Salt of the Earth, Part 5 (The Final Chapter)

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Salt of the Earth Theatrical Poster

Salt of the Earth Theatrical Poster

  Herbert Biberman and Paul Jarrico heard about a theater on Eighth Avenue that Biberman described as a “flea bag” but in their desperation they approached one of the owners of the building. Mr. George Brussel, Jr., an attorney offered the theater at an outlandish price but they accepted. Mr. Brussel asked to see a preview of Salt of the Earth to assure that the film was “American” He invited a distinguished group of New Yorkers including one of the leading Protestant clergy of New York City, Dean James E. Pike, a distinguished Rabbi, Edward Klein and members of a number of conservative organizations and their wives to the screening.

  All of them liked the film. Brussel had been deeply impressed. An agreement was made with Brussel and his partners who controlled the lease on the theater. As part of the contract they agreed to hire non-I.A.T.S.E. projectionists if the union refused to operate. On the day of the contract signing Brussel’s partners reneged on their promise. Brussel was outraged and offered the partners $5,000 to surrender the lease to him. They refused. Something or someone had scared them away.

  A week later a theater exhibitor called them and told them about a theater on Broadway that may be available. He also told them about a rival union of projectionists that had contracts with non-I.A.T.S.E. theaters. They looked into the rival unions theaters and found one that they liked, the Grande Theater on East 86th Street. They contacted the owner Phillip Steinberg and went to see him.

  They told Mr. Steinberg about the film and the problems they were having with the film industry, the government and the union. Steinberg told them a story about his dealings with I.A.T.S.E. He has a theater, the New Dyckman in the Bronx, “the finest theater in New York,” he said. When they first approached him about using their union projectionists in the theater, he told them, “I don’t need your union.” They asked him a second time and he turned them down. The next Saturday someone tossed stink bombs into the theater. No one attended the theater for three days after that. The union came back and asked him “nicely.” So, he took the union. 

  He offered them a deal if they would open in the New Dyckman. They protested that they could not have a world premiere at a theater on 207th Street plus it was an I.A.T.S.E. union theater. Steinberg then made an offer to allow the film to be shown at the Grande Theater and New Dyckman at the same time. Biberman accepted the offer. A contract was written and both parties were to meet in 48 hours to sign the final agreement.

Scene from Salt of the Earth: Miners before they strike.

Scene from Salt of the Earth: Miners before they strike.

  Steinberg contacted his R.K.O. film booker and told him that he was showing Salt of the Earth and would not need any films for awhile. The booker told him if he ran the film he would never get another R.K.O. film again and maybe no other films from anybody. Steinberg went to Biberman with his concerns. Biberman convinced him to sign the contract but had to “sweeten the pot” a bit. Steinberg started receiving calls from Hollywood film distributors threatening that he would not get another film for his theaters. Some of the New York press wrote a lurid account of the film’s background and making while announcing the contract and its premiere. An I.A.T.S.E. union official paid a visit to Steinberg which made him more nervous. He was about to back out of the contract when two things happened.

  Following a private screening of Salt, the wife of a New York film director went to Steinberg embraced him and called him a hero for having the courage to show the film. Other film goers praised the film and Steinberg. Biberman also agreed to pay Steinberg a $2,000 bonus.

  The world premiere of Salt of the Earth was held on March 14, 1954. The Grande Theater was located in the area of New York known as Yorkville. According to Biberman the area before World War II had been known for its reputation as a place of pro-Nazi elements. After the war many “Negro” and Puerto Rican families had moved into the area. The premiere was a success and the critics showed their appreciation for the film.

   The New York Herald wrote: “The movie craftsmanship is excellent. There is severe beauty in the location photography of a desperately poor community and enormous affection for these olive-skinned Americans…The work is capable throughout, and those who challenge the right of Salt of the Earth to be shown publicly are lending credence to its specious protest against a straw man of evil.”

  The New York Times: “In the light of this agitated history, it is somewhat surprising to find that Salt of the Earth is, in substance, simply a pro-labor film with a particularly sympathetic interest in the Mexican-Americans with whom it deals. True, it frankly implies that the mine operators have taken advantage of the Mexican-born or descended laborers, have forced a “speed-up” in their mining techniques and given them less respectable homes than provided the so-called Anglo: laborers.”

  The film was also able to be shown at the New Dyckman using I.A.T.S.E. projectionists. There was now some hope that the film would be successful. Biberman then took Salt to Detroit and Chicago. While he was in Detroit trying to book a theater, Salt of the Earth premiered at a new Drive-in Theater in Silver City, New Mexico. Over 5,000 people paid to see the film which had been scheduled for a four-day run but ran for six. The union members and the community came to see it. People came from as far away as Texas and Arizona. Even some of the vigilantes came to watch as reported by some of the union men.

  In Detroit, members of the American Legion told the theater operator that Biberman was in contact with, not to run the film or they would picket all his theaters and call for a boycott. Even after being shown the film at a private screening and praising it as pro-union and entertaining the spokesmen for the Legion said they would not allow it to be shown in Detroit. They cited Biberman’s refusal to cooperate with the “Un-American Activities Committee” and the Mine Mill Union being thrown out of the C.I.O. for alleged Communist ties. The theater owner backed out of the deal.

In Chicago, the theater owner that Biberman was negotiating with received a letter from Edward Clamage, Chairman of the Anti-Subversive Committee of the Department of Illinois American Legion. The letter more or less questioned the owner’s patriotism and was a veiled threat. It read in part: “Like other loyal citizens, we of the American Legion have known from the inception of the making of the motion picture, Salt of the Earth, that it was thoroughly, through and through, an endeavor on the part of Communistic elements to produce the greatest Communist propaganda picture ever developed in the United States.”

  “The Communistic background of the International Union of Mine Mill Smelters Workers, prominently known as such along with writers and producers, actors, and actresses all identified with the Communistic movement, have developed the picture with the sinister intent of lowering the prestige of the American way of life and in a most noted manner attempting to sell Totalitarianism.”

  It went this way in other parts of the country. Only 12 theaters in the entire United States had the courage to show Salt of the Earth. In Canada, it was limited to one theater in Toronto, as the theaters were controlled by the American movie chains. In Mexico City, a premiere was held. Biberman and Rosaura Revueltas attended. The Mexican moviegoers applauded dramatic moments during the movie and heartily laughed during humorous scenes. When it was over, no one rose to leave the theater. A spotlight picked out Rosaura in the audience followed by tremendous applause and shouts of joy and reverence. The audience began singing the Mexican national anthem. Rosaura was treated like the Hollywood stars of the past. Despite the adulation and great reviews of the film, Rosaura never made another movie and Salt of the Earth only played in that one third rate theater in Mexico City.

  Except for London, England, the film did better overseas. Despite rave reviews and a successful grand opening, no other theater “in the land of the Magna Carta” as Biberman put it, would book the film. Salt of the Earth was invited to a number of film festivals. In Czechoslovakia it won the grand prize at the International Film Festival at Karlovy. Rosaura Reveultas was named Best Actress. It was a hit in East Berlin. The film was leased for exhibition to Belgium, Holland, Israel and Australia. It was sold to Romania and Czechoslovakia.

  Salt of the Earth was awarded the International Grand Prize for Best Film of 1955 by the Académie du Cinéma de Paris (The Paris Academy of Film). Rosaura was named Best Foreign Actress. Michael Wilson and Biberman were also awarded Crystal Stars for their work. Biberman was unable to attend the presentation as he was denied a passport.    

  In the 1960s people re-discovered the film. It finally received a wider audience playing at union halls, college campuses, women’s centers, and film schools. In 1992 the Library of Congress selected it as one of one hundred films to be preserved in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”           

  Salt of the Earth was years ahead of its time. It was one of the first films to deal with Feminism and the Mexican American working class as well as being pro-union. It dared to show that discrimination existed in the United States in 1954 and people of color were willing to stand up and fight for their civil rights. During the paranoia of the McCarthy era this was unsettling to the right wing politicians. That members of the government were allowed to ruin thousands of lives, deny civil rights and silence free speech went against the ideals of a democratic America.

  Herbert Biberman, unable to get a job in Hollywood, became a real estate developer. He would direct one more film in 1969, Slaves, based on the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Michael Wilson was able to write scripts for Hollywood movies and sell them under a pseudonym through friends in the business. He posthumously received an Academy Award in 1984 for his work on the screenplay for Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Paul Jarrico moved to Europe where he spent 20 years co-writing movie scripts and scripts for European television. When he returned to the United States he worked on a committee to restore credits that had been denied writers that were black listed after the 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee.      

  In 1997 at an event organized by the four major Hollywood unions honoring the blacklisted of Hollywood, Paul Jarrico spoke his last words about the blacklisting. His words ring true today as the times have taken on a similar feel of the paranoia, hate and fear of the McCarthy era. Jarrico was killed in a car accident as he was returning home from a second event honoring the Hollywood blacklisted the following day. Some of the word he spoke that evening follow:

  “The guilds have come a long way since they failed to protect the Hollywood 10 and the Hollywood hundreds. What the [guild’s] presidents have affirmed tonight is the guiding principle of unionism: that an injury to one is an injury to all.

  “Patriotism defined as your willingness to betray others: Do it to show that you love your country; refuse to do it and you are in contempt of Congress, a Congress beneath contempt.

  “Patriotism—a contradictory word, for our history is contradictory. I think of it as a double helix: two strands of history intertwined. One strand is brutal slavery, the genocide visited upon Native Americans, the ugly waves of know-nothing bigotry that have greeted every wave of immigration, women subordinated, labor strikes broken by force of arms, lynchings, periodic repression of dissent.

  “Our brutal history defines patriotism as: ‘My country right or wrong.’ Our noble history defines it as: ‘My country: right the wrong.’

  “Right the wrong. It may take another 50 years, but we shall overcome. The good guys will win.”       

If you missed the first part of this story, read it online here.

You can read Part 2 online here.

Part 3 can be read online here.

Part 4 can be read online at: http://bit.ly/1Ttipyj.

View the full movie below.

John Hernandez (785 Posts)

John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.


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