You stay classy, Terre Haute.
This city has an opportunity to reveal that quality in grand fashion this week. In decades past, such a moment might have been unthinkable.
If all goes as planned, at least 800 local folks will fill Woodrow Wilson Middle School’s gymnasium on Friday to serve as extras in the pivotal scene of a movie based on the legacy of Eugene Debs. It could mark a turning point for Terre Haute — a sign of maturity as a community.
The town hasn’t always embraced Debs, the pioneer of organized labor in America and a champion of women’s rights, racial desegregation, Social Security and child-labor laws long before those “radical” ideas became mainstream. The arm’s-length relationship between Terre Haute and its internationally known native son primarily stems from another label Debs wore — five-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party.
Thus, since his death in 1926, the community has confined his memory to his home-turned-museum on North Eighth Street.
That situation doesn’t make Terre Haute unique. Few places in middle America would name streets or civic centers after a socialist.
Yet, Terre Haute can distinguish itself with an enthusiastic turnout Friday at Woodrow Wilson.
Two born-and-raised Hauteans — William Tanoos and Paul Fleschner — are co-writers and co-directors of the upcoming film “The Drunk.” Tanoos and Fleschner also act in the movie, which centers on Joe Debs, the fictional grandson of Eugene. (The elder Debs actually had no children.) Tanoos plays Joe, a hard drinker who becomes the improbable Democratic Party nominee in the 2012 Indiana governor’s race. Veteran Hollywood actor Tom Sizemore (“Saving Private Ryan” and “Blackhawk Down”) plays a corrupt prosecutor running against Joe.
On Friday at Woodrow Wilson, Tanoos’ and Sizemore’s characters will square off in a debate. Tanoos and Fleschner need approximately 800 local people to fill the gymnasium’s seats as the debate audience. Those faces-in-the-crowd actors will need to bring a couple of extra shirts, games to pass the time, and patience to stick around all day.
Their presence will also show the world that Terre Haute accepts Debs as a fascinating, iconic and definitive personality in the city’s heritage, even though most people nowadays oppose his politics. His hometown can embrace Debs’ passionate concern for those who lacked influence in his day — the working class, women, minorities, the elderly and children. We can study the details of his imprisonment under the Espionage Act during World War I. We can read his historic speeches.
But we shouldn’t just ignore Debs. After all, Life magazine chose him in 1990 as one of its “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century.”
Preserving Debs’ memory has long been a mission for retired Indiana State University professor Charles King, who’s served as secretary of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation since 1985. The nonprofit organization endorsed the movie project, despite the plot’s creative twisting of history. “The Drunk” could raise awareness of Debs, especially if the low-budget, independent flick catches eyes in film festivals such as Cannes or Sundance.
“We hope the movie will show the contemporary relevance of Debs, and that issues he supported are still important,” King said.
The 82-year-old King and the foundation have offered Fleschner and Tanoos historical tips on phrases commonly used in Debs’ era, but left the script fully up to the filmmakers. “Which is really incredible artistic license,” said Fleschner, 31.
That includes the movie’s title and the premise of character Joe Debs’ persistent drinking. Eugene Debs also “had a little bit of trouble with the bottle,” King explained. “It kind of came with the traffic back then. People would want to buy him a drink.” Even as a controversial, lightning-rod of American politics, Debs remained “almost universally liked,” as Tanoos put it. Terre Haute bankers — the local titans of capitalism — would invite the engaging Debs to deliver the toasts at parties and wedding receptions.
Such open-minded affection did not apparently extend to President Woodrow Wilson, who repeatedly refused to release the elderly Debs from prison. It took the 1920 election — in which Debs received almost 1 million votes from his cell in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary — to free Debs. The winner of that election, Warren G. Harding, replaced Wilson and commuted Debs’ 10-year sentence.
Likewise, Terre Haute’s stance on Debs evolved during his three years in prison. After his 1918 speech alleging that capitalism triggered World War I, a local newspaper essentially called for Debs to be jailed. By 1921, though, the Terre Haute Post encouraged its readers to join an amnesty campaign in his behalf “if you feel that free speech is worth preserving in America.” Sixty percent of the city’s citizens signed the petition.
Upon his return to Terre Haute, Debs was greeted by a large crowd, brass bands, the ringing of church bells and signs such as “Debs the humanitarian.”
Ninety years later, filmmakers hope a similar throng will show up for Friday. It’s ironic that the setting for the dramatic debate scene involving Debs’ cinematic grandson is a school that Debs’ hometown named in honor of Wilson. Yet, while reminders of Debs are less prominent here, his memory lingers.
During filming late Tuesday night in the museum, noise from passing trains disrupted work five times. Tanoos and Fleschner — well aware that Debs rose to global notoriety by organizing railroad workers — exchanged grins. “I think Eugene is trying to tell us something,” Fleschner said.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
Mark Bennett Opinion
MARK BENNETT: Movie scene shows Terre Haute accepting Debs' role in its history
- Mark Bennett Opinion
-
-
MARK BENNETT: Roadway Role Models: Adults need to remember habits often rub off on teens
Plenty of dads connected with a car ad that first aired on TV two years ago.
-
MARK BENNETT: Farmers using no-till and cover crops doing their part to keep soil healthy
Earth Day typically features community cleanups, and discussions of air and water pollution. All deserve the attention.
-
MARK BENNETT: Lyrical legacy
Traditions begin, end, revive and evolve.
-
MARK BENNETT: GOP campaign fireworks could fizzle for Hoosiers once again
Of all the United States, Indiana deserves to experience Republican-on-Republican presidential attack-ad mania.
-
MARK BENNETT: Hard hit: Cash rewards for game-ending hits on NFL players are not a part of the game
The moaning and whining miss the point.
-
MARK BENNETT: Vigo County native helping relief agency provide physical, spiritual aid to Japan in wake of last year’s devastation
Help can be harder to receive than give.
-
MARK BENNETT: Perception of Wabash River’s water quality doesn’t always match reality
People like chocolate milk. In a glass. Fresh from the fridge.
-
MARK BENNETT: Filling a Need: Vigo County YMCA expected to open this spring
Comebacks inspire hope. They also require lots of work.
-
MARK BENNETT: Favorable images
Movie critics take a lot of criticism.
-
MARK BENNETT: Toxic victories
When the Super Bowl ends tonight in Indianapolis, most of the Giants and Patriots will shake hands, despite their competitive fire, win or lose.
-
MARK BENNETT: Indianapolis will be on display for the nation with the Super Bowl coming to town
Someone immersed in a crash diet to make a smashing impression at a class reunion may get the desired effect.
-
MARK BENNETT: Patiently waiting for Indiana's primary
While standing in a check-in line at Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome a few years ago, I watched an Italian woman walk past dozens of more patient travelers to grab a spot up front.
-
MARK BENNETT: Processing postal change
You probably know one of those 10,026.
-
MARK BENNETT: Multiple choice question: Voters must choose which direction they want the future of education to go
There was a time when few Hoosiers outside of education circles could name the state superintendent of public instruction.
-
MARK BENNETT: With an historic election behind Terre Haute, it’s time to look at the future’s possibilities
Everybody knows their “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moments.
-
MARK BENNETT: Economic forecast: Things looking up but don’t expect ‘much of a dent in unemployment’
Outside the Columbia Club, the atmosphere matched the picture of 2012 painted by a panel of economists for an audience of business people gathered inside that ritzy building on Monument Circle in Indianapolis.
-
MARK BENNETT: Students who reach for a college education too often are buried under a pile of debt
Right now, millions of college graduates are wondering whether their education was worth the effort.
That doubt hurts the country. -
MARK BENNETT: Tangier’s festival volunteers keep past alive for future
Traditions stay alive only as long as the people who hold them dear.
Small towns have that same life expectancy. -
MARK BENNETT: Made in the USA? A political T-shirt faux pas
The most rational statement about a small furor in the U.S. Senate campaign was uttered by a tea party organizer.
-
MARK BENNETT: Daniels goes where a candidate probably won’t in new book
Some things simply won’t get said on the political campaign trail.
-
MARK BENNETT: Time waits for no Manning
Sad, disappointed and uncertain. Colts fans feel all of those.
-
MARK BENNETT: Value of every minute deeply realized on 9/11 (related VIDEO)
Editor’s Note
This summer, the Tribune-Star’s Mark Bennett visited New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., sites where the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now memorialized. He observed the cityscapes and landscapes forever changed by the events of that day and talked with people he encountered there, many of whom witnessed the attacks and their aftermath from close range and had personal ties to its victims. -
MARK BENNETT: As school begins, carve out daily time
By now, most back-to-school checklists are tattered and creased.
-
MARK BENNETT: Movie scene shows Terre Haute accepting Debs' role in its history
You stay classy, Terre Haute.
-
MARK BENNETT: Community outpouring represents collective sympathy for fallen officer
Every Terre Haute resident has probably been asked the same question.
“Why do you live there?” -
MARK BENNETT: Declaration of cursive’s death reminiscent of ’70s metric-conversion mania
When the state of Indiana announced it would no longer require schools to teach cursive handwriting, I was LOL.
-
MARK BENNETT: On Fourth of July, remember, too, those we depend on
A spatula in one hand, a cool beverage in the other, and a stash of bottle rockets in a plastic sack in the garage.
-
MARK BENNETT: Get out and see what the Valley has to offer
Maybe you drive the same route to work every day. Shortest route. Saves time and a few dimes worth of gas.
-
MARK BENNETT: Walking the fine bipartisan line
Lugar’s occasional departures from hard-line conservatism have put his six-term Senate position in jeopardy.
-
MARK BENNETT: Terre Haute man receives kidney from younger brother
The act of giving often triggers an instant calculation of loss.
- More Mark Bennett Opinion Headlines
-
MARK BENNETT: Roadway Role Models: Adults need to remember habits often rub off on teens
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Astronauts Enter World's 1st Private Supply Ship
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Dragon Arrives at Space Station in Historic 1st
Passenger Restrained on Flight to Miami Arrested
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
Police: Gunman Has Hostages in Realty Office
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
Today in History
Beer Here!: An Historic Exhibit
Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station
Shell Readies Arctic Drill Ship
Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach
Texan Ranchers Remain Wary of Drought
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
Sudden Storm Topples Wisconsin Trees
FAMU Bandmates: Victim Volunteered to Be Hazed
Wild weather for Memorial Day weekend
Inspiration for the class of 2012
Colorado College Student Shot While Trespassing
Will Smith & Josh Brolin on "Men in Black 3"
80-Year-Old Skydiver's Nightmare Jump
JWoww Sizzles in a Black Bikini
Sliders on the Grill
Cruise ship crunch
Backstage With Beyonce
Ultimate Creamy Potato Salad
Pope's Personal Butler Under Arrest
Jenny McCarthy's New Man
Tyler's Classic Coleslaw
Britney Spears Under X Factor Fire
Flesh-Eating Bacteria Victim Hits Milestone
Hurricanes and Heat Waves Across America
Kristen Stewart Is Red Hot
Shark Attacks Australian Fishing Boat
Bradley out for playoffs
Kayaker Survives Trip Over Washington Waterfall
