Steve Goddard's History Wire

On the Road Again

Texas's governor Rick Perry has proposed a trans-Texas, 10-lane megahighway at a cost of $175 billion private money over 50 years, reports the Associated Press. And lest people think in terms of descriptive superlatives, it's well to recall a far grander scheme put forth in the 1930s by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The motivation was different. While Perry's 4,000-mile network is designed to help rich businessmen get richer, FDR was reacting to Depression-era joblessness. He proposed the federal government acquire a cross-country swath of land two miles wide, using its powers of condemnation and build a superhighway down the middle. As History Wire's Steve Goddard writes in his book, Getting There:

"FDR sketched out his visionary plan on a map of the United States. He drew a thick black line running west and south from Worcester, Massachusetts, to the Delaware Water Gap, then branching south toward Florida and west toward San Francisco. Professor William Z. Ripley at Harvard (see Chapter 8) had taught Roosevelt in 1903 that land increases dramatically in value when a road is built next to it. Carrying this a step further, Roosevelt proposed that Washington buy a two-mile strip of land coast to coast, snake a highway through the middle of it, and sell the newly valuable adjacent land to developers attracted by the highway's proximity."

As precedent, Britain had called the practice "excess taking" and had used it successfully. But unlike Britain, the United States had adopted a constitution, to protect against arbitrary authority. The practice of eminent domain, or condemnation, had grown up under it to allow government to appropriate land for a necessary public purpose or one that was demonstrably in the public interest. When FDR made his plan public, critics branded it a "socialistic scheme."

Already, Texas citizens have raised an outcry against Gov. Perry's megahighway, saying it would emasculate the environment and wreak havoc with local and regional economies throughout the state. The plan will surely come to court. Stay tuned.

As the Year Turns

History Wire wishes to thank the thousands of readers who have made its 2004 debut a busy and memorable one. We urge you to e-mail us with any suggestions or criticism as to how HW could become a better site. In the meantime, we wish you all a fulfilling, productive and bountiful 2005.

Oldies Take to the Screen

The New Yorker takes us back to Victorian era Paris for its review of Phantom of the Opera -- the movie -- and as a holiday bonus, nods to Will Shakespeare in acknowledging William Radford's take on The Merchant of Venice. As to Phantom:

"The plot is impressively free of anything that does not smell of unpasteurized melodrama. The bulk of it takes place in 1870, in Paris—ah, Paris, so overwhelming in its impact that while some of its blessed citizens remember to speak English with a French accent, others do not. We are at the Opéra, where everything and, if possible, everybody that can be gilded with gold has received the necessary treatment. The new patron is the Vicomte de Chagny (Patrick Wilson), who is long of locks, blue of blood, and unquenchably drippy of demeanor. The in-house diva is Carlotta—played with gusto by Minnie Driver, who has the gall to suggest that there might be some comic value to be trawled from this movie, and who is therefore hastily shoved to the side of the proceedings before she can cause any more trouble. When Carlotta flounces out, her place is taken by Christine (Emmy Rossum), who until now has been, yes, a simple chorus girl, and who brings the house down on, yes, her first performance."

Detectives from the Past

History has for centuries been a rich lode for novelists to mine. More recent, the Weekly Standard reports, is the practice of making detectives of historical celebrities:

"In a small way, the phenomenon has been around for sixty years (or even longer, if you count the nineteenth-century fictionalized exploits of such real-life investigators as Vidocq and Allan Pinkerton). The first author to write a detective series about a historical personage was probably Lillian de la Torre, who cast Dr. Samuel Johnson in the Sherlock Holmes role, with James Boswell as his Watson, for a 1943 short story in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. First collected in book form in Dr. Sam: Johnson, Detector (1946), the series would eventually fill four volumes."

A Failed Portrayal?

The spirit of Bobby Darin may wish he was "Beyond the Sea," as negative reviews of the film biography of 1960s pop idol come in. Reviewers are calling it Kevin Spacey's ego trip. The Hartford Courant's Deborah Hornblow is one of the more outspoken:

"In a boffo year for biopics, the weakest of the lot by far is Kevin Spacey's Bobby Darin tribute, "Beyond the Sea," which sinks early in a morass of vanity, ego and weird intimations of identity usurpation. Spacey, whose apparent obsession with Darin has extended to posing for portraits of himself playing Darin, is co-producer, co-writer, director and star of "Beyond the Sea" and, well, you can tell."

A Blow to Law Enforcement?

Lennie Briscoe is dead. No suspects; natural causes.

Jerry Orbach, with the kind of long-boned face El Greco loved to paint, died of cancer at 69. As the St. Petersburg Times reports:

"Jerry Orbach had a gift for charming audiences his entire career - first as a song-and-dance man who starred in musicals on and off Broadway, then for 12 years as a sharp-tongued cop on TV's "Law & Order". Along the way, he made films as varied as the gritty crime drama "Prince of the City" and the smash romance "Dirty Dancing."

Get Out the Lava Lamps

Thought the old conversion vans with shag carpets and beads died with the advent of the SUVs? The Detroit News (they oughtta know) reports that General Motors has helped form the Conversion Van Marketing Association, to foster a market niche that is somewhat less expensive than SUVs and, perhaps, evocative to older buyers as well:

"GM's investment in the effort underscores the ultra-competitive nature of the U.S. vehicle market, where the world's largest automaker can't afford to cede one iota of business. GM's chief competitor: cross-town rival and No. 2 U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co. With the proliferation of vehicles over time -- SUVs, crossovers, etc. -- this is one more niche vehicle we can offer the consumer," said Ross Hendrix, GM's marketing director for commercial vans. "We see an opportunity and we're pursuing it."

A History of Snow Shoveling

You shovel it, you own it. Applied to urban parking spaces, it seems fair, doesn't it? Tell that to Boston's PD," as reported by the Boston Herald:

"But this year, the city is cracking down on this age-old rule and warning residents that it will no longer tolerate the garbage cans, chairs, boxes and even Christmas trees that litter the streets, saving spaces for those who put in the sweat to clear them. The change is not coming without a fight."

Time to Put Your Two Cents In

The Boston Globe reviews the film "Hotel Rwanda" and then asks:

"What responsibility do fictionalized feature films have to history, to fact, and to some kind of larger truth?" Give your answer on the newspaper's website.

Whatcha Drivin'?

Who but Motown would feature a Car of the Week column? The Detroit News bestows that accolade on a 1911 Pierce-Arrow:

"Car of the Week honors went to the 1911 Pierce-Arrow after a vote by readers of Joyrides online. The '32 Packard convertible beat out the 1930 Cadillac, 1937 Packard convertible, 1949 Packard Super 8 and the 1971 Ford Bronco."