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|image = [[File:Trotsky-mexico.jpg|360px|center]] | |||
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|title = The Death Of Trotsky | |title = [https://www.joefrank.com/shop/death-of-trotsky-the/ The Death Of Trotsky] [https://www.joefrank.com/streaming/shows/?jfsearch=trotsky] | ||
|titlestyle = | |titlestyle = | ||
|header1 = Series | |header1 = Series | ||
|data2 = [[WBAI And NPR Playhouse]] | |data2 = [[WBAI And NPR Playhouse]] | ||
|header3 = Original Broadcast Date | |header3 = Original Broadcast Date | ||
|data4 = 1979 | |data4 = 4/3/[[:Category:1979|1979]] | ||
|header5 = Cast | |header5 = Cast | ||
|data6 = Joe Frank | |data6 = Joe Frank | ||
|header7 = Format | |header7 = Format | ||
|data8 = | |data8 = 60 minutes | ||
|header9 = Chronology | |header9 = Chronology | ||
|label10= Preceded by: | |label10= Preceded by: | ||
|label11= Followed by: | |label11= Followed by: | ||
|data10 = [[ | |data10 = [[Till You're Gone]] | ||
|data11 = [[ | |data11 = [[Arena]] | ||
}} | }} | ||
'' | ''The bus leaves in the evening from the Buena Vista station, crosses 27 bridges to the valley of the crumbs.'' | ||
'''The Death Of Trotsky''' is | '''The Death Of Trotsky''' is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series [[WBAI And NPR Playhouse|NPR Options]]. It was originally broadcast in [[:Category:1979|1979]]. | ||
== Synopsis == | == Synopsis == | ||
"Spring Is Here" (Wendy Waldman) | |||
0:30: 'The bus leaves in the evening…' Joe describes what he sees on a bus ride from Mexico City, ends with, 'I'll take you to the prison, to the fortress on the hillside, where the martyrs of the movement gaze out into the plain, scarlet blossoms warm and bleeding, falling in the courtyard, are gathered by the wind and washed by the rain and the nails are for the body and the body for the tree and the tree is deeply rooted at the bottom of the sea.' | 0:30: 'The bus leaves in the evening…' Joe describes what he sees on a bus ride from Mexico City, ends with, 'I'll take you to the prison, to the fortress on the hillside, where the martyrs of the movement gaze out into the plain, scarlet blossoms warm and bleeding, falling in the courtyard, are gathered by the wind and washed by the rain and the nails are for the body and the body for the tree and the tree is deeply rooted at the bottom of the sea.'<ref>Joe re-uses this again at 41:10 and the end. I don't know what it means. </ref> | ||
1:30: | 1:30: "Solea" (Miles Davis) | ||
2:10: Joe tells a fictionalized account of Trotsky's assassination, beginning with the assassin's arrival by ship in Vera Cruz. He calls the assassin 'Jackson Mornard'. <ref>Trotsky's assassin, Ramón Mercader, had used the pseudonyms 'Jacques Mornard' (son of a Belgian diplomat) and 'Frank Jackson' (a Canadian engineer) on this mission, was sometimes referred to as 'Mornard-Jackson', a double last name, retrospectively, so as to make sure everybody knew whom they were talking about. | 2:10: Joe tells a fictionalized account of Trotsky's assassination, beginning with the assassin's arrival by ship in Vera Cruz. He calls the assassin 'Jackson Mornard'.<ref>Trotsky's assassin, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%B3n_Mercader Ramón Mercader], had used the pseudonyms 'Jacques Mornard' (son of a Belgian diplomat) and 'Frank Jackson' (a Canadian engineer) on this mission, was sometimes referred to as 'Mornard-Jackson', a double last name, retrospectively, so as to make sure everybody knew whom they were talking about. | ||
* [https://oncubanews.com/en/world/ramon-mercader-mission-of-silence/ "Ramón Mercader, mission of silence"] | |||
https://oncubanews.com/en/world/ramon-mercader-mission-of-silence/ | |||
I recommend visiting Trotsky's house in Mexico City when you're in town. It's a museum of sorts; the chipped spots made by gunfire have been left. | I recommend visiting Trotsky's house in Mexico City when you're in town. It's a museum of sorts; the chipped spots made by gunfire have been left. | ||
</ref> | </ref> | ||
8: 'The nausea never leaves...' Joe tells receiving radiation treatment. <ref>This could have been like the treatment for testicular cancer Joe had in his 20s.</ref> | 8: 'The nausea never leaves...' Joe tells receiving radiation treatment.<ref>This could have been like the treatment for testicular cancer Joe had in his 20s.</ref> | ||
9:10: Joe visits the grave of his father in Barcelona. <ref>Mercader was born in Barcelona.</ref> Joe imagines being buried. | 9:10: Joe visits the grave of his father in Barcelona.<ref>Mercader was born in Barcelona.</ref> Joe imagines being buried. | ||
11:50: Mornard makes the acquaintance of Trotsky's personal secretary, Sylvia Adelman. <ref>Mercader got into a relationship with a Trotskyite New Yorker, Sylvia Ageloff, whose sister Rita was one of Trotsky's personal secretaries in Mexico City, through whom he hoped to get to Trotsky.</ref> | 11:50: Mornard makes the acquaintance of Trotsky's personal secretary, Sylvia Adelman.<ref>Mercader got into a relationship with a Trotskyite New Yorker, Sylvia Ageloff, whose sister Rita was one of Trotsky's personal secretaries in Mexico City, through whom he hoped to get to Trotsky.</ref> | ||
20:20: Joe recites the 'nada' poem from Hemingway's | 20:20: Joe recites the 'nada' poem from Hemingway's "A Clean Well Lighted Place". | ||
21:10: Joe goes to his therapist; Joe fears nothingness; the therapist tells him he thinks too much; Joe recites the 'nada' poem again. The therapist then takes off on Macbeth's 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow' soliloquy <ref> which Joe quoted at the end of [[Tomorrow]]</ref> and complains of how badly therapists are treated. | 21:10: Joe goes to his therapist; Joe fears nothingness; the therapist tells him he thinks too much; Joe recites the 'nada' poem again. The therapist then takes off on Macbeth's 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow' soliloquy<ref> which Joe quoted at the end of [[Tomorrow]]</ref> and complains of how badly therapists are treated. | ||
24:35: Mornard gains the confidence of those around Trotsky while losing confidence in his mission. | 24:35: Mornard gains the confidence of those around Trotsky while losing confidence in his mission. | ||
28:30: Joe tells us about (Søren) Kierkegaard <ref>the 19<sup>th</sup>-century Danish philosopher. Among other books, he wrote <i>Either/or</i>, was the source of the title for that episode of Joe's shows. He's also mentioned in [[At The Border]], [[Mystery]], and [[Bitter Pill]]</ref> and the dilemma of whether he should marry the woman he loves.<ref>This was a significant dilemma for Kierkegaard.</ref> He works out to develop the strength to make the necessary leap of faith to believe in God. It fails. | 28:30: Joe tells us about (Søren) Kierkegaard<ref>the 19<sup>th</sup>-century Danish philosopher. Among other books, he wrote <i>Either/or</i>, was the source of the title for that episode of Joe's shows. He's also mentioned in [[At The Border]], [[Mystery]], and [[Bitter Pill]]</ref> and the dilemma of whether he should marry the woman he loves.<ref>This was a significant dilemma for Kierkegaard.</ref> He works out to develop the strength to make the necessary leap of faith to believe in God. It fails. | ||
31:30: Trotsky's guards get used to Mornard from his daily trips to bring Sylvia.<ref>This is like what Mercader did.</ref> | 31:30: Trotsky's guards get used to Mornard from his daily trips to bring Sylvia.<ref>This is like what Mercader did.</ref> | ||
| Line 66: | Line 62: | ||
42:10: Joe wants to believe in something beyond himself and his loved ones; sometimes he feels the need to pray. | 42:10: Joe wants to believe in something beyond himself and his loved ones; sometimes he feels the need to pray. | ||
42:40: Joe goes to the golf club with his grandfather, a survivor of the Holocaust. <ref>Fictional; Joe's mother's father died in 1936; his biological father's father must have been long dead; his stepfather's father was an American.</ref> They both play poorly. | 42:40: Joe goes to the golf club with his grandfather, a survivor of the Holocaust.<ref>Fictional; Joe's mother's father died in 1936; his biological father's father must have been long dead; his stepfather's father was an American.</ref> They both play poorly. | ||
43:50: Joe sees a small building that looks like a ruined temple. He goes in, sees his grandfather, who thinks he's pregnant. | 43:50: Joe sees a small building that looks like a ruined temple. He goes in, sees his grandfather, who thinks he's pregnant. | ||
| Line 72: | Line 68: | ||
45: Mornard is convicted, given 20 years.<ref>This was Mercader's sentence. He survived and returned to the Soviet Union, lived there and Cuba until his death in 1978.</ref> | 45: Mornard is convicted, given 20 years.<ref>This was Mercader's sentence. He survived and returned to the Soviet Union, lived there and Cuba until his death in 1978.</ref> | ||
46: | 46: "Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue C major" BWV 564, JS Bach. | ||
46:40: Joe says all the accused in the Soviet show trials 1936-8 confessed. <ref>True, I think. Koestler's <i>Darkness | 46:40: Joe says all the accused in the Soviet show trials 1936-8 confessed.<ref>True, I think. Koestler's <i>Darkness at noon</i> captures the psychology of this.</ref> Joe talks about the value of confession, that we have a compulsion for it greater than any other, because we all want redemption.<ref>The President rehearses this notion in [[A Tour Of The City (Part 1)]]; Vorst does in [[Nightride]].</ref> | ||
48:40: Mornard did not confess. | 48:40: Mornard did not confess. | ||
| Line 80: | Line 76: | ||
48:50: Mariachi music. | 48:50: Mariachi music. | ||
49:10: Dostoevsky once said that if God didn't exist, everything would be possible. Joe attributes Nazi Germany's nihilism to this, quotes a letter Camus wrote to a German friend that concludes, 'human beings created by their very despair at their not existing'. <ref>I can't find this quote, don't think it sounds like Camus, but more like Sartre.</ref> | 49:10: Dostoevsky once said that if God didn't exist, everything would be possible. Joe attributes Nazi Germany's nihilism to this, quotes a letter Camus wrote to a German friend that concludes, 'human beings created by their very despair at their not existing'.<ref>I can't find this quote, don't think it sounds like Camus, but more like Sartre.</ref> | ||
50:10: God does not exist. Joe attributes his death to Nietzsche, says he was arrested for the murder, put under the care of Jung… eventually Freud gets invoked. | 50:10: God does not exist. Joe attributes his death to Nietzsche, says he was arrested for the murder, put under the care of Jung… eventually Freud gets invoked. | ||
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:100%; overflow:auto;"> | <div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:100%; overflow:auto;"> | ||
<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Legacy | <div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Legacy Synopsis</div> | ||
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"> | <div class="mw-collapsible-content"> | ||
*Fictionalized, third-person account of Trotsky's assassin, cut with assorted other events. | *Fictionalized, third-person account of Trotsky's assassin, cut with assorted other events. | ||
| Line 113: | Line 109: | ||
*Trotsky's killer leads a revolutionary cadre into the woods, becomes lost, discovers that their side has already won and become corrupt, and captures dissidents. | *Trotsky's killer leads a revolutionary cadre into the woods, becomes lost, discovers that their side has already won and become corrupt, and captures dissidents. | ||
</div></div> | </div></div> | ||
== Music == | == Music == | ||
{{Music-Stub}} | |||
{{Spring Is Here (Wendy Waldman)}} [Intro] | |||
{{Xibaba (Donald Byrd)}} [1:37] | |||
{{Ay Jalisco No Te Rajas (Mariachi Miguel Dias)}} [3:46] {{Unidentified|id=drone track [8:07 & 20:44]}} | |||
{{Nostalgia Flamenca (The Fabulous Sabicas)}} [12:36] {{Unidentified|id=Mangled orchestra [35:50] [https://jfwiki.org/Unidentified_Music/tmangle.mp3 tmangle.mp3]}} | |||
{{Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C Major, BWV 564: Fugue (J.S. Bach)}} [47:15] | |||
== Additional credits == | |||
The original broadcast credits state: "Directed by [[Arthur Miller]] with sound by [[David Rapkin]]. This program was written and produced by Joe Frank." | |||
<!-- transcribed from original NPR Options broadcast recording. Elided "this program is available on cassette" --> | |||
== | == Miscellanea == | ||
* The [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/124704-our-nada-who-art-in-nada-nada-be-thy-name nada prayer] appears in Ernest Hemingway's short story "A Clean Well Lighted Place" | |||
* '''The Death Of Trotsky''' won an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Howard_Armstrong_award Armstrong Award].<ref>Harrington, Richard (April 5, 1983). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/04/05/joe-frank-dramas-with-a-twist-for-npr/1dfa407f-b1d4-4649-b4e8-09d1d3419104 "Joe Frank: Dramas With a Twist for NPR"]. ''The Washington Post''.</ref> | |||
== External links == | |||
== External | * [https://thevelvetrocket.com/2014/02/03/leon-trotskys-home-in-mexico-city/ Trotsky's house] | ||
[https://thevelvetrocket.com/2014/02/03/leon-trotskys-home-in-mexico-city/ Trotsky's house] | * [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/13/trotsky-ice-axe-murder-mexico-city Bloodstained ice axe used to kill Trotsky emerges after decades in the shadows] | ||
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/13/trotsky-ice-axe-murder-mexico-city Bloodstained ice axe used to kill Trotsky emerges after decades in the shadows] | |||
== Footnotes == | == Footnotes == | ||
<div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> | <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> | ||
[[Category:Absurd_Monologue]] | [[Category:Absurd_Monologue]] | ||
[[Category:Narrative_Monologue]] | [[Category:Narrative_Monologue]] | ||
[[Category:Sound_Effects]] | [[Category:Sound_Effects]] | ||
[[Category:1979]] | [[Category:1979]] | ||
[[Category:Arthur Miller]] | |||
[[Category:David Rapkin]] | |||
[[Category:Show|Death]] | |||
[[Category:Show_by_date|19790403]] {{Airdate|airdate=1979-04-03}} | |||
[[Category:WBAI And NPR Playhouse]] | |||
{{Series|series=WBAI And NPR Playhouse}}{{Cast|cast=Joe Frank}} | |||