Now, who's Birdie?

Thur., July 6, 1933 - Mom brought us back this a.m. by 6:30.  Beth Herter, Mrs. Smith's sister, came here today.  Tonite Alma, Gerald and I went with Uncle Chris when he took Birdie to Wakefield.  Gerald and I entertained Alma with songs about the cat and worms!! She tried to choke us but failed in the attempt.
Fri., July 7, 1933 - We had a test in Theory today.  We've been trying to persuade Alma to attend school the second semester but so far we haven't succeeded.  She thinks her folks will want her home the rest of the summer.
Sat., July 8, 1933 - Several in different classes were absent today, but I surely wouldn't miss on a make-up day.  Helen Kilmer came tonite to visit.  Alma and I went down town tonite.  We met John and he took us to the show "Gabriel Over the White House".  Alma and I slept on the front room floor tonite for fun.

Summer school can be difficult enough to go to on a good day, but to have to go on a Saturday to make up for the 4th . . . ouch.  But I can easily believe that Grandma would go.  I didn't know the 21-year-old Grandma but the one I did know would definitely take such a thing seriously.

" . . the cat and worms!!"  I really don't know what to say to that.

And seriously, who is Birdie, if anyone knows?

I don't think I will go out of my way to see this movie; it seems a bit nuts.  From wikipedia:

     Gabriel Over the White House is a 1933 American Pre-Code film starring Walter Huston that has been variously described as a "bizarre political fantasy" or a "comedy drama" that "is surprisingly socialist in tone (albeit veering toward National Socialism)" and which "posits a favorable view of fascism."

     The movie was directed by Gregory La Cava, produced by Walter Wanger and written by Carey Wilson based upon the novel Rinehard by Thomas Frederic Tweed, who did not receive screen credit, and received the financial backing and creative input of William Randolph Hearst.

     When the film opens, U.S. President Judson C. 'Judd' Hammond (Huston) (possibly a reference to Judson Harmon) is variously described as "a Hoover-like partisan hack" or "basically a do-nothing crook, based on, to some extent, Warren G. Harding." Then he suffers a near-fatal automobile accident and goes into a coma. Through what Portland State University instructor Dennis Grunes calls "possible divine intervention," Hammond (an "FDR lookalike") miraculously recovers, emerging "a changed man, an activist politician, a Roosevelt."

     President Hammond makes "a political U-turn," purging his entire cabinet of "big-business lackeys." When Congress impeaches him, he responds by dissolving the legislative branch, assuming the “temporary” power to make laws as he "transforms himself into an all-powerful dictator."  He orders the formation of a new “Army of Construction” answerable only to him, spends billions on one New Deal–like program after another, and nationalizes the manufacture and sale of alcohol.

     The reborn Hammond's policies include "suspension of civil rights and the imposition of martial law by presidential fiat." He "tramples on civil liberties," "revokes the Constitution, becomes a reigning dictator," and employs "brown-shirted storm troopers" led by the President's top aide, Hartley 'Beek' Beekman (Tone). When he meets with resistance (admittedly, from the organized crime syndicate of ruthless Al Capone analog Nick Diamond), the President "suspends the law to arrest and execute 'enemies of the people' as he sees fit to define them," with Beekman handing "down death sentences in his military star chamber" in a "show trial that resembles those designed to please a Stalin, a Hitler or a Chairman Mao," after which the accused are immediately lined up against a wall behind the courthouse and "executed by firing squad." By threatening world war with America’s newest and most deadly secret weapon, Hammond then blackmails the world into disarmament, ushering in global peace.

     The film is unique in that, by revoking the Constitution, etc., President Hammond does not become a villain, but a hero who "solves all of the nation's problems," "bringing peace to the country and the world," and is universally acclaimed “one of the greatest presidents who ever lived.” The Library of Congress comments:  “The good news: he reduces unemployment, lifts the country out of the Depression, battles gangsters and Congress, and brings about world peace. The bad news: he's Mussolini.”

     Controversial since the time of its release, Gabriel Over the White House is widely acknowledged to be an example of totalitarian propaganda. Tweed, the author of the original novel, was a "liberal champion of government activism" and trusted adviser to David Lloyd George, the Liberal Prime Minister who brought Bismarck's welfare state to the United Kingdom. The decision to buy the story was made by producer Walter Wanger, variously described as "a liberal Democrat" or a "liberal Hollywood mogul." After two weeks of script preparation, Wanger secured the financial backing of media magnate William Randolph Hearst, one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's staunchest supporters, who had helped him get the Democratic presidential nomination and who enlisted his entire media empire to campaign for him. Hearst intended the film to be a tribute to FDR and an attack on previous Republican administrations.

     Although an internal MGM synopsis had labeled the script "wildly reactionary and radical to the nth degree," studio boss Louis B. Mayer "learned only when he attended the Glendale, California preview that Hammond gradually turns America into a dictatorship," writes film historian Leonard J. Leff. "Mayer was furious, telling his lieutenant, 'Put that picture back in its can, take it back to the studio, and lock it up!'"

See what I mean?  Nuts.