Man from Whittier

Man from Whittier | Fyne Robert Fyne Kean University RJFyne@aol.com Man from Whittier Thomas Monsell. Nixon on Stage and Screen: The Thirty-Seventh Presidentas Depicted in Films, Television, Plays and Opera. McFarland, 1998. (247 pages; $42.50) As the only President forced to resign his office, Richard Milhouse Nixon, the legendary never-say-die politician—whose ever-optimistic, ski-nose, wide-smile, V-for-Victory arm stance remains indelible in the minds of the Watergate generationstill fuels controversy almost three decades after he boarded the White House helicopter for the final flight home. And while the song may be over, his memory will always linger on as new biographies pop up examining his childhood, hoping to figure out why things went wrong, and historical revisionists chip away at the Nixon psyche with their pet theories, trying to nail down the man from Whittier. For nonliterary analysis, there are always a few aspiring comedians on Saturday Night Live—their eyebrows arched, eyes squinting, jowls recessed, shoulders hunched—spoofing his "I am not a crook" speech. Bored by the whole thing, rather watch a movie? Oliver Stone can recommend a couple of titles. How about going to the theater or catching an opera ? A television production? There certainly is a long list to draw from and Thomas Monsell's new reference book, Nixon on Stage and Screen: The Thirty- Seventh President as Depictedin Films, Television, Plays and Opera is the best source around to locate any title, no matter how obscure, that portrayed this one time amateur actor and musician, whose fervent support for the arts years later as chiefexecutive, became one ofhis better known legacies. According to Monsell, it started in 1952 when NBC aired The Checkers Speech, a 30-minute disclosure of the vice-presidential candidate's finances and continued right up to 1997 when Joe Glazer crooned "The Ballad of Richard Nixon" on his new CD, Music ofAmerican Politics. Within this time frame dozens of titles, mostly uncomplimentary, delineated the former law and order advocate—the man who brought Elvis to the White House and gave him a special badge—as a person never sure ofhis political destiny. The big titles, for sure, were the Nixon-Kennedy Debates , Mulhouse: A White Comedy, Richard, Hearts and Minds, Shampoo, Born Again, All the President's Men, and Blind Ambition. Other motion pictures included Secret Honor, The Final Days, JFK, Forrest Gump, and Nixon. None of these films were complimentary toward the President or his Silent Majority followers. Lesser known photodramas that also contained negative themes included Tail GunnerJoe, Washington: Behind Closed Doors, Born Again, and Will: G. Gordon Liddy. As for theater, Monsell's impressive list highlighted some long forgotten productions such as I'm Glad You AskedMe That Question, An Evening with RichardNixon and ..., Watergate Classics, and Trial ofRichardNixon. Additional titles mentioned are a musical parody, Dick Deterred; a puppet play, EmperorNixonoffs New Clothes; a major opera, Nixon in China; and an art/mock opera, Photo-Op. Other Nixon-inspired works—all pejorative—included numerous documentaries, audio tapes, interviews, docu-dramas , variety shows, mockumentaries, and mini-series plus undergraduate satirical farces, dialogues and—with a nod to Elizabethan drama—Shakespearean spoofs of the two Richard plays. Sometimes, Monsell points out, there was guilt by association. Legitimate Shakespeare productions, such as Ian McKellan's Richard HI adaptation—a film about the Duke of Gloucester, not Richard Nixon—were lumped into the antiWatergate mode by media critics, who, listing the obvious comparisons, linked one man to the other. All in all, Thomas Monsell's book is a real gem. He has compiled dozens ofNixon-inspired titles—including some esoteric works which probably received less then their appointed fifteen minutes offame—that in one way or another, shed light on an enigmatic President, the man who could not shake his five-o'clock shadow. Since this edition is another listing in McFarland's wonderful reference series, every entry includes production credits, a plot summary, and an overview of critical reactions. As Monsell has noted, the attacks upon Nixon were more virulent than those upon any other twentieth century American President and they came from everywhere. The media seemed relentless with their White...