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== Themes and cultural effect == === Race === Part of the reason why ''South Pacific'' is considered a classic is its confrontation of racism. According to professor [[Philip Beidler]], "Rodgers and Hammerstein's attempt to use the Broadway theater to make a courageous statement against racial bigotry in general and [[institutional racism]] in the postwar United States in particular" forms part of ''South Pacific''<nowiki/>'s legend.<ref>Beidler, p. 213</ref> Although ''Tales of the South Pacific'' treats the question of racism, it does not give it the central place that it takes in the musical. Andrea Most, writing on the "politics of race" in ''South Pacific'', suggests that in the late 1940s, American liberals, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, turned to the fight for racial equality as a practical means of advancing their progressive views without risking being deemed communists.<ref>Most, pp. 308β309</ref> [[Trevor Nunn]], director of the 2001 West End production, notes the importance of the fact that Nellie, a southerner, ends the play about to be the mother in an interracial family: "It's being performed in America in 1949. That's the resonance."<ref name = "b8" /> From the early drafts, Hammerstein and Logan made the issue of racial prejudice central to the story. Hammerstein repeatedly rewrote the Act II backstage scene where Emile, Nellie and Cable confront the question of the Americans' racism.<ref name = "racial" /> As critic Robert Butler pointed out in his educational companion to the 2001 London production, "if one young person has a prejudice, it might be a character flaw; if two young people share a prejudice, it tells us something about the society in which they grew up".<ref name = "b3" /> In one draft, Emile advises that the Americans are no better than the Axis Powers, in their prejudice, and suggests they go home to sing songs about how all are created free and equal. Lovensheimer states that a postwar American audience would have found such onstage sentiments to be offensive. In the staged version, Emile's expressions are limited to two lines arguing that prejudice is not inborn.<ref name = "racial">Lovensheimer, pp. 97β98</ref> [[File:Happy Talk.jpg|thumb|alt=A crouching man in military uniform watches a young woman and a middle-aged one make hand gestures to him|right|"[[Happy Talk (song)|Happy Talk]]": Cable ([[William Tabbert]]) watches Liat ([[Betta St. John]]) and Bloody Mary ([[Juanita Hall|Hall]]).]] At the heart of this scene is Cable's song "[[You've Got to Be Carefully Taught]]", in which Cable realizes the sources of his own racism. Its frank lyrics made it perhaps the most controversial element of the show.<ref>Most, p. 307</ref> Michener recalled in his memoirs that a delegation of New Englanders had approached him after a New Haven tryout and urged him to recommend the song's removal to Rodgers and Hammerstein. When Michener told Hammerstein, he laughed and replied, "That's what the show is about!"<ref>Michener 1992, pp. 294β295</ref> Boston drama critic Elliot Norton, after seeing the show in tryouts, strongly recommended its removal, or at least that Cable sing it less "briskly", as there was much bigotry in Boston; Logan replied that this was all the more reason for leaving it unaltered.<ref name="M162">Maslon, p. 162</ref> Several New York reviewers expressed discomfort with the song; [[Wolcott Gibbs]] wrote of "something called 'You've Got to Be Taught', a poem in praise of tolerance that somehow I found a little embarrassing" while [[John Mason Brown]] opined that he was "somewhat distressed by the dragged-in didacticism of such a plea for tolerance as 'You've Got to Be Taught'".<ref>Lovensheimer, pp. 85β86</ref> After the Broadway opening, Hammerstein received a large number of letters concerning "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught". Judging by the letters that remain among his papers in the [[Library of Congress]], the reaction was mixed. One correspondent wrote "What can I say to a man who writes, 'You've got to be taught to hate and fear?' ... Now that I know you, I feel that my informants didn't praise you enough."<ref name="L104">Lovensheimer, p. 104</ref> Nevertheless, another wrote, "I feel the inclusion of the song particularly in the album and to some extent in the show itself is not helpful to the cause of brotherhood, your intent to the contrary notwithstanding".<ref name = "L104" /> When the tour of the show reached a racially segregated theatre in [[Wilmington, Delaware]], Rodgers and Hammerstein threatened to cancel the performances there unless seating was integrated, which it was.<ref name = "M163" /> In 1953, with the tour in Atlanta, there was controversy over "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught". Two Georgia state legislators, Senator John D. Shepard and Representative David C. Jones, objected to the song, stating that though ''South Pacific'' was a fine piece of entertainment, that song "contained an underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow", and explained, "Intermarriage produces half-breeds. And half-breeds are not conducive to the higher type of society. ... In the South, we have pure blood lines and we intend to keep it that way." They stated that they planned to introduce legislation to outlaw such communist-inspired works. The Northern press had a field day; Hammerstein, when asked for comment, responded that he did not think the legislators were representing their constituents very well, and that he was surprised at the suggestion that anything kind and decent must necessarily originate in Moscow.<ref name ="M163">Maslon, p. 163</ref><ref>"[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/03/01/93397165.pdf Georgia legislators score ''South Pacific''; see Red philosophy in song against bias]", ''[[The New York Times]]'', March 1, 1953, accessed March 12, 2013 (subscription required)</ref> In part because of the song, touring companies of ''South Pacific'' had difficulty getting bookings in the [[Deep South]].<ref>Hischak, p. 324</ref> [[File:Pinza with kids.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Pinza, in a white suit, walks along holding a mixed-race boy, about 7 or 8 years old, while listening to a slightly older girl who walks next to him.|upright|Emile (Pinza) with his children.]] In the final scene of Act I, Nellie rejects Emile because of his part-Polynesian children. In so doing, Nellie fails to live up to the American ideal that "all men are created equal", which Emile had earlier affirmed.<ref name = "b8">Butler, p. 8</ref> This scene was also toned down by Hammerstein; in early drafts, Nellie, initially unable to force out a word to describe Emile's first wife, after he supplies the word "Polynesian", responds with "colored". This pronouncement, which makes Nellie less sympathetic as a character, was restored for the 2008 Lincoln Center production. As [[Frank Rich]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' commented, "it's upsetting because Nellie isn't some cracker stereotype β she's lovable ... But how can we love a racist?"<ref>Rich, Frank. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/opinion/25rich.html "Memorial Day at ''South Pacific''"], ''The New York Times'', May 25, 2008, accessed August 23, 2020</ref><ref name = "love">Lovensheimer, pp. 90β92</ref> Most argues that even Emile is tainted by racism, as his lifestyle is dependent on the maintenance of a system whereby he benefits from underpaid native labor β Bloody Mary is able to attract workers to make grass skirts for sale to GIs because, as she puts it, "French planters stingy bastards!"<ref>Most, pp. 330β331</ref> === Sex and gender roles === Nellie Forbush, in her journey from Little Rock, Arkansas, to serving as a Navy nurse and on to the domesticity of the final scene of ''South Pacific'', parallels the experience of many American women of the period. They entered the workforce during the war, only to find afterwards a societal expectation that they give up their jobs to men, with their best route to financial security being marriage and becoming a housewife. One means of securing audience acceptance of Nellie's choices was the sanitization of her sexual past from her counterpart in the Michener work β that character had a [[4-F (US Military)|4-F]] boyfriend back in Arkansas and a liaison with Bill Harbison while on the island.<ref>Lovensheimer, pp. 108β109</ref><ref>Michener 1967, p. 106</ref> [[File:Billis and Nellie laundry.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A military scene. A woman dressed as a nurse holds a skirt she has just received from an enlisted man; she is pleased while he appears self-deprecating. Other enlisted men, many bare-chested, watch.|Nellie (Martin) praises the laundry skills of Billis (McCormick) as his friends look on.]] The male characters in ''South Pacific'' are intended to appear conventionally masculine. In the aftermath of World War II, the masculinity of the American soldier was beyond public question. Cable's virility with Liat is made evident to the audience. Although Billis operates a laundry β Nellie particularly praises his pleats β and appears in a grass skirt in the "Thanksgiving Follies", these acts are consistent with his desire for money and are clearly intended to be comic. His interest in the young women on Bali H'ai establishes his masculinity. Lovensheimer writes that Billis is more defined by class than by sexuality, evidenced by the Seabee's assumption, on learning that Cable went to college in New Jersey, that it was [[Rutgers University|Rutgers]] (the state's flagship public university), rather than [[Ivy League]] Princeton, and by his delight on learning that the rescue operation for him had cost $600,000 when his uncle had told him he would never be worth a dime.<ref>Rodgers and Hammerstein, pp. 290, 353</ref><ref>Lovensheimer, pp. 109β111, 142β143</ref> Meryle Secrest, in her biography of Rodgers, theorizes that ''South Pacific'' marks a transition for the pair "between heroes and heroines who are more or less evenly matched in age and stories about powerful older men and the younger women who are attracted to them".<ref>Secrest, p. 294</ref> Lovensheimer points out that this pattern only holds for two of their five subsequent musicals, ''The King and I'' and ''[[The Sound of Music]]'', and in the former, the love between Anna and the King is not expressed in words. He believes a different transition took place: that their plots, beginning with ''South Pacific'', involve a woman needing to enter and accept her love interest's world to be successful and accepted herself. He notes that both ''Oklahoma!'' and ''Carousel'' involve a man entering his wife's world, Curly in ''Oklahoma!'' about to become a farmer with expectations of success, whereas Billy Bigelow in ''Carousel'' fails to find work after leaving his place as a barker. Lovensheimer deems ''Allegro'' to be a transition, where the attempts of the lead female character to alter her husband Joe's world to suit her ambition lead to the breakup of their marriage. He argues that the nurse Emily, who goes with Joe in his return to the small town where he was happy, is a forerunner of Nellie, uprooting her life in Chicago for Joe.<ref>Lovensheimer, pp. 111β115</ref> Secrest notes that much is overlooked in the rush to have love conquer all in ''South Pacific'', "questions of the long-term survival of a marriage between a sophisticate who read Proust at bedtime and a girl who liked Dinah Shore and did not read anything were raised by Nellie Forbush only to be brushed aside. As for the interracial complexities of raising two Polynesian children, all such issues were subsumed in the general euphoria of true love."<ref>Secrest, p. 293</ref> Lovensheimer too wonders how Nellie will fare as the second Madame de Becque: "little Nellie Forbush from Arkansas ends up in a tropical paradise, far from her previous world, with a husband, a servant, and two children who speak a language she does not understand".<ref>Lovensheimer, p. 115</ref> === Cultural effect === [[File:Wash man from hair.jpg|thumb|alt=Martin, wearing a swimsuit, stands in an improvised shower stall as water pours down on her.|right|[[Mary Martin]] washed her hair onstage eight times a week.]] A mammoth hit, ''South Pacific'' sparked huge media and public attention. ''South Pacific'' was one of the first shows for which a variety of souvenirs were available: fans could buy ''South Pacific'' neckties, or for women, lipstick and scarves. Fake ticket stubs could be purchased for use as status symbols.<ref name="M153" /> There were ''South Pacific'' music boxes, dolls, fashion accessories, and even hairbrushes for use after washing men from hair.<ref>Hammerstein, p. 200</ref> Martin's on-stage shower prompted an immediate fashion craze for short hair that could be managed through once-a-day washing at home, rather than in a beauty salon, and for the products which would allow for such care.<ref>Beidler, pp. 116β117</ref> The songs of ''South Pacific'' could be heard on the radio, and they were popular among dance bands and in piano lounges.<ref name="M153" /> Mordden comments that ''South Pacific'' contained nothing but hit songs; Rodgers and Hammerstein's other successful works always included at least one song which did not become popular.<ref>Mordden 1992, p. 120</ref> The cast album, recorded ten days after the show's opening, was an immediate hit. Released by [[Columbia Records]], it spent 69 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard and a total of 400 weeks on the charts, becoming the best-selling record of the 1940s.<ref name="M153" /> It was one of the early [[LP record]]s, with a turntable speed of 33{{frac|1|3}} rpm, and helped to popularize that technology β previously, show albums and operas had been issued on sets of 78 rpm records, with high prices and much less music on a single disc. In the years to come, the LP would become the medium of choice for the "longhair" music niche of show, opera and classical performances.<ref>Beidler, p. 117</ref> An indirect effect of the success of the show was the career of James Michener. His one percent of the show as author of the source material, plus the income from a share which the duo allowed him to buy on credit, made him financially independent and allowed him to quit his job as an editor at Macmillan and to become a full-time writer.<ref>Michener 1992, p. 294</ref><ref>May, pp. 112β125</ref> Over the next five decades, his lengthy, detailed novels centering on different places would dominate the bestseller lists.<ref>May, pp. ixβx</ref>
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