Program Particulars

(02:13–04:05) Music:
"The Multiples of One" from Awakening, performed by Joseph Curiale

(01:46) Radio Personality in Chicago
In the mid-1930s, Terkel began producing radio programs and ads, hosting his first show called the "Wax Museum" in 1944. Here, he was able to play his favorite recordings of folk music, opera, jazz, and the blues. Shortly after, he hosted his own television show, Studs' Place, which was the genesis for his later work as an interviewer.

From 1952 to 1997, The Studs Terkel Program was broadcast daily on WFMT in Chicago. Terkel's program featured interviews and group discussions with celebrated and non-celebrated people in the arts, music, literature, and political life. The Chicago Historical Society is now cataloging and preserving over 7,000 hours of Terkel's sound recordings, which can be located via the organization's search engine, Archie. You can also hear a sampling of notable interviews on his Web site.

(02:16) Audio Montage of Terkel Interviews
The audio clips of Studs Terkel interviewing writer Gore Vidal, painter David Hockney, author Simone de Beauvoir, singer Mahalia Jackson, playwright Arthur Miller, and artist and musician Laurie Anderson were excerpted from Voices of Our Time: Five Decades of Studs Terkel Interviews by HighBridge Audio.

(04:45) Idea for First Book of Oral Histories
In his prefatory notes to Division Street: America, Terkel recounts how his publisher provided the germ for the idea to interview the ordinary and the non-celebrated:

The manner in which this book came about may be of some interest. André Schiffin, on publishing the American edition of Jan Myrdal's Report from a Chinese Village, wondered whether a similar communication might not be forthcoming from an American "village." It was a fascinating challenge. A Chinese village, an American city: why not? I had expected difficulties, of course, but none as formidable as the ones I actually experienced. The problems were not posed by the people I encountered. There was a shyness in many cases, in others a strange eagerness, but always a friendliness—once a few ground rules were established. The problem was the nature of the city itself. And the time in which we live.

In China, there was a specific you-can-put-your-hand-on-it event, the Revolution. The lives of the people, which Mr. Myrdal recorded with such profound understanding, were lived by his informants Before and After. They had criteria for comparison, their own experiences: their lot, Before and After. What have we here? A triple revolution occurring now. There is a vague, uneasy—and in some fewer instances, exhilarating—awareness of the events. There is no Before and After. Perhaps, World War II was the great divide. yet none of these Americans experienced Auschwitz or Hiroshima, its two most indelible mementoes. The several tattoo wearers I met had the exquisite legends voluntarily needled onto their arms. For the relatively few, popularly known as "bleeding hearts" (the frequent use of this phrase has always fascinated me and whetted my curiosity about the user), who sense the agony of others and thus their own tortured mortality, there is a Before: pre-World War II and pre-H-Bomb. They are the exception rather than the rule. So if there is no sense of Before for most Americans (some of the subjects vividly recalled the Depression; it was personally experienced), how can there be a sense of After? Or a sense of Now, for that matter?

Several pages later, Terkel writes that certain key questions and themes would recur in nearly every interview, including civil rights, the war in Vietnam, and God:

Surprisingly, God was an also-ran in their thoughts (again, with several exceptions). Like a stage mother, I had to push Him forward. Once He was introduced into the conversation, He was immediately and effusively acknowledged. (And in a few cases, rebuffed.) Whether God is dead or merely sleeping or really is a has-been is for theologians to have a high old time with. It is not the subject of this book. It is merely an observation. You will notice, too, that His son fares in a rather astonishing manner.

(06:09) Woman in First Book
The "light-skinned, very pretty" lady Terkel tells the story about is Lucy Jefferson, who lived in the Robert Brooks Housing Project on the Near West Side of Chicago.

(08:48–09:36) Music:
"Butterfly's Day Out" from Appalachia Waltz, performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor

(10:12) Death of Terkel's Wife
Near the end of his introduction to Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and a Hunger for a Faith, Terkel succinctly describes the loss of his wife:

On December 23, 1999, as I was beginning work on this book, my wife, Ida, died. She had been my companion for sixty years. She was eighty-seven. A few months later, a friend of mine, disturbed by my occasional despondency, burst out: "For chrissake, you've had sixty great years with her!" Myra MacPherson was on the button.

Ida was seventeen years beyond her traditionally allotted time of three score and ten. On occasion, I'd hear her murmur in surprise, "Why do I still feel like a girl?"

They were roller-coaster years we shared, since I first spotted her in a maroon smock. 1937. She had been a social worker during most of those tumultuous years: the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, Joe McCarthy, the sixties, the civil rights and peace movements. She had been, as they say, "involved." Garry Wills remembers her greeting him, years after the Vietnam War had ended: "Oh, we were arrested together in Washington."

A year or so before her death, Laura Watson, a neighbor, "looked out the window and saw this slim young girl in jeans, with a flower in her hair, plucking the weeds in her garden." The girl looked up. "It was Ida, of course." Gwendolyn Brooks's bet: "She could dance on a moonbeam."

Yeah, she did live to the ripe old age of eighty-seven, but it doesn't cut the mustard, Charlie. I still see that girl in the maroon smock who liked yellow daisies.

Each week, there is a fresh bunch of yellow daisies near the windowsill. On the sill is the urn with her ashes. On occasion, either indignant about something or somewhat enthused, I mumble toward it (her): "Whaddya thinking of that, kid?" her way of seeing things had always been so clear-eyed.…

(12:33–13:23) Music:
"Can The Circle Be Unbroken (Bye & Bye)" from Columbia Country Classics, Vol. 1: The Golden Age, recorded by The Carter Family in 1935.

One of America's most influential families in bluegrass and country music, The Carter Family originally was comprised of three members: A.P. (Alvin Pleasant), Sara, and Maybelle. They gained national recognition for their 1927 "Bristol Sessions." National Public Radio's Bob Edwards conducted a delightful segment on the first family of country music in 2002, replete with recordings and discussion with a Carter family biographer, Mark Zwonitzer. The lyrics of the original version of "Can the Circle Be Unbroken" follow:

I was standing by the window
On one cold and cloudy day
And I saw the hearse come rolling
For to carry my mother away

Refrain:
Can the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky

Lord, I told the undertaker
Undertaker, please drive slow
For this body you are hauling
How I hate to see her go

I followed close beside her
Tried to hold up and be brave
But I could not hide my sorrow
When they laid her in the grave

Went back home Lord my home was lonesome
Missd my mother she was gone
All my brothers sisters crying
What a home so sad and lone

(14:44–15:19) Music:
"The Dancing Girl" from Tabula Rasa, performed by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt with Bela Fleck and Jie Bing Chen

(15:06) Reading from Interview with Delbert Tibbs
Delbert Lee Tibbs is an African-American man who was convicted of rape and murder by a Florida jury in 1974, and was sentenced to be executed. Two years later, Tibbs' conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court and he was released from prison. The following edited passage of Tibbs' interview with Terkel was excerpted from Will the Circle Be Unbroken, of which the complete, unedited version can be read in its entirety:

When I meet people now, if they try to make a big deal about me having been on death row, I sometimes gently remind them that we're all on death row. The difference is that here the state's gonna do it, and at some point you're gonna know the date and the hour, but that's the only difference.

…

I believe life is endless. We can't talk about life without talking about death; we can't talk about death without talking about life. I was listening to the Dalai Lama, I read his autobiography, and he says that Buddhists often meditate on death. That's total anathema to the Western mind, right? I think it has something to do with Greek culture, with its bifurcation of existence—this is life and this is death. I learned to meditate before I went to death row. That's one of the things that helped get me through, but it was very difficult.

…

What I've discovered is: All of the holy books are marvelous, absolutely so, including the Bible. The Bible has the most beautiful language of any book I have ever read. Not to mention the fact that there's something there. God is there. But I really do believe He's hidden. I believe the Jewish mystics who went into the kabala know that. … The Bhagavad Gita is the bible to three hundred million Indians and others who are not Indians. Thoreau and Emerson read it. Krishna says there never was a time when you and I did not exist, and there will never be a time when we cease to be. He said, "This body wears out, like garments, and when a garment wears out, you take it off and you lay it down, and you pick up another one and put it on."

One of the terrible things about executions is to jump people off into the universe like that. I think for a soul to be wrenched from the body is for that soul to be in anger and in pain and in hatred. I believe it impacts negatively on our world, that probably a lot of the calamities that happen are a result of that sort of thing. I mourn for the whole world because it's such a horrible place so often.

(17:15–17:40) Music:
"The Dancing Girl" from Tabula Rasa, performed by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt with Bela Fleck and Jie Bing Chen

(18:20) Citation of Gary Wills
Gary Wills published Under God: Religion and American Politics in 1990.

(21:06–21:43) Music:
"Second Time Around" from Appalachian Journey, performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor

(21:39) Reading from Interview with Vernon Jarrett
Vernon Jarrett was one of the nation's foremost newspaper, television and radio commentators on race relations, politics, urban affairs and African-American history. He wrote for several Chicago newspapers and founded the the National Association of Black Journalists. The following edited passage of Jarrett's interview with Terkel was excerpted from Will the Circle Be Unbroken, of which the complete, unedited version can be read in its entirety:

The question reoccurred when my son died. I had a hard time, even when I was a strict churchgoer, believing that a loving God— a God that everybody says is such a loving God—would make sinners burn forever. I remember one time I burned my finger on the stove when I was a kid, and I said, "Oh, this is awful!" I said, "I wonder what it must be like to burn for an eternity…" … I used to have conversations with God. I'd say, "Why would you do a thing like that?"

…

I took a vow at his [Jarrett's father] coffin … that I had to do something with my life as a perpetuation of his. That's what I think really counts the most. I'm doing the same thing with my son. Much of what I do is on behalf of my son. I do a lot of volunteer stuff with kids, and it's really in his memory.

…

I wish I were wrong about my doubts. That I'd never, never, never see my son again…

…
I have a tombstone. I want my name on it! I want to be buried next to my son. There's an old black spiritual that says, "This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine …" Right now! Since we don't know the truth about any of this, you better let your little light shine right now.

(22:55–25:18) Music:
"This Little Light" from I'm Gonna Let It Shine, performed by Bill Harley

(26:40) Interview with Bertrand Russell
The audio clip of Studs Terkel interviewing the mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1962 was excerpted from Voices of Our Time: Five Decades of Studs Terkel Interviews by HighBridge Audio.

(29:24) Vonnegut and Secular Humanism
Secular humanism is an outlook or philosophy that advocates human rather than religious values. A belief in a deity and an afterlife generally is not considered important, with many followers being agnostic or atheistic. Because most secular humanists hold that there is no afterlife and therefore no salvation, one realizes his or her potential through working for the greater good of humanity. Ethical awareness and social action are of utmost importance. The scientific method plays an important role in secular humanism by helping explain reasons for wrongdoing and insufferable actions rather than attributing them to supernatural forces such as evil.

Read the complete interview with the writer Kurt Vonnegut that was published in Terkel's Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

(29:37) Reading from Introduction of Book
Krista quotes a sentence from Terkel's introduction to Will the Circle Be Unbroken? An extended excerpt follows:

Those memories of streetcar grief came back to me when Antoinette Korotko-Hatch, a woman I was interviewing for this book, described an incident on a bus in which she came to the aid of a man having a heart attack. "People on the bus," she said, "were mumbling about being late to work. I told the driver, 'Get these people off the bus, tell them to take another one.'" The man, she told me, though in pain, "didn't want to be trouble." He was embarrassed that he was "holding up the whole bus."

That man's embarrassment touched off the memory of that nineteen-year-old boy so uncomfortable at daring to grieve out loud for his father. Everything about this book became, unexpectedly for me, a journey into long-suppressed memories and all sorts of ambivalences in feeling of which I wasn't aware.

(34:29–35:09) Music:
"Gymnopédies (3), for piano (Gymnopédie No. 02)" from After the Rain… The Soft Sounds of Erik Satie, performed by Pascal Rogé

(35:44) Reference to Bughouse Square
Terkel likens Chicago's Bughouse Square, located in Washington Square next the Newberry Library, to Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park. It is a symbolic place for free speech where Chicagoans held public debates and discussions from the 1890s to 1964, when Mayor Daley had it closed. Debates have still traditionally been held the last Saturday of July every year, with Studs Terkel presiding as key speaker.

Listen to Terkel describe the aura of Bughouse Square and recollect watching Lucy Parsons speak about the Haymarket bombing of 1886.

(37:38) Year of the Titanic
Terkel was born in May 1912, the same year that the Titanic sank. He is often quoted as saying: "The year the Titanic went down, I came up." He was born in New York to a tailor, Sam, and a seamstress, Anna. They relocated to Chicago eight years later and settled on Chicago's Near North Side. Here his parents ran a boarding house and met a diversity of people who would have a formative influence on him. He took on the name "Studs" at this time, which was adopted from the title character of James Farrell's Studs Lonigan.

(40:29–41:11) Music:
"Second Time Around" from Appalachian Journey, performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor

(42:07–42:30) Music:
"Yashi No Mi (The Coconut Shell)" from Song of the Seashore and Other Melodies of Japan, performed by James Galway

(42:27) Audio of Interview with Tammy Snider
The audio clip of Terkel's 1997 interview with Hiroshima survivor, Hideko Tamura (Tammy) Snider, was excerpted from online audio interviews obtained from the Studs Terkel Web site of The Chicago Historical Society. You can also read her complete interview published in Will the Circle Be Unbroken?.

(44:05–45:03) Music:
"Yashi No Mi (The Coconut Shell)" from Song of the Seashore and Other Melodies of Japan, performed by James Galway

(48:04–48:31) Music:
"Butterfly's Day Out" from Appalachia Waltz, performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor

(48:23) Reading from Uta Hagen Interview
Krista reads a passage from Terkel's published interview with Uta Hagen, which can be read in its entirety:

Terkel: When you say God, you're referring to art … ?

Hagen: I am, I am. That I am truly religious about. Oh my God, I think that the faith, the miracle of creation is what a human being is capable of communicating. It's not a private thing, it has to be communicated. Which is what I love about art—that you pass on, you make an offering of your spirit to somebody else hoping that it will help them, enlighten them, make them laugh, make them cry. These are things that make our lives worth living as far as I'm concerned. To me, that's art. That's my religion.

What I've never understood is people who have survived, let's say, the Holocaust or any experience of suffering, of deprival, of terrifying loneliness. My life has been so rich, and I demand a lot of it—so that I think if I really lost what is important to me, if I were incapable of enjoying what is meaningful to me in life, I don't think I would want to live. I've never understood people who want to live in spite of … that is, to me, amazing. I've always prayed to God that I will die fast: in a car, or an airplane, or in my sleep. That would be the loveliest.

(49:52–51:36) Music:
"Vissi D'arte, Vissi D'amore" from Act II of Puccini's Tosca on La Divina, performed by Maria Callas

(51:36–52:39) Music:
"Sweet Home Chicago" from King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. 2, performed by Robert Johnson