[Mexican] juvenile delinquents and white Southerners...
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
In history, like everything else, none of the actors are ever entirely innocent, nor are they entirely evil. A good rule of thumb is that all stories are derived from incidents in which two or more parties behaved poorly, and in the case of history, say as much about the storytellers as the subjects.
The American Experience website has an interesting account of the Zoot Suit Riots that takes an earnest and adequate stab at balance and objectivity. Today is the anniversary of the official kickoff to the riots, the result of, according to contemporary Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron, the misbehavior of "juvenile delinquents and white Southerners," not racism, and certainly not Angelenos. In any case, American Experience describes it as such:
About fifty sailors left the Armory on the night of Thursday, June 3, armed with makeshift weapons. The attack on Seaman Coleman was still fresh in their minds and rumors of new attacks were swirling through the base. Their first stop was the nearby neighborhood of Alpine Street -- scene of many previous confrontations. Unable to find any zoot-suiters at Alpine, they proceeded toward downtown and stopped at the Carmen Theater. After turning on the house lights, the sailors roamed the aisles looking for zoot-suiters. The first victims of the zoot suit riots -- 12 and 13-year-old boys -- were guilty of little more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ignoring the protests of the patrons, the sailors tore the suits off their bodies and beat and clubbed the boys. The remains of their suits were then set ablaze.
Attached, you can hear Royal Crown Revue's take on the affair, and in the comments you can see a couple videos of Cherry Poppin' Daddies' Zoot Suit Riot song.
Comments (2)
The story is that the first video was made prior to the band signing with Mojo Records, which was an affiliate or subsidiary of Universal at the time. A new video was shot, presumably with a larger budget and a much larger emphasis on sex appeal.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the two videos, though, is the way in which they acknowledge the Zoot Suit Riots. The first video ends with a brawl erupting between some sailors and some zoot suiters. In this treatment, it is the zoot suiters who escalate the conflict to the point of violence, but it is unclear why this is the case. It is possible that it is meant to acknowledge that, even though the sailors where the aggressors in the riots, the riots were predicated on an act of violence perpetrated by the pachucos. Could just be that the Daddies thought it played better that way, what with the taunting bravado displayed in the lyrics.
In any case, it is the complete lack of acknowledgment to the subject in the second video that is truly interesting. One can't help but wonder if Universal might have thought that a race riot consisting of white-on-everyone-else violence might have pooped on what turned out to be a fairly lucrative little swing revival party.
good history lesson, and swinging tunes to boot!