25 at 250: Costumes from ‘The Wiz’ and the car that changed America

0:00Kathleen Franz:Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design. MathWorks, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com. WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

0:24Kathleen Franz:They're not craft projects made by buggy makers anymore. They're industrial production. Long before Toyotathon, people went crazy for the Model T. How Henry Ford forged the auto industry and changed American life forever.

0:52Kathleen Franz:It's Friday, March 20th, and this is Here and Now, anytime from NPR and WVUR. I'm Chris Bentley.

1:02Kathleen Franz:Today on the show, more than 50 years ago, a groundbreaking musical helped redefine the face of Broadway.

1:09Dwandalyn Reece:It's not only a show of Black America at the time, but it's also a show about the African diaspora.

1:15Kathleen Franz:We are continuing our look at 25 objects from the Smithsonian that helped tell the story of America. And the whiz is part of that story. Also a part is the first ever mass-produced car, the Model T. It's hard to imagine America today without thinking of cars, for better or worse. And that's why a 1926 Model T now sits in the Smithsonian's collection, which we are checking in on every other Friday in this podcast. Indira Lakshmanan took a field trip to the museum to see it up close, though I'm pretty sure she took the metro to get there. I'm here at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History with curator Kathleen Franz, and we're looking at the 1926 Ford Model T Roadster.

2:05Kathleen Franz:So Kathleen, in the early 1900s, there were hundreds of small companies who were making small numbers of cars for rich Americans, but suddenly Henry Ford changed the game with the Model T. Explain to us how he did that. He invents what becomes called Fordism, which is thinking about how to make these cars not just single one-off products or made in a craft shop, but really dividing up the labor into not completely de-skilling the labor, but breaking down the process, right? moving it along a line, and then that reduces cost. They're not craft projects made by buggy makers anymore. They're industrial production.

2:51Kathleen Franz:I read that the conveyor belt that Ford used cut production time for the chassis of this car from 12 hours to just 93 minutes. Yes. What was it about this car that made it so easy to manufacture and that allowed Henry Ford to really revolutionize factory production. The Model T is really unique in the sense that it is an open car and not open just on the top, but it doesn't come with a tons of bells and whistles, right? Those were left to the consumer. So you can push one of these out. It's like your very basic model of something. And if you wanted the fold down top, if you wanted the windshield wipers, If you wanted better headlights, all of those things were add-ons.

3:39Kathleen Franz:They were aftermarket additions. And around that springs up whole other industries like Western Auto and places that consumers can buy those aftermarket products and add them on. If you'll notice the one we have here, there's no trunk. Trunks come later. So if you're traveling across country or even on short distances, maybe you want that. But Ford leaves that up to you, right? So this was actually known, the 1926 was known as the cheapest car in America. It's$360. This truly was for a family, a middle class white family, where maybe the person is a white collar worker. An easy purchase. The second hand version is going to people who are farmers.

4:25Kathleen Franz:And they're kind of, it's a whole other story where farmers love the Model T because they can deconstruct it and use just the engine to run other things on the farm. But yes, this is a good first time purchase car. So tell us a little bit more about the development of mass production that the Model T spawned. The conveyor belt did exist. It was used in meat production. Explain to us what Henry Ford did to allow it to be applied across industries and across industrial production, not just food production. Well, it is also being tinkered with in industrial production. Gun manufacturing has long been using interchangeable parts.

5:09Kathleen Franz:Other industries had experimented with division of labor, so one person just puts on tires. What Ford really does is bring everything together in this one production, and he makes it big. So yes, it does spread far and wide, and with that gets its own type of cultural criticism. So if you've seen Modern Times with Charlie Chaplin trying to work on the assembly line, that is a huge cultural critique of what it was like. Very difficult, very complicated to actually work on the line. Well, very taxing on a human being, right? Car manufacturers and others would try to speed up production. This really gives rise to workers organizing to protect their safety.

6:01Kathleen Franz:So the labor movement, the labor rights movement and unionization. Finally, Kathleen, tell us why is this car so important to telling the story of America? I look at it, and it's in the center here at the Smithsonian of your exhibits of motoring in general. We've got a motorcycle. We've got, you know, other vehicles. We've got a bus. We've got a train. And yet the Model T has this pride of place in the center. What is it that tells the story of America? Well, since its inception in the early 20th century, the Model T has really stood in for Americans' aspirations to have autonomous travel, to chart your destiny, to go where you want.

6:45Kathleen Franz:And that industrial production and consumerism really supports that. And the imaginary potential of the car is huge. You can go wherever you want, however you want, stop whenever you want. and that really married to this idea of American freedom and destiny was important. Kathleen Franz is head curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Kathleen, thanks so much for making the time for us. It was a pleasure. Thank you.

7:23Kathleen Franz:Top speed of a Model T was a little over 40 miles per hour. Which sounds weak today. But imagine what it must have been like when there weren't cars everywhere, and then suddenly there's tons of these boxy vehicles flying around. I wonder if there'll be a Waymo in the Smithsonian someday. Coming up next, Robin Young on Broadway. Sort of. We'll be right back.

7:54Kathleen Franz:Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from SelectQuote. If you're new to life insurance, you're not alone. Thankfully, there's SelectQuote. For over 40 years, SelectQuote has helped more than 2 million Americans understand their options and get the coverage they need. SelectQuote takes the guesswork out of finding the right life insurance policy. Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today. Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50 % at selectquote.com slash anytime. That's selectquote.com slash anytime.

8:31Dwandalyn Reece:In the mid-70s, a groundbreaking Broadway musical reimagined a classic American story.

8:45Dwandalyn Reece:Everybody sing The Wiz, transformed The Wizard of Oz into an all-black production filled with gospel, funk, dazzling costumes. One of the show's most striking outfits, designed by Jeffrey Holder and worn by the Wiz himself, Andre DeShields, was on display at the Smithsonian and is now in their incredible archives. Dwandolin Reese is here from the Smithsonian's National American Museum of African American History and Culture. Dwandolin, you saw the Wiz in the 70s. I did. I think I was 10 or 11 and we had flown out to New York. My mother, brother, and I went to the show sitting up there in all the bright lights.

9:23Dwandalyn Reece:What I always remember, I know as a child, I was always looking for female protagonists, main characters. And so I really identified with Dorothy and seeing someone as a young girl. It was just really exciting to see that kind of representation. Yeah, Dorothy played by Stephanie Mills. But come to the costumes. And it's so interesting. I hadn't thought of this before. You could almost draw a line. When you look at this costume, and I want you to describe it, you could almost draw a line from that to Black Panther. So describe this outfit that the Wiz wore. It is a one-piece outfit and a voluminous cape, which is white, the cream white on the outside, but then a red lining on the inside.

10:11And it looks like, you know, someone getting ready to fly.

10:14Dwandalyn Reece:It's got the goggles and it just fits flatly over your head. And you're right that it has that futuristic look that ties to the concept of Afrofuturism, which was really exploding in the 1970s. The costume was worn by Emmy, Grammy, Tony Award winning performer Andre DeShields. Let's listen to his performance in the outfit in the original cast recording of So You Wanted to See the Wizard. So you wanted to meet the wizard.

10:46Dwandalyn Reece:Let me tell you not to come to the right place Should I make you a frog or a lizard So good. What did he bring to that role for you in this outfit? Well, you know, I've done a little research on this. And actually, he kind of tells the story himself. When he auditioned for the part, he said the original concept was to have a character similar to the character that Frank Morgan played in the 1930s. film. But he said he didn't see the character that way. And so when he auditioned for the part, he said he had these platform shoes, blue hot pants, and a red halter top that said love all over it. His idea was that the conception of the character really had to match the music.

11:36Dwandalyn Reece:And you've already mentioned the score that if there's gospel, there's R &B, there's funk. And so his very sense of it is that that character was superhuman. And it's also a product of its time. And if you think about it, you know, things are becoming more integrated. There are more opportunities for people. Just in this case for Andre de Shields, this was his first major Broadway role. And Andre de Shields, as we know, is a gay man. And I think he was bringing all of that to play in conceiving this character as a way of announcing himself. By the way, I believe you also have the Tin Man's costume there.

12:12Dwandalyn Reece:We do have the Tin Man's costume there. It's silver, but it's accentuated by household objects like a skillet, a skillet, skillet and those everyday things that you have in life. Jeffrey Holder is from the Caribbean. And so he had those sensibilities of his own heritage. So it's not only a show of Black America at the time, but it's also a show about the African diaspora. We have an ongoing exhibit called Taking the Stage, and you have many items still from the whiz there. You have that headpiece, the skillet from the Tin Man. You have Ada Pearl, the Good Witch of the North. You have her jacket there.

12:53Dwandalyn Reece:You know, what is it like when people go through, They've seen some very difficult things as well in this glorious museum, the history of slavery, for instance. What's it like when they come across these symbols of stage? I think there is some kind of immediate recognition. I think particularly for people when The Wiz was before their time. But we've had so many reincarnations in the last 10 years or so. So it's not a show that has been forgotten. But I think it reminds our visitors that these kinds of expressions, these kinds of themes that Andre De Shields is trying to address in his own characterization have lasted across time.

13:35And so they can reflect on the continuities and take pride of the way that Black artists have managed to change their identity or talk about their identities in ways that are embraced by the entire

13:51Dwandalyn Reece:culture. That's Dwandolin Rees, Associate Director for the Humanities at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, helping us look at one of the powerful 25 objects that make America as we head into the 250th birthday of the country. Dwandolin, thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

14:13Kathleen Franz:We've got to take one more short break, and we'll be back in a minute.

14:20Kathleen Franz:Support for NPR and the following message come from HomeServe. Owning a home is full of surprises. And when something breaks, it can feel like the whole day unravels. HomeServe is ready to help, bringing peace of mind to 4.5 million homeowners nationwide. Plans start at just$4.99 a month. Sign up today at homeserve.com. Not available everywhere. Most plans range between$4.99 to$11.99 a month your first year. Terms apply on covered repairs. You can find all of our 25 at 250 conversations about Smithsonian objects that tell the story of America at hereandnow.org. Or by scrolling back in the feed for this podcast.

15:05Kathleen Franz:We'll keep running them every other Friday through July 4th. If you do venture to hereandnow.org, you will find a ton more to read and listen to, including a conversation about bridging the generational divide with a phone booth that implores people to call a boomer or call a Zoomer. Here and Now's Indira Lakshmanan and Peter O'Dowd, neither of them boomers or Zoomers, as it happens, were on hand in Boston and Reno, Nevada, and spoke with people placing calls.

15:43Hello? Hello?

15:44Kathleen Franz:Hi, how are you? I'm Ryan. Hi, Ryan.

15:47Dwandalyn Reece:Hi, Maria.

15:48Kathleen Franz:How are you doing? I'm doing great. How about you? Ryan Marcantonio is a 21-year-old economics major at BU. How is that over there? Is the weather good out there today? Oh, the weather's beautiful down here. Yeah, we have the 80 degrees. Maria Janes turned 74 this year. She lives in the senior housing complex in Reno.

16:09Dwandalyn Reece:Do you have any fun activities going on this week?

16:12Kathleen Franz:Oh, we do. We have a lot of things that we do around here. We have like puzzles. We do puzzles you can read. We have movies you can get and a lot of little activities. So Ryan and Maria talk about their favorite movies, the weather, Ryan's exams, light, relatable stuff. Last week I was on spring break and I spent most of it with my grandmother. there. She brought me to the senior center back in my hometown and I played bingo with her and they have a really good thrift store there too actually where they have a bunch of clothes that you can get. Okay well I work for a thrift store honey. Yeah. You do?

16:47Kathleen Franz:Yes I still work. I'm 73 but I still work honey. I enjoy working. I enjoy staying busy active and moving and doing things. You always got to stay moving. Yeah. Your mind is young. Your mind stays young. Yeah. It does. After the call, I asked Ryan why he decided to pick up the payphone. Well, you know, I'm always willing to try new things. But for me, I know especially older people like my grandmother, they don't have many people around. And talking to someone just makes their day. Ryan, as it turns out, was raised mostly by his grandmother in rural Connecticut. I asked my grandmother a couple days ago, when was the last time you felt young?

17:26Kathleen Franz:And she told me never. And I said, well, let's go feel young. Let's go bowling. And I brought her bowling. nearby when I was in spring break. And it just made her really happy. While Ryan chatted with Indira at BU, I asked Maria in Reno how she felt about her conversation with Ryan. Oh, I love this. I think this is a great idea for us because we learn off of each other, and the communication is nice, and I enjoy that.

17:54Dwandalyn Reece:Do you think this might benefit people, people your age,

17:58Kathleen Franz:the boomers, so to speak, and also the Zoomers, the younger people?

18:01Dwandalyn Reece:I think so. That communication is good for us all.