Peopling of New York City, Spring 2012

I thought the main connection between the community in Radio Days and the community in Goodfellas was their desire to stand out from the crowd. Henry wanted to become a gangster because he wanted the special privileges and respect of a gangster. He did not want to be a regular guy. Similarly, the family in Radio Days wanted to stand out as well. Ruthy, a notorious eavesdropper was likely listening in on the neighbors conversations to feel a sense of power and omnipotence. Aunt B had such high standards in men because she wanted the perfect relationship. Even the parents told their son that they were nothing but he should try to make something of himself. The entire family wanted to be seen and heard, to be important. This is why they listened to the radio as well.

They were fascinated by the goings on of famous individuals because they wanted to be like them. They realized that they could not gain the renown of said celebrities but they were able to experience excitement and feel special by living vicariously through the speakers on the radio. For example, while cleaning the remnants of a boring breakfast off of her drab kitchen table, the mother listened to two wealthy individuals indulging in a sumptuous meal at their posh apartment. She was unable to attain her preferred status and thus attempted to share the high status of others. This dynamic was fascinating but very sad. They were so focused on their fantasy lives, I could not help but wonder if once in a while, when the radio was off, if they thought about how having a close family was not enough…..moving on…..the same thing happened in Goodfellas. Henry lived in a fantasy world where he only thought about the perks of being a gangster. While being immersed in fantasy did not harm the family in Radio Days too much, it took its toll on Henry. He lost sight of the negatives of life as a gangster which led to A TON of problems. Its funny how similar these movies were…

In Goodfellas, the “family” cares for and support each other. They act as a tight-knit family but in reality, they are not. The gangsters are willing to betray and kill each other. The members of the family kill their “loved ones” for the sake of the mafia and their safety. Their ethnicity plays an important role in their mafia as they can not be “made” if they’re not fully Italian. Ethnically, they identify with each other and their culture plays a big role in their life as can be seen by the food. The communal family of Goodfellas is different from that of Radio Days. In Goodfellas, there are two families: the mafia family and then everybody else. Radio Days’ communal family incorporates everybody and everybody is involved. The whole neighborhood is embraced.

Whereas the goodfellas pretend to have each other’s backs, the Radio Days family truly cares for each other. As a family, they argue a lot and fight over the littlest things as do most ordinary families. However, at the end of the day, they can be considered an actual family. The voiceovers reveal that Joe’s parents fight over the littlest things such as which ocean is better. Despite the arguing, the fathers still loves his wife even though he calls her an old douche bag. They have problems with each other but they still care for each other. As Jewish-Americans, the family attempts to hold on to their Jewish customs when they fast and pray, but it does not play an important part in their everyday life.

The radio plays a very important role throughout Radio Days. The film doesn’t have a narrative plot but rather connects various stories and people through the radio, which played a huge role in American life at the time. It tends to bring people together and unite them. In terms of a community, the radio brings people together as they stay connected to the world they live in. This is obvious when Polly Phelps falls in the well and everybody is listening to the radio to stay updated. Everybody is hoping and praying that she’s alive as the attempt at a rescue continues. However, everyone is devastated when she is announced dead. The death of Polly brings Joe’s family closer than they usually seem to be. The father was beating the Joe for ruining his mother’s anniversary gift but after hearing the story of the little girl dying, he was holding on to him and didn’t want to let go. At the same time, on New Year’s Eve, the family was together and cherishing each other. Aunt Bea doesn’t have a date and Joe’s father makes her feel better by saying how they are all together. Aunt Bea also wakes up Joe so he can remember the year of 1944, which brings them together and allows them to spend some time together.

Though the radio brings the community and Joe’s family together, it is also used as a way to escape reality. Each member of the family has their own favorite station. The mother imagines the glamorous life of Irene and Roger and Joe is inspired by Masked Avenger and wants to buy the ring. The uncle listens to sport and the aunt listens to a ventriloquist. They act as a family but are still individuals and the radio is their method of escaping their life and escaping the other family members. They want to be left alone and dream about a life they could have. The radio separates them but at the same time, brings them together.

Radio Days is a movie that accurately represents the effect the radio had to people. The radio is portrayed as a wondrous invention. Throughout practically every frame of the movie Radio Days, radios were either used or mentioned The radio represented a gateway to knowing each of the character’s inner thoughts. The radio shows that they listened to represent their dreams. Joe’s mom listened to a breakfast show, which was given by a rich couple living in a beautiful apartment in Manhattan, whereas she is living with her relative’s house in Far Rockaway washing dirty dishes. Joe’s aunt watches romantic music for she wishes to find her true love and get married. Joe wished to be a hero, which was first shown by his addiction to a superhero radio show. It was also show later on in the movie when he and his buddies went to look for German planes. Besides showing the audience the family’s dreams it also provides an accurate history of the early 1940’s. I laughed when I saw Joe’s aunt’s date leave her stranded in a car with no gas in the middle of a foggy night. The reason I laughed was because I remember learning that during that time, there was this radio show that played music and then interfered it with breaking news that was fake (such as aliens coming down to Earth). People actually believed it and were in a state of panic. Also, the radio portrayed how that industry worked at that time. People would go in recording booths (dressed in nice clothes) and read their lines, one right after the other. And just like actors today, radio voices were famous and thus had to maintain their popularity and reputation (such as that breakfast couple mentioned before, they couldn’t file for a divorce even though they cheted on each other). Also what these people did was said on the radio allowing the people of the lower class to imagine the life of someone who are famous. For Joe’s family, the radio provided a bridge to American society. The radio also brought a country together. This was shown when there were shots of multiple families placed back to back to show the sadness and worry everyone had as they were listening to the news of the fire crew trying to rescue a girl that fell to the bottom of a well.

The main similarity between Goodfellas and Radio Days was the presence of a family sitting around a table. A big Italian dinner or an  anniversary were shot with the  families sitting together and enjoying their time. In addition, in both families (Joe’s and Henry’s), the man and wife stayed together. Karen even pointed a gun to Henry after finding out that he cheated on her but they ended up staying together for two and a half decades. However, throughout the rest of movies, only Radio Days showed a real family. It shoed family members advising each other, encouraging each other and working as a family unit. In Goodfellas, the mafia family gatherings always had, to some extent, an air of tension. This is because they knew that anyone in that room could murder them. Another similarity is that the mixing of ethnicities was not really allowed. In Goodfellas, Henry and Jimmy couldn’t become Made because they had Irish blood. In Radio Days, a woman witnessed a white woman and an African American man kissing. As a consequence to seeing that, she got a stroke, being frozen in place.

So by this point we all know I love Goodfellas and Martin Scorsese.  With that in mind, I would have to say that Woody Allen is pretty much on the opposite end of my movie spectrum.  A movie like Manhattan is not exactly my cup of tea, and I swear it’s not just because nobody gets shot.  (Believe it or not, I’m perfectly capable of loving a movie with no killing.)  But despite my dislike for Woody Allen movies, I had some hope for Radio Days, and I actually kind of liked it and its “snapshot-of-life” storyline.  I think it helped that Woody Allen doesn’t actually appear in the movie outside of his narration.

Putting aside my bewilderment by the continuous appeal of Woody Allen, it’s now time to talk about family.  I was surprised to see so many similarities in terms of family in Goodfellas and Radio Days.  The scene in Radio Days in which the narrator explains all of the people in his family reminded me of the wedding scene in Goodfellas where Karen tries to explain all of the people in Henry’s “family”.  The sense of clutter and confusion made me laugh during both movies, since I know I probably sound like that when I try to explain my Modern Family-esque family (although eventually you kind of get used to explaining why your siblings range in age from 46 to 17).

What these ethnic families have in common is that each has one major thing keeping them together.  With Goodfellas it is clearly the ties of the mafia, and with Radio Days it is the radio.  The radio plays out as the soundtrack to the Unnamed Woody Allen Family’s life—many of Joe’s most vivid childhood memories are remembered because they were accompanied by a particular song on the radio.  I really liked that scene because it was another thing I related to in the movie.  Pretty much every car trip of my childhood was accompanied by my dad’s wretched Tom Waits albums on the car radio, so I can never hear those songs without thinking about my parents and our car trips.  I might even say that I’ve grown somewhat fond of those wretched songs because of the memories attached to them.

I’ve heard stories about the “radio days” from my dad, who was born in 1945 and grew up without much TV.  He’s told me about how the radio was such a communal thing back then—as shown in Radio Days, there were a wide variety of programs and there was something for everybody.  Additionally, the radio tethered people to what was happening in the world at the very moment it was happening.  Based on this, I would say that Radio Days really captures the way that radio programming and the presence of a radio in most households established a sense of community among the people who had one, transcending even the biggest differences in ethnicity and personality.

Radio Days’ is a film of unusual consequences from the very start, all of which are effects of the radio. The radio, aside from being an escape for every member in Joe’s house, also serves as a medium that contrasts life between how the family lives it, and how the stars live in it. More importantly, the radio becomes a subtle anti-Semitic object at various points in the film. While on the surface the radio is nothing more than a realm of fantasies, it soon becomes an over-powering character that functions to desecrate the Jewish community.

In order to consider the importance of radio, we can see the immediate consequences if there was no presence of the radio in the film. In this case, Aunt Bea (Dianne Wiest) might have married Sidney Manulis (Andrew Clark) and she would no longer be the unfortunate victim of love. The WWII propaganda, which had deeply interested Joe and his friends, would go unnoticed by the children and Sally White (Mia Farrow) may have died. There would also be no distinguished relationship between how the family lives and how the world functions. For example, we see the family’s breakfast is nowhere as classy as “Breakfast with Irene and Roger” and that they can only dream of being in such places.

Though these events can arguably be considered not tremendous in its magnitude, we see that this is not true for the following events. The radio inspires Joe to obtain a Masked Avenger secret compartment ring regardless of the means necessary. Thus, he steals money from the fund for Palestine, which is noted to be an act that is ‘sacrilegious’ as said by David Desser and Lester D. Friedman.  In the following scene, his parents and the rabbi smack the boy after Joe calls the rabbi his “faithful Indian companion.” This rabbi, Rabbi Baumel is also the name of the rabbi in “What’s my Perversion” which signals the degradation of Judaism.

The radio can also be seen as an anti-Semitic object because it causes Uncle Abe to completely switch his weak Jewish views and preach for communism within an hour. He eats nonkosher food on the Day of Atonement, which shows another sacrilegious event in the movie.

Regardless of the anti-Semitism expressed, the radio still plays a role in giving the characters an identity. Ruthie for example, enjoyed the musical stylings of a young man who she romanced over.  Joe’s parents constantly tuned in to Mr. Abercrombie’s program where he counseled married couples that fought, much like themselves and Joe always wanted to fight against crime like the Mask Avenger. Thus, the radio provides a sense of want for our characters where we learn who they are.

It is evident that the family in Radio Days is by far closer than the family in Goodfellas. There are multiple instances of Joe’s family being together, either dancing or cooking dinner together and at the end, all of them are hugging and kissing to welcome the New Year. Meanwhile, the Italian mafia ‘family’ has a strange dynamic. At any second, anyone could be hit, as seen with Tommy. What is sure is that no one is ever safe and this is shown when Henry informs the FBI of Paulie and Jimmy’s activities. However, both families are similar in that they have adapted to the New York life. Though Henry Hill has turned to a life of crime and Joe’s family continues to be a good-hearted family with a low income, both families have found a way to make New York a successful home.

The concept of radio’s importance arising in this movie is quite evident and discussing it is inevitable. The radio plays a significant role in each character’s life, in providing cultural connections, and setting up the plot of the movie, hence the movie title Radio Days. For each character the radio has a different impact and a different meaning. Throughout the movie, the value of the radio is debated. Often times, the radio is looked down upon, such as in the reply that the mother has to the narrator when he says “You always listen to the radio.” Her responding, “It’s different, our lives are already ruined. You still have a chance to grow up and be somebody” shows a very negative connotation in terms of the radio. However, there are many instances where the radio did in fact improve the situation at hand, such as in Sally’s case. To provide a clear response to this prompt I will separate the comments by character, by event, or by connection – depending on which it is that I am discussing at that particular time.

I will begin with the narrator’s connection to the radio, seeing that it is told through his perspective. The narrator, Joe, thinks fondly of the radio. He tells us how the radio entertained him, gave him dreams of getting the secret compartment ring from his favorite radio shows (action adventure), and brought back instant flashes of good memories, such as his mother and father’s anniversary or the time he went to the New York theater with his aunt and her date. Personally, Joe really loves the radio and thinks of it as a positive creation, but it brings him a lot of problems as well. His dream of getting the secret compartment ring causes him to steal money from a school fundraiser and receive beatings from his rabbi and his parents. He is constantly insulted by his father for listening to the radio but he continues to listen despite of the consequences because of how much pleasure it does bring to him. We see this theme of both negative and positive aspects of the radio being repeated once again when we analyze Irene and Roger and Sally.

The radio makes Irene and Roger very successful and popular however the ratings are also the only reason that they stay together even though their marriage is falling apart due to each partner cheating on the other. Roger loves Sally but is stuck in a position where he must remain married to Irene simply for business. Sally’s case is the best one to use when supporting the radio because it essentially saved her life. If it wasn’t for her desire to be on the radio then she would have certainly been murdered. These two cases are brief examples of the negative and positive of the radio but in the movie this is not the only theme that appears.

We also see both cultural and “ethnic incidences”. The radio connects the characters to music (Aunt B), news, sports (Uncle Abe), romantic advice – council for the matters of the heart, and entertainment. Each character has their own personal connection as well. The mother enjoys listening to Breakfast with Irene and Roger [connection here between characters that wouldn’t have otherwise been intertwined] the father enjoys listening to a show about mathematical geniuses called Whiz Kids, and Ruthie loves to dance and sing along with her favorite catchy music group. By ethnic incidences, I mean when the radio and ethnicity interacted with each other. This can be best exemplified through the scene where the family was celebrating the Jewish holiday for atonement and the radio was blaring next door. This blaring was interfering with their religious activities and therefore causing a problem. Once again, the radio is seen in a negative light.

*Perhaps the radio may have been shown more as being a rather negative aspect of their lives than as a positive one, but good results were shown as well and in either case we see just how important the radio is to the lives of these characters.*

Radio Days’ and Goodfellas center around families with somewhat strong cultural and traditional values. In Radio Days’ we are introduced to the director, Woody Allen, and his family. Though they have not held close to all their Jewish customs, there are certain things that they have held on to. They continue to hold onto the core of their religion, and the important values that come with it. They continue to celebrate Yom Kippur, they attend temple, and send their children to Hebrew school.    

Though the mobsters in Goodfellas were murderers and philanderers, when it came down to it, they did what they could to protect their families. They had different ideas of what was traditional. A mafia family should be a close one, and the members of this family should meet often and have lots of Italian food. And interestingly enough, there is another similarity within the films. Just like in Goodfellas, in the Woody Allen film there is a satire surrounding mentions of death and murder.

Radio Days’ unlike Goodfellas revolves around the lives of a plethora of distinctive characters. Though many of the characters do not actually meet, their lives are intertwined through the broadcasts of the radio. The radio created a sense of unity; it made the world seem much smaller than it really was. People grew close to the characters of the radio dramas they listened to, and mentioned them in conversation. War commercials that depicted America as a superhero power brought feelings of nationalism. And live broadcasts of events like tragic Phelps incident made listeners feel invested in the lives of strangers. These minute-by-minute reports brought families and friends together, reminding the population of what is really important. The radio also allows individuals to somewhat identify with those from different ethnicities and backgrounds through their music. In fact, there is a scene where Allen’s aunt dances to Carmen Miranda with a wrap on her head.

Radio is crucial to the lives of the individual family members because it allows them to pull away from their uncomfortable reality. To listen to the radio is to escape, and they build their lives around their morning shows and superhero-like characters. The programs they listen to are a reflection of their own dreams and aspirations; they are a reflection of the type of lives they want to live. “Now in my family, each person had a favorite show” and that show corresponded with their fantasy. Young Woody Allen longed to be like the Masked Avenger, a brave superhero that did whatever he pleased. Meanwhile his mother loved to listen to the morning programs Breakfast with Irene and Roger, it followed the lives of two New York socialites. “While my mother stood over the dirty plates in Rockaway, Irene and Roger ate their elegant breakfast over the air from their chic Manhattan townhouse while they chatted charming about people and place we only dreamt of.”

Radio Days portrays typical Jewish family members’ lives in New York from Joe’s point of view. Unlike Goodfellas, the characters in Radio Days didn’t have many struggles and conflicts with their ethnicity. In Goodfellas, Henry and other gangsters were very concerned about their nationalities and biological relations. Henry couldn’t join the Mafia because he wasn’t entirely Italian. In Radio Days, the portrayal of ethnicity wasn’t as deliberate as it was in Goodfellas. This can be seen from the scene when Joe stole the donations for the Jewish homeland to buy the secret compartment ring he heard from the radio and the scene when Uncle Abe broke his fast on Yom Kippur. Although these incidents showed the characters’ ignorance about their cultural backgrounds, the family still retained their Jewish traditional values very well.

According to Desser and Friedman’s article, Woody Allen seemed to express of self-hatred in his films. As an American-Jewish, Woody Allen didn’t seem to portray the importance of Jewish values in his film very well. For example, in this film, the scene when Uncle Abe broke his fast on Yom Kippur depicted his ignorance of his religious commitment. Yet, the authors also pointed out that there were many indications of Jewishness in the film. For instance, the fact that Uncle Abe brought fish home everyday represented how fish have fed Jews during the Great Depression.

The community in Radio Days was more culturally integrated than Goodfellas. In Goodfellas, most people in Henry’s community were Italians. They didn’t accept people from other backgrounds into their community. They were isolated from others. Because of their socioeconomic status, Joe’s family must live with people with different beliefs. They must cope with their communist neighbors, though they didn’t understand and respect the family’s traditions and religions at. Although Radio Days had very few characters of other race, it has managed to create a more open and peaceful atmosphere than Goodfellas by avoiding the discussion of ethnicities. Nevertheless, interracial relationship seemed to be a taboo in the film. This could be seen from Joe’s mother’s story of Mrs. Silverman, who had suffered a stroke with the tea cup frozen in her hand after seeing her neighbor’s daughter kissing an African American man at night. This was the only scene in the film that had mentioned African Americans, which has shown the strong emphasis on “whiteness” in this film.

As the title suggested, Radio Days has centered on the periods when radio was prevailed among Americans. The various radio programs have shaped characters’ identities in the film. For example, Joe’s parents liked to listen to The Court of Human Emotions, which coincided with their everyday quarrelling life situation. Joe’s mother also liked Breakfast with Irene and Roger, which showed her desire to enjoy the glamour of the upper class New York City life. Joe’s cousin, Ruthie, loved the romantic music programs, which showed her desire to break the traditional Jewish values and entered the mainstream American culture. Uncle Abe liked the sport shows and Aunt Ceil liked the ventriloquist shows, which identified them as unique members in the family. Joe’s favorite show was the Masked Avenger, which has shown his curiosity as a child. In those days, everybody had a favorite radio shows that he/she thought could best represent him/herself. Radio has become the memories of generations of people. It was a symbol of an era. Just like today’s parents were chasing after their children telling them not to watch too much TV, Joe’s parents were chasing after Joe telling him not to listen to radio. This phenomenon would continue as time passed by.

The prevalence of radio has created a new wave of celebrity culture. In the film, Joe described several radio celebrities’ stories. Sally’s stories have somehow represented the “American dream.” They exemplified that New York City is a place full of opportunities. People can become famous with courage and diligence. Irene and Rodger’s stories presented upper class New Yorkers’ lives. All of these stories showed the glamour of a generation of people. As technology and the society advanced, radio began to fade out in people’s lives. However, it has leaved an inerasable mark to people who have gone through its era. It would remain in people’s memories and pass on as a piece of history.

I actually enjoyed watching Radio Days. I don’t know why, but movies set in the 1940’s and 1950’s showing the typical American life always interest me. Woody Allen’s use of the radio as a storytelling device and his portrayal of the Jewish-American family highlighted the dreams, aspirations, and daily life of people in the 1940’s. So Americana.

When looking at Radio Days in comparison to last week’s gritty, gruesome and gun-happy Goodfellas, the importance of race can be seen. The families in this film definitely identify with their roots, Jewish-American and Italian-American. From the way they spoke, to how they acted, to what they ate in each film, (most of the time stereotypical,) the racial identity was omnipresent. Another thing I noticed between the families in these two films was the way people treated and acted towards each other. On the surface, the mafia family in Goodfellas seemed cooperative. While they had to work together, there were set rules and ways of how to act and speak to each other. This was seen when Tommy was killed, and the whole idea of “made man.” However, in Radio Days, the family was more elastic. While arguments were seen throughout the film, (“which ocean is better?”) the arguments were petty, never escalating into major violence, like, you know, a murder. Basically, I feel that the family portrayed by Woody Allen acted more genuinely, without the threat and fear of murder or losing their status hanging in the back of their mind. While both “families” tried to work hard to further themselves, the mafia tried to keep themselves at the top of the underworld, while the family of Rockaway tried to get to the top, dreaming of Manhattan.

The radio served as a platform for Woody Allen to show the dreams, aspirations, and ideals of each family member on screen. Each character’s favorite station was different, like how it;s typical for each family member to adhere to different ideals and values. Some of the radio stories were hilarious, like the baseball player that literally lost everything, to sad, especially the story of the girl who fell down the well. The aural stories given by the radio gave the characters a sense of escape, dreaming of the world around them, outside of Rockaway Beach, Queens. By listening to the radio, working class, boring Queens and glamorized, glitzy Manhattan seemed lightyears away. I feel that the ideals and dreams seen in this family can be seen through many immigrants and minorities. The American ideals of being rich, famous, and/or gorgeous could be seen through the radio. The radio’s stories gave each character hope, making them think that “hey, I could do that too.” Whether it was sports, romance, or a good looking substitute teacher, the radio’s stories fueled the dreams of being “American,” and being “successful.” Keep dreaming.

I feel that in both movies Radio Days and Goodfellas, the family relationship is filled with quarrels and disagreements, but they still stick with each other. I find it interesting, and it is very realistic because this is how a family looks like in real life (like my parents). I also find it interesting that when Joe’s mother (Julie Kavner) says to the father that celebrity get divorce all time but we are together forever (even though they have disagreements all the time). Similarly, in the movie Goodfellas, Henry(Ray Liotta) and Karen (Lorraine Bracco) have quarrels so often and Karen even points a gun right on Henry’s head. However, they still live with each other no matter what happen.

The atmosphere in this film is apparently warmer than the one in Goodfellas. There is no murder in this film except slight domestic violence. Joe is smacked by his parents after they know Joe steals the money from the fund for a Jewish homeland in Palestine; he is also hit by his father after he ruins his mother’s coat. What’s more, we see normal lives in this film, opposite to the risky ones in Goodfellas. The family members are getting along well with each other besides some squabbles sometimes. Joe and his parents often go out and have fun together. For instance, they go to zoo together.

The radio is a tool through which the family connects to the rest of the world. They also get entertainment from the radio. The mother considers the radio as a distraction to Joe, but it is OK for her. Joe’s addiction to the Masked Avenger is understandable. Children always identify themselves with hero, prince, or princess. They tend to be attracted by the fantasy in the radio or other media. Other family members also have their own favorite program. Uncle Abe likes sports channel and his wife likes ventriloquist. Joe’s parents like to hear other normal people’s family issues. Through the radio, they connect themselves to the American culture in different dimension. The radio programs obviously are much more interesting than the traditional religious rituals. They are gradually being influenced by the American culture via the radio. Radio itself is also a represent the American culture. Listening to the radio becomes one of this Jewish family’s habits. The power of radio also disturbs their custom. This is indicated by the scene when this family is having “Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Judaism, when Jews fast for their sins”, their praying is interrupted by the loud radio of their neighbor (Friedman and Desser 81).  The radio becomes a facilitator that catalyzes this family’s assimilation to American culture.

Other than entertainments, the radio also allows this family to gossip about the celebrities and feel pity for the sad news. For example, they huddle together after they hear sorrow news from the radio about a little girl falling into the well near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and unfortunately die.

Overall, a new invention will bring one thing while taking away the other. White getting more Americanized, they also lose some of their Jewish tradition.