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[QUOTE]Originally posted by palmland: [QB] Our discussion on the Pullman Co. now takes a turn into entertainment. Opening this week in Washington is a new play 'Pullman Porter Blues'. Although some feel the term Porter is not P.C., here it's use is certainly appropriate to properly tell the story of porters on the Panama Limited in 1937, which is roughly the same route and schedule as that used now by the Pullman Co. on the CONO. Here are some comments from the review posted that can be found at [URL=http://trn.trains.com/en/Railroad%20News/News%20Wire/2012/12/Entertainment%20News%20Exclusive%20Pullman%20Porter%20Blues%20Review.aspx]Trains.com[/URL] "The action takes place on the southbound run of the the Illinois Central’s Chicago-to-New Orleans Panama Limited on the night of June 27, 1937, the night of an historic heavyweight prize fight between Joe Lewis and James Braddock. In between various diversions that include bombastic and gregarious female blues singer Sister Juba (played by E. Faye Butler) and a backing band, a stowaway passenger, and a tipsy and troublemaking conductor, the main thrust of the story revolves around a combination of intergenerational strife between the three generations of porters and the still-evolving face of both labor relations and civil rights of African-Americans during the turbulent pre-World War II era. (The Pullman Co. granted recognition to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters with a collective bargaining agreement in August 1937, less than two months after the play's setting.) Tex, the train's conductor, spares no effort to remind the porters of their second-rate status, on the train or off it, even as the family argues over whether Cephas should return to college to pursue his studies, an opportunity the older men have worked hard to assure that he would have, at one of the few lucrative jobs available to blacks in the era. Playwright West certainly did not intend for this play to be a documentary, but at the same time the play relies heavily upon the train and Pullman for the story and setting............. The play is note perfect. At times it appears to be trying to decide whether to be a musical or a play about issues and conflict. The dialogue is also a bit forced or stilted, and the play ends abruptly, before the train even reaches New Orleans. The distraction of bold musical performances of blues standards aside, "Pullman Porter Blues" joins the expanding inventory of overdue examinations of the African-American railroading experience. Pullman Porter Blues appears through Jan. 6 at the Arena Stage Kreeger Theater, 1101 Sixth Street SW, Washington, D.C., 20024. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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