RichardHowe.com – Voices from Lowell & Beyond

A Special Day at the Royal Theater

A recent Lowell Sun article about the coming rehabilitation of the former Royal Theater building at 484 Merrimack Street recalled a passage from Legends of Little Canada, a memoir by Charlie Gargiulo about growing up in that neighborhood just before and as it succumbed to the Urban Renewal wrecking ball.

Here’s what Charlie wrote:

Finally, the day we all dreaded was one day away. It was Saturday, the day before Ronnie and his family would be forced to leave Little Canada. His parents let him spend his last day with us instead of packing up. We had more fun than any day I remembered. We spent the morning playing Roleevo and punch ball, and then me, Richie, Dave, Dicky, Henry, and Frenchie headed to the Royal Theatre, a real movie theatre that was somehow located inside a large four-story wooden tenement building. The Royal was on Merrimack Street, close to the new Harvey’s. It was still in the neighborhood, before Merrimack Street came to City Hall and downtown, just a few buildings down past the tiny Western Canal and Hanover Street.

     The cheapest of the four movie theatres in Lowell, the Royal was also the crappiest, which we liked. It usually showed the lowest of lousy low-budget films, the kind of movies which were so bad even the mothers of the film’s director and actors disowned them. But everything was super cheap, including the popcorn and Coke. The torn seats were duct-taped over the rips, the floors had sticky crap that made you feel like you were stepping on flypaper. Most of the lights were burned out. The inside, smaller than the Keith or Strand, had a balcony. The place smelled like Captain Jack, without the alcohol. Nothing made it cooler than its mascots. The Royal was a actual rat hole. With live rats. One of our favorite thrills was spotting a giant rat scurrying under the seats. Every time one did the whole place erupted in laughter. It didn’t matter what movie was on because the real show was the stuff you could get away with in that dump. Food fights were popular, but it was a little rougher than the Keith theater, which kept most girls away. Plunking girls on the back of their heads with candy got replaced by dumping drinks on younger kids’ heads. The thing that made the Royal special was the popcorn in thin flat cardboard boxes that you folded into a rectangular box for the popcorn. After eating the popcorn, the box became a weapon. Unfolded and flat with sharp edges, the box flew through the air. You could throw sidearm fastballs and even make them curve or dip. Every weekend matinee with kids ruling the seats was spent throwing and ducking deadly popcorn-boxes.

     On this last day with Ronnie and the gang, it turned out to be the greatest moment in Royal Movie Theatre history. It probably ranks as one of the top ten moments in my life.  The theatre was really crowded that day and stuff was flying. For whatever reason, kids were really getting under each other’s skin, and it felt like a serious brawl might break out. Then, almost as if we were actually in a movie ourselves, I whipped my popcorn box with all my might from the balcony towards the movie screen and the box not only hit the screen, it hit it just right, and literally cut through it and stabbed the close-up character of a man right in his big movie eyeball. The box stayed stabbed in his eye because the film camera never moved off the same close up of the guy. It took a couple of seconds to register, because when it happened there was silence, and then the whole place went hysterical. Kids who was ready to kill each other a few seconds ago were doing belly laughs, looking at each other smiling, slapping each other on the back, shaking hands, and for that one great moment Irish, Greek and French-Canadian mortal enemies turned into comrades in arms. The rest of the day was filled with happiness and brotherhood and we left the Royal nodding in respect towards each other and flipping thumbs-up signs. And the best part was Ronnie got to be there with us when it happened.

     When we got out it was dark already. Me, Richie, Dicky, and Ronnie walked all the other kids home and then we went over to Richie’s house to hang out until about eight. I found out that even Richie’s dumb sisters had a spark of decency in them because they held back being jerks for a night, out of respect for the fact that Ronnie was leaving the next day. Believe it or not, they looked the tiniest bit sad that he was going. Even Richie’s dad, the Collector, came by to wish him well, which was something because Richie’s dad hardly said a word to any of us.

     We talked about staying in touch and writing letters, but we all knew that was not going to happen. Guys like us just don’t write letters, no matter how much we want to stay in touch, and, like me, half the other kids didn’t have phones. At eight, we said bye to Richie, and then Ronnie and I walked Dicky back home and headed back together to Ronnie’s place on Cheever Street. We shook hands, and I told him how much I’d miss him.

     Then he surprised me and said, “I never told you this, but you are my best friend. I love all the guys in the gang, but I don’t know, I just know for some reason I’m going to miss you the most.”

     Then as soon as it started to feel a little awkward because I didn’t know what to say, Ronnie got cheerful again and said, “So, we’ll be leaving at about nine tomorrow morning. Maybe we can get a chance to say goodbye then if you want to drop by.” I said I’d definitely be there and then I took off back home just in time to see my mom head off to work.

The next morning, everybody in the gang including the hopscotch girls showed up at Ronnie’s. They must have all gone to the early Mass to be there at nine. Everyone took a turn saying goodbye, and then we watched a moving truck leave followed by a car with Ronnie and his parents in it. Wouldn’t you know it, it was the same damn model of 1960 Black Pontiac Bonneville I saw my dad drive away in when he left last March.

****

The Sun article, “The Acre’s former Royal Theater reborn,” reported that Lowell’s Community Preservation Committee recommended that $200,000 in CPA funds be allocated to this project, which will transform the four-story former rooming house that was in front of the theater (the theater part was demolished long ago) into 17 units of market-rate housing plus a retail space on the ground floor which is expected to be filled by Sophia’s Greek Pantry which is now a block away on Market Street.

Legends of Little Canada: Aunt Rose, Harvey’s Bookland and My Captain Jack is a widely acclaimed coming of age story that captures the sounds, sights and feel of Lowell’s Little Canada neighborhood which was demolished in the early 1960s in an Urban Renewal project. The book is available locally at lala books and online from Loom Press.

New Book Gets to the Soul & Heart of Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

“His songs will last as long as other people can see themselves in his songs.”–June Skinner Sawyers

A few of the regular contributors to this blog kid each other and the readers about “There’s always a Lowell connection” to subjects and persons that come through the digital window open to the public here. A new book that offers a three-layered lens with which to view the artistic work of Bruce Springsteen has one of those Lowell connections. I’ll play out that local link at the end.

“We Take Care of Our Own” by June Skinner Sawyers is her fifth book about aspects of Springsteen. In this one she examines “Faith, Class, and Politics in the Art of Bruce Springsteen,” a kind of capsule biography in fewer than 150 pages. The book is concise and dense at the same time and includes footnotes and an extensive bibliography. Published by Rutgers University Press in New Jersey, it’s not surprising that a university publisher brought out the book. The author cites popular culture commentators and high-minded thinkers in a smart, wide-ranging portrait of one of the important public figures of the crossover decades of late 20th c. and early 21st c. American life. (And he’s got a world audience also.) The chapters are short, each introduced by a photograph loaded with meaning (not fan pics of the singer).

Spirituality (a complex Catholic experience), economic status (from his hometown to every town), and citizenship (an evolving civic engagement aimed at social justice), are explored by the author whose text brims with references to Andrew M. Greeley, David Brooks, Elvis Costello, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Barbara Ehrenreich, Paul Krugman, Kurt Loder, Kathleen Norris, Joyce Carol Oates, Barack Obama, Thomas Piketty, Robert D. Putnam, Patti Smith, J. D. Vance, and many more. Skinner Sawyers places The Boss in a line of American greats that includes Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck.

If you know a lot about Springsteen, like Pat Cook of Middlesex Community College who has witnessed umpteen concerts by the E Street Band and its leader, or have only a passing acquaintance with the music superstar, I recommend reading this account of the Gospel of Bruce, which is one way to think about the book. The faith and politics are entwined with an acute consciousness of economic class, the distribution of civic power, and a larger search for meaning at the bottom or top of anyone’s mind. Skinner Sawyers doesn’t claim that Springsteen has an answer to settle the question of how we should live, but through his example she makes a case for continued searching and finding a way to live with partial answers if that’s the best available to us.

What’s the Lowell connection here? Well, The Boss did perform at Lowell Memorial Auditorium in 1996, November 14. But for this book, we have UMass Lowell Professor of English and best-selling author Andre Dubus III providing the Afterword. June Skinner Sawyers invited him to add his thoughts, knowing that he had quoted from “Born to Run” in the front of what she calls his “glorious memoir ‘Townie.'” Acknowledging the impact of Springsteen’s words and music on him as a young man, ten years younger than Bruce, Dubus writes:

“And perhaps what draws me and millions of others to Springsteen’s work is that he has never tried to deny that this often blinding fog [of what it means to be human] exists, that so much of our lives are lived in mystery marked by suffering but also buoyed with daily moments of loving illumination.”

The award-winning author of “House of Sand and Fog” and recent books “Such Kindness” (a novel) and “Ghost Dogs” (essays) winds up his brief commentary with a simple notion: “Why not look out for each other? Why not take care of our own?”

And a final point from this reviewer: Even if some people might hear an echo of a lately familiar term, this stance of Springsteen’s, this value set shaped over his lifetime, is not the same as “America First.” The book makes this crystal clear.

Potions and Powders (1924)

Potions and Powders – (PIP # 58)

By Louise Peloquin

              Ailments of all sorts have always made people try remedies of all sorts.

L’Etoile’s “medicinal briefs” not only informed the readership about popular remedies but also brought in a bit of advertising revenue.

Below is a sampling. How would today’s FDA label these potions and powders? (1) 

*****

L’Etoile – December 8, 1924

QUICKLY STOPS COLDS

You can rely on Hill’s Cascara Bromide Quinine to cure a cold in 24 hours or the flu in three days.

                It is the fastest remedy for a rapid cure. Millions of people know about it.

                Ask for the original red box with Mr. Hill’s image and signature. Sold in all pharmacies. Price 20 cents.

R. HILL CO.                                  DETROIT, MICH.

*****

L’Etoile – September 9, 1924 & October 22, 1924

TO BREAK  THAT STOMACH COLD, USE RED PEPPER     

              Relieve your oppressed and painful stomach. Stop the congestion. Relieve that bad cold instantly.

              “Red Pepper Rub” is the cold remedy which brings the fastest relief. It cannot be harmful and it seems to stop the misery and chase away congestion and pain.

               Red pepper gives concentrated, fast and penetrating heat like nothing else. And when the heat penetrates, congestion, painful muscles and stiff joints are relieved immediately.

               The moment you apply “Red Pepper Rub” you will feel soothing heat. In three minutes, the congested area is heated through and through. When you suffer from colds, rheumatism, back aches, stiff neck or painful muscles, get a jar of Rowles Red Pepper Rub at the pharmacy. Always ask for ‘Rowles.’

*****

THE HEAT OF RED PEPPER STOPS PAIN UNDER THE SKIN 

              Rheumatism, lumbago, neuralgia, backache, stiff neck, sore muscles, sprains, and stiff joints – when you suffer to the point that you can hardly move, just try Red Pepper Rub.

                Nothing gives such concentrated and penetrating heat as red pepper and when the heat penetrates the painful congested areas, you get immediate relief.

                As soon as you apply Red Pepper Rub, you feel its stimulating heat. In three minutes, the painful area is entirely heated and the pain disappears.

               Rowles Red Pepper Rub, made of red peppers, is low-cost and can be found at any pharmacy. Buy a jar right now. Be sure to buy the real remedy with the name “Rowles” on every jar.

*****

L’Etoile – September 9, 1924

Head Congestion or cold?

              If you have a stuffy nose, sore throat, congestion or a cold, rub a bit of pure antiseptic, germicidal cream in your nostrils. It penetrates through all air passages, softening swollen, inflamed membranes. You will obtain instant relief.

                How good one feels to have clear nostrils. No more sniffling, dryness or effort to breathe. Purchase a little bottle of Ely’s Cream Balm at any pharmacy. Colds and congestion cease as if by magic. Do not stay stuffy. 

*****

L’Etoile – October 27, 1924

IF YOU HAVE RHEUMATISM, TAKE SALTS

              Do not remain on cold ground, avoid drafts, keep your feet dry, do not eat sweets for several days, drink a lot of water and especially, take a spoonful of Jad Salts from time to time in order to diminish toxic urinary acids.

                Rheumatism is caused by acids which begin in the intestines and enter into the blood. Kidneys remove this acid and eliminate it in urine. Skin pores also remove impurities from the blood. During cold, damp or rainy weather, pores are closed and oblige the kidneys to work harder. They become weak, lazy and fail to remove the poison which accumulates in the system. Finally, it stays in the joints causing stiffness, harm and the pain called rheumatism.

                At the onset of rheumatism pain, purchase Jad Salts at the pharmacy. Put a tablespoon in a glass of water and drink before breakfast for a week. This helps get rid of acids and waste and stimulates the kidneys to eliminate poisons  from the blood.

                Jad Salts are not costly and are made of grape acid and lemon juice mixed with lithia. Thousands of people have experienced relief.

*****

IF YOU HAVE BACK ACHE, TAKE SALTS

              No man or woman can make a mistake by cleaning out the kidneys from time to time, says a famous authority. Too much rich food creates acids which block the kidneys making them lazy and causing them to only partially filter the waste and poisons from the blood. Therefore, one falls ill – rheumatism, headaches, liver troubles, nervousness, dizziness, insomnia and bladder disorders. This is often due to lazy kidneys.

                As soon as you feel dull pain in the kidneys or have a backache; if your urine is cloudy and full of waste, or causes a burning sensation when passing, begin drinking a lot of cool water. Also, purchase Jad Salts at the pharmacy and take a tablespoon in a glass of water before breakfast for several days. Then your kidneys will work well,

               These famous salts are made of grape juice and lemon combined with lithia and have been used for years to help cleanse blocked kidneys, stimulate them and neutralize acids in the system. Thus, bladder disorders are often relieved.

               Jad Salts are low cost and can do no harm. They make a desirable effervescent drink that everyone can take from time to time to help keep the kidneys clean and the blood pure, thus preventing dangerous kidney illnesses. In any case, have your kidneys examined at least twice a year by your physician. 

*****

L’Etoile – September 9, 1924

FOR RASHES, APPLY SULPHUR

              The very instant one applies Mint-Sulphur on burning scaly skin, healing begins, says a renown skin specialist. This sulphur preparation, made into a pleasant cream, provides such prompt relief, even for burning eczema, that nothing has surpassed it yet.

                By destroying germs, it soothes irritation, heals eczema immediately and treats ugly rashes, spots and roughness.

                You should not wait to find relief. You can get a jar of Rowles Mint-Sulphur in all pharmacies. (2)

****

1. Although it was not known by its present name until 1930, the FDA’s modern regulatory functions began with the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act, signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt prohibiting interstate commerce in adulterated and misbranded food and drugs. The FDA was created to protect public health and ensure the quality of food, medicine and cosmetics.
2. Translations by Louise Peloquin.

An Iranian novel that resonates politically by Marjorie Arons-Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali is a timely read, a coming-of-age story by the author of The Stationery Store, which also draws on her Iranian background.  Dedicated “to the brave women of Iran,” it is told in the first person, primarily by its chief protagonist, an Iranian girl named Elaheh or Ellie, from a well-off background whose mother’s vision for her life is to socialize with the “right” people and marry advantageously.  In 1950, at the age of seven,  Ellie meets a child from a family of very limited means, Homa, whose home and family are nonetheless welcoming and full of warmth.

Homa’s father’s Communist affiliation led to his becoming a political prisoner, incarcerated for most of the novel.  Homa remains spirited and adventurous. She aspires to go to college to study law and become a judge. Marriage of any sort is of little to no interest to her. Occasionally the writing is from her point of view. Their friendship stretches over decades against the backdrop of Iran’s volatile, often violent politics.

When Ellie’s father dies and leaves their finances strained, Ellie and her mother must move to a small apartment in a low-income neighborhood. Her mother retains her sense of dignity by clinging to her family history, including unspecified royal ancestors. Pressed for money and desperately insecure, she gets married again, to Ellie’s father’s brother, and they return to affluent surroundings, including an elite school for Ellie.  Homa shows up at the same school, apparently  being subsidized, and their friendship deepens. Ellie is swayed by her mother’s vision for her future, the goal being to marry well. Homa prefers to become a political activist, following her father’s path and becoming a Communist, organizing protests against Shah Pahlavi’s regime,  and joining actions supporting human rights.

The Shah had been maneuvered into position in 1953 by the U.S. and U.K. governments, which overthrew parliament member and Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. The Shah unsurprisingly tilted to the West and  loosened his tight grip on Iranian society, but he still used the SAVAK secret police to crack down on critics and political opponents.  Among them were the Islamic extremists, who eventually deposed the Shah, led by the exiled religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who returned to Iran in 1979, when his fundamentalist followers seized hostages at the American Embassy.

The treatment of women worsened, including restricting what they were allowed to wear, how they could socialize, what their demeanor in public could be, – virtually every aspect of their lives.  More important that her Community sympathy, Homa gets swept up in the larger fight for women’s rights and Iranian democracy, which has bubbled up intermittently in Iran. Increasingly, some men have supported the demonstrations, and sought to protect women who burned their hajibs to protest the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman brutally arrested and tortured for not wearing her hair covering precisely as the morality police dictate.

Ellie and Homa are together in college, but, over the years. their relationship becomes strained as the story twists and they take different paths. Yet their friendship endures in a profound and very touching manner.  Each in her own way becomes a shirzan, a lion woman in Persian language.

Marjan Kamali’s writing attempts to capture details of Iranian life, the colorful markets, their culture, their foods, their celebrations, their superstitions. But her use of language in this sweeping historical novel seems less sophisticated than in the more intimate The Stationery Store and sometimes feels written for the young adult market. She does excel in driving the narrative, and we are drawn into Homa’s and Ellie’s decades-long and compelling bonds.  The fight for women’s rights goes on, getting stronger and stronger, in the novel and in real life.

Readers of The Lion Women of Tehran may also appreciate the recent movie The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a marvelous Iranian movie that covers the same dangerous and paranoid period surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini we learn about in Kamali’s book.