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

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They're not craft projects made by buggy makers anymore, they're industrial production.

Long before Toyota Thon, people went crazy for the Model T,

how Henry Ford forged the auto industry and changed American life forever.

It's Friday, March 20th, and this is here and now any time from NPR and WBUR.

I'm Chris Bentley.

Today on the show, more than 50 years ago, a groundbreaking musical helped redefine the

face of Broadway. It's not only a show of black America at the time, but it's also a show

about the African diaspora. We are continuing our look at 25 objects from the Smith

Sonian that helped tell the story of America, and the Wiz 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 Smith Sonian's collection,

which we are checking in on every other Friday in this podcast.

Indira Lachmanon 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. 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 diskilling 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. 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 full-down top, if you wanted the windshield wipers, if you wanted better

headlights, all of those things were add-ons. 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 and easy purchase. The second-hand version is going

to people who are farmers, 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 spawn. 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 within

industrial production. Gun manufacturing has long been using interchangeable parts. Other

industries had experimented with division of labor, so one person puts 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 it 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, 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 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, 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 France 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.

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.

Underneath there'll be a waymo in this Smithsonian someday.

Coming up next, Robin Young, on Broadway, sort of, we'll be right back.

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The VCU School of Business could be your next step. If you work in government, consulting,

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The VCU School of Business is open for business, open for opportunity. Learn more at business.vcu.edu

slash g-r-a-d. In the mid-70s, a groundbreaking Broadway musical reimagined a classic American story.

Everybody sing The Wiz, transform 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 De Shields, was on display at The Smithsonian and is now in

their incredible archives. Drondelin Reese is here from The Smithsonian's National American

Museum of African American History and Culture. Drondelin, 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. 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. And it looks like,

you know, someone getting ready to fly. 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 Afro-futurism,

which was really exploding in the 1970s. The costume was worn by Emmy Grammy Tony Award-winning

performer Andrei DeShields. Let's listen to his performance in the outfit and the original cast

recording of So You Wanted to See The Wizmy. Let me tell you not to come to the right place.

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 1939 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 red halter top that said love all over it. His idea was that the conception of

the character really had to match the music. 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 Andrei DeShields. This

was his first major Broadway role. And Andrei DeShield, 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.

We do have the Tin Man's costume there. It's silver, but it's accentuated by

household objects like a skillet, a skillet, and those everyday things that you have in life,

Jeffrey Holders from the Caribbean. And so we have 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 Wiz there. You have that headpiece, the skillet from the Tin Man. You have

had a pearl, the good witch in the North. You have her jacket there. 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 reoccurations 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 DeShield is trying to address in his own character

realization have lasted across time. And 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 culture. That's Drondelin 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.

Drondelin, thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

We've got to take one more short break and we'll be back in a minute.

Support for here and now anytime comes from the VCU School of Business. Life is full of milestones.

The VCU School of Business could be your next step. If you work in government, consulting,

healthcare, data and technology, finance or the military, VCU's graduate programs with flexible

online and hybrid options can help you move forward without putting your life on hold.

The VCU School of Business is open for business, open for opportunity. Learn more at business.vcu.edu

slash GRAD. 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,

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.

Hereandnow is endure a locksman on and Peter O'Dowd. Neither of them boomers or zoomers,

as it happens. We're on hand in Boston and Reno, Nevada, and spoke with people placing calls.

Hello. Hello. Hi, how are you? I'm Ryan. Hi, Ryan. I'm Maria. How are you doing?

I'm doing great. How about you? Ryan Mark Antonio is a 21-year-old economics major at

BU. How is that over there? Is it the weather good out there today? Oh, the weather is beautiful

down here. Yeah, we have the 80 degrees. Maria James turned 74 this year. She lives in the

senior housing complex in Reno. Do you have any fun activities going on this week?

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. I'm going to spend most of it with my grandmother. 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 thrift store, honey. Yeah. You do. 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've got to always got to stay moving. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Your mind is young. Your mind stays young. Yeah.

It does. Yeah. After the call, I asked Ryan why he decided to pick up the pay phone.

Well, you know, I'm always willing to try new things. But for me, it's, 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? And she told me never.

And I said, well, let's let's go feel young. Let's go bowling. And I brought her bowling nearby.

When I was in spring break. And they just made her really happy.

Well, 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're all, we learn off

of each other and the communication is nice. And I enjoy that. Do you think this might benefit people,

people your age, the boomers, so to speak, and also the zoomers, the younger people? I think so.

That communication is good for us all. So the idea is to sort of help people not only bridge the

divide between generations, but also to sort of help people make connections to feel less lonely.

Which I know can be an issue as you could order. What do you think about that?

Getting lonely if you're just inside and you don't do anything and you stay to yourself too much

is not good. So that's the purpose of talking to other people and going to different activities

and myself working. That's my reason for working too. And do you sometimes feel lonely?

I try not to. I try not to. I mean, I keep myself pretty active.

I also spoke with Heather Bolin who works at the community where Maria lives.

It is so nice to see the residents being able to reach out and connect with other individuals that

are not of their social circle. I have a big smile on my face. Every time I've seen somebody

answer the phone and connect, they're surprised the first time they do it. That it's so easy and

that there's somebody on the other end and they have just light things to talk about. Sometimes it

goes a little deeper, but it's only a couple of minutes and it made their day.

There's more to that story and you can hear it all right now at hereandnow.org

where you'll also find pictures, minutes, rare enough to get anyone on the phone these days,

let alone Gen Z. So I love that. Go check it out here at now.org.

That's it for the show today. Here and now any time comes from NPR and WVR. Today's

stories were produced by Janaya Walker and Will Walkie. Our stories were edited by Cat Welch,

Mikhail Rodriguez edited the podcast, Technical Direction from Matt Reed and James Trout.

Our feed music is by Mike Misketto, Max Liebman and me, Chris Bentley. Our digital producers are

Allison Hagen and Grace Griffin and here and now's executive producer is Alan Price.

Thanks for listening. Enjoy this weekend the first of astronomical spring this year and we'll be back

with you on Monday.

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