High Noon

I sent the Editor of the Duluth Reader the following email just moments ago:

Jim,

I set your column on High Noon aside some weeks ago and just read it.
It mentioned my favorite director Frank Capra’s involvement in WW2 with
Noon’s writer Carl Foreman. BTW, speaking of Gary Cooper, Noon’s star,
I just watched Meet John Doe again with my wife.

I was confused near the end of your article when you write Gary Cooper
was so impressed with Noon’s script that “he stood up for Kramer” and
insisted he be kept part of the team.

Typo?

BTW Cooper was always my image of a real hero. One of my favorite columns
was about watching Sgt York with my Grandfather a fellow awardee of the
Congressional Medal of Honor.

Harry

This email is about heroes, specifically my heroes. I grew up with Gary Cooper being my idealized hero. He was modest and brave. There was no brag about him but plenty of “aw shucks.”

I read a column in the NY Times today about why a dozen black men are voting for Donald Trump. They may represent 20% of possibly more black men who will do so in the upcoming election. Like me for forty years badgered to avoid the Republican party they will stick to their guns. I understand both the consternation of their friends and their attitude…..at least I think I do. I do think it is built on ignorance of his past but its also build in part on a very different kind of hero I had who was completely unlike Cooper. Malcom X the wise ass world heavyweight champion and his new style of braggadocio. I admired the heavyweight’s wit the same way so many guys admired the shoot from the hip rapidity of rap music from the hood.

Donald Trump is more Malcolm X than Cooper although Trump has never exhibited anything other than cocky narcissism fortified by inheriting a fortune. Malcom X was stripped of his title when he refused to go to Vietnam. Trump simply kicked black people out of his apartments while suffering from a fake foot deformation to keep out of the draft. One was courageous outside the ring. The other was a racist inside the real estate racket.

As I wrote Jim Lundstrom I just watched Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe a movie by Frank Capra that has been on my mind recently. It was a movie that preceded Sergeant York in the 1930’s at the height of the Depression when My Dad watched his Dad, the first Harry Welty drive out to a farm to tell the farm family the bank was repossessing their farm for a farm loan they couldn’t repay. It was a job my Grandfather couldn’t stomach for long.

Capra’s feel good movies were derided as “Capra corn.” In other words corny. But I loved them. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with another great actor Jimmy Stewart is another classic.

I loath the lucky Donald Trump who just cheated death with an ear injury. He’s never shown an inch of courage just bravado. As for his attempted assassin he got off easy. I’d have preferred him suffering Sirhan Sirhan’s fate – a lifetime prison sentence. He tried to screw with our Democracy. Just like Donald Trump.

Note on “typo” Yes. Jim emailed back telling me that he intended to say Gary Cooper was sticking up for the script’s blackisted writer Carl Foreman not the Director was wanted to ease him out of the credit/credits.

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