Library of Congress's Blog, page 151

The Big Lebowski Abides

My condition is in fantastic condition today – I’m pleased that “The Big Lebowski” made this year’s list of 25 films selected for placement on the Library of Congress National Film Registry. These movies are judged to have special cultural, historic or aesthetic value and to be worthy of preservation for posterity.

The Dude’s Busby Berkeley bowling dream

Other noteworthy films on this year’s list include “Saving Private Ryan,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Rio Bravo,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” the 1971 version of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” Efrain Gutierrez’s 1976 indy picture “Please Don’t Bury Me Alive!” deemed the first Chicano feature film; several reels of footage shot in 1913 that, had work on them been completed, would have been the first feature-length film starring African-American actors; and a silent film from 1919 starring Hollywood’s first Asian star, Japan native Sessue Hayakawa.

If you have not seen the Coen brothers cult classic “Lebowski” yet, let me put it this way: you’re either in for a whole lot of laughs or a heckuva shock. This 1998 movie, which suddenly took off due to internet-related word of mouth after its unimpressive showing in theaters, stars Jeff Bridges as the lesser Lebowski, aka “The Dude”, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi and Philip Seymour Hoffman, with wonderful walk-ons by John Turturro, Ben Gazzara and Sam Elliott. Add to that a soundtrack that manages to take in “Driftin’ Along With the Tumblin’ Tumbleweeds,” “What Condition My Condition Was In,” Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” and Creedence.

So, mix yourself another White Russian while I roll out the other highlights of a fine registry list for 2014:

Little Big Man, 1971. This film with Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway flashes back the long, fictitious life of Jack Crabb, a Wild West former scout who spent time among the Cheyenne as a child and moved at the edge of the Indian/cavalary conflicts of the mid-1800s . It was one of the first movies (the genre was referred to as “revisionist Western”) to take up the cause that made Dee Brown’s book “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” a bestseller after it was published in 1970 – the fact that the history of the Native Americans had never been written from their perspective.
Saving Private Ryan, 1998. This WWII tale won Steven Spielberg an Academy Award, for its unvarnished depiction of the horror of war, with the Allied landing on Omaha Beach as the setting for the story of the effort to spare from death the last surviving son of a U.S. family that already had sacrificed all three of his brothers to the war effort.
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, 2000. One of the more touching stories out of WWII chronicled the extensive efforts made by humane adults to get Jewish children out of the occupied nations of Eastern Europe and into safe havens such as England, to save them from being sent to concentration camps. This Academy-Award-winning film chronicles the work; its producer was the daughter of one of the children saved.
House of Wax, 1953. This film is said to have revived Vincent Price’s flagging career. He played a sculptor of wax figures who is badly burned in a fire started by his colleague, who torches the wax museum for the insurance money. The sculptor, masked to hide his hideous burns, begins killing people and dipping their bodies in molten wax to make new figures for his wax museum. This film was an early and successful 3-D flick.
Rosemary’s Baby, 1968. Roman Polanski took Ira Levin’s eerie novel and turned it into a classic of psychological horror. The young and eventually pregnant wife Rosemary becomes convinced her overly solicitous neighbors are actually members of a devil-worshiping coven of witches, in cahoots with her husband to take her child away from her to be sacrificed.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). A film by John Hughes, a director who didn’t forget what it was like to be a teen when he reached adulthood, documents the nervy exploits of the title character (Matthew Broderick), a hooky-playing high-school kid. One highlight, of course, is his teacher (played by former TV game show host and occasional political columnist Ben Stein) calling roll, finding Bueller gone, and ineffectually intoning Bueller’s name, over and over.

Also on the registry list you’ll find:

Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)

Down Argentine Way (1940)

The Dragon Painter (1919)

Felicia (1965)

The Gang’s All Here (1943)

Luxo Jr. (1986)

Moon Breath Beat (1980)

The Power and the Glory (1933)

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

Shoes (1916)

State Fair (1933)

13 Lakes (2004)

Unmasked (1917)

V-E Day + 1 (1945)

The Way of Peace (1947)

You can, and should, nominate films for next year’s National Film Registry: a list of films that are yet-undesignated is here.

Enjoy the movies – and please, don’t roll on Shabbos.

 

 

Highlighting the Holidays: Window Dressing

“Music” window at Bergdorf Goodman. Photo by Erin Allen.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I spent several days in New York City. The holiday season was in full swing, with several holiday markets around town, lights and decorations adorning street posts and buildings and Rockefeller Center nearly completely decked out – the Christmas tree was up but not yet decorated.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was taking in the window displays of the fine department stores, one of the city’s best traditions. For decades, stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s and Lord & Taylor have delighted and amazed passers-by with their whimsical, festive and often over-the-top displays of artistry.

My favorites were the windows at Bergdorf Goodman, Saks and Lord & Taylor. Bergdorf’s windows paid homage to the arts, with mannequins festooned in haute couture surrounded by objects of the specific craft: the “music” window featured a barrage of brass instruments whose shine left spots in your eyes if you stared too long, and the “literature” window showed a collection of portraits of notable writers all done in a red hue.

Saks took a modern look at favorite fairy tales, all done in Art Deco style with Manhattan as a backdrop. Cinderella heads to Saks to buy a pair of designer glass slippers. Rumpelstiltskin spins straw into gold at the City Hall subway station. Little Red Riding Hood encounters the Big Bad Wolf at The Plaza.

Lord & Taylor’s windows were a bit more whimsical, with an enchanted mansion full of mischievous mice, fairies in jars and animated family pet portraits.

According to New York University and Macy’s, R.H. Macy was one of the first to develop the holiday window display. In 1874 its designers created an animated scene of mechanical wind-up toys and dolls.

Christmas toys. Between 1908 and 1917. Prints and Photographs Division.

While many of the retailers have visual presentation staff who develop and direct the visual displays – a process often beginning the moment that year’s windows are dismantled – well-known individuals have been known to be window dressers. This year, director Baz Luhrmann (of “Moulin’ Rouge” fame) developed the windows for Barneys. Other notables have included Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali and Maurice Sendak, according to the New York Times. L. Frank Baum was also a pioneer in the field of commercial window displays.

During the five years preceding the publication of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” Baum earned his living by editing The Show Window, a journal devoted to the art of shop window display. He was also founder and officer of the National Association of Window Trimmers of America and published the first book dedicated to the subject in 1900, “The Art of Decorating Dry Goods Windows and Interiors,” which came out the same year as “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

L. Frank Baum. F.S. & M.V. Fox, Chicago, Ill. 1908. Prints and Photographs Division.

The Library’s online exhibition, “The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale” tells the story of Baum’s career as a children’s book author and the development of his Oz books.

The Library’s Prints and Photographs Online Catalog has many historical photos of department stores, including images of R.H. Macy and Company during the holidays. This one captures children lined up to meet with Santa. In addition to Macy’s leading the charge in decorative window displays, the store was also the first to introduce an in-store Santa Claus and has been doing so since 1862.

And, if you want to know what it was like to work at Macy’s during the 1930s, you can read Irving Fajans’ account as part of the American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940 collection.

More historical treasures from the Library of Congress can be found here. Happy Holidays!

Inquiring Minds: World War II, Through Patton’s Lens

(The following is a story written by Mark Hartsell, editor of the Library of Congress staff newsletter, The Gazette.)

George S. Patton. Prints and Photographs Division.

Imagine, military historian Kevin Hymel writes, if George Washington or Ulysses S. Grant had carried a camera and photographed war as he experienced it. How important would those images be as documents of history?

Gen. George S. Patton, the brilliant but often-troublesome U.S. Army commander of World War II, did just that during his campaigns across North Africa and Europe from 1942 through 1945.

Patton, an amateur photographer who carried an Army-issued Leica camera, took hundreds of photos of the war he lived: ruined towns, dead soldiers, destroyed tanks, civilian refugees, ancient monuments, his palatial headquarters in Sicily (where, he said, all the maids gave him the fascist salute) and, sometimes, soldiers simultaneously taking pictures of Patton as he photographed them.

Those images today reside in the Library of Congress’s Manuscript Division. Patton died following a car accident in Germany just months after the war ended, and in 1964 his family donated his papers – and photo albums – to the Library.

GIs get stuck in the mud in France. George S. Patton Papers. Manuscript Division.

Hymel appeared at the Library on Nov. 18 to discuss the photos and his own book about them, “Patton’s Photographs: War as He Saw It.” The event was sponsored by the European Division.

The general, Hymel said, mailed the photos home to his wife, Beatrice, to build a historical record of his experiences.

“I’m going to send you photographs and letters so that some future historian can make a less-untrue history of me,” Patton told her.

Beatrice wrote captions and placed his photos into albums along with images of the general taken by others: Patton wading ashore during the Sicily invasion; meeting with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower; playing with his pet bull terrier, Willie; posing beside a tank in headgear of his own design – a gold football helmet bearing the stars of his rank.

“His photo albums are just like yours and mine,” Hymel said. “They’re photographs that we take and photographs that other people take that we like and put into our albums.”

U.S. Army engineers pose on a bridge they built over the Sauer River into Germany. George S. Patton Papers. Manuscript Division.

The albums also chronicle Patton’s time in limbo following two infamous incidents in the Sicily campaign – he slapped soldiers suffering battle fatigue, drawing the wrath of Eisenhower and Congress. Awaiting a new assignment, Patton restlessly toured forts in Malta, pyramids in Egypt and battlefields and cemeteries in Sicily.

“A year ago, I commanded an entire corps,” he wrote after visiting the 2nd Armored Division cemetery. “Today, I command barely my self-respect.”

Patton claimed one photo saved his life. The general stopped to photograph artillery in action and, seconds later, a shell landed in the path ahead – just where, Patton said, he would have been if he hadn’t stopped to use his camera.

Patton took the near-miss as a sign that God was saving him for greater achievements.

“It’s only a few days later,” Hymel said, “that he gets the call to come to England and command Third Army for the invasion of France and the eventual invasion of Germany.”

Curator’s Picks: Magna Carta’s Legal Legacy

(The following is an article in the November/December 2014 issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The issue can be read in its entirety here.)

Nathan Dorn, the Law Library’s curator of rare books, highlights five favorite pieces from the Library’s Magna Carta exhibition.

Statutes of England

“Intricate colored-pen work graces this 14th-century miniature manuscript containing the text of Magna Carta, the Charter of the Forest and the 13th-century statutes of England. This is truly one of the Law Library’s most-treasured items.”

 

 

 

 

Statuta Nova

“Magna Carta’s guarantees originally applied only to people from the top of the social hierarchy. ‘Statuta Nova,’ a medieval book of the statutes of England, contains a 1354 statute that extended those guarantees to ‘a man of any estate whatsoever.’ The first instance of the phrase ‘due process of law’ also appears in this statute.”

 

 

 

 

Sir Edward Coke on Magna Carta

“For more than a century, colonial America learned English law from Sir Edward Coke’s ‘Institutes of the Laws of England.’ Coke claimed in this work that Magna Carta secured inviolable liberties for individuals. This copy belonged to Thomas Jefferson.”

 

 

 

 

 

Magna Carta, the Touchstone

“John Dickinson, chair of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances for the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, rests an arm on Magna Carta in this engraving copied from the 1772 edition of ‘An Astronomical Diary.’ Coke’s ‘Institutes’ is placed prominently on his bookshelf above.”

 

 

 

 

Prints and Photographs Division.

Defying King John

“Heroic outlaw Robin Hood faces down King John in this lithograph advertising the 1895 play ‘Runnymede.’ Magna Carta makes an appearance in the play when an unhappy John finds that Chapter 39 prohibits him from murdering Robin Hood.”

 

 

All images from the Law Library of Congress, except where noted. 

Library in the News: November 2014 Edition

The Library of Congress featured prominently in November news with the opening of a special exhibition and the celebration of a special individual.

On Nov. 6, “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor” opened with much fanfare, featuring the 1215 Magna Carta, on loan from Lincoln Cathedral in England and one of only four surviving copies issued in 1215. The exhibition celebrates the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta and also marks the 75th anniversary of Lincoln Cathedral Magna Carta’s first visit to the Library of Congress. In 1939, the Library safeguarded the document during WWII.

“It may look like any other crinkly piece of paper under glass, but Magna Carta is to constitutional law what Louis Armstrong was to the trumpet,” wrote Geoff Edgers of The Washington Post.

The Washington Post Express also featured a story on Magna Carta and the Library’s exhibit.

On hand to open the exhibition was Britain’s Princess Anne. Covering the event was the Associated Press.

“Princess Anne said it is an important exhibition representing the shared values between the United States and the United Kingdom,” AP reported.

“We take so much for granted in terms of our freedoms and our expectations of freedoms and independence, and anniversaries such as this really are reminders of how far we have come in safeguarding our liberties,” she said. “Nearly 800 years ago, Magna Carta gave us our first concept of a society governed by the rule of law — a major step.

The UK newspaper The Telegraph also wrote about the opening.

Special to the Huffington Post, Sir Peter Westmacott, British ambassador to the United States, wrote a blog post on Magna Carta.

“Earlier today, I was honoured to re-enact the 1939 handover, along with the current Marquess of Lothian, whose predecessor the eleventh Marquess was British Ambassador at the time. More importantly, the speech on behalf of my country was delivered by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne–the Queen’s daughter and, in fact, a descendant of King John. Which just goes to show how far we’ve come in a mere 800 years.”

In addition to the exhibit, the Library is presenting a series of lectures and events. Prior to the opening, a discussion of Magna Carta featured Chief Justice Roberts and Lord Igor Judge, a former chief justice of England and Wales.

The Wall Street Journal covered the event.

“The British did not give it over lightly, and I think they did so in a very calculated way,” Chief Justice Roberts said. “They wanted to remind us that this is what they were fighting for, sending a very strong message that you should be, too.”

Later in the month, the Library feted singer-songwriter Billy Joel with an all-star tribute concert as he formally accepted the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

“I’m starting to suspect that I have some kind of terminal disease,” Joel told USA Today in an interview before the Library of Congress event. “They keep giving me all these awards, and I’m thinking, ‘Are you trying to tell me something I don’t know?’ I mean, I’m 65 — I’m supposed to be irrelevant. I keep trying to have a dignified exit, and getting pulled back in.”

“Billy Joel has more than a few powerful friends in Washington with a musical legacy powerful enough to draw cheers from both sides of the political aisle Wednesday,” wrote Brett Zongker of the Associated Press.

Frances Stead Sellers of The Washington Post wrote, “[Wowed them] is pretty much what Joel and the musical stars who came to honor him — Boyz II Men, Gavin DeGraw, Michael Feinstein, Leann Rimes, Twyla Tharp, among others — did Wednesday night. This crowd knew his stuff.”

Stories appeared in a variety of other news outlets across the U.S., from Washington to Utah to Louisiana to Michigan, and even in Europe and Canada.

The Warrior Poet (a.k.a. Fellow Traveler No. 1)

Former Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish greets Marquess of Lothian at WWII ceremony displaying Magna Carta at the Library

Many larger-than-life figures have served as the Librarian of Congress.  As the Library once again plays host to that seminal document affirming the rule of law, Magna Carta, today we shine a spotlight on the man who was Librarian of Congress when the great charter first visited the Library – Archibald MacLeish.

MacLeish, before his long life (1892-1982) ended, worked as a lawyer, a professor, and a founder of UNESCO in addition to his main profession as a poet and playwright.  He won two Pulitzer Prizes, a Bollingen Prize and a National Book Award for his poetry, in addition to a Pulitzer Prize for drama.

MacLeish, who came from a comfortable background in Illinois, wrote poetry in high school and during his undergraduate years at Yale.  He served as an artilleryman in World War I, then returned to the U.S. to study law at Harvard; after receiving his degree he worked as a lawyer for about three years.

Then he and his wife, Ada, decided to decamp for Paris, so he could devote his efforts to poetry and she could focus on singing.  There, they hung out with American expats including Ernest Hemingway, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound and other noted writers and poets. MacLeish became a focused anti-fascist as he watched developments around Europe during the late 1920s and 1930s.

From 1920 to 1938, MacLeish struck a deal with publishing magnate Henry Luce, agreeing to serve as editor of Fortune Magazine if MacLeish could carve out enough time to keep working on his poetry.  In 1932, he won his first Pulitzer in poetry.  He wrote more and more about the threat posed by fascism.

In 1939, with Franklin Delano Roosevelt in office, MacLeish was recommended for the post of Librarian of Congress by Felix Frankfurter, a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

FDR offered and MacLeish took the job – his predecessor had held it for nearly four decades - and presided over a reorganization of the Library. As war loomed, however, he led the institution toward a role as a “Fortress of Freedom,” emphasizing new roles for the Library including safeguarding such documents as Magna Carta (originally on loan from England to be exhibited at a world’s fair and at the Library, the British and the Library agreed to send it to Fort Knox for its own protection when the U.S. entered WWII, for the duration of the war); creating a reference agency for the support of the Office of Strategic Services, which later became the CIA; and supporting Congress and federal agencies in their needs for war-related information.

Also, appropriately, he presided over the creation of the Library’s Poet Laureate, Consultant in Poetry

Former Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish greets Marquess of Lothian at WWII ceremony displaying Magna Carta at the Library

position, which previously did not exist.  Although MacLeish is responsible for the laureateship being a short-term, revolving gig – he wasn’t a fan of the poet originally suggested by the donor who put up the money for the program – he kept it all on a professional basis, including naming one poet, Louise Bogan, who had criticized MacLeish’s poetry in earlier years.  When she pointedly asked him why he’d chosen her, he replied that she was the best person for the job.

He served as Librarian until 1944. In 1945, MacLeish went to the State Department as an assistant secretary of state for cultural affairs, then helped draft a constitution for UNESCO and served on its executive council.  From 1949 forward, he wrote poetry and plays and taught. He served in the mid-1950s as president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Here are two of his many poems: “Ars Poetica” and “An Eternity.’ He is also well-known for his play, “J.B.,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1959.

Cornell History Prof. Robert Vanderlan writes that MacLeish was controversial in the 1940s and 1950s – both with the left, which accused him of holding “unconscious” pro-fascist views and with sympathizers of the House Un-American Activities Committee.  Vanderlan writes that MacLeish was the first American to be dubbed a “fellow traveler” by HUAC’s chairman, Rep. J. Parnell Thomas.

MacLeish was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the National Medal for Literature in 1978.  He died, in Boston, in 1982.

My Job at the Library: David Mao

(The following is an article in the November/December 2014 issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The issue can be read in its entirety here.)

David Mao. Photo by Amanda Reynolds.

Law Librarian of Congress David Mao discusses his career path to the world’s largest law library.

What are your responsibilities as Law Librarian of Congress?

I see the position as having three very broad responsibilities. I am part law librarian to Congress, part steward for the law collections at the Library of Congress and part ambassador to the world’s legal and library communities. As Law Librarian, I manage the operation and policy administration of the world’s largest collection of legal materials and of the leading research center for foreign, comparative and international law.

Can you describe the career path that led you to this position at the Library?

During my second and third years of law school, I worked as a student aide in the library. I really enjoyed working in the library. When graduation neared, I consulted with two of the librarians about a possible career in law librarianship. I was advised that I would need to complete a library degree. Deciding to be fiscally prudent, I took a slight detour–for the next several years, I toiled for a large law firm, working on commercial litigation matters.

A chance encounter presented me with the opportunity to work in an academic law library again. I took the opportunity and thereafter applied to library school. A year later, I applied for and was given a position as legislative librarian in the D.C. office of an international law firm. I tracked and monitored current federal legislation, provided in-depth research on historical legislation, and also compiled and prepared legislative histories. I also continued my studies and received a library science degree. After almost eight years at the firm in various positions, including managing research and conflicts, I moved to the Library’s Congressional Research Service. In 2010, I joined the Law Library as Deputy Law Librarian, and then became Law Librarian in 2012.

Why did you want to work at the Law Library of Congress?

The opportunity to work with the world’s largest collection of legal materials is a primary reason. In addition, I am able to work with the Law Library of Congress team–a high-caliber group of people who are very respected in the community and around the world. As the Law Library is a part of the larger Library of Congress, I have the added pleasure and honor to work with colleagues who together are leading the library profession in the Age of Information. I am always in awe to be among the leaders in the areas of information, policy, preservation and research–right here at the Library of Congress.

What is the most interesting fact you’ve learned about the Law Library?

One interesting fact is that, pursuant to the Standing Rules of the Senate, “the Assistant Librarian in charge of the Law Library” has privilege of the Senate floor. Access to the Senate Chamber floor is a privilege not accorded to many non-members of Congress.

How have you used your fluency in Chinese in your profession?

I believe that it is important to be involved in professional associations. As an outgrowth of work with the American Association of Law Libraries, I joined with several law librarian colleagues to help found a non-profit organization to promote the accessibility of legal information and foster the education of legal information professionals in the United States and China. Working with the organization has allowed me to use my Chinese language skills as well as my academic background in international affairs, law and librarianship.

Trending: A White Christmas

(The following is an article in the November/December 2014 issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The issue can be read in its entirety here.)

As the holidays approach, the dream of a white Christmas is on many minds.

The cast of “White Christmas” poses on this 1954 movie poster. Paramount Pictures Corporation, Prints and Photographs Division.

A white Christmas is the stuff that dreams are made of, at least according to composer and lyricist Irving Berlin (1888-1989).

Berlin’s “White Christmas” was written for the movie musical “Holiday Inn,” starring  Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The first public performance of the song was by Crosby, on his NBC radio show “The Kraft Music Hall” on Christmas Day 1941. The song rapidly became a wartime tune for those fighting abroad and for those on the home front. By the time the film debuted in the summer of 1942, the song was on its way to becoming the best-selling single of all time. It garnered the Academy Award for Best Original Song of 1942.

The Irving Berlin Collection in the Library of Congress–750,000 items–documents all aspects of his life and career. The collection contains music scores, Berlin’s handwritten and typewritten lyric sheets, publicity and promotional materials, personal and professional correspondence, photographs, business papers, legal and financial records, scrapbooks filled with press clippings, awards and honors and artwork. Among these items is the lead sheet sketch of “White Christmas,” dated Jan. 8, 1940–though not in Berlin’s own hand since he didn’t write musical notation.

The popular song also became the inspiration for the 1954 movie musical, “White Christmas.” With a similar plot involving a country inn, “White Christmas” paired Crosby with Danny Kaye. Still images from the film came to the Library as part of the Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Collection.

The collection of more than 1,000 boxes of materials (sheet music, scripts, business papers, correspondence, photographs, recordings and videos) came to the Library in 1992. The Library’s 2013 exhibition “Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine: Two Kids from Brooklyn” featured items from the collection.

Score and cover for “White Christmas,” Irving Berlin Music Corporation, 1940. Music Division.

The original 1942 Bing Crosby recording of “White Christmas” was added to theNational Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in its inaugural year, 2002.

The opening verse, dropped from the original version, may prove that the song was written in California.

“The sun is shining, the grass is green,

The orange and palm trees sway.

There’s never been such a day

in Beverly Hills, L.A.

But it’s December the twenty-fourth,–

And I am longing to be up North–“

A Prize for the Piano Man

Billy Joel accepts the Gershwin Prize from Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Photo by John Harrington.

Last Wednesday, the Library of Congress celebrated the music and career of singer-songwriter Billy Joel, awarding him the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. A star-studded cast walked a packed house at the DAR Constitution Hall through Joel’s own songbook during a tribute concert. I myself had the honor and privilege to also take the stage as a sort of “opening act” for Joel while performing with the Library of Congress Chorale. It was a once in a lifetime experience to be able to honor such a music legend.

Twyla Tharp. Photo by Amanda Reynolds

The following is a recap of the concert, written by Mark Hartsell, editor of the Library of Congress newsletter, The Gazette.

The Library of Congress honored rock and roll’s piano man with its Gershwin Prize for Popular Song on Wednesday night, with a little help from his friends.

“This is kind of verklempt,” Billy Joel told the audience during a concert at DAR Constitution Hall that featured more than a half-dozen stars performing some of his most-loved tunes. “This is something that’s very, very important to me and very, very valuable. I’ll always treasure this.”

Members of the Twyla Tharp Dance company. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Joel composed and recorded 33 top-40 songs during his career, a string of hits that spanned three decades and inspired generations of fans: “Piano Man,” “Just the Way You Are,” “Movin’ Out,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “Big Shot,” “You May Be Right,” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “Allentown,” “Uptown Girl,” “An Innocent Man,” “The Longest Time,” “Keeping the Faith” and “A Matter of Trust,” among many others.

On Tuesday, Joel attended a luncheon at the Library, took a tour of the Main Reading Room, viewed a collection of Library treasures and stopped at the Gershwin display in the Jefferson Building, where he played a few tunes on Gershwin’s piano.

Tony Bennett. Photo by Amanda Reynolds.

On Wednesday, Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey, choreographer Twyla Tharp and singers Tony Bennett, Boyz II Men, Gavin DeGraw, Michael Feinstein, Josh Groban, Natalie Maines, John Mellencamp and LeAnn Rimes took the stage to celebrate Joel and his songs’ memorable melodies and characters.

Following a performance by the Twyla Tharp Dance company, Spacey greeted the audience and lauded the Library as a “beacon of American culture” and the “world’s largest repository of human knowledge and creativity.”

“That’s right: I said ‘repository,’” Spacey quipped, “not that other word some of you were thinking I said.”

Then, taking on his villainous “House of Cards” character, Spacey welcomed the guest of honor, seated above the stage between Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia M. Sotomayor.

Gavin DeGraw (left) and longtime Billy Joel bandmate Mark Rivera. Photo by Shawn Miller.

“I think even a man like Frank Underwood would be pretty excited about a night like tonight,” Spacey said in his slow Underwoodian drawl. “So, Billy, here’s to you. Let’s start the show.”

Via video, Joel received tributes from two of his great pop contemporaries, Barbra Streisand and James Taylor, and one fellow Gershwin Prize-winner: Paul McCartney.

“This is an award you very much deserve,” McCartney said. “This is from a great American composer of the past to a great American composer of the present. … I love your music.”

Boyz II Men delivered a finger-popping a cappella performance of “The Longest Time” that kicked off a string of some of Joel’s biggest and best-loved hits: “Lullabye” (Rimes), “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” (DeGraw), “She’s Got a Way” (Maines), “She’s Always a Woman” (Groban, accompanied by a string quartet and classical guitar) and “Allentown” (Mellencamp).

Natalie Maines. Photo by Amanda Reynolds.

John Mellencamp (right). Photo by Shawn Miller.

Kevin Spacey. Photo by Amanda Reynolds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Bet you all didn’t know Billy was a protest singer, but he was and is. So, we’re going to prove it right now,” Mellencamp said, launching into a raspy acoustic version of Joel’s song about the blue-collar blues of out-of-work Pennsylvania steelworkers.

By the time Joel released his first album in 1971, the next performer already had been singing professionally for more than two decades. At Constitution Hall, Bennett, dapper as ever at age 88 and in fine voice, earned a standing ovation with his take on Joel’s classic “New York State of Mind.”

LeAnn Rimes. Photo by Shawn Miller.

After Bennett exited, Billington, Sotomayor, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Gregg Harper and Candice Miller entered, escorting Joel to the stage to present him with the Gershwin Prize medal.

“For more than five decades, Billy Joel has inspired new generations of performers, musicians and singer-songwriters,” said Sotomayor, a New Yorker and noted Yankees fan. “Tonight, we recognize Long Island’s favorite son – even if he is a Mets fan – for creating an enduring musical and lyrical legacy for our nation as well as our world.”

Joel propped the medal on his piano, took a seat and performed a brief set (“Movin’ Out,” “Vienna,” “Miami 2017,” “You May be Right”) – prompting Spacey to return to point out a glaring omission.

“I took a poll backstage, and there is a general sense that you’ve left one song out. This song requires a particular instrument,” Spacey said, pulling out a harmonica.

Erin Allen sings a solo during a performance by the Library chorale. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Spacey and Joel duetted on the piano-and-harmonica intro to “Piano Man,” then led the whole cast – and, at times, the audience – through a show-ending sing-along of perhaps Joel’s best-known composition.

In video interview clips shown throughout the evening, Joel discussed his early life, his musical upbringing, the musicians who influenced him and the importance of the Gershwin Prize to him.

“I recognize great songwriting when I hear it. These people who have received the Gershwin award are the great authors of the American Songbook,” Joel said. “I would like to hope that my songs will have that kind of resonance. These songs resonate and will continue to resonate by these great songwriters. It’s a great group to be included in.”

Billy Joel (center) with Boyz II Men, Josh Groban, Gavin DeGraw and Tony Bennett. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The Gershwin Prize concert honoring Billy Joel is scheduled to be broadcast Jan. 2 on PBS.

Magna Carta: A Charter for the Ages

(The following is a feature story written by Nathan Dorn, curator of rare books in the Law Library of Congress, for the November/December 2014 issue of the LCM. The issue can be read in its entirety here.)

“The Excellent Priviledge of Liberty and Property: Being a Reprint and Facsimile of the First American Edition of Magna Charta,” 1687, Philadelphia, 1897. Law Library of Congress.

After 800 years, the granting of Magna Carta remains a milestone of human history. But why does a feudal charter issued by a medieval king in a distant country still mean so much to us today?

Magna Carta is one of the great symbols of individual liberty and the rule of law. Along with the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, Magna Carta is regarded as a charter of American liberty. Its reputation, however, sometimes conceals its complex history and actual significance.

Magna Carta was originally created as a peace treaty. King John of England in early 1215 faced rebellion in his kingdom from disenchanted barons threatening civil war. When the barons seized the tactical advantage, John had no choice but to accept their demands for reform. The two sides met at Runnymede, a meadow by the Thames River west of London, to discuss terms of agreement. After days of negotiations, on June 15, 1215, John placed his seal on a list of guarantees he promised to uphold in perpetuity.

The document that emerged from John’s conflict with the barons wasn’t an obvious candidate for the reputation it eventually earned. It contains few statements of high principle. Instead, it is a list of practical reforms tailored to the barons’ specific grievances. Many relate to customs and institutions that have not existed for centuries.

Magna Carta doesn’t guarantee individual liberties. Where it promises to safeguard “liberties,” the charter is referring to special immunities the wealthy and powerful could inherit or purchase from the king. The barons mainly hoped to obtain the king’s guarantee to protect their narrow private interests.

Fortunately, that isn’t all they sought. A principal grievance against John was that he disregarded custom-he governed the kingdom in a lawless and erratic way. This disregard was particularly felt in John’s administration of the courts of law. The barons’ charge wasn’t unfair, but there was more to the story. The Plantagenet kings–including John, but especially his father, Henry II– were intimately involved in the development of England’s legal system. Henry II expanded the quality and availability of courts throughout the country, promoting the development of standards for procedure. John carried on this project as well.

This effort had unexpected results for the kings. Both Henry II and John excelled at using the courts and their new instruments of governance to reward friends and punish enemies. But the expanding legal culture created new expectations among the baronage, which now counted on the customs and procedures of the courts to protect their interests.

These expectations, in turn, gave rise to demands for custom as a matter of right–a scenario that could no longer abide the kings’ freewheeling ruling style. This conflict came to a head during John’s reign.

The legacy of Magna Carta continued with the “Acts passed at a Congress of the United States of America,” New York, 1789. Law Library of Congress.

To be sure, John was unpopular for many reasons. To fight foreign wars, he taxed the wealthy at unprecedented levels–and then lost the wars for which he had risked alienating his barons. He was excommunicated by the Church, causing all of England to be placed under interdiction, as a result of an unnecessary argument with Pope Innocent III. John’s last defeat, at the Battle of Bouvines in July 1214, seems to have triggered the rebellion of 1215.

All these factors were important, but it was John’s perceived lawlessness the barons sought above all to address in Magna Carta.

Magna Carta represented, therefore, an argument in favor of rule of law. This can be seen concretely in provisions relating to the operation of the courts. For example, Magna Carta requires that the crown supply neutral witnesses against the accused, that judges be knowledgeable in the law and that fines be assessed according to the severity of the infraction. Justice, it famously guaranteed, should not be sold, delayed or denied.

The most important of Magna Carta’s guarantees has become virtual scripture for the rule of law. It reads: “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” That single sentence provided protection from prejudgment imprisonment, torture, execution and confiscation of property; it guaranteed a rudimentary form of jury trial and protection from arbitrary court proceedings.

Over time, Magna Carta’s association with the supremacy of law over king grew stronger. Magna Carta was reissued in abridged form many times by John’s successors and later by Parliament.

Beyond its specific guarantees, the charter’s confirmation came to represent a pledge that the king would uphold the rule of law. A series of medieval statutes expanded and amplified some of its core guarantees, so that they applied to all Englishmen and made any law or act of the sovereign that violated the charter’s terms null and void.

In the early 17th century, English jurists, especially Sir Edward Coke, took renewed interest in Magna Carta. Coke, who had been Queen Elizabeth I’s attorney general and King James I’s Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, claimed that Magna Carta placed legal restraints on the king’s prerogative, safeguarding individual liberties from infringement by the monarch. In particular, he interpreted Magna Carta as the legal basis of the writ of habeas corpus, that is, the privilege to petition for a judicial review of the reasons for one’s detention. He saw the charter’s requirement that one may only be imprisoned according to the “law of the land” as a kind of due process protection against being held without charges.

Many ideas that were common to the founders of the American republic–limited government, the consent of the governed, constitutionally guaranteed liberties and judicial review–all owed a debt to the tradition surrounding Magna Carta. Elements of Magna Carta were included in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, notably the Seventh Amendment right to a trial by jury, Fourth Amendment protections from unlawful search and seizure and the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Coke may have read into Magna Carta rights not present in the text, but his understanding of the text inspired American law and colonial institutions and ultimately played a major part in the political thought that led to American independence.

The Library of Congress exhibition, “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor,” is open through Jan. 19, 2015.