The Quiet One

Let's see, how did I come across this film reference? I've been rummaging around in so many archives and old papers and posts, I'm loosing track. Ok - I have actually finished digitizing old papers! Finished at the Library on Friday late afternoon. So many memories have been stirred! And since that project is done, I turned my attention to a new one - creating a file of my blog so that I can search content in it on the computer. I had started to do that years ago, then put it on the shelf. The blog goes back to 2011, so there are a lot of posts - 1208 to be exact. So this will  be a big file! Saturday,  I was downloading posts from early in 2015 and I ran across one in which I referred to a film titled The Quiet One. It is a film which I had arranged to show to a group of African-American families at the Robert Brooks Homes (a public housing project) in 1955 when I was a student at Chicago Theological Seminary and doing field work at the West Side Christian Parish on the near West side in Chicago. Back in 2015, I was sending my granddaughter, Katie, copies of letters that Shirley and I had written each other in the months between when we met in November, 1954 and were married in August 1955. She was in Pittsburg, Kansas and I was in Chicago.  We were getting to know each other by mail, writing virtually every day and sometimes more than once a day. I had shown this film the evening before I wrote Shirley and was telling her about it, and the reaction of people to it. And when I posted in 2015 about that letter written back in 1955, I noted that the film I had shown, The Quiet One, was actually available on YouTube, and I was marveling at that. And today, being reminded of that, I realized that I had never actually taken the time to look at the film. So yesterday, I did.

The Quiet One was produced in 1948. The narrative and dialog in the film were written by James Agee, author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men - a highly regarded author. It is a documentary/drama about a disturbed, African-American, 10-year-old boy named Donald who grew up in Harlem, became delinquent,  and ended up at the Wiltwick School for Boys in Esopus, NY. The film is basically his story. I don't know if Donald plays himself in the film or not - I think not. But his life in Harlem is portrayed, his dysfunctional family life, brushes with gang members, troubles in school, his growing inner anger, and then his ups and downs after he comes to the Wiltwick School, his friendship with a male counselor there which is tested, his tentative steps toward a mature self-understanding, an ability to control his emotions and enter into productive relationships with others. It is a good film, still relevant after 70 years!

The Wiltwyck School was founded by Episcopalians, but was funded from a number of sources.  It was located very near Hyde Park, NY, and Eleanor Roosevelt was one of its long-term patrons. She invited staff and students to the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park regularly for picnics. Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land was an alumnus of the school. So was Floyd Patterson, the boxer. The school moved to Yorktown, NY in 1966, ran increasing deficits as NYC cut back financial support, and finally was forced to close in the 1970s. From what I have read online, it was ahead of its time. It is a very interesting story.

I had chosen to show this film back in 1955 because I had organized a group of parents in the Robert Brooks Homes around the need of some kind of program for young people there. Their children and the children of their neighbors. Delinquency was a problem. So we saw the film and had a discussion. I had reported to Shirley that I was anxious about how the evening would go - I was 22 years old and totally inexperienced doing this kind of work, especially with black people, and was in way over my head. But I felt the evening had gone well. So that was something.

Eleanor Roosevelt hosting a group of staff and students from the Wiltwyck School in 1948

Last evening the family here (and Harry) all watched another Hitchcock movie, Vertigo, with James Stewart and Kim Novak. I thought it was a pretty creepy film. Max bailed out early and I was glad he did. Some rank Vertigo as one of the great films of all time. I don't understand that.

It is very cold here tonight - in the 30s. It snowed last night and during the day today it was sleeting! Both Paul and Harry are dealing with colds. Hope I don't get one!