Violence and Corruption among New York Longshoremen: Jim Longhi and His Two Fingers of Pride

Elisabetta Marino

Violence and Corruption among New York Longshoremen: Jim Longhi and His Two Fingers of Pride

Year 2017, Issue: 46, 29 - 38, 01.04.2017

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring a still unpublished play by Jim Longhi entitled Two Fingers of Pride 1955 , and the controversial circumstances that led to its composition. Longhi’s dramatic piece featured the tragic story of Pete Panto, a New York stevedore of Italian ancestry who had been murdered by the Mafia controlling the Red Hook docks of Brooklyn, while attempting to put an end to its crooked system of kickbacks and bribes. Panto’s story attracted Arthur Miller’s attention and, thanks to Longhi’s collaboration, in 1951, the playwright wrote a film script entitled The Hook. Director Elia Kazan was involved in the venture but, unfortunately, the script was turned down by several producers. Apparently, Longhi wrote his own play as a reaction to both the failure of The Hook, and the success of Elia Kazan’s blockbuster On the Waterfront 1954 , somehow inspired by Pete Panto’s vicissitudes even though Kazan never acknowledged his debt, besides replacing the main character with an ex-boxer of Irish descent , and by the dangerous lives led by New York longshoremen just before WWII

Keywords

Jim Longhi, Red Hook Docks, longshoremen, Arthur Miller, On the Waterfront, mafia

References

Bookbinder, Bernie. City of the World: New York and Its People. New York: Abrams, 1989. Print
Crandell, George W. “Trial by Public Opinion: Arthur Miller’ Reviews ‘The New York Crime Show.’” Resources for American Literary Study 26.1 (2000): 13-28. Print
Davis, Colin J. New York and London Dockworkers, 1946-61. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003. Print
Di Sabato, Mariantonietta and Cosma Siani. Jim Longhi, un italoamericano tra Woody Guthrie and Arthur Miller. Castelluccio de Sauri (Foggia): Lampyris, 2012. Print
“Frank Sinatra Campaigns for Vincent Longhi, 1948.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d., Web. 01 Dec. 2015
Hey, Kenneth. “Ambivalence as a Theme in On the Waterfront (1954): an Interdisciplinary Approach to Film Study.” American Quarterly. 31.5 (1979): 666-696. Print
Longhi, Jim. Woody, Cisco, & Me. With Woody Guthrie in the Merchant Marine. New York: Ibooks, 1997. Print
–––. Two Fingers of Pride. N.d. TS. Property of Jim Longhi’s family. Meyers, Jeffrey. The Genius and the Goddess: Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe. Champain: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Print
Miller, Arthur. Timebends, a Life. London: Bloomsbury, 1988. Print
On the Waterfront. Dr. Elia Kazan. Prod. Sam Spiegel. By Budd Schulberg, Leonard Berstein, Gene Milford and Boris Kaufman. Perf. Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger and Eva Marie Saint. Columbia Pictures, 1954. DVD
Rapf, Johanna E. On the Waterfront. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print
Schulman, Robert. “The Cold War on the Waterfront: Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge and Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront.” American Studies in Scandinvia 35 (2003): 23-37. Print
Schwartz, Stephen. “Arthur Miller’s Proletariat: The True Stories of On the Waterfront, Pietro Panto , and Vincenzo Longhi.” Film History, 16.4 (2004): 378-392. Print
Ward, Nathan. Dark Harbor. The War on the New York Waterfront. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. Print

Year 2017, Issue: 46, 29 - 38, 01.04.2017

Elisabetta Marino

Abstract

Bu makalenin amacı, Jim Longhi’nin hala basılmamış olan oyunu Two Fingers of Pride’ı Gururun İki Parmağı ve yazılmasına sebep olan tartışmalı durumları incelemektir. Longhi’nin etkileyici yapıtı, İtalyan soyundan gelen New Yorklu liman işçisi Pete Panto’nun Brooklyn’in Red Hook rıhtımındaki komisyon ve rüşvet gibi yolsuzluklara bir son vermeye çalışırken mafya tarafından öldürülmesini konu alır. Panto’nun hikâyesi Arthur Miller’ın da dikkatini çekti ve 1951’de Longhi ile işbirliği sayesinde, Miller The Hook adını verdiği senaryoyu yazdı. Yönetmen Elia Kazan da bu maceraya katıldı fakat senaryo birkaç yapımcı tarafından reddedildi. Görünüşe göre Longhi kendi oyununu hem The Hook’un başarısızlığına hem de Elia Kazan’ın gişe rekorları kıran filmi Rıhtımlar Üzerinde 1954 ’ye bir tepki olarak yazdı. Bunu yaparken, Pete Panto’nun değişikliğinden ana karakteri İrlanda kökenli eski bir boksör ile değiştirmesi dışında Kazan ilham aldığına dair bir açıklama yapmadı ve II. Dünya Savaşı’ndan hemen önce New Yorklu liman işçilerinin sürdürdüğü tehlikeli hayattan ilham aldı

Keywords

Jim Longhi, Red Hook Limanı, liman işçileri, Arthur Miller, Rıhtımlar Üzerinde, mafya

References

Bookbinder, Bernie. City of the World: New York and Its People. New York: Abrams, 1989. Print
Crandell, George W. “Trial by Public Opinion: Arthur Miller’ Reviews ‘The New York Crime Show.’” Resources for American Literary Study 26.1 (2000): 13-28. Print
Davis, Colin J. New York and London Dockworkers, 1946-61. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003. Print
Di Sabato, Mariantonietta and Cosma Siani. Jim Longhi, un italoamericano tra Woody Guthrie and Arthur Miller. Castelluccio de Sauri (Foggia): Lampyris, 2012. Print
“Frank Sinatra Campaigns for Vincent Longhi, 1948.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d., Web. 01 Dec. 2015
Hey, Kenneth. “Ambivalence as a Theme in On the Waterfront (1954): an Interdisciplinary Approach to Film Study.” American Quarterly. 31.5 (1979): 666-696. Print
Longhi, Jim. Woody, Cisco, & Me. With Woody Guthrie in the Merchant Marine. New York: Ibooks, 1997. Print
–––. Two Fingers of Pride. N.d. TS. Property of Jim Longhi’s family. Meyers, Jeffrey. The Genius and the Goddess: Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe. Champain: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Print
Miller, Arthur. Timebends, a Life. London: Bloomsbury, 1988. Print
On the Waterfront. Dr. Elia Kazan. Prod. Sam Spiegel. By Budd Schulberg, Leonard Berstein, Gene Milford and Boris Kaufman. Perf. Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger and Eva Marie Saint. Columbia Pictures, 1954. DVD
Rapf, Johanna E. On the Waterfront. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print
Schulman, Robert. “The Cold War on the Waterfront: Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge and Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront.” American Studies in Scandinvia 35 (2003): 23-37. Print
Schwartz, Stephen. “Arthur Miller’s Proletariat: The True Stories of On the Waterfront, Pietro Panto , and Vincenzo Longhi.” Film History, 16.4 (2004): 378-392. Print
Ward, Nathan. Dark Harbor. The War on the New York Waterfront. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. Print

There are 14 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language	Turkish
Journal Section	Research Article
Authors	Elisabetta Marino This is me
Publication Date	April 1, 2017
Published in Issue	Year 2017 Issue: 46

Cite

MLA	Marino, Elisabetta. “Violence and Corruption Among New York Longshoremen: Jim Longhi and His Two Fingers of Pride”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, no. 46, 2017, pp. 29-38.