SPECIAL: I Remember

April 10, 2018

After today there are only 20 more days to wrap (film talk) my 95^th year’s presence on this planet. So often I hear people say, “Life is going by so fast.” I haven’t believed that. As I look back I see the long long road I’ve traveled and the long time it has taken for the journey – just 5 years short of a century. (Why does it sound even longer when stated that way?) I’ve seen a lot and I remember!

I was only 6 years old in 1929 at the time of the stock market crash. I don’t remember that. But I remember the 1932 election. I was 9 years old. I couldn’t vote, but I remember (but I don’t remember why) I was for Herbert Hoover.

I remember the Depression of the 30’s. They were difficult (we moved from a three-bedroom house into a two-bedroom apartment), but I remember those years fondly. As I’ve written elsewhere on this website, my growing-up life was like THE WALTONS, but our speech was less melodious. I remember we were truly harangued in school to sound a hard “g” in words ending in “ing”.

Sunday, December 7, 1941! I was 18 years old. My parents and I were in the kitchen, Mom was washing, Dad and I were drying our lunch dishes. The radio on the counter was on and we heard the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I can still hear my Dad say, “Do you know what this means?” Sixteen months later, early April, 1943, we were standing in a parking lot in Des Moines, Iowa. I had spent the past 6 months at Coe College in Cedar Rapids where I had enlisted in the ROTC program. My group there had been called up, and I was to be shipped to Camp Roberts, California for basic training. I remember when we said our goodbyes, it was the first time I saw my Dad cry.

Fourteen months later, June, 1944, I was on a troop ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, heading for the war in Europe. I remember on June 6 we learned Allied troops had landed in France. My company, an Anti-aircraft Group Headquarters, was stationed in a chateau outside of Liege, Belgium. My job? I was Jeeped out to surrounding areas and in usually small tents with a 16-millimeter projector I ran Hollywood movies for troops in the field.

I don’t remember when the German buzz bombs started. They were a prelude to the German Battle of the Bulge that began in mid-December. They came nightly. The 8 or 10 of us sharing a large bedroom with double-decker bunks would hear them approaching, and we all would stop what ever we were doing (reading, playing cards, napping) and pay attention. If the roaring sound of the bomb grew louder until it seemed to be over us and then the sound started to decrease, we would relax and return to our activities. If that roaring sound cut off before it reached us, we would soon hear an explosion. I remember one night during the Battle of the Bulge, being on guard duty with Joe from Jersey. It was cold as we circled the grounds. Then we heard a buzz bomb approaching, and the sound cut off, followed by a whirring sound as the bomb headed down. As that noise grew louder Joe yelled, “Hit the ground.” We both did, and I remember hearing the sound of that descending bomb and feeling it was heading for the back of my neck. And then came a distant explosion — but not too distant. As Joe and I got up 3 or 4 of the officers came charging out of the chateau. “What was that? one of them said. I wish I could remember Joe’s very tart and funny answer.

The war ended in Europe in May. In August I was in a Forty-and-eight (a boxcar used to transport wartime troops — named because the cargo could be 40 soldiers and 8 horses) speeding across Europe headed for the war still raging in the Pacific. We learned of the two nuclear bombings in Japan that ended the battle in the Far East. The war to end all wars had finally come to a close. I returned to the states in February, 1946 – 34 months after that day on the parking lot in Des Moines, Iowa.

I returned to my education and led the life I’ve described on this website: RALPH’S CINEMA TREK at http://senensky.com/. What follows here was the backdrop to that life, the events that affected the changing world in which I would be spending the rest of my life. It didn’t take too long to realize the war to end all wars didn’t. 1950 saw the start of the Korean War. The battles may have eventually ceased, but did you know that today, 58 years later, there is only an ARMISTICE, there is NO TREATY ENDING THAT WAR? In 1954 there were the Army-McCarthy hearings. The lives of so many in the entertainment profession were affected, many of them people I would work with in my future.

The 1960’s saw Kennedy’s Camelot, the Cuban Missile Crisis, THREE ASSASSINATIONS, and the start of another war, this time in Vietnam. I lost a cousin in that war. The tumultuous 1970’s had the 1972 Watergate break-in, the end of the war in Vietnam in 1973, followed by the Watergate hearings and Nixon’s resignation in 1974. In the 1980’s during Ronald Reagan’s presidency we had the Iran-Contra affair, also known as Irangate (after Watergate every political scandal had “gate” attached). The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was during George H.W. Bush’s presidency which then included yet another war – the 1991 bombing and ground invasion to push back the troops of Saddam Hussein that had invaded Kuwait. That offensive lasted a mere 100 hours.

The year 2000 — a new century and the following year – 9/11 — the September 11^th four coordinated terrorist attacks against our country. Two hijacked airliners crashed into the Twin Towers of the New York World Trade Center; another airliner crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia; a fourth airliner heading for Washington, D.C. crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overcome the hijackers. Then the war in Afghanistan, which is still ongoing, and another war in Iraq! That one has concluded, but in its aftermath there are still wars in the Mid-East: Syria, Libya, Iran, Israel, and things are not especially serene here in our country. So as I stated, I’ve seen a lot, and I remember. And I have to say, I have never seen anything like what is happening here today. Chaotic government! Polarized society! Threat of nuclear war!

During my 26 years behind the camera I was always happiest when the material I was directing, beside being entertaining, had something important to convey. In 1966 I directed THE ASSASSIN, http://senensky.com/the-assassin/, an episode of THE FBI. Dean Jagger played Bishop John Atwood, a peace activist. At the beginning of the story he is returning to the United States carrying a peace proposal from leaders of a Red Bloc. His itinerary: a stop in San Francisco, then on to Chicago to deliver a speech and then to Washington, hopefully to present that proposal to Congress. The FBI has learned that the Bishop is targeted for political assassination and they know the identity of the assassin. Here is a scene from the film between Atwood (Dean Jagger) and FBI’s Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.).

I hope you paid attention to the last 5 speeches. I think they might be even more relevant today than they were 52 years ago.

The journey continues