ELIA KAZAN

I've just read the profile of Elia Kazan written by John Lahr for the December 13, 2010 issue of The New Yorker. While reading this article I was reminded of the impact that two of Kazan's movies had on me.

When I was 9 years old my parents took me to the Indiana Theatre in Salem to see On The Waterfront which was directed by Kazan. This theatre was located on South Main Street where the Eddie Gilstrap Motors service department is now located. Although we lived on a small dairy farm which is the most labor intensive type of agriculture, my parents had a very active social life in Salem. They took me to many of their club meetings, movies and public events that they attended. Rarely, would they leave me with the various ladies that they hired to sit with my 80+ year old grandmother when they would go out for a night. Going to the movies with them was not unusual. In fact, I attended more movies as a child with my parents than with my childhood friends.

Movies always fascinated me as they provided a window to the world that Salem and 1950s television did not. As I watched On The Waterfront, I didn't quite get the organized labor aspect of the plot. I always watched the Friday Night Fights sponsored by Gillette Blue Blades so I did understand Malloy's aspirations to be a boxer. I also was interested in the character in the movie that raised the pigeons in the middle of New York City. Apparently, I subconsciously began to identify with the Marlon Brando character as the movie played on and became rather light headed as he was beaten up at the end of the movie. As we started up the aisle to leave the theatre, I passed out in public for the first time in my life. My father carried me out to the sidewalk on South Main Street where the fresh air brought me to. My mother being the literary doyenne of Salem commented on the director's ability to develop the tension in the movie that so obviously affected me. I assumed that I had embarassed my father by passing out but, he never said so. This episode of syncope was followed by several similar reactions during my youth when I observed too much blood. My mother wanted me to be a doctor up to the time that I went to college but, I just didn't want to think about dealing with my first cadaver.

The second Kazan movie that left a lasting impression on me was America, America. I saw this movie in 1963 when I was a freshman at IU. My fraternity house was located on the southwest edge of campus near Kirkwood Avenue, so the Von Lee, Indiana and Princess Theatres were fairly close for weekend entertainment. We often went to whatever movie was playing without giving much thought to who the actors or directors were or what the reviews said. Those upper classmen who were pinned and regularly dated the same girl never seemed to go the movies. However, those of us who did not date on a regular basis went to a lot of movies.

One one of these weekend nights, I went to the Indiana Theatre on Kirkwood to see America, America without any idea what it was about. The movie was in black and white but I was thoroughly absorbed in the story of Joe Arness (the name the main character was given at Ellis Island by an immigration clerk) who was of Greek blood but Turkish birth. He emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. The images in the movie were so real that it seemed like a documentary rather than a recreation of the emigration/immigration experience. When the movie was over, conversation centered around the family heritage of some of my fraternity brothers and their high school classmates who were from Lake County, Indiana. From that night on I had an appreciation of the variety of the ethnic composition of Indiana and the United States that I had never realized growing up on a farm near Salem.


Dudley Drewwright