Jean Ritchie, the mother of folk.
Jean Ruth Ritchie (December 8,
1922 – June 1, 2015) the "Mother of Folk" was a folk singer,
songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player.
As a young woman she learned
hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way (orally, from her family and
community), many of which were Appalachian variants of centuries old British
and Irish songs, including dozens of Child Ballads.
She is responsible for the
revival of the Appalachian dulcimer, the traditional instrument of her
community, which she popularized by playing the instrument on her albums and
writing tutorial books.
She inspired a wide array of musicians,
including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Shirley Collins, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris
and Judy Collins.
Have you seen the film, Marty?
If you haven’t seen Marty, a 1955
romantic drama, you really should. The
screenplay was written by the wonderful Paddy Chayefsky, as an expansion of his
1953 teleplay of the same name with Rod Steiger in the title role.
The film stars Ernest Borgnine
and Betsy Blair. The basic plot is about Marty Piletti, an Italian-American
butcher who lives in The Bronx with his mother.
Unmarried at 34, the good-natured
but socially awkward Marty faces constant badgering from family and friends to
settle down, as they point out that all his brothers and sisters are already
married, most of them with children.
Not averse to marriage but
disheartened by his lack of prospects, Marty has reluctantly resigned himself
to bachelorhood.
After being harassed by his
mother into going to the Stardust Ballroom one Saturday night, Marty connects
with Clara, a plain science teacher at Benjamin Franklin High School, who is quietly
weeping on the roof after being callously abandoned at the ballroom by her
blind date. They spend the evening together dancing, walking the busy streets,
and talking in a diner. Marty eagerly spills out his life story and ambitions,
and they encourage each other. He brings Clara to his house and they awkwardly
express their mutual attraction, shortly before his mother returns. Marty takes
her home by bus, promising to call her at 2:30 the next afternoon, after Mass.
Overjoyed on his way back home, he punches the bus stop sign and weaves between
the cars, looking for a cab instead.
That night, back in the same
lonely rut, Marty realizes that he is giving up a woman whom he not only likes,
but who makes him happy. Over the objections of his friends, he dashes to a
phone booth to call Clara, who is disconsolately watching television with her
parents. When his friend asks what he's doing, Marty bursts out saying: You
don't like her, my mother don't like her, she's a dog and I'm a fat, ugly man!
Well, all I know is I had a good time last night! I'm gonna have a good time
tonight! If we have enough good times together, I'm gonna get down on my knees
and I'm gonna beg that girl to marry me! If we make a party on New Year's, I
got a date for that party. You don't like her? That's too bad!
Marty closes the phone booth's
door when Clara answers the phone. In the last line of the film, he tentatively
says "Hello...Hello, Clara?"
The film won Academy Awards for Best
Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay, as well as (British) Best Foreign Actor, Best Foreign
Actress, Palme d'Or at the Cannes Fil Festival, Directors Guild of America
Awards Outstanding Directorial
Achievement in Motion Pictures, Golden Globe Awards-Best Actor in a Motion
Picture – Drama and the Writers Guild of America Awards Best Written American Drama. In 1994, Marty was deemed
"culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and selected
for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.