Browsing Category Lifestyle and Culture

Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford were on Oprah today.  It was their first interview together, 37 years after starring in the classic film The Way We Were.  

For my two cents, today’s program proves that Oprah did not exaggerate when she said that this – the final year for her show – would feature the best programs she has ever broadcast.  When the show goes off the air in 2011, there will certainly be a huge void left by a quality program that is as equally entertaining as it is informative. 

But back to today’s show.  As Oprah interviewed the two stars, scenes from their 1973 romantic/drama were being projected in the background, reminding viewers like me that The Way We Were was, and always will be, one of my favorite tearjerker films.  And the sound track — OMG!    

I own numerous Streisand CDs, several of them include Barbra belting out the title song.  And I am suddenly reminded that I should probably upgrade my VHS copy of the movie to a DVD.  Barbra failed to win the Best Actress award for which she was nominated for that film, but The Way We Were took the Oscar for the Best Music/Original Song.  

If you are a boomer and you never saw the movie (Where the heck were you? There are only two acceptable excuses for you not seeing it – you were among the last U.S. soldiers in Vietnam or you were in jail stateside for social protesting.).  So, if you didn’t see the film back in the day, then rent it and weep.  You will see why it won two of the six Oscars for which it was nominated and numerous other awards, and why baby boomers, particularly women, loved the film.  If you saw it, see it again for old time’s sake.  It will help you remember The Way We Were when the world was a safer, saner, and more civil place.

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On this day in 1960 – Lucille and Abon Bridges, the parents of Ruby Bridges, responded to the call of the NAACP and volunteered their six year old  daughter to participate in the integration of the New Orleans School System.  Protected by U.S. Marshals, Rudy was the lone black child to enroll at the William Frantz Elementary School and the first black child to attend an all white elementary school in the south. As the Marshals led Rudy into the school, crowds of angry whites threw tomatoes and other objects at the young girl and called her names. Once she was inside white parents began withdrawing their children from the school. White teachers at the school quit their jobs rather than teach a black student. Only one white teacher, Barbara Henry, from Boston, a newcomer to the city and the school, was willing to teach Rudy. For over a year Rudy was the only student in Mrs. Henry’s class and just like her young student, each day the teacher had to pass through mobs of protesters shouting racist insults and threats.  Rudy’s first school day was depicted by artist Norman Rockwell in a famous painting  titled The Problem We All Live With.  Life Magazine published a two-page illustration of the painting in 1964.  It is one of Rockwell’s most famous works.

In 1995, Rudy worked as a volunteer at Frantz, her old alma mater, that’s when Robert Coles was inspired to publish The Story of Ruby Bridges, a children’s book about her. It was the first book of its kind, to take a subject like racism and try to explain it to children. The book became a bestseller.

In 1996, 35 years after she integrated Frantz, Rudy reunited with her former teacher, Barbara Henry, on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 1999, Rudy published Through My Eyes, her own account of her days at Frantz. The book won numerous literary prizes.

In October, 2006, the city of Alameda Unified School District dedicated a new elementary school to Ruby Bridges, and issued a proclamation in her honor.

Ruby Bridges, now Ruby Bridges Hall, still lives in New Orleans.