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Trust No One But Yourself.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Ay You, Ya You, You Al Capone?
Now, I want to shine a little light on the face of Prohibition: Al Capone.
This is a short video if pictures of the real Al Capone.
So far in the series, Al hasn't had a huge role but he is starting to be involved more and more with Jimmy and i can see him becoming a hue character of the show. I like how the makers of Boardwalk Empire include him in trying to depict as close to the real history of the 20s and 30s mob era.
Al Capone is the iconic face of the mob in the 20s and 30s and was one of the head honchos in the crime business then. Starting at the young age of 14, Capone was in NY as an Italian Immigrant and troublesome kid. He then moved to Chicago in his twenties to take advantage of smuggling alcohol during the Prohinition. He later went on to be involved in bribery of government officials and prostituion. His name got to fame with his involvement in the St Valentines massacre of rival gang members and was later incarcerated for a number of charges.
HE is known to Americans as one of the first and most notorious "gangsters" of the mob and crime era. He is portrayed in many books and movies for his unique style, accent, and "swagger" and is hardly forgotten or not mentioned when talking about the roaring 20s.
I cant wait to see where Boardwalk Empire takes this character and how big he actually gets in the series.
This is a short video if pictures of the real Al Capone.
So far in the series, Al hasn't had a huge role but he is starting to be involved more and more with Jimmy and i can see him becoming a hue character of the show. I like how the makers of Boardwalk Empire include him in trying to depict as close to the real history of the 20s and 30s mob era.
Al Capone is the iconic face of the mob in the 20s and 30s and was one of the head honchos in the crime business then. Starting at the young age of 14, Capone was in NY as an Italian Immigrant and troublesome kid. He then moved to Chicago in his twenties to take advantage of smuggling alcohol during the Prohinition. He later went on to be involved in bribery of government officials and prostituion. His name got to fame with his involvement in the St Valentines massacre of rival gang members and was later incarcerated for a number of charges.
HE is known to Americans as one of the first and most notorious "gangsters" of the mob and crime era. He is portrayed in many books and movies for his unique style, accent, and "swagger" and is hardly forgotten or not mentioned when talking about the roaring 20s.
Where the Girls At??
My next topic of history in relation to Boardwalk Empire is the women's portrayal during the 20s and 30s in the show. Characters have much evolved but in this post I am going to show Margaret Schroeder and Lucy Danziger.
I will first discuss Margaret because she is actually an multi-dynamic character in representing the people on the 20s. She is an immigrant from Ireland. In the show, she evens has kept her Irish accent and represents the boom in Immigration during that time. I will later be posting a blog on immigration so I will go on about her then.
More importantly about Ms. Schroeder is that she is introduced to the show as a front speaker for the Women's Temperance League, talking about how alcohol is a root of all evil and introduces their guest speaker, country treasurer, Nucky Thompson. The Women's Temperance League was a prime supporter of the Prohibition Movement and despite Nucky's real business, his political face supported Prohibition and commonly spoke at anti- alcohol meetings such as this. Nucky talks about his broken past with his father's battle of alcoholism and Margaret sparks a bond with him for her personal reasons of being so against drinking. Upon coming to America, Margaret met and married her husband, but quickly found herself in a very controlling, abusive marriage because of the alcoholism that is her husband. Long story short, Margaret gets close with Nucky and he starts to financially support her. Nucky eventually has Margaret's abusive husband killed in worry of Margaret and her children's safety. After her husband is killed, a domestic partnership starts between Nucky and Margaret and she starts to find out who Nucky really is. This "hit" follows Nucky and is what eventually sparks the feds to start investigating his actions.
Before the whirlwind of her relationship with Nucky and him taking care other starts, Margaret represented the women in the 20s that started the revolution of speaking up and demanding rights. Margaret is often portrayed in the series advocating women's right to vote and is in relation to the passing of the 19th amendment in 1920.
I relate this to the Major Problems Document, "W.C.T.U Blasts Drinking and Smoking and Demands Power to Protect". In the article, the Women disagree on the drinking and smoking man and the need for power of women to take more stand to take care of the men subdued to such evils. "Women's ballot wil be the dealth knell of liquor traffic"! Upon reading this article in the beginning of the year I actually immediately thought of Margaret Schroeder. Women were a big drive behind the support of the Prohibition and it is directly related to a specific episode of Boardwalk Empire when Nucky first connects with Margaret in hopes to get the newly able voters of the women for the next election.
After the bond between Margaret and Nucky grows, you start to see Margaret start to become more and more in the lavish style of Nucky's mob life and she starts to dress more like the 20s flapper style. She becomes more aware and close to Nucky and eventually, Nucky relies on Margaret for support and trust when everything starts to fall apart. They are the tale of opposites attracting and is a main storyline with the series. I like how the show portrays the couple has a need for each other because my take of the women's movement in the 20s was that they started to understand they're right to a voice and say but it just didn't happen overnight, so Margaret started to live up the nice jewelry and nice dresses and it shows how easily perspective and values could change back then because it heavily affected the lifestyle you had. Margaret eventually moved into Nucky's mansion with her kids and, currently in the series, he sees her children from her late husband as his own. Margaret kind of transforms to political activist trying to make a change, but slowly falls into Nucky's housewife that he comes home to after a day of mob life.
The other woman i wanted to highlight was Lucy Danziger. She isn't a prime character of the series but she is the perfect character to represent the iconic ideal of the 20s: the Flapper girl.
She is introduced to the show as Nucky's mistress and arm-candy. (Well, she gave her goodies up rather easy to many characters in the show). Lucy is the perfect example of the new girl that evolved during the 20s. Before the 20s, a women was rarely open about sex, and being portrayed as provactive. then came the movement of the flapper women that rocked short hair along with short skirts. Publicly dancing, drinking and smoking was all on the list on interests for "flapper" women, according to our HIST text and Lucy was everything and more. In our Major Problems, "Margaret Sanger Seeks Pity for Teenage Mothers and Abstinent couples, 1928" exemplifies the changes in movements for the new actions of girls during this time. Sanger is best known for being an advocate for planned parenthood and birth control and well, Lucy, definitely would have benefited from this. Eventually, she ends up getting pregnant from a one night stand in the series so I wanted to bring up Sanger's accomplishments in the women's movement in US history on behalf of liberal, crazy drunk girl Lucy.
Flappers although get a lot of heat for highlighting promiscuity, are important in history because if it weren't for their boldness and carefree lifestyles, women could still be expected to upheld a conservative and sheltered life than the freedom to dress and act however a girl may want to be today.
I will first discuss Margaret because she is actually an multi-dynamic character in representing the people on the 20s. She is an immigrant from Ireland. In the show, she evens has kept her Irish accent and represents the boom in Immigration during that time. I will later be posting a blog on immigration so I will go on about her then.
More importantly about Ms. Schroeder is that she is introduced to the show as a front speaker for the Women's Temperance League, talking about how alcohol is a root of all evil and introduces their guest speaker, country treasurer, Nucky Thompson. The Women's Temperance League was a prime supporter of the Prohibition Movement and despite Nucky's real business, his political face supported Prohibition and commonly spoke at anti- alcohol meetings such as this. Nucky talks about his broken past with his father's battle of alcoholism and Margaret sparks a bond with him for her personal reasons of being so against drinking. Upon coming to America, Margaret met and married her husband, but quickly found herself in a very controlling, abusive marriage because of the alcoholism that is her husband. Long story short, Margaret gets close with Nucky and he starts to financially support her. Nucky eventually has Margaret's abusive husband killed in worry of Margaret and her children's safety. After her husband is killed, a domestic partnership starts between Nucky and Margaret and she starts to find out who Nucky really is. This "hit" follows Nucky and is what eventually sparks the feds to start investigating his actions.
Before the whirlwind of her relationship with Nucky and him taking care other starts, Margaret represented the women in the 20s that started the revolution of speaking up and demanding rights. Margaret is often portrayed in the series advocating women's right to vote and is in relation to the passing of the 19th amendment in 1920.
I relate this to the Major Problems Document, "W.C.T.U Blasts Drinking and Smoking and Demands Power to Protect". In the article, the Women disagree on the drinking and smoking man and the need for power of women to take more stand to take care of the men subdued to such evils. "Women's ballot wil be the dealth knell of liquor traffic"! Upon reading this article in the beginning of the year I actually immediately thought of Margaret Schroeder. Women were a big drive behind the support of the Prohibition and it is directly related to a specific episode of Boardwalk Empire when Nucky first connects with Margaret in hopes to get the newly able voters of the women for the next election.
After the bond between Margaret and Nucky grows, you start to see Margaret start to become more and more in the lavish style of Nucky's mob life and she starts to dress more like the 20s flapper style. She becomes more aware and close to Nucky and eventually, Nucky relies on Margaret for support and trust when everything starts to fall apart. They are the tale of opposites attracting and is a main storyline with the series. I like how the show portrays the couple has a need for each other because my take of the women's movement in the 20s was that they started to understand they're right to a voice and say but it just didn't happen overnight, so Margaret started to live up the nice jewelry and nice dresses and it shows how easily perspective and values could change back then because it heavily affected the lifestyle you had. Margaret eventually moved into Nucky's mansion with her kids and, currently in the series, he sees her children from her late husband as his own. Margaret kind of transforms to political activist trying to make a change, but slowly falls into Nucky's housewife that he comes home to after a day of mob life.
The other woman i wanted to highlight was Lucy Danziger. She isn't a prime character of the series but she is the perfect character to represent the iconic ideal of the 20s: the Flapper girl.
She is introduced to the show as Nucky's mistress and arm-candy. (Well, she gave her goodies up rather easy to many characters in the show). Lucy is the perfect example of the new girl that evolved during the 20s. Before the 20s, a women was rarely open about sex, and being portrayed as provactive. then came the movement of the flapper women that rocked short hair along with short skirts. Publicly dancing, drinking and smoking was all on the list on interests for "flapper" women, according to our HIST text and Lucy was everything and more. In our Major Problems, "Margaret Sanger Seeks Pity for Teenage Mothers and Abstinent couples, 1928" exemplifies the changes in movements for the new actions of girls during this time. Sanger is best known for being an advocate for planned parenthood and birth control and well, Lucy, definitely would have benefited from this. Eventually, she ends up getting pregnant from a one night stand in the series so I wanted to bring up Sanger's accomplishments in the women's movement in US history on behalf of liberal, crazy drunk girl Lucy.
The "Fight" against Drinking
So our HIST book goes a little into the ways the "good" government went on with the fight of prohibition with the Volstead Act f 1919. I am going to go into a little depth about this matter through the highlight of Boardwalk Empire character, Agent Van Alden.
He works in the department of Internal Revenue and is also a part of the Bureau of Prohibition. His character is very extreme with his obsession of making a impact of the law and can also be seen through his devout commitment to his Christian religion. He is the perfect example of the religious enforcer out to get Nucky guilty and throw him in jail. In our Hist book, it talks about the conservative, religious folk who supported Prohibition and the sense of Justice that was always wanted against the mob and criminals breaking the law. Agent Van Alden is a predominate character that tries to catch Nucky and his crew. Eventually in later episodes he is even a key witness against a federal case against Nucky. Part of his dire commitment to justice isn't because he is just told to do so and is good at his job, but he genuinely believes that it is "Gods way" and uses his beliefs in religion to drive his obsession with taking down Nucky Thompson.
It is crazy to think that religion was a powerful drive as to why some people were content with Prohibition and thought that a drink was a horrible. sinful act. I think that his influenced the drive between liberals and conservatives and also embarked on the fact that the 20s was a important time in history when doing the "wrong" thing was good. In the 20s, women started to dress more provocatively and the care to be proper lessened. Morality was not of importance and Van Alden portrays the example of the people that did believe in being morale and right.
It is crazy to think that religion was a powerful drive as to why some people were content with Prohibition and thought that a drink was a horrible. sinful act. I think that his influenced the drive between liberals and conservatives and also embarked on the fact that the 20s was a important time in history when doing the "wrong" thing was good. In the 20s, women started to dress more provocatively and the care to be proper lessened. Morality was not of importance and Van Alden portrays the example of the people that did believe in being morale and right.
Don't Mess With Nucky.. or Will You?
Played by Steve Buscemi, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson is the main American politician/gangster in the series. He is Treasurer of Atlantic City in the 1920's and runs the town. His brother, Eli, is the Atlantic City Sherrif and Nucky uses his brother to control the law and be the boss. He also has many friends in high and low places. At the start of the series he is the one to be listened to and has the final world. Across the two seasons that have aired, he is stabs many in the back, but gets it even worse by others. His struggle for power through keeping power of bootlegging alcohol and corruption perfectly shows how life was in the mob 20s.
I could go on and on about the plot of the series and Nucky's accomplishments and struggles, but, I more want to connect this to our history class.
I am using Nucky Thompson as a way to explain the Prohibition. For majority of the series so far, Nucky is one of the big players in running the underground dealings of alcohol to different buyers and restaurants even during the Prohibiton. Almost every scene in the show, he meets with clients or "friends" and starts their deal with a glass of whiskey. Any restaurant serves Nucky with alcohol because he supplies to everyone in Atlantic city.
Here is a picture of Nucky confiding in his right hand man, Jimmy, in how to do business.
And then here is a photo showing how many deals went down with bootlegging alcohol and "drop-offs". You really couldn't even trust your own brother during the mob times.
Eventually certain federal agents and police go after in investigation against Nucky Thompson, and his power and reign is shot down and put into the spotlight during the show. This relates to the crackdown on crime the government started to focus on during this time in history. What was so interesting was the mix between politicians and criminals. Before getting into Boardwalk Empire, I never really understood how much those two subjects intertwined. It is crazy that the people that are supposed to be our elected leaders and officials were the ones behind most crime and illegal movements. I am so glad that that is not how our government is today.. Or is it? Living in San Diego I hear the news with the war on cartels with us and Mexico and the new reports of police and DEA agents being caught for helping the bad drug dealer guys by not saying anything and accepting money. The leaders and politicians and police were all regular civilians at one time and its just crazy how even today, almost 100 years later, I can see a pattern in the corruption of the illegal substance trade.
Boardwalk Empire: Welcome to the Obsession
From looking more into the behind the scenes about the show, some big hollywood names work together to produce the amazing series. Some names to drop are Martin Scorsese who directs, Mark Wahlberg as a producer, and Terence Winter (who was behind the Sopranos) as screenwriter and producer. With only just finishing up their second season, the show has already been recognized with winning 8 out of their nominated 18 Emmy's last year.
I decided to pick this show for our History110 assignment because I am huge fan of the series and actually learned a lot about US history when I started to watch it 2 years ago. I like how the show incorporates true historical scandals and people and how real they portray the struggle was in America during the 1920s. It represents Nucky's corrupt but lavish lifestyle along with everyone from the government, politicians, mobsters, and the common folk and the struggles and obstacles they faced. In this blog I am going to relate our History110 curriculum by highlighting all of the different characters, problems and controversies that are in Boardwalk Empire. And, I hope after reading this you will pick-up Boardwalk Empire into your weekly Tv line-up if it isn't already an obsession in your life!
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