. Mallon was prejudiced as an Irish Immigrant, because she was old and had no family. Mallon can’t be to blamed as a villain for returning as a cook, even though it was a choice to live in freedom, she had no safety net. She could be claimed as second degree murder and even referred to herself as a “goat.” She can be blamed a villain though because a health commissioner helped her find a job in laundry, but it did not pay as much. Because of her nickname “Typhoid Mary, this made it hard for her to find a job. She lived in denial of her disease because she did not know how to cope with what a healthy carrier really was. It wasn’t her choice to be this, and vaccines were not available.

“I was nervous and prostrated with grief and trouble.” –Mary Mallon. Mallon was in belief that the health authorities treated her inability to cope with no respect. She believed she was at loss of civil liberty, and she was even called the kidnapped woman, along with Typhoid Mary.

“I have been in fact a peep show for everybody. Dr. Park has had me illustrated in Chicago. [Her breaking skulls in a skillet] I wonder how the said Dr. Park would like to be insulted and put in the journal and call him Typhoid Park.

          The question here is did the city authorities treat her with enough respect towards her civil liberty as a person, or did they put public health over her. Was she guilty or innocent? Should we lock people up that are sick? Was this scandal just a blame resource for the epidemic? Did they reject Mallon, or did they sympathize with her? Typhoid Mary should have been locked up for the safety of others, even though it wasn't her fault for being a carrier. She was at loss because of her inability to cope, but the greater idea is to keep more people safe from disease in such immensely populated areas.

Cottage Mallon was detained in

Typhoid Mary breaking skulls in skillet

Sources:

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

history1900s.about.com

pbs.org

pbs.org

history.howstuffworks.com

medicinenet.com

wikipedia.org

Dr. Park and Mallon

wikipedia.org

vlib.us
American History Textbook
eyewitnesstohistory.com

Our Nation

Ellis Islands

Our nation is a melting pot, filled with different culture, races, and backgrounds. We are a nation of immigrants. Most of the people in America migrated here to start new lives, and to help their children have the life they deserve. The people know it is worth it, to leave their countries, to begin again. I found it very interesting in Faces of America how they traced people's ancestors to so many different places. All of these people had lives, and some risked their lives, like escaping for Nazi Germany to reach a safer land. This makes me curious about who my ancestors are. Were they good people? Why did they come to America? Who did they bring with them? The saddest thing to me is that some people in the video left their families in their homeland. How can someone risk all what they have there for just the small hope that America would be "better"?  I learned from Faces that our nation is formed by the great risks others took to begin a new life in America.

American culture is the melting pot, where people can come together, where there are many different types of people. I can go to a school with Muslims, Jewish, Christians, Hindus  and people of all different races, backgrounds, families, and beliefs. Here no one judges each other too harshly, and we all don't have to be the same, and that is okay! People who come to American must  have to get used to the cultural identity, because in America not everyone is mainly "one thing."  The traits of immigrants could be courageous, scared, or even excited to be in their new land. These are the traits that shape America, ones that form who we all are. We can't decide who our ancestors are, but we can decide what we make of their traits in the future. I feel connected to my ancestors because we share blood, and that must mean I share some the same traits. Wherever they came from, I know they came here ready to be optimistic. I am very inspirited too, for example I always look forward to things, and that's what keeps me going. I am thankful that whoever I am connected to came, because I really do like the freedom this country has, and how we are all "one" even though not one is alike. Being a country of freedom has its requirements, too. We are responsible to keep up the good character that our ancestors had. I will try my best to be courageous to help this country remain someone from another country may look up to. It's all up to us.

America

John Rockefeller

Rockefeller

John Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company. He dominated the oil industry, and he revolutionized the use of petroleum in the industry. John Rockefeller aggressively ran his company until death, in which he then passed it onto his son. As kerosene gasoline came to be important, this helped Rockefeller become the first American with a net worth of a billion dollars. I think he could be qualified as a good role model because he spent the last 40 years of his life as a philanthropist. He put a lot of work into donating to things like medical research, which is generosity that I can look up to.This medical research helped to get rid of diseases like hookworm and yellow fever. I think Rockefeller must have been a nice man, because someone that wealthy would probably not have used their time on others, but instead on themselves. Rockefeller founded the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller University, showing he thought education was important. He came from a Baptist family, and he supported the church. He remained abstinent from alcohol and tobacco his whole life. He had ambitions to live until he was 100 years old and make 100,000. Obviously he reached the goal to make money, but was short 3 years of his goal to reach 100.(He died at 97.) I think what must have helped him live longer was his abstinence from those things, and that he focused on philanthropy. Rockefeller even donated 6% of his very first earnings when he was merely 16 years of age. I think that shows his true kindness to share his money, making him a very good person.

Rockefeller

To argue that he was good, Rockefeller was not always Mr.perfect. His company had become a monopoly. He owned everything from the bottom up about his company, even the train cars to transport the oil, and the forests that supplied the fuel for the train cars. He even created the Standard Oil Trust, which helped other monopolies. In the 1880's his net worth was already 55 million, thus he started receiving watch from the public eye. His standing with public was "nose-divided" meaning that many people did not agree with the Standard Oil Company and all that Rockefeller stood for. Rockefeller continued to ignore the people and focus on his philanthropy  As this was happening the people created the anti-monarchy legislation. I think Rockefeller was bad in the way of having a monopoly; unfortunately  at that time, that was how the large business men got their income. Overall Rockefeller was a good man I am assuming, because of his good work and the way he set examples for our nation on giving back. He is a good example to those with a lot of money to not spend it just on luxury items; instead have a concert hall in New York, donate to colleges and churches, or even fund important medical research. 

Wikipedia.org
Biography.com