Land of Shrimp and Gumbo
When we think of Earl Kemp Long (1895-1960), the lesser-known brother of the Kingfish, Huey Long, but like him the governor of Louisiana and for three terms no less, we're probably seeing snippets in our minds from the 1989 movie "Blaze." That film was about his "scandalous" love affair with a stripper named Blaze Starr, whom he just refused to let go. That isn't hard to understand, if Ms Starr was anything like the very appealing Canadian actress who played her, Lolita Davidovich. (That, if I may say so, is my idea of a cool name.) Before I forget, the movie also starred Paul Newman.
Earl Long said and did a lot of things that convinced his wife and others that he belonged in a mental institution, and they had him put in one -- appropriately in Texas -- while he was still the governor of Louisiana.
"And there I was," he complained later, "with not enough clothes on me to cover a red bug."
(He is also quoted as having said "bed bug." But I like "red bug" better.)
His stay in the insane asylum didn't last long. He escaped to Arkansas (if that can be said) and restored his self-respect by indulging in a number of interesting purchases, the most fitting of which, considering how he had been so horribly denuded, was $700 worth of cowboy boots. Meanwhile he fired everyone he could touch who'd had a hand in his being committed.
His tormentors thought he had lost his marbles mostly because of another memorable statement he made, in the heat of political battle. Exasperated by the race-baiting in which he and every good Southern politician was expected to indulge, ol' Earl finally blurted out, "Niggers is human beings!"
In his interesting 1960 book, "The Earl of Louisiana," A. J. Liebling uses this statement, which came as such a big shock to many in those parts, to support his view of Earl Long as having been by far the most progressive Southern politician of his time, comparable only with his brother, Huey.
According to Liebling, despite Long's great courage in making that "civil rights" statement, after Long's death in 1960 and at the same moment that John F. Kennedy was being elected President, Louisiana, instead of advancing sociologically speaking or at least staying in place, actually slipped backward a notch or two.
Sadly, nowhere in his book does Liebling mention Ms Davidovich -- pardon me, Ms Starr -- and it is possible that that terrible omission is precisely the part that he himself unwittingly played in that momentary setback in Louisiana's outlook.
I suppose you could say that Louisiana is my ancestral home, though -- unintentionally -- it is one of only six states where I have never set foot. To my knowledge I have never even been in a plane that was flying over it.
I come by my lack of regret about that legitimately. By the time I was born my parents and all the rest of my relatives had long since caught "the first thing smoking," northward, and they never expressed the slightest desire to return. They didn't even have a good word to say for the Mardi Gras.
Earl Long said and did a lot of things that convinced his wife and others that he belonged in a mental institution, and they had him put in one -- appropriately in Texas -- while he was still the governor of Louisiana.
"And there I was," he complained later, "with not enough clothes on me to cover a red bug."
(He is also quoted as having said "bed bug." But I like "red bug" better.)
His stay in the insane asylum didn't last long. He escaped to Arkansas (if that can be said) and restored his self-respect by indulging in a number of interesting purchases, the most fitting of which, considering how he had been so horribly denuded, was $700 worth of cowboy boots. Meanwhile he fired everyone he could touch who'd had a hand in his being committed.
His tormentors thought he had lost his marbles mostly because of another memorable statement he made, in the heat of political battle. Exasperated by the race-baiting in which he and every good Southern politician was expected to indulge, ol' Earl finally blurted out, "Niggers is human beings!"
In his interesting 1960 book, "The Earl of Louisiana," A. J. Liebling uses this statement, which came as such a big shock to many in those parts, to support his view of Earl Long as having been by far the most progressive Southern politician of his time, comparable only with his brother, Huey.
According to Liebling, despite Long's great courage in making that "civil rights" statement, after Long's death in 1960 and at the same moment that John F. Kennedy was being elected President, Louisiana, instead of advancing sociologically speaking or at least staying in place, actually slipped backward a notch or two.
Sadly, nowhere in his book does Liebling mention Ms Davidovich -- pardon me, Ms Starr -- and it is possible that that terrible omission is precisely the part that he himself unwittingly played in that momentary setback in Louisiana's outlook.
I suppose you could say that Louisiana is my ancestral home, though -- unintentionally -- it is one of only six states where I have never set foot. To my knowledge I have never even been in a plane that was flying over it.
I come by my lack of regret about that legitimately. By the time I was born my parents and all the rest of my relatives had long since caught "the first thing smoking," northward, and they never expressed the slightest desire to return. They didn't even have a good word to say for the Mardi Gras.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 10:01 PM
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