Primary Black and White - Wisconsin 1960

Came across an interesting movie of yore last night. 

“Primary” was a 60s documentary about the 1960 Wisconsin Democratic Presidential primary. I’d see it long ago. It is a notable example of cinema verité style of the 1960s – directed by Robert Drew, his cohorts on the Time-Life tab on this included Ricky Leacock and D.A. Pennebraker, the guys who did “Don’t Look Back” with Dylan. I plays a little differently after the election we just endured. The town and the country divide coming up sonorous. 

The time encapsulation is in celluloid, dancing images in black and white and fluid. Two lane black highways of west Wisconsin in March when the ground gives up expectant breathful vespers of moisture. Humphrey the happy warrior from nearby Minnesota selling his bromides to farmers reluctant to show how they feel. Exclusively and expensively charming for the south Milwaukee Poles shoulder to shoulder in the parish hall. I like him because he’s a catholic says a catholic. I wouldn’t vote for a catholic who takes his orders from a pope says a protestant. Pencil moustache local congressman Clement Zablaki - great haircut. Handshake after handshake. Kennedy pledges to send wheat to countries behind the Iron Curtain. The hotel room – TV tells of far up country Humphrey tallies - then, waiting for the Milwaukee precincts to be called. This all a salve that leads me to remember the excitement of a Kennedy era in the Midwest that spring, not the dedicated trying of Humphrey. The day after my brother was born, and the day after a Nixon-Kennedy debate, my father takes me downtown to Monument Sq., where the observant Civil War Union Soldier sits high above. And he buys me a Kennedy for President pin w a message and visage that alternate as you see-saw the pin in the light, then to Reihls, for a box of cigars for the fellows at the office. The cigar bands became emblems, play rings. The box emptied of cigars would hold baseball cards. It was a bright time for Boston Irish Catholics transplanted to Racine. Vivid dance years. With crepe in store to come. Came across an interesting movie of yore last night.  - Jack Vaughan

My brother on the Days after Dallas