Dan's Papers - April 11, 2008 - Propaganda, '50s Style

Propaganda created in Bridgehampton? A staged drowning at Sagg Main Beach? Halloween in August? Did these events happen on the East End? To find out for sure you'll have to speak to Ann Sanford, resident and local historian, who spoke this past Tuesday at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton about "Democracy and the Cold War in Bridgehampton, 1950-1951."

Sanford, who is the author of Grandfather Lived Here: The Transformation of Bridgehampton, New York 1870-1970 is a passionate finder-of-things and while doing research on Bridgehampton in The New York Times historical archives, she uncovered a tidbit of information that would send her on a party line journey to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The goal of her search was a film titled Problems of a Small Community. But before Sanford would ever watch the 11-minute film, she had to call local master engineers to have the original, 35mm format remastered.

Richard Wood, a photographer, architect and independent filmmaker, directed the film, which was made in August 1950. During the '50s and '60s, Wood vacationed in Bridgehampton but finally settled in East Hampton after retiring. The theme of the film centers on democracy at work - how a community comes together on issues such as ocean safety and substandard housing for the migrant potato field workers, as well as the ever present Community Council as the means to elect officials and resolve problems. The film was sponsored by the U.S. State Department, with the goal of having it shown abroad in American libraries in Italy and France to aid in our country's fight against the red blanket of communism spreading across the globe during the Cold War. Imagine Bridgehampton as an international role model for grassroots democracy - and the citizens of France and Italy watching a film with exclamations of "le démocratie," "bagnino caldo," "vivre Bridgehampton!"

Sanford, who has lived through the many changes that have taken place in the past half century on the East End, was delighted to make this find. While watching the film, she recognized many of the young Bridgehamptonites who were typecast at the time. For example, one of the dramatic opening scenes shows a young man drowning in the ocean at Sagg Main Beach - a clear lesson about why communities must have lifeguards. But Sanford knows the man who "drowned" in this scene - he's alive and well, and living in Sagaponack with his family. There are other scenes in the film that feature the Main Street Barbershop with the barber pole turning, light music playing in the background and narration by a deep voiced man. Another vivid scene is shot outside the Bridgehampton Community House (the Community Council was established in 1946), where they used to hold town meetings on the steps with council members flanked by large speakers. Sanford thinks there are about 300 people in the crowd during this scene where they conduct business and elections, even showing ballots and the community supper that followed the dealings.

In her analysis of the film as a critical historian, Sanford was interested in what was real activity and what was staged propaganda. She was able to draw on some important topics, especially since, at the time, it was the height of the migrant labor crisis - potato farmers needed laborers to dig the fields yet the available housing was substandard and there was no one to take care of the fieldworkers' young children. A tragic result of this situation was the famous fire on Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike that caused the death of two small African American children. While this was not a part of the film, it was in the context of the larger issues but the filmmakers did not fully expose the problem, instead referring to laborer's housing as "modest." Sanford noted, "It wasn't that the film said untruths about the migrant worker issue, it's just that they didn't say the truth." The following year the Bridgehampton Day Care Center was established.

Another very American, democratic lesson portrayed in the film was about the importance of good behavior on Halloween. The Community Council announced that teenagers should respect the community, and sponsored a roped-off after school party to deter pranksters from ripping off the front gates and hanging them on telephone poles. This movie was made in August, so the director and producers had to stage Halloween. There are also exciting images of the "other" Bridgehampton newspaper called Bridgehampton News that was active in the building where the Golden Pear is now located.

Clearly, the U.S. State Department commissioned this film at the height of the Cold War and it's safe to say that Bridgehampton is still very much a grassroots democratic community with very few communists to mention. This summer Sanford will publish an article about the film and her findings in The Bridge, the historical society's newsletter.