A
few weeks ago I got an email about the 50th anniversary commemoration
of the demonstration against the House Un-American Activities Committee
where demonstrators, mostly students, got washed down the marble stairs
of San Francisco’s City Hall with high-pressure fire hoses. I reminded
the sender that my mother had written a song about it to the tune of
“Billy Boy” so the organizers asked me to come sing it.
Billy Boy
Words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1963 Schroder Music Company, renewed 1991. In the Notes to her songbook Little Boxes and Other Handmade Songs
Malvina writes: "In May, 1960, the House UnAmerican Committee came to
San Francisco and subpoenaed, amongst others, a university student."
Did they wash you down the stair, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Did they wash you down the stair, charming Billy?
Yes, they washed me down the stair
And they rearranged my hair
With a club in the City Hall rotunda.
Were there pigeons in the square, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Were there pigeons in the square, charming Billy?
There were pigeons in the square,
And stool pigeons on the air,
And they fouled up the City Hall rotunda.
Were there pigeons in the square, charming Billy?
There were pigeons in the square,
And stool pigeons on the air,
And they fouled up the City Hall rotunda.
Did they set for you a chair, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Did they set for you a chair, charming Billy?
No, the D.A.R. was there,
And there wasn't room to spare,
So we stood in the City Hall rotunda.
Did they set for you a chair, charming Billy?
No, the D.A.R. was there,
And there wasn't room to spare,
So we stood in the City Hall rotunda.
Was the House Committee there, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Was the House Committee there, charming Billy?
The Committee it was there,
Spreading slander everywhere,
While we sang in the City Hall rotunda.
Was the House Committee there, charming Billy?
The Committee it was there,
Spreading slander everywhere,
While we sang in the City Hall rotunda.
Did the people think it fair, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Did the people think it fair, charming Billy?
No, they didn't think it fair,
And they notified the Mayor,
And he wept, and he wept, and he wept and he wept,
While they mopped up the City Hall Rotunda.
Did the people think it fair, charming Billy?
No, they didn't think it fair,
And they notified the Mayor,
And he wept, and he wept, and he wept and he wept,
While they mopped up the City Hall Rotunda.
Sixty-four
people were arrested that day, and 19 of the demonstrators showed up at
City Hall last Thursday for a program. Here’s a report from the San Francisco State University newspaper.
What
I hadn’t realized or had forgotten was that the initial protest against
HUAC was a picket line outside City Hall organized by labor and
progressive groups, and that the people on the inside did not
necessarily know each other or belong to any group, they just wanted to
get into the hearing. But groups favorable to the committee had been
sent passes, and those people got in first. By the second day of the
hearings, the people with passes were the only ones who got in
(actually, two of our guys got in with counterfeit passes) and the
people without passes were pissed. They sat down and sang and that’s
when the fire hoses were turned on them.
After
the program, I talked to a guy who was filming and found out he was the
filmmaker who’d asked me for permission to use my mom’s “Little Boxes”
in a film he was doing on the movement to save the top of San Bruno
Mountain from developers. He introduced me to the reason he was filming
at City Hall—David Schooley, a founding member of San Bruno Mountain
Watch, and a survivor of being washed down the stairs. It’s good to see
that many of the 1960 demonstrators are still activists. One of the
speakers, a professor, said, “When my students ask if I remember the
sixties, I tell them I started the sixties!”
The
reason I wasn’t washed down the stairs myself is that I was busy that
day fifty years ago planning a peace march (against nuclear weapons).
When we marched into Civic Center the following day, we passed the
picket line protesting both HUAC and the police brutality of the day
before.
I
sang “Billy Boy” again at the open mike Friday night at the Berkeley
Unitarian/Universalist Fellowship. The MC, Hali Hammer, said she'd be
singing the next day at Berkeley City Hall, something about
conscientious objectors, and I thought, "Good, I'll be there for the
farmers market and I'll see her,” and then forgot all about it till I
got to Civic Center Saturday morning and there she was, sitting on a
bench with Max Ventura practicing for the event.
Turns
out Berkeley has a Conscientious Objectors Day and Saturday was it.
Hali recruited me and we started our "ain't festival" with "I Ain't
A-Marching Anymore." Then speeches and poems and raising a peace flag on
the City Hall flagpole, then "Ain't Gonna Study War No More," then we
went to the other flag pole down by MLK and raised the other peace flag
and somebody requested my mom's "The Bankers and the Diplomats" (We Hate to See ‘Em Go) so I sang that and we ended with another "ain't" song, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around."
Saturday
night was SingSayPlay, which brings together singers, storytellers,
writers and instrumentalists in somebody’s living-room to take turns
entertaining each other. It’s always lively and interesting. No website
to link to, but if you’re interested, I’ll get you on the email-list.
Anyway, I sang Billy Boy again, and told the story of the demonstration
to folks who had been too young or too far away (Canada) to notice at
the time. Then somebody announced that the Spoonoplians would make a
rare appearance at the Freight at noon the next day. I hadn’t seen them
for years. They are a sort of puppet show but with puppets unlike any
others, and songs like “From the Indies to the Andes in His Undies (and
wasn’t that a daring thing to do).” They are from Spoonoplia, the planet
where kitty motors are made. Turns out they were part of the Berkeley
Old Time Music Spring Fling, so besides the Spoonoplians, I got to see
Ray Bierl, who used to accompany my mother in her local gigs, and Willy
Claflin doing a one-hour history of the ballad from the 15th century to
Steve Goodman’s “The Ballad of Penny Evans.” Willy
will be at the Bay Area Storytelling Festival also. I’ll be there too,
of course, and I’ll be introducing Connie at her solo show on Saturday
at noon. Y’all come.
©2010 by Nancy Schimmel
Back
when she was Connie Regan and traveling with her cousin as The
Folktellers, Connie Regan-Blake inspired me to quit my day job and hit
the road as a storyteller. She’ll be telling at the Bay Area Storytelling Festival in El Sobrante this weekend.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
DID THEY WASH YOU DOWN THE STAIR?
http://flickriver.com/photos/ari/4605086568/