Norman Corwin. „Jazz and jive opera“ – hořkosladký příběh o skvělém Dorisi Millerovi. Hudba Langston Hughes. Hrají a zpívají Mary Lou Williams, The Golden Gate Quartet, Jeff Alexander, Laura Duncan, Ken Reynard, Jim Backus, Rosetta Linoir, Earl Himan.
Účinkují Canada Lee, Josh White a další.
Natočeno 1944. Premiéra 25. 4. 1944 (CBS) v cyklu Columbia Presents Corwin #8.
Pozn.: „Dorie Got A Medal“. Sustaining. A really GREAT jazz-and jive opera about a colored mess boy in the Navy who becomes a hero at Pearl Harbor. Based on a true story; „a boogie-woogie biographical ballad.“ The week previously, Leadbelly was announced as being on the program, but is not heard. (anotace)
Lit.: anonym: Dorrie Got a Medal. In web Tacoma History, 27. 4. 2020 (článek + nahrávka k poslechu) – Cit.: My post on USO #2, the tuneful downtown club for black soldiers during World War Two, focused on the visit of Dorie Miller and his remarkable, bittersweet story. The Tacoma connection to the brave sailor is locally fascinating but the larger importance of Dorie Miller’s heroics reached America in the newspapers, magazines and popular media as courage and selflessness contended with racial prejudice and politics. The master radio storyteller Norman Corwin used his April 25, 1944 broadcast of Columbia Presents Corwin to tell the Dorie Miller story in music and jazz. The legendary actor Canada Lee played Dorie along with the jazz and blues singer Josh White and a company of black artists. The program was called Dorie Got a Medal and here it is as broadcast that Tuesday night with the war in the Pacific still nearby, D-Day just over a month in the future and the U.S. military still segregated.
Lit.: „Air Program Honors Dorie“. Pittsburgh Courier. April 29, 1944. Retrieved February 9, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
Lit.: Bunch, Lonnie: A Page From Our American Story. In web Smithsonian Institution. 2009. Retrieved August 17, 2015 (článek). – Cit.: (…) “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date that will live in infamy – the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
With those historic words to Congress, Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the United States entered World War II.
Even today, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor is indelibly etched into the minds of many older Americans, a number of whom fought in that global conflict.
Sixty-eight years ago today, Doris “Dorie” Miller was stationed at Pearl Harbor on the battleship USS West Virginia. As an African American serving his nation in 1941, that meant serving in a segregated Navy. African Americans were rarely detailed beyond the mess – preparing and serving food, doing laundry or other menial tasks. Miller’s assignment was no exception, he was a Mess Attendant Third Class.
That morning, as the Japanese unleashed their attack, Dorie Miller would step into our American story by becoming one of the first American heroes of World War II.
When the alarms sounded, Miller rushed from the bowels of the USS West Virginia onto its deck. Amidst the chaos, Miller immediately began carrying wounded men to safety. When Miller was ordered to the bridge, he found Captain Mervyn S. Bennion mortally wounded, and the ship still under heavy attack.
Under intense enemy fire, Miller manned a machine gun and began firing on Japanese planes. His unselfish heroics were praised by his superiors when they petitioned the War Department to award Miller with one of the Navy’s highest honors, the Navy Cross, which was awarded on May 27, 1942 at Pearl Harbor.
On the mainland, Miller’s actions resonated with not only African Americans, but Americans of every race. Newspapers bannered his story and called on the Navy to bring Miller home for a war bond tour as the War Department had done with many white heroes. The public outcry led to Miller becoming the first African American serviceman sent on a WWII war bonds tour.
In 1942, he became one of the first African Americans to be featured on a Navy recruiting poster. That same year his story was dramatized on the CBS radio series, They Live Forever. (…)