Who do you think you are? is now in its seventh series and I look forward to each new exploration of a family history but also cannot resist feeling it would nice if I had been able to have the research support which enables the personalities to uncover their backgrounds. This was especially so this evening as Zoe Wanamaker was able to uncover all the questions she had about her ancestry.
In 1895, in the Ukraine, then part of Russia, and where anyone who was Jewish was required to live in the towns and cities of the South West and where they were restricted in the work which could be undertaken as well as how and where they lived. Most records from this time have not survived but in a drab municipal building in what became an important industrial and naval city of Nikoleav, situated at the confluence of two rivers as they enter the Black Sea, Zoe was able to be shown the birth record of her paternal grandfather, and what remains to day of the area of the town where those of the Jewish faith and life were required to live in cellar like one room dwellings with only half a window above ground.
It was not surprising therefore that when the USA opened up her borders for a new workforce to fuel its rapidly developing economy millions of Russian people and from the central European nations grasped the opportunity. In the instance of her great father, his wife, her grandfather and their other children made the journey by train across Europe to Antwerp where they took ship to Canada, where shipping records show they all spent time in a hospital before making the rest of the journey to the United States and to Chicago where another relative had earlier settled, saved and sending the family the travel tickets, and was presumably available to greet them when they arrived in the city with their clothing, a few other possessions, their hopes and dreams, speaking only Russian and Yiddish.
In one sense the family were lucky because on arrival in the USA everyone was required to have a medical and anyone with a serious condition was not allowed in and returned. Two weeks after arrival the mother was rushed to a local hospital where later a telegram was sent to announce that she had died from a heart attack. Zoe was able to visit the cemetery where Jewish people were buried, and where the administrative officer took her particulars as her great grandmother’s grave did not have a contemporary relative listed and where although in the charity section there was now a tall headstone at the base of which could be seen the word mother chiselled from the stone.
An elder sister of Zoe lived in another part of the USA and through another relative Zoe received a typed copy of the story of her Grandfather’s early life which he had written in his forties. From this she learnt the moving story of the death of his mother and the grief of his father so soon after arriving in the country. Then after gaining work at a local factory and in his early twenties, he had become engaged in a long and fruitless strike against a reduction in wages.
I break off because the picture of an emigrant society is similar to what is happening in the UK and other developed parts of Europe over the past decade and in India and China. Then the USA was wanting to develop its economy to be increase self sufficiency and reduced dependence on the more expensive imports from Britain, Europe and the rest of the world. With the abolition of slavery it was necessary to encourage the hard working and ambitious poor from elsewhere to come to the country where they would undertake production work for long hours and low pay. And because they could be replaced by others more desperate to get a start if wages and condition had to be reduced.
This has also become a necessary development for developed Europe today as production processes which do not require skilled labour can be out sourced in China, India and other developing nations, and where in India for example the average wage is about £350 a year, and where in the world there are estimated to be a billion others who survive on half this amount.
The Chicago strike lasted for several months. One striker was killed in a battle with the police while another, a young woman died of starvation, but in the end the workers returned because the union no longer recognised the action and stopped giving food and clothing relief. The effect of the strike was the development of the a new union, nationwide which became the Garment worker’s union, and Zoë’s paternal grandfather had become the equivalent of a shop steward and commenced to meet a wide range of people as he recorded in his notes. The programme did not disclose the rest of what was written in the notes, but it was sufficient to explain why her father Sam had become a Communist in his youth. It was also understandable that as an individualist he decided to leave but retained an active interest in a number of organisations concerned with civil rights.
Zoe was able to learn of this involvement for the first time because under the USA Freedom of information laws she was able to view the CIA file on her father and be given a copy for the family record. This does not include the names of informants and employees who are still living.
Prior to the Second World War her father, Sam Wanamaker had trained as an Actor at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and had helped build the stage of Peninsula Player’s Theatre in 1937. He travelled the USA establishing himself as an actor and when working on Broadway in 1940 he married a Canadian radio soap star Charlotte Holland and who also became a stage actor.
In 1943 he played the part of a Russian Soldier in the play Counter Attack at the National Theatre Washington and as a method actor he had engrossed himself in the life of the character, was attracted to the ideals of communism and joined the USA Party. He also attended Drake University before being drafted into the Army in 1953 leaving in 1946 moving to Hollywood in 1947 and leaving the Communist party at that time.
Once allies of the USA Russia now became the main enemy as they Cold War developed over the control of Berlin and Germany, and the continuing Community belief that only through a world communist led coalition could the communist system be effectively established and private capitalism ended.
This led to concern in the USA that with such a large emigrant population from Russia, the country was vulnerable to spying and to the provoking of unrest. This concern was reasonable given what had become known about the activities of some German and Japanese residents and what would have been known then about the tactics of the Communists and Trotskyites’ and such groups in particular, however the methods of the Senator McCarthy led Committee were crude and the consequences of being blacklisted or refusing to given evidence at he Committee meant the loss of livelihood and had social consequences.
Less than a decade later I had become a single issue revolutionary, but committed to non violence because of my fundamentalist Catholic background and because I had read Satyagraha and All Men are brothers The United Nations published Life and Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi (bought on 1st December 1959) I was not a subversive or Enterists, in that everything I did , I did openly, and was prepared to accept and take the consequences of my actions. I was also fortunate to have developed a friendship with someone who explained the nature of state capitalism in communist states and I had also had early direct experience of the position of the Socialist Labour League and their approach to weapons of mass destruction and to industry. In 1960 I been invited to man a bookstall at a London annual meeting/ conference of Socialist Labour League to which Pat Arrowsmith had been invited to address.
I left the stall unattended to enter the conference to which I had to complete a card giving my address and other details to listen to Pat and then had stayed on to listen to the then leader Gerry Healey. He was an established demagogy and spent the first part of his address explaining that while he agreed with Pat about the UK abolishing the possession and potential use of weapons of mass destruction as part of the worker‘s struggle against the capitalist bosses but he was not a unilateralist and considered it essential that those representing the working classes of the world retained the maximum range of weapons especially nuclear weapons in the war against private capitalism
The second part of his operation was to explain how the ordinary workers of the UK had to be led to understand the nature of private capitalism by undertaking strikes in key industries. It was only by being on strike for prolonged periods that the true nature of state supported private capitalism would be revealed by the use of the police and army in their defence, the use of scab labour and they and their families being forced to live on hand outs and charity. The art was to use and employed genuine grievances and the tactic was enterism, infiltration of key industries with the machine tool industry their next chief target. He reviewed their success in terms of placements and strikes over the past year. It was also evident from those groups marching together as a group on successive Aldermaston marches and enquiries made at the time just how many were genuine peace orientated organisations and how many were climbing on the bandwagon taking over leaderships and with other and sometimes more important agenda’s about which they were far from being open.
What interested me was Zoë’s reaction to the contents of the CIA file on her father. She appeared shocked that he had one, and that it included innocuous confirmation from a fellow female actor of his admission that he had been a member of the Communist Party, something which he admitted himself. She also appeared shocked that his membership and support for a number of civil rights organisation had been included, with notes on the reactions of the audience when he had spoken. Against I was struck by her apparent naivety and surprise that such organisations were used or fronts for those with different objectives and motives to those stated in public. At the same time there was the hint of being an apologist or being uncomfortable about his membership of the Community Party, being a socialist and a lefty. I am not being over critical because these days one is branding oneself by declaring that one has always been committed to the socialist ideas and principles recorded as those of Jesus of Nazareth and have consistently denounced the hypocrisy of a state Christianity which applauds and furthers private capitalism especially by the leadership of the Labour Party in the UK. For me it has always been a case of means being as important as the ends and not the other way round.
The reaction of Sam Wanamaker to being told he was about to be issued with a subpoena to appear before the Senate Un-American activities Committee was to effectively seek asylum in the UK, where he was filming Mr Denning drives North. He remained in England with his wife and three daughters, including Zoe working as an actor on stage and screen, as director and producer. In 1957 he was appointed Director of the New Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool and in 1959 he joined the Shakespeare company at Stratford upon Avon and in the 1960, and 1970 he produced or directed several works in London at Covent Garden including the 1974 Shakespeare birthday celebration. It was during this period that he established a relationship with the then widowed American actress Jan Stirling.
He continued his wide range of interests appearing films such as The Spiral Staircase 1974, Private Benjamin 1980 and Superman IV in 1987 and he directed a version of Aida with Luciano Pavarotti at the San Francisco Opera House.
However his legacy is not his acting, film work and directing but his decision to found the Shakespeare Globe Trust to rebuild the Globe Theatre on its original site having discovered and been surprised at the lack of interest other than for an old plaque at a disused brewery when he had first visited the site in 1949. He obtained the site and planning permission although this is reported to have been opposed by the local council. The sum required to create an exact replica was in excess of ten million dollars
As the programme last night revealed Sam had disclosed to his daughter that he had questioned his decision to make London his home rather than accept the what would have been a subpoena, possibly refusing to answer questions about his colleagues and be sent to prison as had ten of his colleagues beforehand. She conveyed the sense of regret he felt about what he came to regard as a failure to put principles in practice when the going gets tough. It is however one thing to act when only you have yourself to consider and another when you have a wife and a young family and you could be giving up the one activity which you not only love but have spent your whole life doing.
Although I personally found it a very difficult thing to do, when I commenced to protest and returned to prison for six months knowing there was an alternative which offered complete freedom except pursing what I had been doing, I did not have a career or knew what I wanted to do in terms of work, had failed at my second choice of work and had no dependents although I was aware that my activities were having an impact on my birth and care mothers and other family members. The situation was very different when at the end of my first term at Ruskin College, I had become aware of the wonderful opportunity that had been given through a local authority further education grant and had discovered that although attending a specialist adult education college located in the City of Oxford the University opened its doors to Ruskin students in that we were able to attend various university societies, lectures and the library, and that there was a special arrangement which enabled students selected by the college to go for interview for a place at an Oxford, and in some instances, a Cambridge, College to read for a degree, avoiding the first public examination and taking three years to complete what other students were expected to do in two. Faced with such options and opportunities I elected to accept the recognisance rather than risk withdrawing of the grant and or expulsion from the college. I never considered my actions as being wrong subsequently but I did in general regret some of the changes in position and approach to issues which developed later, even those I knew intellectually that this was the right thing to do.
I had an interesting conversation when taking the bus to Sunderland yesterday afternoon. I had walked with enthusiasm to the bus station as the sun was bright and although the wind of the previous day persisted it was warm enough for the time of year. I had just missed the 35 direct route which meant a wait of close to 15 minutes and when it failed to pass by on the other side of the road after waiting five minutes after the due arrival time and one of the other routes arrived at the next stop I hurriedly made my way to that. I was soon joined by a man who I subsequently learnt was rapidly approach ninety. He had opened the conversation by commenting on what I fine afternoon it was and I mentioned to having gone out the previous afternoon to look at how the £5 million had been spent on the park. He immediately contributed by speaking of his knowledge of the park from boyhood in the 1920’s and when I mentioned the cost of a bacon roll and coffee at the Ship and Royal to that at the new facility aimed at the coach party tourist and car visitor for the day, he revealed that at the age of 15, an orphan brought up by his grand parents he had been sent to work as a live in page boy at the Ship and Royal, then a hotel. When I was pre school child spending nights in the air raid shelter ion the garden, listening and occasionally seeing the rocket bombs, he was in the navy travelling the world, he was about to tell of his visit to South Africa when he arrived at his stop. Although he needed a stick, I hope I might live as long and keep my mind so clear. He also added on additional piece of information about the Lake and the wildlife. Apparently the birds would migrate annually with the onset of Winter and then the island with trees and shrubs had been added and the birds were able to use the island over the winter, whereas previously the availability of trees and shrubs had not held them because the island being an island was secure.
I need to visit a building society and the post office before making way to the bank to deposit the return of £17.50 from the headquarters of the Vehicle and driving licences at Bristol. I have written several times about my experience working for the Middlesex County Headquarters of the vehicle and Licences Department before the service became Regional and was only later centralised. In January I was sent a form head change of photo and which required a fee of £17.50 to be paid. I had completed the form, obtained a new photo and returned with the existing licence and the parts which can include more current information. It was then all returned back a new form for those who reach 70 years and involves making various statements about heath sight. I still returned the fee as I though my new photo reflected my age. However although the photo has been included on the new licence, they are no printed in black and white, the money was returned in the form of cheque draft. On arrival at the bank I was struck that only one of the eight to ten cashier points was open and in addition to this cashier there was only one other staff member at the reception enquiry table. It was still before 4 pm. Admittedly I cannot recall visiting the city centre branch of the bank so late in the afternoon before but I wondered if it a sign of the time. I was stuck by the number of shuttered shops on my back into Shields.
The bus had gone along the coast road for part its journey stopping close to the Whitburn compressive school and which is used by some pupils who live in Sunderland in preference to the Wearmouth comprehensive at Seaburn which is in Borough and closer to where they lived by about a mile. About a dozen pupils go on the bus at the stop, mostly teenage girls and what struck me was how big of body several of them were in terms of size around the hips. We are becoming a fat nation.
The final thought for the day was to put in a request to see what was available my MI5 file for the period 1960-1964.
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