The LuLac Edition #2672, June 9th, 2014
ALL THE WAY WITH LBJ 50 YEARS LATER
Actor Brian Cranston as Lyndon Johnson. (Photo: American Repertory Theatre).
The renaissance of the Lyndon Johnson Presidency continues with a pop cultural nod to the way the 36th Chief Executive got things done.
Brian Cranston of “Breaking Bad” fame won Best Performance by an actor in a play for “All The Way”, the story of the first year of the Johnson era.
During the 1964 campaign, Johnson had a theme song All the Way with LBJ. I have that 45 RPM around some place and will effort to get the sound.
But in the meantime it’s very gratifying to see Broadway acknowledge a great performance from an underrated President who was in choppy waters during his term. Here's a clip from "This Week" on ABC TV before the play opened.
DAN FLOOD GONE AT TWENTY
Prayer card from Dan Flood wake at the Luzerne County Courthouse. Flood's body laid in state under the rotunda of the Courthouse. (Photo: LuLac archives.)
We missed this a few days ago but were reminded of this when looking through the LuLac archives. It has been twenty years since former Congressman Dan Flood passed away in 1994. Even though he left office under a cloud, there are still those who celebrate the type of Congressman and leader he was here in the old 11th Congressional District. 
posted by David Yonki @ 7:48 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Not stirring up much in the way of comments lately. Has the Lulac readership taken June off? Never can tell whats going to set them off can you?
Regular Reader
There was a similar play to "All the Way" in the 80's with Jack Klugman playing LBJ. It went under the radar presumably because LBJ was still too recent a memory. One never knows, but I doubt that a videotape exists of it. From the stills I saw, Klugman made a good LBJ and I can imagine him doing quite well in the role.
Dan FLood was certainly one in a million. Combination showman and intellectual, there will never be another like him.
Sadly, no one under 40 probably even knows his name.
He definitely would have been a great subject for a biopic. I could see someone like Kevin Spacey or Kevin Kline playing the role.
You can effort redeeming LBJ's presidency all you want but Vietnam
attached the word failure in a big way. Had the US lost WWII FDR would have been a failed president, despite being according to most historians one of the greats. LBJ did some terrific things on the home front, but failed the country miserably in the long run. He was ill advised, pig headed and wrong and thats on him.
If FDR had lost WWII there no one would even know who he was today. NOr would there in any likelihood have been an Internet, rock and roll, any other pop culture events we enjoy today.
Nor would there be a fourth of July celebration.
Though we would annually celebrate Hitler's birthday each year.
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