1945 Monte Proser Nightclub Impersario Mob Old Negative BY FAMOUS PHOGRAPHER

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176277810568 1945 Monte Proser Nightclub Impersario Mob Old Negative BY FAMOUS PHOGRAPHER. a vintage original 4X5 INCH NEGATIVE OF MONTE PROSER BY FAMED PHOTOGRAPHER MORRIS ENGEL Guaranteed authentic 4x5 original negative as shown. This negative is from the PM New York City Daily News between 1940 – 1948. Born in England, Monte Proser became the top press agent to the stars (Mary Pickford, Walt Disney, "Flo" Ziegfield) and a night club impresario who founded the storied ''Copacabana'' and ''Beachcombers''. Morris Engel was an American photographer, cinematographer and filmmaker best known for making the first good-quality, internationally-recognized American film "independent" of Hollywood studios, Little Fugitive, in collaboration with his wife, photographer Ruth Orkin, and their friend, writer Raymond Abrashkin



onte Proser was a nightclub guy, a saloonkeeper. So, he built the most lavish nightclub in the history of the world called the Copacabana. You’ve seen it in a dozen movies like Goodfellas, Raging Bull and The Green Book. The problem with the Copa was that the most powerful gangster in the history of the world, a guy named Frank Costello, walked in the front door of the club one day, stuck out his hand, and said, “Say hello to your new partner.”  Like they said in The Godfather movie, this was an offer Monte couldn’t refuse.  Monte was my father, and he told me lots of stories like this. Here’s a picture of my father and my mother in love at the Copa.  Click on the image to hear the singer and host of the television game show The Hollywood Squares, Peter Marshall, talk about his time with my father and the Mob.  Play Video Table of Contents Modern Day Heroes The Hero Within Examples of Heroes Hero Short Story Modern Day Heroes Starting in the 1920s with Prohibition, my father and his friends saw a dark side of American history. That was when gangsters like Costello walked through the front doors of almost every nightclub and bar in America and made offers nobody could refuse. These gangsters were so wealthy from selling illegal booze that they started buying up all the places like the Copacabana. First, they’d buy a piece of the business. After that, buy the building. Then in true mafia fashion, they’d buy a piece of the wages of all the people around the business. For example, the garbage haulers, the singers and dancers, the talent agents of the singers and dancers, the union representatives for the waiters and bartenders, the meat and vegetable suppliers, and then the politicians who represented all these people. Unfortunately, some people refused to go along with it, and sometimes those people got killed. That’s how it was. And that’s how my father ended up being one of many modern-day heroes. Here is one of many modern-day heroes that may be hard for many people to recognize.  The gangsters kept buying businesses and people. They bought construction companies, banks, and lawyers, lots and lots of lawyers. And this is where the story gets interesting. The story that nobody knew except my father was that Frank Costello didn’t like being a gangster. He wanted to be a businessman like my father. He just wanted to hang out at the Copa, go to the Belmont racetrack, and bet on the ponies. For this reason, my father dealt with Frank and his gangster friends for 35 years – and managed to help many people.  My father’s story is about standing up for years to people who could have had him killed in minutes. It’s about his life during two world wars, in Hollywood, and on Broadway, with sexy movie stars and ordinary people. This real-life hero story is about his unbreakable marriage with my mother – a dancer at the Copa. Monte Proser’s story of heartbreak, drug addiction, beautiful music, and the vanished Café Society he loved. It’s his story about America at night.  Frank Sinatra called my father “The Genius.” Columnist Walter Winchell called him “Broadway’s Favorite Son.” J. Edgar Hoover and Bobby Kennedy called him “…a known business associate of Frank Costello,” and Frank Costello, the architect of the modern Mafia, called him “…my new partner.” You want to know about real-life heroes? Then you’ve come to the right place. The Hero Within My father’s meteoric rise to prominence in show business attracted gangsters at every turn, eventually attracting the “capo di tutti capos,” Frank Costello. This relationship with Costello became the struggle that defined the second half of my father’s life. It made his Copa the unique crossroads of every level of society, including the lower levels.  By the age of 24, has been an elegant hobo, a boxing promoter, a dishwasher, and manager of a lumberjack crew; he then built a successful career as a publicist for the significant stars of early Hollywood, including W.C. Fields, Mary Pickford, Harold Lloyd, the Marx Brothers and producer Walter Wanger. At the same time, he became a successful nightclub owner. Monte had “the common touch.”  People loved to be around him because he was fun. His life-long friend Sol Meadow told me about when he and my father once had a long, hot car ride from New York City to Atlantic City. But, unfortunately, they were running a bit late for a business meeting there with Skinny D’Amato, owner of the famous 500 Club, to discuss bringing Skinny’s discovery, the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, to the Copacabana. Monte and Sol decided they wanted to change into fresh clothes before the meeting. So with no time to check into a hotel or even find a men’s restroom somewhere, they opened the trunk of the car, pulled a fresh change of clothes from their luggage, stripped off their pants, and standing in their boxer shorts in the street, started laughing so hard they couldn’t get their new pants back on. Soon people driving by were honking their horns. People on the sidewalk pointed and laughed as the two grown men hopped around one foot in their underwear, laughing and trying to get their pants on. My father’s friends told me dozens of stories like this about my fun-loving father. But it was more than just fun that drew people to my father. Friends remembered his sunny optimism and his kindness, particularly toward performers. Whether they were youngsters starting like singer and dancer Sammy Davis Jr., they were older stars like torch singer Sophie Tucker, whose careers were fading and needed a break. So Monte took them under his wing and, if required, making sure they had a little “walking around money” in their pocket. It didn’t matter what color their skin was, their sex, or whom they chose to love. He didn’t care about any of that.  And so, little by little, with his gift of compassion for everyday people and his courageous loyalty to them, my father joined the American tradition of modern-day heroes. I think a true hero is just an ordinary person like my father, who carried a hero within like all of us. Yet, for all his fame and fortune, he always considered himself just a saloonkeeper.  Examples of Heroes My father hit it big on Broadway as a producer of the musical “High Button Shoes” starring Phil Silvers and Nanette Fabray. Then, finally, he triumphed as the “King of Nightclubs” at the Copacabana. Next, he revived vaudeville stars like “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas,” Sophie Tucker, and “The Schnozz” Jimmy Durante. Finally, Monte was launching or rescuing stars like Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Martin and Lewis, Tony Bennett, and dozens of others. Including his remarkable discovery, my mother, Jane Ball, a starlet of 20th Century Fox and mother of his five sons. But throughout his life, along with the glamour, the enormous successes, the outrageous adventures, the heart-rending love story with my mother, and more than a few catastrophic failures, is woven my father’s constant struggle for independence from forced partnerships with the top gangsters of his time. With his daily struggles to keep his business and to remain alive, this is where we can see examples of heroes that included my father.  It started with the brutal Legs Diamond in the wild speakeasies of the 1920s, then graduated to the deadly Dutch Schultz in the 1930s who issued a contract on my father over an insult my father told a newspaper reporter. Then in the 1940s, a 30-year struggle for control of his career began with the sophisticated gangster, Frank Costello. Eventually, my father had to deal with Costello’s allies, including the infamous Meyer Lansky, Joe Adonis, and Johnny Rosselli. But enjoyably, Costello was more like Monte than he was like his allies. They enjoyed the same vices – booze and gambling – shared many of the same personal values, and had careers seemingly locked in parallel. Although their partnership started as a cautious necessity, when congressional investigations began in the 1950s, and Monte and the Copa were named and forever marked as targets of the government, Costello revealed his true character as a “stand-up guy.” This incredible relationship, which was tested, broken, and re-forged over decades, between the “kingmaker” of show business and the “Prime Minister” of the mob, is one of the many examples of heroes you will find in the story M.R. COPACABANA Hero Short Story Through my father’s life story, we see a keyhole view of a unique character at a particular time in history. Monte Proser, a saloonkeeper, a supremely talented man, a go-for-broke, shoot-the-whole-wad, long-shot gambler, struggled in one hero short story after another to free himself from the clutches and the shame of the Mafia. His trick was to do this without getting killed, imprisoned, or crushed by competitors. It was one man’s lonely battle in America’s mid-century war against corruption. And ironically, as their stories end, the “stand-up guy” who tainted and ruined my father’s career became his savior. Along with my mother’s emotional recovery from addiction and Monte’s final success is the heart-warming conclusion to M.R. COPACABANA – a story that began amid the First World War… Bohemianism is a social and cultural movement that has, at its core, a way of life away from society's conventional norms and expectations. The term originates from the French bohème and spread to the English-speaking world. It was used to describe mid-19th-century non-traditional lifestyles, especially of artists, writers, journalists, musicians, and actors in major European cities. Bohemian is a 19th-century historical and literary topos that places the milieu of young metropolitan artists and intellectuals—particularly those of the Latin Quarter in Paris—in a context of poverty, hunger, appreciation of friendship, idealization of art and contempt for money. Based on this topos, the most diverse real-world subcultures are often referred to as "bohemian" in a figurative sense, especially (but by no means exclusively) if they show traits of a precariat. Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or anti-establishment political or social viewpoints expressed through free love, frugality, and—in some cases—simple living, vandwelling or voluntary poverty. A more economically privileged, wealthy, or even aristocratic bohemian circle is sometimes referred to as haute bohème[1] (literally "Upper Bohemian").[2] The term bohemianism emerged in France in the early 19th century out of perceived similarities between the urban Bohemians and the Romani people; La bohème was a common term for the Romani people of France, who were thought to have reached France in the 15th century via Bohemia (the western part of modern Czech Republic). Bohemianism and its adjective bohemian in this specific context are not connected to the native inhabitants of the historical region of Bohemia (the Czechs).[3] Origins European bohemianism Literary and artistic bohemians were associated in the French imagination with the roving Romani people. Not only were Romani called bohémiens in French because they were believed to have come to France from Bohemia,[3][4] but literary bohemians and the Romani were both outsiders, apart from conventional society and untroubled by its disapproval. Use of the French and English terms to refer to the Romani is now old-fashioned and archaic, respectively, and both the French and English terms carry a connotation of arcane enlightenment (and are considered antonyms of the word philistine) and the less frequently intended, pejorative connotation of carelessness about personal hygiene and marital fidelity. The title character in Carmen (1875), a French opera by Georges Bizet set in the Spanish city of Seville, is referred to as a "bohémienne" in Meilhac and Halévy's libretto. Her signature aria declares love itself to be a "gypsy child" (enfant de Bohême), going where it pleases and obeying no laws. The term bohemian has come to be very commonly accepted in our day as the description of a certain kind of literary gypsy, no matter in what language he speaks, or what city he inhabits .... A Bohemian is simply an artist or "littérateur" who, consciously or unconsciously, secedes from conventionality in life and in art. — Westminster Review, 1862[3]) Henri Murger's 1845 collection of short stories, Scènes de la vie de bohème (Scenes of Bohemian Life), was written to glorify and legitimize the bohemian lifestyle.[5] Murger's collection formed the basis of Giacomo Puccini's 1896 opera La bohème. In England, bohemian in this sense initially was popularised in William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel Vanity Fair. Public perceptions of the alternative lifestyles supposedly led by artists were further molded by George du Maurier's romanticized best-selling novel of Bohemian culture Trilby (1894). The novel outlines the fortunes of three expatriate English artists, their Irish model, and two colourful Central European musicians, in the artist quarter of Paris. In Spanish literature, the Bohemian impulse can be seen in Ramón del Valle-Inclán's 1920 play Luces de Bohemia. In his song "La Bohème", Charles Aznavour described the Bohemian lifestyle in Montmartre. The 2001 film Moulin Rouge! also imagines the Bohemian lifestyle of actors and artists in Montmartre at the turn of the 20th century. American bohemianism Bohemian Grove during the summer Hi-Jinks, circa 1911–1916 In the 1850s, Bohemian culture started to become established in the United States via immigration.[6] In New York City in 1857, a group of 15 to 20 young, cultured journalists flourished as self-described bohemians until the American Civil War began in 1861.[7] This group gathered at a German bar on Broadway called Pfaff's beer cellar.[8] Members included their leader Henry Clapp Jr., Ada Clare, Walt Whitman, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, and actress Adah Isaacs Menken.[8] Similar groups in other cities were broken up as well by the Civil War and reporters spread out to report on the conflict. During the war, correspondents began to assume the title bohemian, and newspapermen in general took up the moniker. Bohemian became synonymous with newspaper writer.[7] In 1866, war correspondent Junius Henri Browne, who wrote for the New York Tribune and Harper's Magazine, described bohemian journalists such as he was, as well as the few carefree women and lighthearted men he encountered during the war years.[9] San Francisco journalist Bret Harte first wrote as "The Bohemian" in The Golden Era in 1861, with this persona taking part in many satirical doings, the lot published in his book Bohemian Papers in 1867. Harte wrote, "Bohemia has never been located geographically, but any clear day when the sun is going down, if you mount Telegraph Hill, you shall see its pleasant valleys and cloud-capped hills glittering in the West ..."[10] Mark Twain included himself and Charles Warren Stoddard in the bohemian category in 1867.[7] By 1872, when a group of journalists and artists who gathered regularly for cultural pursuits in San Francisco were casting about for a name, the term bohemian became the main choice, and the Bohemian Club was born.[11] Club members who were established and successful, pillars of their community, respectable family men, redefined their own form of bohemianism to include people like them who were bons vivants, sportsmen, and appreciators of the fine arts.[10] Club member and poet George Sterling responded to this redefinition: Any good mixer of convivial habits considers he has a right to be called a bohemian. But that is not a valid claim. There are two elements, at least, that are essential to Bohemianism. The first is devotion or addiction to one or more of the Seven Arts; the other is poverty. Other factors suggest themselves: for instance, I like to think of my Bohemians as young, as radical in their outlook on art and life; as unconventional, and, though this is debatable, as dwellers in a city large enough to have the somewhat cruel atmosphere of all great cities. — Parry, 2005[12]) Despite his views, Sterling associated with the Bohemian Club, and caroused with artist and industrialist alike at the Bohemian Grove.[12] Canadian composer Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and poet George Frederick Cameron wrote the song "The Bohemian" in the 1889 opera Leo, the Royal Cadet.[13] The impish American writer and Bohemian Club member Gelett Burgess, who coined the word blurb, supplied this description of the amorphous place called Bohemia: Gelett Burgess drew this fanciful "Map of Bohemia" for The Lark, March 1, 1896 (see also The Winter's Tale § The seacoast of Bohemia) To take the world as one finds it, the bad with the good, making the best of the present moment—to laugh at Fortune alike whether she be generous or unkind—to spend freely when one has money, and to hope gaily when one has none—to fleet the time carelessly, living for love and art—this is the temper and spirit of the modern Bohemian in his outward and visible aspect. It is a light and graceful philosophy, but it is the Gospel of the Moment, this exoteric phase of the Bohemian religion; and if, in some noble natures, it rises to a bold simplicity and naturalness, it may also lend its butterfly precepts to some very pretty vices and lovable faults, for in Bohemia one may find almost every sin save that of Hypocrisy. ... His faults are more commonly those of self-indulgence, thoughtlessness, vanity and procrastination, and these usually go hand-in-hand with generosity, love and charity; for it is not enough to be one's self in Bohemia, one must allow others to be themselves, as well. ... What, then, is it that makes this mystical empire of Bohemia unique, and what is the charm of its mental fairyland? It is this: there are no roads in all Bohemia! One must choose and find one's own path, be one's own self, live one's own life. — Ayloh, 1902[14]) In New York City, the pianist Rafael Joseffy formed an organization of musicians in 1907 with friends, such as Rubin Goldmark, called "The Bohemians (New York Musicians' Club)".[15] Near Times Square, Joel Rinaldo presided over "Joel's Bohemian Refreshery", where the Bohemian crowd gathered from before the turn of the 20th century until Prohibition began to bite.[16][17][18][19] Jonathan Larson's musical Rent, and specifically the song "La Vie Boheme", portrayed the postmodern Bohemian culture of New York in the late 20th century. In May 2014, a story on NPR suggested, after a century and a half, some Bohemian ideal of living in poverty for the sake of art had fallen in popularity among the latest generation of American artists. In the feature, a recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design related "her classmates showed little interest in living in garrets and eating ramen noodles."[20] People An illustration from Henri Murger's 1899 book Bohemian Life. The term has become associated with various artistic or academic communities and is used as a generalized adjective describing such people, environs, or situations: bohemian (boho—informal) is defined in The American College Dictionary as "a person with artistic or intellectual tendencies, who lives and acts with no regard for conventional rules of behavior". Many prominent European and American figures of the 19th and 20th centuries belonged to the bohemian subculture, and any comprehensive "list of bohemians" would be tediously long. Bohemianism has been approved of by some bourgeois writers such as Honoré de Balzac,[citation needed] but most conservative cultural critics do not condone bohemian lifestyles.[citation needed] In Bohemian Manifesto: a Field Guide to Living on the Edge, author Laren Stover breaks down the bohemian into five distinct mind-sets or styles, as follows: Beat: also drifters, but non-materialist and art-focused Dandy: no money, but try to appear as if they have it by buying and displaying expensive or rare items – such as brands of alcohol[21] Gypsy: the expatriate types, they create their own Gypsy ideal of nirvana wherever they go Nouveau: bohemians that are rich who attempt to join traditional bohemianism with contemporary culture Zen: "post-beat", focus on spirituality rather than art Aimée Crocker, an American world traveler, adventuress, heiress, and mystic, was dubbed the "queen of Bohemia" in the 1910s by the world press for living an uninhibited, sexually liberated, and aggressively non-conformist life in San Francisco, New York, and Paris. She spent the bulk of her fortune inherited from her father Edwin B. Crocker, a railroad tycoon and art collector, on traveling all over the world (lingering the longest in Hawaii, India, Japan, and China) and partying with famous artists of her time such as Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, the Barrymores, Enrico Caruso, Isadora Duncan, Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, and Rudolph Valentino. Crocker had countless affairs and married five times in five different decades of her life, each man being in his twenties. She was famous for her tattoos and pet snakes and was reported to have started the first Buddhist colony in Manhattan. Spiritually inquisitive, Crocker had a ten-year affair with occultist Aleister Crowley and was a devoted student of Hatha Yoga.[citation needed] Maxwell Bodenheim, an American poet and novelist, was known as the king of Greenwich Village Bohemians during the 1920s and his writing brought him international fame during the Jazz Age. Former brewery turned artist center in Prenzlauer Berg In the 20th-century United States, the bohemian impulse was famously seen in the 1940s hipsters, the 1950s Beat generation (exemplified by writers such as William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti), the much more widespread 1960s counterculture, and 1960s and 1970s hippies. Rainbow Gatherings may be seen as another contemporary worldwide expression of the bohemian impulse.[22] An American example is Burning Man, an annual participatory arts festival held in the Nevada desert. In 2001, political and cultural commentator David Brooks contended that much of the cultural ethos of well-to-do middle-class Americans is Bohemian-derived, coining the oxymoron "Bourgeois Bohemians" or "Bobos".[23] A similar term in Germany is Bionade-Biedermeier, a 2007 German neologism combining Bionade (a trendy lemonade brand) and Biedermeier (an era of introspective Central European culture between 1815 and 1848). The coinage was introduced in 2007 by Henning Sußebach, a German journalist, in an article that appeared in Zeitmagazin concerning Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg lifestyle.[24] The hyphenated term gained traction and has been quoted and referred to since. A German ARD TV broadcaster used the title Boheme and Biedermeier in a 2009 documentary about Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg.[25] The main focus was on protagonists, that contributed to the image of a paradise for the (organic and child-raising) well-to-do, depicting cafés where "Bionade-Biedermeier sips from Fair-Trade".[25] See also Related terms Art colony Avant-garde Bohemian Club Bohemian Rhapsody Bohemian style Boho-chic Counterculture Counterculture of the 1960s Gentrification History of modern Western subcultures Lumpenproletariat Precariat Simple living Slumming Spiral of silence Related cultures or movements Beat Generation Beatnik Bloomsbury Group Crusties Dandy Diggers Folk culture Freetown Christiania Freighthopping Goth Gutter punk Hippie Hipster (1940s subculture) Hipster (contemporary subculture) Libertine Merry Pranksters Nomads Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Punk Sydney Push Morris Engel (April 8, 1918 – March 5, 2005) was an American photographer, cinematographer and filmmaker best known for making the first good-quality, internationally-recognized American film "independent" of Hollywood studios, Little Fugitive (1953), in collaboration with his wife, photographer Ruth Orkin, and their friend, writer Raymond Abrashkin. Engel was a pioneer in the use of hand-held cameras that he helped design throughout his features and in using nonprofessional actors in American films, following the example of Italian Neo-realism. His naturalistic films influenced future prominent independent and French New Wave filmmakers.[1] Career A lifelong New Yorker, Morris Engel was born in Brooklyn in 1918. After joining the Photo League in 1936, Engel had his first exhibition in 1939, at the New School for Social Research.[2] He worked briefly as a photographer for the Leftist newspaper PM[2] before joining the United States Navy as a combat photographer from 1941 to 1946 in World War II.[2] After the war, he returned to New York where he again was an active Photo League member, teaching workshop classes and serving as co-chair of a project group focusing on postwar labor issues.[3] He was also an active photo-journalist working for Fortune, Collier's and McCalls, among others.[2] In 1939 he was asked by his friend Paul Strand to shoot some motion picture film for his film Native Land using the compact 35mm Bell and Howell Eyemo holding 100 foot rolls that could film about one minute of film. But he was disappointed that Strand put this camera designed for hand-holding on a heavy metal baseplate attached to a heavy wooden tripod.[4] During the war he was a still photographer but he probably was familiar with a handheld 35 mm battery-operated camera developed during the war for combat photography, the Cunningham Combat Camera. The large square camera was mounted a rifle stock, held tightly to the cameraman’s chest by handles mounted on each side, and aimed in the general direction of the action, sighted by a top-mounted viewfinder. With a two hundred foot magazine, it could run for two minutes. The other primary motion picture camera used by the military was the Bell and Howell Eyemo, a spring-run camera held to the eye with a 20 second running time.[5] After the war, Engel and an engineer he met in the service, Charles Woodruff, reconfigured the Cunningham camera into a much smaller camera for civilian purposes. Engel explained, "Designed for me, it was a compact 35mm, hand held, shoulder cradled, [with] double registration pins and twin lens finder and optical system."[6] It used the Cunningham 35mm 200 foot interchangeable magazines which met the camera at the film gate with the lens, motor, shutter, and viewfinder comprising the camera body. Twin lens geared together enabled the viewfinder lens and the camera to be focused together, as on Engel's preferred still camera, the Rolleiflex. Like the Rolleiflex, the viewfinder was viewed from above. Held against the waist, rather than in front of the face, the camera was both steadier and less conspicuous than the Eyemo. "With a simple shoulder belt support," Engel said, "I was armed with a camera which became the heart of the esthetic and mobile approach to the film [the Little Fugitive].[7] This camera was about the same size as the Eyemo, but looked like a giant Ocarina with the camera in the wide part at the top and the smaller curved part below.[8] In 1950, Engel tried to sell a March of Time imitation called How America Lives filmed with his new camera to distributors but found no takers.[9] Richie Andrusco in Little Fugitive Since he couldn’t sell proposed short subjects, he decided to make a feature. In 1953, Engel, along with his girlfriend, fellow photographer Ruth Orkin, and his former colleague at PM, Raymond Abrashkin, made the feature film Little Fugitive for $80,000, shooting the film on location in Coney Island with the hand-held 35 millimeter camera Engel and his friend had designed. This camera was compact and lightweight so it would be unobtrusive shooting in public. As such, it did not allow simultaneous sound recording; the sound was dubbed later. The film, one of the first successful American "independent films", earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story and a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The film told the story of a seven-year-old boy, played by Richie Andrusco, who runs away from home and spends the day at Coney Island. Andrusco never appeared in another film, and the other performers were mainly nonprofessionals. A scene from Lovers and Lollipops Though their first film was a critical success,[10] Engel and Orkin, who had since married, had a hard time finding funding [10] for their next film, Lovers and Lollipops, which was completed in 1956. The film was about a widowed mother dating an old friend, and how her young daughter complicates their budding relationship. Like the first one, Lovers and Lollipops was filmed with a hand-held compact 35 mm camera, with sound dubbed in post-production. This was followed two years later by the more adult-centered Weddings and Babies, a film about an aspiring photographer than is often seen as autobiographical. This was Engel's first film to have live sound recorded at the time of filming, and is historically the first 35 mm fiction film made with a portable camera equipped for synchronized sound.[11] In 1961, Engel directed three television commercials, including an award-winning one for Oreo cookies. The other two were for Ivory soap and Fab detergent.[12] A half-hour short film The Dog Lover was made the following year, a comedy about a shop merchant whose life is turned upside down by the stray dog his kid brings home.[12] He made a fourth feature in 1968[2] called I Need a Ride to California, which followed a group of young hippies in Greenwich Village. Post-production was shelved until 1972 when it was finally completed, but for unknown reasons it was never released during his lifetime. It finally received its premiere in October 2019 at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); it was first released on home video in March 2021.[12] In the 1980s, Engel began taking panoramic photographs on the streets of New York City.[12] Engel and Ruth Orkin remained married until Orkin's death in 1985. In the 1990s, he returned to filmmaking, this time working on video. He completed two feature-length documentaries: A Little Bit Pregnant[12] in 1994 and Camellia[12] in 1998, each revolving around a different child in the Hartman family. First, in A Little Bit Pregnant Engel focused on the 8-year-old Leon's reactions, anxiety and wonderment to the impending birth of his baby sister Camellia. For the second film, two years later Engel returned to the same family, who gave him a year of access to the now 2-year-old daughter Camellia, capturing her daily life and routines, and her relationships with her family and others. Both films were shown in private screenings, but never had a public release due likely to the Hartman family presumably holding the rights.[12][13] Engel died of cancer in 2005. Legacy Engel and Orkin's work occupy a pivotal position in the independent and art film scene of the 1950s, and was influential on John Cassavetes, Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino, and François Truffaut,[1][10][14] and was frequently cited as an example by the influential film theorist Siegfried Kracauer.[15] Writing in Cassavetes on Cassavetes, biographer Raymond Carney says that Cassavetes was familiar with the work of the New York-based independent filmmakers who preceded him, and was "particularly fond" of Engel's three films from the 1950s. Carney writes that "Commentators who regard [Cassavetes] as the 'first independent' are only displaying their ignorance of the history of independent American film, which goes back to the early 1950s."[16] Truffaut was inspired by Little Fugitive's spontaneous production style when he created The 400 Blows (1959), saying long afterwards: “Our New Wave would never have come into being if it hadn’t been for the young American Morris Engel, who showed us the way to independent production with [this] fine movie.”[17] Filmography (complete) The Farm They Won (1951 short documentary film) The Little Fugitive (1953 feature film) Lovers and Lollipops (1956 feature film) Weddings and Babies (1958 feature film) One Chase Manhattan Plaza (1961 short documentary film) The Dog Lover (1962 short film) Little Girls Have Pretty Curls (1962 short documentary film) I Need a Ride to California (1968 feature film) (released in 2019) Peace Is (1968 short documentary film) A Little Bit Pregnant (1994 feature documentary video) Camellia (1998 feature documentary video) Morris Engel Home Movies (various dates, short documentary) (released in 2021) Exhibitions (selection) November 4, 2011 – March 25, 2012 "The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936–1951" at The Jewish Museum, New York August 20 – August 29, 2005 Morris Engel's Weddings and Babies: Newly Preserved at Museum of Modern Art, New York References A photographer (the Greek φῶς (phos), meaning "light", and γραφή (graphê), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light")[1] is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers An English photographer in his studio, in the 1850s. As in other arts, the definitions of amateur and professional are not entirely categorical. Epifania de Guadalupe Vallejo, the earliest known photographer active in what is the present-day West Coast of the United States.[2] An amateur photographer takes snapshots for pleasure to remember events, places or friends with no intention of selling the images to others. A professional photographer is likely to take photographs for a session and image purchase fee, by salary or through the display, resale or use of those photographs.[3] A professional photographer may be an employee, for example of a newspaper, or may contract to cover a particular planned event such as a wedding or graduation, or to illustrate an advertisement. Others, like fine art photographers, are freelancers, first making an image and then licensing or making printed copies of it for sale or display. Some workers, such as crime scene photographers, estate agents, journalists and scientists, make photographs as part of other work. Photographers who produce moving rather than still pictures are often called cinematographers, videographers or camera operators, depending on the commercial context. The term professional may also imply preparation, for example, by academic study or apprenticeship by the photographer in pursuit of photographic skills. A hallmark of a professional is often that they invest in continuing education through associations. While there is no compulsory registration requirement for professional photographer status, operating a business requires having a business license in most cities and counties. Similarly, having commercial insurance is required by most venues if photographing a wedding or a public event. Photographers who operate a legitimate business can provide these items. Photographers can be categorized based on the subjects they photograph. Some photographers explore subjects typical of paintings such as landscape, still life, and portraiture. Other photographers specialize in subjects unique to photography, including sports photography, street photography, documentary photography, fashion photography, wedding photography, war photography, photojournalism, aviation photography and commercial photography. The type of work commissioned will have pricing associated with the image's usage. Photographers A group photographing retired footballer Franz Beckenbauer. A group photographing retired footballer Franz Beckenbauer.   Nature photographer Urmas Tartes working on an outdoor environment. Nature photographer Urmas Tartes working on an outdoor environment.   A photographer (Douglas Osheroff) setting up a shot with the aid of a tripod. A photographer (Douglas Osheroff) setting up a shot with the aid of a tripod.   Photographing a model. An assistant is holding a reflector. Photographing a model. An assistant is holding a reflector.   Sports photographer during 2019 Pocono 400 Sports photographer during 2019 Pocono 400   Sanctioned motorsport photographers identified by individually numbered white bibs on a road-course in the Isle of Man with public spectator area behind. Sanctioned motorsport photographers identified by individually numbered white bibs on a road-course in the Isle of Man with public spectator area behind.   A photographer and his large format camera 1985. A photographer and his large format camera 1985. Selling photographs Further information: Photography and the law A U.S. Navy photographer in March 2004. The exclusive right of photographers to copy and use their products is protected by copyright. Countless industries purchase photographs for use in publications and on products. The photographs seen on magazine covers, in television advertising, on greeting cards or calendars, on websites, or on products and packages, have generally been purchased for this use, either directly from the photographer or through an agency that represents the photographer. A photographer uses a contract to sell the "license" or use of their photograph with exact controls regarding how often the photograph will be used, in what territory it will be used (for example U.S. or U.K. or other), and exactly for which products. This is usually referred to as usage fee and is used to distinguish from production fees (payment for the actual creation of a photograph or photographs). An additional contract and royalty would apply for each additional use of the photograph. The contract may be for only one year, or other duration. The photographer usually charges a royalty as well as a one-time fee, depending on the terms of the contract. The contract may be for non-exclusive use of the photograph (meaning the photographer can sell the same photograph for more than one use during the same year) or for exclusive use of the photograph (i.e. only that company may use the photograph during the term). The contract can also stipulate that the photographer is entitled to audit the company for determination of royalty payments. Royalties vary depending on the industry buying the photograph and the use, for example, royalties for a photograph used on a poster or in television advertising may be higher than for use on a limited run of brochures. A royalty is also often based on the size at which the photo will be used in a magazine or book, and cover photos usually command higher fees than photos used elsewhere in a book or magazine. Photos taken by a photographer while working on assignment are often work for hire belonging to the company or publication unless stipulated otherwise by contract. Professional portrait and wedding photographers often stipulate by contract that they retain the copyright of their photos, so that only they can sell further prints of the photographs to the consumer, rather than the customer reproducing the photos by other means. If the customer wishes to be able to reproduce the photos themselves, they may discuss an alternative contract with the photographer in advance before the pictures are taken, in which a larger upfront fee may be paid in exchange for reprint rights passing to the customer. There are major companies who have maintained catalogues of stock photography and images for decades, such as Getty Images and others. Since the turn of the 21st century many online stock photography catalogues have appeared that invite photographers to sell their photos online easily and quickly, but often for very little money, without a royalty, and without control over the use of the photo, the market it will be used in, the products it will be used on, time duration, etc. These online stock photography catalogues have drastically changed the landscape of the industry, presenting both opportunities and challenges for photographers seeking to earn a living through their craft. Commercial photographers may also promote their work to advertising and editorial art buyers via printed and online marketing vehicles. In today's digital age, social media has become an increasingly popular tool for commercial photographers to showcase their work and build their professional network, allowing them to reach a wider audience and connect with potential clients around the world. Photo sharing Many people upload their photographs to social networking websites and other websites, in order to share them with a particular group or with the general public.[4] Those interested in legal precision may explicitly release them to the public domain or under a free content license. Some sites, including Wikimedia Commons, are punctilious about licenses and only accept pictures with clear information about permitted use. See also In 1938, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two working class Jewish adolescents, created an “interplanetary immigrant” who was dedicated to making the world better.2 This involved being a champion of the underdog and in order to accomplish his tasks, they endowed him with superhuman powers of strength and perception. This hero, “Superman,” was the most enduring of many champions in the popular culture of the 1930s. His cover identity was that of a meek, mildly mannered newspaper reporter at a metropolitan daily who possessed the ability to transform himself at a moment’s notice whenever he was needed to further the cause of justice. Such heroes appeared across different media, on radio shows as well as in comic books and pulp fiction. As this super-hero was entering public awareness and photography was gaining dominance as a way to convey news of the world, a new photography driven newspaper was 1 Roy Hoopes. Ralph Ingersoll: A Biography. New York: Atheneum, 1985, p. 404. 2 The character of Superman was originally introduced in 1933 in an illustrated short story; however, the familiar heroic Superman first appeared in Action Comics No. 1 in June 1938 when the superhero was associated with the slogan “Champion of the Oppressed.” In 1940, at approximately the time of PM’s debut, The Adventures of Superman became a popular radio program. On that show he was granted the ability to fly and the original slogan was dropped in favor of “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.” This trajectory paralleled what was happening on the pages of PM and eventually, the country, as concern for the downtrodden and ethnic identity gave way to creation of an American identity, celebration of democracy and an all out effort to win the war. See Charles Moss, “Superman’s Dark Past”, The Atlantic, accessed 3/16 2 being born in New York City, the real Gotham. The daily newspaper PM, which ran from June 1940 through 1948, was created from within the heart of the publishing empire of Henry Luce. The idea for the new paper was the brainchild of Ralph McAllister Ingersoll, an experienced publishing world insider who took the wildly successful formula of the mid-1930s weekly photo magazines, such as Luce’s Life, and translated it into a daily paper. His new publication was intended to represent political views that emphasized a sense of justice and advocated for social improvement for the dispossessed. The “Superman” phenomenon was a perfect metaphor for PM, which proclaimed its purpose as a crusading newspaper. In an early prospectus for PM, Ralph Ingersoll stated, We are against people who push other people around, just for the fun of pushing, whether they flourish in this country or abroad. We are against fraud and deceit and greed and cruelty and we will seek to expose their practitioners. We are for people who are kindly and courageous and honest. We respect intelligence, sound accomplishment, openmindedness, religious tolerance. We do not believe all mankind’s problems are now being solved successfully by any existing social order, certainly not our own, and we propose to crusade for those who seek constructively to improve the way men live together. We are Americans and we prefer democracy to any other principle of government.3 Photography was central to the conception of PM and a crucial element in its mission of informing ordinary people, encouraging them to be a participating audience, and teaching them to be literate about the photographic message. The editorial staff referred to their urban and mainly proletarian readers as the “uncelebrated,” an expression that they purposely coined in opposition to the prevailing celebrity culture of Hollywood running through the most popular picture press. The term “uncelebrated” encompassed members of the working class as well as minorities - racial, ethnic and religious - who were often subjected to discrimination. This was 3 Roy Hoopes, Ralph Ingersoll: A Biography, New York, Atheneum, 1985, p. 410. “PM is against people who push other people around” became what Paul Milkman calls “the cornerstone slogan of the newspaper” and was so important to the editors that they printed the slogan several times a week until 1946, when Ingersoll resigned. The full quote was published twice in the newspaper, followed by the words “PM still feels this way.” Paul Milkman, PM: A New Deal in Journalism, 1940-1948, New Brunswick, New Jersey and London, Rutgers University Press, 1997, p. 41. 3 significant at a time when prejudice, both blatant and subtle, was widespread in the United States, and Fascism presented a growing threat from abroad. PM repeatedly printed its slogan “we are against people who push other people around,” and the rapidly increasing possibilities of war on the horizon gave greater urgency to its visual program. Daring like Superman, on the side of the little guy, PM was also exceptional because it did not accept paid advertising. Instead, PM was supported by millionaire department store heir, Marshall Field III, who, in accord with the paper’s political views, stated, “I’m not supporting a newspaper, I’m supporting an idea.”4 Considered a left-liberal New York City daily newspaper, PM represented a milestone in American journalism.5 Its photography was neither commercial nor sensational but aligned with the views of the cultural left, widely known in the mid-1930s as the “Popular Front” – an organization that had originally been created by the Communist International in 1935 in order to fight the growth of fascism. PM also reflected a meaningful chapter in the history of photojournalism that has been little examined in comparison to the major mass circulation illustrated periodicals that emerged during the 1930s, notably Life magazine. This was all the more important because the newspaper was incubated in the crucible of Henry Luce’s publishing empire, in the offices of the photo magazines, Fortune and Life, where Ralph Ingersoll, future PM editor and publisher, had initially 4 PM was originally supported by a group of funders but after a few months these were eventually bought out by Field. Hoopes, cit., p. 236. 5 The meaning of the name PM is unknown. It could be short for p.m. and suggest the status of an afternoon paper, but this interpretation is not convincing because it had a morning edition. The initials coincidentally stand for Picture Magazine and they might have inspired the naming of the contemporary AM subway tabloid. There are competing anecdotes regarding the paper’s naming. Some sources ascribe this to syndicated columnist Walter Winchell, some to Ingersoll’s friend, author Lillian Hellman, or to columnist Leonard Lyons. In some accounts, the name was arbitrary and there is conjecture that its meaning was deliberately unclear. See Paul Milkman, cit., p. 43; Roy Hoopes, cit., p. 216. 4 held major positions.6 Ingersoll aimed to expand 1930s modernist photojournalism from the great mass circulation picture magazines to the daily newspaper, and he set this goal at a time when the dailies were extremely conservative in terms of both politics and form. They were also parochial and unimaginative in sharp contrast with Ingersoll’s PM.7 In every aspect, PM bore the imprint of the flamboyant Ingersoll who had participated intimately in the development of Life, the 1936 picture magazine that was instrumental in shaping and disseminating modern visual culture, forging a particular image of a corporate United States. Ingersoll’s own newspaper was also modernist in its embrace of photography as a new form of visual narrative. PM’s agenda challenged Luce’s vision of a consumerist America largely populated only by white, middle and upper classes, by explicitly representing and serving ordinary citizens, and working actively on behalf of “the common man.” 8 PM’s editors saw in FDR and the New Deal the best hope for the United States. 6 Luce hired Ingersoll to be managing editor at Fortune in 1930. Due to Fortune’s success, Ingersoll was promoted to second in command at Time, Inc. In this capacity, he recognized the importance of the dynamic use of high quality photography, pressured Luce to create a weekly picture magazine, and began to work on plans for it. In 1936, when Luce personally took over what became the picture magazine, Life, he sent Ingersoll back to Time as Vice President and General Manager. Ingersoll, whose views had evolved leftwards, disagreed strongly with the politics at Time, Inc. Hoopes., pp. 81, 86, 139-154 7 New York City had nine papers in the late 1930s. Of these, The Daily News was a sensationalist tabloid saturated with comics, celebrity gossip, crime, and sexual titillation. The Telegram provided a platform for the viciously conservative critic, Westbrook Pegler. Other mainstream papers, including The New York Times and The Herald Tribune, were instruments of the status quo. Only The New York Post reflected the city’s diversity and did not attack the New Deal and the Roosevelt administration. No new newspaper had appeared in the city since 1924 when the Mirror and The Graphic began. There were numerous foreign language and leftist papers but these had relatively small circulations. Many papers had also folded or merged in the wake of the Depression. According to Milkman, there had been almost no innovation in newspaper publishing in five decades. The tabloid papers used badly reproduced photographs and since the 1920s these publications provided fodder for those critics who saw photographs as inferior to the written word and a threat associated with social decline. Milkman, cit., p. 10. 8 The term “the common man” derived from the famous speech known as the “Century of the Common Man,” made by Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt. This speech of May 8, 1942 was published in its entirety by PM. His words, "I say that the century on which we are entering—the century which will come out of this war—can be and must be the century of the common man," were critical of Henry Luce’s designation of the twentieth century as “The American 5 This study considers photojournalism in PM from June 1940 through July 1942, the period during which Ralph Ingersoll had the greatest influence on the paper, prior to his enlistment in World War II. This was the time when the paper was most vibrant, experimental, and attractive. In the summer of 1942, following Ralph Ingersoll’s departure, other journalists took over the editorial staff. At this time, Ralph Steiner, the paper’s photography critic who had been essential in shaping PM’s unique message, also left, and photographer Morris Engel departed to join the armed services and the war effort. Finally, by 1943, the programs of FDR and the New Deal were superseded by an all out effort to win the war and PM, suffering through war-time shortages in ink and paper, became less visually compelling.9 Many of the journalistic practices introduced in PM were decades ahead of their time and in many respects, the paper’s influence changed American newspapers altogether. PM introduced the weekend picture supplement, which still exists in the form of the syndicated Parade Magazine. It encouraged a vivid, personal style of reporting, both written and visual, and it served as a model for the “critical culture” of the alternative press that would evolve two decades later with its adversarial style of crusading journalism and its break with the traditional financial model of selling advertising.10 PM’s weekend edition, known as PM’s Weekly, was partly derived in its form from a magazine, and is the focus of this study. By the time he started his own publication, Ralph McAllister Ingersoll was one of the most famous journalists in New York City and was known for his vigorous writing. 11 Ingersoll 9 The change in the visual appearance of PM began in late 1942 and was marked by the autumn of 1943 when wartime shortages necessitated thinner paper and no color ink. 10 Michael Schudson. “The Rise of a Critical Culture”, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers, New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1978, pp. 176-194. 11 Ingersoll began his career in journalism at the offices of William Randolph Hearst’s New York American, then worked for Harold Ross at the New Yorker where he is credited with starting the still extant “Talk of the Town” column. In 1930, Henry Luce, the publisher of Time magazine, hired him to be the Managing Editor of Fortune,, a luxury publication that addressed and celebrated corporate America 6 employed some of the best writing talent available for his new publishing venture and allowed them the freedom to write according to their own choice. 12 The prevailing writing style at PM, like Ingersoll’s own, tended to be vividly descriptive, deeply investigative, stylistically personal and distinctly leftist in its bias. 13 This tone and freedom extended to the paper’s staff of first- rate photographers who were known in press circles for their originality. In addition, PM published work by a wide array of noted freelancers, including Weegee, as well as images purchased from photo agencies. 14 A picture paper such as PM was a consequence of the growing trend in visual communication that capitalized on the public’s insatiable appetite for information about the modern world via photojournalism. In many ways, it followed in the tradition of the great European picture publications that arose in the preceding decades: BIZ, AIZ, VU, and the French communist paper, Regards. 15 PM joined a number of U.S. left wing publications that also and managed to become successful during Ingersoll’s tenure in spite of its high price and its introduction at the height of the depression. At Fortune Ingersoll was responsible for bringing in talented photographer Margaret Bourke-White as well as introducing the candid photography of European pioneer, Erich Salomon who introduced a spontaneous look associated with smaller, lighter cameras including Leicas, 12 Among the writers whose talents PM could claim were I.F. Stone, James Wechsler, Max Lerner, James Thurber, Erskine Caldwell, Ben Hecht, Penn Kimball, Hodding Carter, and the illustrious Ernest Hemingway. 13 During his tenure at Fortune, Ingersoll came into contact with leftist intellectual writers Archibald MacLeish and Dwight MacDonald who exposed him to the ideas of socialism and political dissent and inspired him with their enthusiasm for Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was then running for president. As his views evolved leftward, Ingersoll began to dislike the politics at Time, Inc where he was appointed General Manager in 1936. At this time, he became increasingly involved with a circle of leftist friends including writers Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett and began to work with a socialist psychoanalyst who also saw Marshall Field. See Milkman, cit., p. 13, 41 14 The newspaper also maintained a roster of talented visual artists, illustrators and cartoonists: Theodor Seuss Geisel, (Dr. Seuss), Leo Hershfield, Ad Reinhardt, Charles Martin, Jack Coggins, and Don Freeman. 15 Richard Whelan. Robert Capa: a biography. New York: Ballantine Books, 1985, p. 218, claimed that the French communist paper Ce Soir, 1937-1953 was a model for PM. This requires further research but it is conceivable that the initials PM can be associated with a translation from the French, “this evening”. However, according to both Paul Milkman and Ingersoll’s biographer, Hoopes, the choice of the initials PM for the name of the paper was fairly arbitrary and may have been done to keep readers guessing and talking about the new publication. Additionally, PM was not an afternoon paper, and had a morning edition as well. 7 represented “Popular Front” views but these had smaller circulations and many, such as the Daily Worker, were punctuated by advertising and the photography in these was neither of the quantity or quality of that in PM. 16 Although PM used the methods of combining words and photographs developed at Life, it translated these towards progressive ends and for the benefit of its diverse working class readers. The picture of which Ingersoll’s newspaper presented represented a sharp contrast to Life’s picture of a mythic, consumerist America based on equal opportunity. In contrast, PM’s vision included the diverse fabric of New York City and PM showed images of what Life left out: widespread poverty, deeply embedded racism, and discrimination based on religion and ethnicity. Toward this end, the editors made a different array of citizens visible, including labor’s “rank and file”, minority groups, blacks and women. (Figs. 1-2) PM also demonstrated its considerable interest and commitment to children visually. Pediatrician Benjamin Spock, who later became famous for writing what amounted to the bible of post-war child rearing advice, contributed a weekly column, PM’s Baby, tracing the development of a baby girl born at the time PM appeared. (Fig. 3) The paper was known for waging highly vocal crusades against bias including several that exposed the coded discrimination that was commonplace elsewhere in the daily press.17 However, PM did not ignore popularly appealing imagery such as that of leggy young women in bathing suits. It just presented this trope of the era, which PM called “Bathing Girl of the Week,” with what Paul Milkman has referred to as “a proletarian slant”. Henry Luce understood the power of photographs to affect public opinion and used his 16 Milkman, cit., p. 33. 17 PM was acutely aware of and opposed to the widespread anti-Semitism of the time. The early PM waged a campaign exposing blatant discrimination in help wanted ads. See Milkman, cit., pp. 146. 8 publications to mold this in the name of what he referred to as “partisan objectivity”.18 Ingersoll learned this while in Luce’s employ; however, besides their political differences, there was a fundamental difference between the two publishers. 19 While Luce hid the mechanics of his partisan manipulation by maintaining that photographs were factual records, Ingersoll and his staff revealed the constructed nature of every image to his readers and that photographs were made by human beings, by nature subjective, rather than by mechanical means. Together with his editors, especially photo critic, Ralph Steiner, he used PM’s admission of its leftist bias as a claim for its honesty.20 The most famous example of the openness with which the paper treated photographs as human products was the inclusion of Weegee’s own colorful writing commenting on the process of making his images along with his iconic photographs. On June 22, 1940, when the first of Weegee’s Coney Island crowd shots appeared in PM, the accompanying text identified his real name as Arthur Fellig and introduced his description of his experience: “Herewith is Weegee’s own story of how he took this picture.” The text even described what Weegee had for lunch. As he wrote, ”two kosher frankfurters and two beers at a Jewish delicatessen on the Boardwalk. 18 “partisan objectivity” was an acknowledgment that bias was inescapable. See James L. Baughman. Henry Luce and the Rise of the American News Media. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. Luce stated, “Show me a man who thinks he’s objective and I’ll show you a man who’s deceiving himself.” See Michael Schudson. Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1978, p. 149. 19 Ingersoll was exposed to Kurt Korff, the former editor of Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung who fled the Nazi’s and came to work for Luce in 1934 on the creation of the new picture magazine which became Life. Korff brought his skill in the construction of photo essays and it is difficult to belief that Ingersoll would not have had close contacted with this talented editor. While in Luce’s employ, Ingersoll, memos show, made the final decision about Life’s size and helped put together the layout of the first issue. See Chris Vials, Realism For the Masses: Aesthetics, Popular Front Pluralism, and U.S. Culture 1935-1947, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009, p.180. 20PM recruited William McCleery, former features editor of the nationwide Associated Press, and gave him complete freedom as picture editor and editor of the weekend magazine section. McCleery was lured away from Life where he was unhappy with the elitist Ivy League atmosphere. He brought his considerable experience using large amounts of photographic material in features rather than single news storied to PM. See Milkman, cit., p. 18-19. 9 Later on for a chaser, I had five more beers, a malted milk, two root beers, three Coca Colas and two glasses of Buttermilk. And five cigars costing 19 cents.”21 (Fig. 4) According to Jason Hill, this shot was almost identical to one published by The Daily News five days later. 22 The fundamental difference lies in the text accompanying this picture describing Weegee at work. As more images depicting the hostilities in Europe appeared, PM editors pointed out how these pictures were staged and faked. For example, on July 24, 1941: The only thing missing from this Berlin propaganda shot is the camera director who so obviously arranged it all. Notice the Nazi soldier, anything but camera shy, leading, not following his prisoners toward the tank out of which they are supposed to have been smoked. And toward the camera. The only thing that looks authentic is the countryside that is as flat as the Russian steppes where Berlin said the picture was taken.23 A few pages further into the same issue, another comment revealed a staged shot: “This is the actual invasion of Ningpo. Plunging into battle, flag-in-hand, went out with the Crimean War and a charge under fire was never like this. This shot was staged for dramatic effect.”24 The deeply embedded stance regarding the status of the photographic image as something constructed, and the willingness, even the urgency, with which the editorial staff instructed readers, set PM apart from any other publication of its moment. This included other picture magazines such as Look, which used a format similar to Life’s, but represented a more liberal perspective. Friday, a privately funded Popular Front picture magazine, emulated the look of Life including a red logo banner and full page photographs on its covers but was unapologetically Stalinist and followed the staunch Communist Party line with regard to non-intervention in 21 Weegee, “Yesterday at Coney Island...Temperature 89...They Came Early, Stayed Late....”, PM, July 22, 1941, pp. 16-17. 22 Jason E. Hill. The Artist as Reporter: The PM News Picture, 1940-1948, Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Southern California, 2013, pp. 306-329. 23 PM, July 24, 1941, p. 3. 24 “Out for Fresh Conquests, Japan Shows How It’s Done,” PM, July 24, 1941, pp. 16-17. 10 Europe. 25 Friday, while attractive, was relatively static, even conventional in its overall design.26 Both Look and Friday were punctuated by advertisements, which were carefully selected in the case of Dan Gilmore’s Friday. Neither Look nor Friday specifically analyzed photographic images for their audiences. The communist publications, The Daily Worker and The New Masses, supported and reported on labor in photographs as well as words. Some of the same photographers and artists also worked for these publications as well as PM. However, these publications had much smaller circulations and none used photographs with as much sophistication nor as extensively or engagingly as PM. 27 Even Earl Browder, the head of the CPUSA who disagreed with the PM’s political position admitted that the paper was compelling.28 Historian Jason E. Hill emphasizes that PM was a daily paper, not solely a magazine, and must be considered as such although it arose in relation to, and partly in reaction to the prevailing magazine culture of its time. The available literature on PM is relatively sparse compared to that 25 There were points of contact between PM and Friday, with several staff photographers occasionally contributing to both. Work by PM photographers, Irving Haberman and Ray Platnik also appeared in Friday and there were other connections to that magazine. Steiner, as did Roy Stryker, served as a judge for a photo contest, “Youth in Focus”, sponsored by Friday, which presented work by young members of the American Youth Congress on September 20, 1940, p. 26. Steiner mentioned his part in this contest in a column. 26 A wealthy young radical, Dan Gilmore, who funded Friday, had been considered but rejected as a backer for PM because of his insistence that PM adhere to the CPUSA party line. Gilmore had loaned Ingersoll money ($25,000) for his initial research into a picture publication. This relationship between PM and Gilmore’s publication bear further exploration. Hoopes, cit., pp. 187-88, 220, 234. 27 Several staff members, including artist Ad Reinhardt who did illustrations for PM, came to the paper 1930s, may have had a circulation as high as 35,000. It was one of the most influential publications of the left, had a Sunday edition, serious sports coverage, counter cultural comic strips and other entertainment 28 Browder condemned PM for being reactionary but felt it presented news “in such a charming and innocent and interesting fashion that even the members of our own Association, I am sorry to say, often prefer PM rather than the Worker.” See David Margolick, “PM’s Impossible Dream,” Vanity Fair, January 1999, p. 129. 11 on Time, Life, Look or other magazines. This literature either covers politics, as in Paul Milkman’s thorough study dedicated to the full run and the demise of the newspaper in the climate of the Cold War, or it deals with PM as a phenomenon in written journalism in periodic articles devoted to the paper, such as that by David Margolick.29 These only briefly touch on photography as part of the paper’s agenda. The only major visual analysis of PM to date has been undertaken by Jason E. Hill who ably demonstrates the central role of photography. In his dissertation and essays, which will be released shortly as a book, Hill downplays the importance of the readers in PM’s mission, and how its visual program was directed towards educating them. The first years of the paper’s existence, in the lead up to World War II, were tense and uncertain and have tended to be somewhat historically overlooked. Whereas 1930s photography has been treated by John Raeburn, William Stott, Maren Stange, and other American studies scholars, PM has not been discussed. Recent meaningful historical work on the build-up to war and the changes it wrought in American identity has been conducted by Lynn Olsen, whose book, Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II 1939-1941, delineates the depth of American isolationism and the resistance to war, encompassing this in terms of visual culture.30 Such studies, including that edited by Lewis A. Erenberg and Susan E. Hirsch, War in American Culture: Society and Consciousness During World War II, show a nation moving towards democracy, while transcending ethnic difference.31 This thesis argues that PM was intended to be entertaining as well as informative. Its overriding purpose was to champion the plebian audience made up largely of urban union 29 David Margolick, “PM’s Impossible Dream,” Vanity Fair, January 1999. 30 Lynne Olsen. Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II 1939- 1941. New York: Random House, 2013. 31 Lewis A. Erenberg and Susan E. Hirsch, eds., War in American Culture: Society and Consciousness During World War II. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. 12 workers, providing them with the most transparent information it could as well as imprint an understanding of the seriousness of the growing threat of Fascism. To this end, I have divided this study into three parts. The first will discuss PM in the context of other press developments of its time, focusing on its intention to be both a popular and a dissident vehicle for news. In this section, I analyze specifically how PM treated the photographic image differently from contemporary illustrated periodicals. Part II will concentrate on the central role of weekend photo editor and columnist Ralph Steiner in developing a singular understanding of photography. Chapter III is dedicated to an analysis of the form of the photo-essay in PM. While PM is known for some of its large, single photographs that tell complex stories in one image, I argue that it also developed original narrative strategies, which incorporated elements borrowed from cinema. The reason why there is still not a great deal of literature on the photographic work in PM is partly due to what Jason E. Hill identifies as the difficulty inherent in studying a daily newspaper which multiplies both the number of issues and the state of preservation of the originals over other types of weekly, monthly or quarterly magazines. Most of what has been written about PM comes from a perspective of journalism. However, there is relatively little on the photographers, with the exception of Weegee, who was so central to the paper.32 I am indebted to Jason Hill for what he has written on the matter. While there have been mentions of photography in PM, especially in relation to the New York Photo League, notably by Michael 32 See Miles Barth, Weegee’s World. New York: Bullfinch Press, 1997; Daniel Morris, “Weegee’s Nation”, After Weegee: Essays on Contemporary Jewish American Photographers. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2011; Miles Orvell, “Weegee’s Voyeurism and the Mastery of Urban Disorder,” American Art, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Winter, 1992), pp. 18-41; Luc Sante. “Weegee As Witness,” Art in America, March, 2012, pp. 118-124; Louis Stettner. Weegee. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977; Cynthia Young, ed., Unknown Weege. New York: ICP/Steidel, exh. cat., 2006. 13 Lesy, these are brief outlines in the context of the general picture press of the time.33 Jason Hill has done breakthrough studies describing the visual program of PM and the editors’ transparent skepticism toward the photographic image. Hill has also examined the relationship between photography and illustration in PM as it relates to the paper’s tendency to elevate its photographic staff. His presentation of the “photojournalist as artist” is largely accurate but can be easily misinterpreted as a view of the photographer/artist in the framework of the modernist “genius” that may have begun in the 1930 but flowered only later. It is essential to keep in mind that PM began as a product of the leftist milieu of the late Depression and that its photographers were workers, who like others, were elevated by the paper. Despite the paper’s promotion of stars such as Weegee and Margaret Bourke-White, the photographic staff was part of a collaborative team that included writers and editorial staff. From 1940-1942, the newspaper’s program showed evidence of the transition from a laboring culture which was concerned with “the common man” and the equal rights of all religious, ethnic and racial groups, to one in which separate identities gradually became incorporated into a general American identity resolutely united to take on the enemies of democracy. Hill cautions that, despite its beginnings in the milieu of picture magazines, PM was nevertheless a daily newspaper that was intended to inform first and foremost. Above all, the ordinary working person was as important and worthy of being pictured as the most famous and manufactured of Hollywood stars. In keeping with the democratic spirit of the paper, and fulfilling philosopher John Dewey’s views that like citizenship in a democracy, art was a triadic process which involved what was depicted, the artist, and the viewers’ active participation for its completion, PM readers were regularly and 33 See Michael Lesy, “Paper World,” in Mason Klein and Catherine Evans eds., The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936-1951, New York, Columbus, New Haven, Yale University Press, The Jewish Museum and Yale University, exh. cat., 2011, pp. 60-71. 14 specifically invited to submit their own photographs for critique, or possible paid publication. This thesis examines how these liberal dynamics, occurring in this particular printed media, used photography in order to focus on the “uncelebrated,” and what the significance of this operation might be for the larger study of photography at this critical time for American culture. 15 Chapter I The First Picture Paper Under the Sun The physical paper, PM, measured a little over eleven by fourteen inches in a slightly more square version than the standard tabloid format of the time. (Fig. 5) Its weekly edition ran thirty-two pages and cost five cents. Both page count and price doubled for the weekend edition to ten cents and sixty-four pages. This edition came in two sections and functioned like a magazine meant to be read casually and at leisure over a longer period of time than the daily paper. It carried regular features such as complete radio and cinema listings, lengthier stories, more elaborate layouts, and more photographs. All editions were stapled to make the paper easy to handle on public transportation. Ralph Ingersoll hired the noted illustrator and graphic designer, Thomas M. Clelland, to give PM a modern look that made it as easy to read as it was to handle. Clelland, who had been responsible for designing the sumptuous Fortune magazine during Ingersoll’s tenure as managing editor of that publication, designed the custom Caledonia typeface. The groundbreaking design used a slightly larger nine-point size replacing the difficult to read seven-point type that prevailed in other papers. He gave PM a four-column layout set off by borders of white instead of the cluttered six columns of other dailies. Called by Ingersoll “a new kind of newspaper,” PM won the prestigious N.W. Ayer Award for typography and design during each of its first four years.34 Its visual cohesiveness was in part due to the editor’s decision not to accept outside advertising. Following other successful picture magazines, including Life and the French VU, 34 Hoopes, cit., p. 404 The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression in the United States. It succeeded the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937).[1] The FSA is famous for its small but highly influential photography program, 1935–44, that portrayed the challenges of rural poverty. The photographs in the FSA/Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. This U.S. government photography project was headed for most of its existence by Roy Stryker, who guided the effort in a succession of government agencies: the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937), the Farm Security Administration (1937–1942), and the Office of War Information (1942–1944). The collection also includes photographs acquired from other governmental and nongovernmental sources, including the News Bureau at the Offices of Emergency Management (OEM), various branches of the military, and industrial corporations.[2] In total, the black-and-white portion of the collection consists of about 175,000 black-and-white film negatives, encompassing both negatives that were printed for FSA-OWI use and those that were not printed at the time. Color transparencies also made by the FSA/OWI are available in a separate section of the catalog: FSA/OWI Color Photographs.[2] The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming. Reactionary critics, including the Farm Bureau, strongly opposed the FSA as an alleged experiment in collectivizing agriculture—that is, in bringing farmers together to work on large government-owned farms using modern techniques under the supervision of experts. After the Conservative coalition took control of Congress, it transformed the FSA into a program to help poor farmers buy land, and that program continues to operate in the 21st century as the Farmers Home Administration. Origins Walker Evans portrait of Allie Mae Burroughs (1936) Arthur Rothstein photograph "Dust Bowl Cimarron County, Oklahoma" of a farmer and two sons during a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936) Dorothea Lange photograph of an Arkansas squatter of three years near Bakersfield, California (1935) The projects that were combined in 1935 to form the Resettlement Administration (RA) started in 1933 as an assortment of programs tried out by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The RA was headed by Rexford Tugwell, an economic advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[3] However, Tugwell's goal moving 650,000 people into 100,000,000 acres (400,000 km2) of exhausted, worn-out land was unpopular among the majority in Congress.[3] This goal seemed socialistic to some and threatened to deprive powerful farm proprietors of their tenant workforce.[3] The RA was thus left with only enough resources to relocate a few thousand people from 9 million acres (36,000 km2) and build several greenbelt cities,[3] which planners admired as models for a cooperative future that never arrived.[3] The main focus of the RA was to now build relief camps in California for migratory workers, especially refugees from the drought-stricken Dust Bowl of the Southwest.[3] This move was resisted by a large share of Californians, who did not want destitute migrants to settle in their midst.[3] The RA managed to construct 95 camps that gave migrants unaccustomed clean quarters with running water and other amenities,[3] but the 75,000 people who had the benefit of these camps were a small share of those in need and could only stay temporarily.[3] After facing enormous criticism for his poor management of the RA, Tugwell resigned in 1936.[3] On January 1, 1937,[4] with hopes of making the RA more effective, the RA was transferred to the Department of Agriculture through executive order 7530.[4] On July 22, 1937,[5] Congress passed the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.[5] This law authorized a modest credit program to assist tenant farmers to purchase land,[5] and it was the culmination of a long effort to secure legislation for their benefit.[5] Following the passage of the act, Congress passed the Farm Security Act into law. The Farm Security Act officially transformed the RA into the Farm Security Administration (FSA).[3] The FSA expanded through funds given by the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.[3] Relief work One of the activities performed by the RA and FSA was the buying out of small farms that were not economically viable, and the setting up of 34 subsistence homestead communities, in which groups of farmers lived together under the guidance of government experts and worked a common area. They were not allowed to purchase their farms for fear that they would fall back into inefficient practices not guided by RA and FSA experts.[6] The Dust Bowl in the Great Plains displaced thousands of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and laborers, many of whom (known as "Okies" or "Arkies") moved on to California. The FSA operated camps for them, such as Weedpatch Camp as depicted in The Grapes of Wrath. The RA and the FSA gave educational aid to 455,000 farm families during the period 1936-1943. In June, 1936, Roosevelt wrote: "You are right about the farmers who suffer through their own fault... I wish you would have a talk with Tugwell about what he is doing to educate this type of farmer to become self-sustaining. During the past year, his organization has made 104,000 farm families practically self-sustaining by supervision and education along practical lines. That is a pretty good record!"[7] The FSA's primary mission was not to aid farm production or prices. Roosevelt's agricultural policy had, in fact, been to try to decrease agricultural production to increase prices. When production was discouraged, though, the tenant farmers and small holders suffered most by not being able to ship enough to market to pay rents. Many renters wanted money to buy farms, but the Agriculture Department realized there already were too many farmers, and did not have a program for farm purchases. Instead, they used education to help the poor stretch their money further. Congress, however, demanded that the FSA help tenant farmers purchase farms, and purchase loans of $191 million were made, which were eventually repaid. A much larger program was $778 million in loans (at effective rates of about 1% interest) to 950,000 tenant farmers. The goal was to make the farmer more efficient so the loans were used for new machinery, trucks, or animals, or to repay old debts. At all times, the borrower was closely advised by a government agent. Family needs were on the agenda, as the FSA set up a health insurance program and taught farm wives how to cook and raise children. Upward of a third of the amount was never repaid, as the tenants moved to much better opportunities in the cities.[8] The FSA was also one of the authorities administering relief efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico during the Great Depression. Between 1938 and 1945, under the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, it oversaw the purchase of 590 farms with the intent of distributing land to working and middle-class Puerto Ricans.[9] Modernization The FSA resettlement communities appear in the literature as efforts to ameliorate the wretched condition of southern sharecroppers and tenants, but those evicted to make way for the new settlers are virtually invisible in the historic record. The resettlement projects were part of larger efforts to modernize rural America. The removal of former tenants and their replacement by FSA clients in the lower Mississippi alluvial plain—the Delta—reveals core elements of New Deal modernizing policies. The key concepts that guided the FSA's tenant removals were: the definition of rural poverty as rooted in the problem of tenancy; the belief that economic success entailed particular cultural practices and social forms; and the commitment by those with political power to gain local support. These assumptions undergirded acceptance of racial segregation and the criteria used to select new settlers. Alternatives could only become visible through political or legal action—capacities sharecroppers seldom had. In succeeding decades, though, these modernizing assumptions created conditions for Delta African Americans on resettlement projects to challenge white supremacy.[10] FSA and its contribution to society The documentary photography genre describes photographs that would work as a time capsule for evidence in the future or a certain method that a person can use for a frame of reference. Facts presented in a photograph can speak for themselves after the viewer gets time to analyze it. The motto of the FSA was simply, as Beaumont Newhall insists, "not to inform us, but to move us."[citation needed] Those photographers wanted the government to move and give a hand to the people, as they were completely neglected and overlooked, thus they decided to start taking photographs in a style that we today call "documentary photography." The FSA photography has been influential due to its realist point of view, and because it works as a frame of reference and an educational tool from which later generations could learn. Society has benefited and will benefit from it for more years to come, as this photography can unveil the ambiguous and question the conditions that are taking place.[11] Photography program The RA and FSA are well known for the influence of their photography program, 1935–1944. Photographers and writers were hired to report and document the plight of poor farmers. The Information Division (ID) of the FSA was responsible for providing educational materials and press information to the public. Under Roy Stryker, the ID of the FSA adopted a goal of "introducing America to Americans." Many of the most famous Depression-era photographers were fostered by the FSA project. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks were three of the most famous FSA alumni.[12] The FSA was also cited in Gordon Parks' autobiographical novel, A Choice of Weapons. The FSA's photography was one of the first large-scale visual documentations of the lives of African-Americans.[13] These images were widely disseminated through the Twelve Million Black Voices collection, published in October 1941, which combined FSA photographs selected by Edwin Rosskam and text by author and poet Richard Wright. Photographers Fifteen photographers (ordered by year of hire) would produce the bulk of work on this project. Their diverse, visual documentation elevated government's mission from the "relocation" tactics of a Resettlement Administration to strategic solutions which would depend on America recognizing rural and already poor Americans, facing death by depression and dust. FSA photographers: Arthur Rothstein (1935), Theodor Jung (1935), Ben Shahn (1935), Walker Evans (1935), Dorothea Lange (1935), Carl Mydans (1935), Russell Lee (1936), Marion Post Wolcott (1936), John Vachon (1936, photo assignments began in 1938), Jack Delano (1940), John Collier (1941), Marjory Collins (1941), Louise Rosskam (1941), Gordon Parks (1942) and Esther Bubley (1942). With America's entry into World War II, FSA would focus on a different kind of relocation as orders were issued for internment of Japanese Americans. FSA photographers would be transferred to the Office of War Information during the last years of the war and completely disbanded at the war's end. Photographers like Howard R. Hollem, Alfred T. Palmer, Arthur Siegel and OWI's Chief of Photographers John Rous were working in OWI before FSA's reorganization there. As a result of both teams coming under one unit name, these other individuals are sometimes associated with RA-FSA's pre-war images of American life. Though collectively credited with thousands of Library of Congress images, military ordered, positive-spin assignments like these four received starting in 1942, should be separately considered from pre-war, depression triggered imagery. FSA photographers were able to take time to study local circumstances and discuss editorial approaches with each other before capturing that first image. Each one talented in her or his own right, equal credit belongs to Roy Stryker who recognized, hired and empowered that talent. John Collier Jr. John Collier Jr.   Jack Delano Jack Delano   Walker Evans Walker Evans   Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange   Russell Lee Russell Lee   Carl Mydans Carl Mydans   Gordon Parks Gordon Parks   Arthur Rothstein Arthur Rothstein   John Vachon John Vachon   Marion Post Wolcott Marion Post Wolcott These 15 photographers, some shown above, all played a significant role, not only in producing images for this project, but also in molding the resulting images in the final project through conversations held between the group members. The photographers produced images that breathed a humanistic social visual catalyst of the sort found in novels, theatrical productions, and music of the time. Their images are now regarded as a "national treasure" in the United States, which is why this project is regarded as a work of art.[14] Photograph of Chicago's rail yards by Jack Delano, circa 1943 Together with John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (not a government project) and documentary prose (for example Walker Evans and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men), the FSA photography project is most responsible for creating the image of the Depression in the United States. Many of the images appeared in popular magazines. The photographers were under instruction from Washington, DC, as to what overall impression the New Deal wanted to portray. Stryker's agenda focused on his faith in social engineering, the poor conditions among tenant cotton farmers, and the very poor conditions among migrant farm workers; above all, he was committed to social reform through New Deal intervention in people's lives. Stryker demanded photographs that "related people to the land and vice versa" because these photographs reinforced the RA's position that poverty could be controlled by "changing land practices." Though Stryker did not dictate to his photographers how they should compose the shots, he did send them lists of desirable themes, for example, "church", "court day", and "barns". Stryker sought photographs of migratory workers that would tell a story about how they lived day-to-day. He asked Dorothea Lange to emphasize cooking, sleeping, praying, and socializing.[15] RA-FSA made 250,000 images of rural poverty. Fewer than half of those images survive and are housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. The library has placed all 164,000 developed negatives online.[16] From these, some 77,000 different finished photographic prints were originally made for the press, plus 644 color images, from 1600 negatives. Documentary films The RA also funded two documentary films by Pare Lorentz: The Plow That Broke the Plains, about the creation of the Dust Bowl, and The River, about the importance of the Mississippi River. The films were deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. World War II activities During World War II, the FSA was assigned to work under the purview of the Wartime Civil Control Administration, a subagency of the War Relocation Authority. These agencies were responsible for relocating Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast to Internment camps. The FSA controlled the agricultural part of the evacuation. Starting in March 1942 they were responsible for transferring the farms owned and operated by Japanese Americans to alternate operators. They were given the dual mandate of ensuring fair compensation for Japanese Americans, and for maintaining correct use of the agricultural land. During this period, Lawrence Hewes Jr was the regional director and in charge of these activities.[17] Reformers ousted; Farmers Home Administration After the war started and millions of factory jobs in the cities were unfilled, no need for FSA remained.[citation needed] In late 1942, Roosevelt moved the housing programs to the National Housing Agency, and in 1943, Congress greatly reduced FSA's activities. The photographic unit was subsumed by the Office of War Information for one year, then disbanded. Finally in 1946, all the social reformers had left and FSA was replaced by a new agency, the Farmers Home Administration, which had the goal of helping finance farm purchases by tenants—and especially by war veterans—with no personal oversight by experts. It became part of Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the 1960s, with a greatly expanded budget to facilitate loans to low-income rural families and cooperatives, injecting $4.2 billion into rural America.[18] The Great Depression The Great Depression began in August 1929, when the United States economy first went into an economic recession. Although the country spent two months with declining GDP, the effects of a declining economy were not felt until the Wall Street Crash in October 1929, and a major worldwide economic downturn ensued. Although its causes are still uncertain and controversial, the net effect was a sudden and general loss of confidence in the economic future and a reduction in living standards for most ordinary Americans. The market crash highlighted a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits for industrial firms, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth.[19]
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