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Novels for Students. He is immediately Elmer Gantry sets out to do just that in the world of evangelical revivalists, and an examination of the complicated relationship between the congregations and the religious leaders of the film may help illuminate the popularity of many religious movements, even those that appear to be a farce from the outside. But in the house of Elmers mistress, Lulu Bains, they sing and read Seeing Nelly Home, Old Black Joe, Beulah Land, Farm and Fireside, and Modern Priscilla. For the most part they are hypocrites, not even believing the doctrines they preach to their congregations every week. But Frank rages on at the inconsistencies in doctrine, the contradictions in the Bible, the evil men who are ministers, and the fools and dullards who work about him in Zenith: Gantry, Bishop Toomis, Chester Brown, Hickenlooper, and PottsPotts especially, who gets his idea of human motives out of George Eliot and Margaret Deland, and his ideas of economics out of editorials in the Advocate, and his idea as to what he really is accomplishing out of the flattery of his Ladies Aid! Frank adds that he doesnt find Jesus an especially admirable characterJesus was more vain and furious than a leader should be. because Joness Lulu is a silly, air-spun girl. Elmer, after all, is not an idealist; though he ventures forth, he does not do so in the name of chivalry; and, finally, he does not practice the transmuting powers of fancy. Reverend Andrew Pengilly is the old pastor of the Catawba Methodist Church. . One might say that on matters of truth, he is neutral; he is not a believer or a nonbeliever. He ends up as minister of a large church in a West Virginia mining town. Lewiss reputation as a satirist of American life continued to develop in the 1920s with the novels Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), and Dodsworth (1929). There is no character development, and so Elmer, after his character is first established, does not change during the course of the novel. Yes, sir-ree, it might feel simplistic but at least it's fair and square. Lit by fire, Lancaster (Elmer Gantry) preaches to a crowd. The Trylon features 50 deluxe rocker seats, a 20-foot screen, and a pair of Century Model SA 35mm projectors. At times I wondered if he wasn't overacting, but his character called for a very animated salesman-type person. Schorer, Mark, Introduction, in Sinclair Lewis: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Mark Schorer, Prentice-Hall, 1962, p. 4. Reverend Dr. Willoughby Quarles is president of Terwillinger College. Fired from the Seminary, he is hired as a traveling salesman of farm implements. It is Elmers Napoleonic ambition to combine all such organizations to the greater glory of himself: He would combine in one association all the moral organizations in Americaperhaps, later, in the entire world. Encyclopedia.com. Harry Zenz is a student at the Mizpah Theological Seminary. The legal profession does not suit the unethical Gantry. A Century of Burt Lancaster series: http://take-up.org/series/94, The Trylon Microcinema is located at 3258 Minnehaha Ave. S.Minneapolis, MN 55406424-5468, Trylon Discount cards$25 for 5 tickets, cards can be redeemed for 1 or 2 seats at a time (on the day of show). The preacher meets someone in the town, too: a waitress ( Lolita Davidovich) with a crippled young son. REL 360: Popular Culture/Public Humanities, Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, Humans and Nazis: Reevaluating the Conversation of. Her voice was warm, a little husky, desperately alive. President Putin and I agree, Macron said. Lewis made the point that Protestantism has nurtured America in the same way it has nurtured Elmer. Ferguson, Charles W., Review of Elmer Gantry, in Critical Essays on Sinclair Lewis, edited by Martin Bucco, G. K. Hall, 1986, pp. Excerpt from Babbitt For two years, he helps her lead revival meetings in large cities, mastering the art of press advertising and fundraising. The congregation slowly begins to join back in and Gantry begins to solo with the And yet Lewiss attitude to his character is a little more complex than this long list of his faults might suggest. She engages in worthy activities at the church in Banjo Crossing, and falls in love with Elmer. He is encouraged to stay in the church by the Reverend Andrew Pengilly, and he ends up as a minister of a Congregational church in Zenith. What has educated Elmer (a few books, oratory, sermons, tracts, hymns, and a smattering of a college education) must be ridiculed in order to purge it from the land. But they could be healed constantly, and of the same disease.. Novels for Students. This is a film that has outlasted its time. He spends a year there, and three years in Vulcan, where Cleo gives birth to two children. WebElmer Gantry is a fast-talking, hard-drinking traveling salesman who always has a risqu story and a hip flask to entertain cronies and customers alike. Binch stopped gulping his fried pork chops and held out a flabby, white, holy hand.. WebVoila! Thus equipped, Elmer advances to conquer the world. In "Elmer Gantry," Burt Lancaster gives one of the all-time great screen performances. Gantry, why dont you believe in God?. And she does look sexy in a slip. He will begin as a preacher in a small town, will enliven it and lift it. He is taken with Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) who runs revival meetings. He badgers her until she allows him to preach. McGarry is accused by the fundamentalists of heresy, and he does not seem to accept the traditional dogmas of the Methodist Church: [T]he only dogma he was known to give out positively was the leadership of Jesusas to whose divinity he was indefinite.. I am not going to tell you that youre sinners, for which of us is not a sinner? So scandalous was Lewiss portrayal of religion that the novel was banned in several cities and denounced from pulpits across the nation. It's a first rate film! He plans to quit the church and get a good job selling real estate. Throughout the novel, clergymen and the church are presented in an extremely unflattering light. D. J. Dooley remarks that to Lewis Christianity is not only untrue, but inconceivable. Dooley feels that Elmer Gantry is flawed because it is neither a realistic portrayal of the state of religion in America nor a caricature whose manifest unfairness can be forgiven because of the wit and humor which have gone into it. True, unless, taking our cue from Sharon Falconer and the multitude of fraudulent evangelistic minor characters in the book, we begin to see Elmer Gantry as Lewiss triumphant depiction of a land of demons and grotesques of all sizes and shapes, created from the extremes of human impulse and incapable of self-awareness because they are already beyond it, Elmer included. Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. At Terwillinger College, Elmer captains the football team. Lewis is like a ruthless hunter who spares nothing and still has ammunition left at the end of the day. In the following essay excerpt, Lundquist suggests that Lewis portrays religion as stifling, as a manifestation of the pioneer mentality that characterized the old American and has become a threat to the new American. He hates piety and prefers drunkenness, profanity, and seducing women. But what perhaps made Elmer Gantry seem like such an act of outrage to so many readers is that Lewis did not simply treat religion in relation to other aspects of American life; he saw it instead as the molder of basic attitudes, most of which were, in his opinion, bad. You're all sinners! In the novel, when Elmer takes up his first appointment in a small-town Methodist church, one of the first questions the fundamentalist trustees asks him is, Do any monkeying with this higher criticism? Against the tide of modernist thought that included science and secularism, fundamentalists insisted on the truth of their core doctrines, including the virgin birth, the physical resurrection of Jesus, the atonement, the infallibility of the Scriptures, and the second coming of Christ. Elmer Gantry subtitles. He is treasurer of the Congregational church, but Elmer succeeds in getting him to support the Methodists instead. Yet through it all, he is awarded ecclesiastical advancement, even though he barely escapes ruin at the conclusion of the novel when one of his secretaries, Hettie Dowler, tries to blackmail him. It is the call! He follows her to her bedroom where he sees a couch high on carven ivory posts, covered with a mandarin coat; unlighted brass lamps in the likeness of mosques and pagodas; gilt papier-mch armor on the walls; a wide dressing-table with a score of cosmetics in odd Parisian bottles; tall candlesticks, the twisted and flowered candles lighted; and over everything a hint of incense. She gives him a robe for the service of the altar. As a character, Dr. Gantry lacks verisimilitude, and he lacks it more the longer he lives.. The new Wellspring Church has been built, and Elmer is awarded an honorary doctorate from Abernathy College. Burt Lancaster in all his "scene chewing" glory. She is certainly not the saintly evangelist she presents herself to be, and she maintains a smug sense of superiority over the common folk she seeks to save. She is also a pious churchgoer who has always wanted Elmer to become a preacher. I once dated (briefly) a guy who sold steel. WebFull IPTV List channels worldwide With 20000 channels + 40000 Movie and series. Infuriating and erratic, but brilliantly creative, the Canadian-born British artist and writer Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) was an always, Elman, Ziggy (originally, Finkelman, Harry), Elman, Mischa (actually, Mikhail Saulovich), Elmira Business Institute: Narrative Description, https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/elmer-gantry, Lewis, Sinclair (7 February 1885 - 10 January 1951). Elmer is so infatuated with Sharon that he gives up smoking and drinking for her. He wears fine clothes, yet he rides the railways like a vagabond. He has an affair with female evangelist Sharon Falconer, which ends with her death in a flaming tabernacle. Bains initially forces Elmer to agree to marry Lulu, but later, after Elmer shows him Lulu kissing Floyd Naylor, he orders Lulu to marry Floyd. Elmer Gantry, like all of Lewiss big novels, is part of one program. But we sure view it differently 80 years after the book and 55 years after the movie debuted. The adverse publicity helped sales, and 175,000 copies were sold in less than six weeks. At the start of the novel Elmer is a college football player so little given to piety that he is known as Hell-cat. At the end of the book he is Dr. Gantry, minister of the large Wellspring Methodist Church in Zenith, with hopes of becoming the head of a national moral-rearmament organization, the National Association for the Purification of the Arts and the Press (Napap). Elmer Gantry is not, however, a movie about making good choices. Additionally, this positive representation of the necessity of revivals to faltering churches is soured by the probability that Falconers revivals take advantage of the lower class. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. ", Jesus was a simple virtuous teacher, . But what did he know of the forces which cause wars, personal or class or national; what of drugs, passion, criminal desire; of capitalism, banking, labor, wages, taxes; international struggles for trade, munition trusts, ambitious soldiers? He becomes the symbiotic antithesis to Sister Sharon: while he tells of heading toward the depths of hell for his many sins, she tells of being saved from that fate if repentance is forthcoming. Lancaster is absolutely mesmerizing as "Elmer Gantry." To his understanding of Lewiss art, Jones seems to add firsthand knowledge about wartime religious revivals. He sees her as a conquest. Shallard is forced to resign. We're confident we succeeded and have no doubt you'll agree. You're all goin' to the painful, stinkin', scaldin', everlastin' tortures of a fiery hell, created by God for sinners, unless, unless, unless you repent. One of the first scenes with Sister Sharon Falconer involves her asking for donations from these people. J. E. North is the executive secretary of the National Association for the Purification of Art and the Press (Napap). Every one knew of some case in which each of the others had stolen, or was said to have tried to steal, some parishioner, to have corrupted his faith and appropriated his contributions. Hes the all-American salesman: hed believe, really believe, in anything he thought youd buy. Two years before adapting Elmer Gantry to the sceen, writer and director Richard Brooks, also adapted and directed The Brothers Karamazov (1958), which featured William Shatner (the original Captain Kirk) in his first movie role, as the saintly brother Alexei. Chester Brown is a prominent Methodist preacher in Zenith and one of Elmers rivals. I am Sharon Falconer now! Elmer is, obviously enough, an example of the latter. Having ridiculed the unfortunate Dr. Binch, Lewis removes him from the scene and never mentions him again. Dr. Otto Hickenlooper is a prominent Methodist minister in Zenith, and one of Elmers rivals. "Elmer Gantry - Summary" Literary Essentials: Christian Fiction and Nonfiction He becomes so successful that he becomes indispensable to Sister Sharon's roadshow. But he did not achieve the heights of success he had enjoyed during the 1920s. WebMake Your Picks. But for my money it is Jean Simmonds, surely robbed of her own Oscar here, who has the most impressive part. He would be the executive of that combination; he would be the super-president of the United States, and some day the dictator of the world [409]. He rammed the fear of God into me so fast, Lulu says of her willing seduction behind the altar, I never heard my old mans footsteps.. Elmer Gantry was raised by his mother, a staunch Baptist, in the small town of Paris, Kansas. In 1926, Lewis refused the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith, because he believed it would compromise his artistic independence. George Killough, "Elmer Gantry, Chaucer's Pardoner, and the Limits of Serious Words". Russia is a European country. This script is a transcript that was painstakingly transcribed using the screenplay and/or viewings of Elmer Gantry. Source: Martin Light, Mantrap and Elmer Gantry, in The Quixotic Vision of Sinclair Lewis, Purdue University Press, 1975, pp. Form in the novel, he contends, requires that there be an opposition between the individual and society; yet in this book there are no impediments to Elmers barbarous rise from country boob to influential preacher. Elmer Gantry is a loosely episodic chronicle, he continues, which suggests at once that there will be no sustained pressure of plot, no primary conflict about which all the action is organized and in which value will achieve a complex definition. At each of the three climaxes in the book, Lewis retreates into melodrama. In 1928, he preached in a tent in Long Beach, California to more than 5,000 people, and on his return to America the following year, when he was nearly seventy years old, he attracted even larger crowds, including 15,000 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. But the arts and the sentiments and the sentimentalitiesthey were for Elmer perpetually associated only with the church. At their next revival, the tent catches fire and kills a hundred people, including Sharon, but Gantry climbs over trapped women and escapes. He is one haunted by his checkered past and his immorality. A more elaborate kind of fantasy arises out of Lewiss belief that formal religion is based on the self-interest of its leaders. Lulu Bains is the daughter of Barney Bains. While there are multiple factors for this, a significant part of this increase is due to the incarceration of formerly released individuals [], On the afternoon of Saturday, June 30, Minneapolis was one of 600 cities and towns across the country to come alive with thousands of people vigorously and collectively denouncing the U.S. governments federal immigration policies as part of the Families Belong Together nationwide march. Fired from the ministry after going drinking rather than contacting his new church, he works for two years as a traveling salesman. The Lancastic! Good drama that had the potential to be one of the greats. Gantry threatens to avenge him but takes no action. After a brief interlude with Mrs. Evans Riddles New Thought movement, and teaching Prosperity classes on his own, Elmer joins the Methodist Church. Elmer Gantry is a film that exposes hypocrisy and greed among religious leaders who seek to exploit gullible citizens looking for something in which to believe. Lewiss personal life was troubled, and he and his second wife were divorced in 1942. When it comes to incarceration rates, Minnesota stands out as one of the few states who is experiencing an increase in their prison population despite prison overcrowding and crime at a 50-year low. After several years as a travelling salesman of farm equipment, he becomes manager for Sharon Falconer, an itinerant evangelist. Which man seems to have the more vitality? Elmer denounces his old classmate Shallard, who now preaches at a Congregational church in Zenith, calling him practically an atheist. Lundquist, James, Sinclair Lewis, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1973, pp. Starring Shirley Jones Arthur Kennedy Burt Lancaster Patti Page Jean Simmons. I can't say I've ever seen anything quite like it. Sharons real name is Katie Jonas; she picked out the name Sharon Falconer when she was working as a stenographer. According to Mark Schorer, in his introduction to Sinclair Lewis: A Collection of Critical Essays, No novel in the history of American literature outraged its audience so completely, and very few novels in American literature had a larger immediate audience. The book was banned in Boston and other cities and denounced from hundreds of pulpits. Later, he is kidnapped and beaten nearly to death, an episode that leaves him blinded. In fact, the film could be seen as prescient, as both religious revivalism, and celebrity-scandal driven journalism (another of its subjects), have arguably become more prevalent since it was made. The Allegory of Lov, Lewis, Sinclair Lewiss description of the service at which Elmer succumbs is compelling in its evocation of the rampant emotion of the occasion. The relentless, unrelieved exposure of religious hypocrisy, while amusingly presented in parts, tends to become wearying. He denounces other churches for their laxity in condemning sin. Gantry maintains friendships with most pastors in Zenith but loathes Philip McGarry, a pastor in a poor neighborhood who has been a friend and mentor to Shallard. Elmer Gantry begins in 1902. For the most part, he does not create complex human portraits but caricatures. "Elmer Gantry The novel is absorbing, and I should like to say a few words about it. It tells of people in troubled times trying to sort out life's essential challenges. From the exceptionally talented pen of noted author Sinclair Lewis comes this entertaining story of a fast-talking, yarn-spinning vacuum salesman with the natural gift of persuasion. Indeed, why doesnt he? Burt Lancaster acted in a number of excellent films during the late 1950s and early 1960s. NATIONALITY: British At the novels beginning, Gantry is captain of the football team at the rowdy campus at Terwillinger College, a Baptist school. When Lefferts asks Reverend Quarles, the college president, an awkward question about some passages in the Bible, Quarles tells him not to question the ways of the Lord. Web1. Jim is the college freethinker and the only person who has any influence on Elmer. It tells the story of a hypocritical, corrupt, but very successful preacher named Elmer Gantry. She wore expensive clothes and jewelry and put on a spectacular show. Edward J. Piacentino, "Babbittry Southern Style: T. S. Stribling's Unfinished Cathedral". In his preparation for the ministry, it is ironic that Elmer plagiarizes his first (and most frequently useful) sermon from the social reformer Robert G. Ingersoll: Love is the only bow on lifes dark cloud. If all of them are there, he says. Robert J. Higgs. Ill lead you safely through the flames! When Elmer tries to make her escape, she pushes him away. When he finally got the green light, it was United Artists that agreed to distribute the film. Excellent recounting based on the controversial Sinclair Lewis novel that got three Academy Awards . It might seem that the last thing in the world Lewis wanted was sympathy for Elmer Gantry, whom he regarded, he told Allen Austin years later, as a hypocrite through and through. Yet he wrote in the Nation in 1928, Actually, I like the Babbitts, the Dr. Pickerbaughs, the Will Kennicotts, and even the Elmer Gantrys rather better than anyone else on earth. Furthermore, he told Betty Stevens that the Babbitts were my children and I wanted to reform them. I am not going to explain the Scriptures. As Elmer (Burt Lancaster) is a saleman with a powerfully persusive tongue who joins up Sister Sharon Falconer (glamorous Jean Simmons) along with her colleagues , Sister Rachel (Patti Page) , William L. Morgan (Dean Jagger) touring grass-roots evengelist circus during the depressed twenties . Stidger introduced Lewis to many other clergymen, among them the Reverend Leon Milton Birkhead, a Unitarian and an agnostic. Mahlon Potts is the influential minister of the First Methodist Church in Zenith. Real name: David Terry. WebWhen hedonistic but charming con man Elmer Gantry meets the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer, a roadside revivalist, he feigns piousness to join her act as a passionate preacher. WebDaily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state and national news along with advertising. Reverend Jacob Trosper is the dean and chief executive of Mizpah Theological Seminary. Anative of the midwestern United States, Sinclair Lewis (18851951) chronicled through novels, THE LITERARY WORK Shirley Jones small part made the movie. Elizabeth Taylor, Best Actress winner for Butterfield 8. His specialty is in denouncing vice, and in Zenith he even leads a police raid on the local dens of iniquity. GENRE: Fiction, nonfiction Elmer cheats, he boasts, he lies, he deceives. He marries a woman he does not love. MAJOR WORKS: His flamboyant preaching style makes a big impression on the small town. Elmer forces him to resign by questioning his religious beliefs, after which Shallard gets a job with the Charity Organization Society. In his travels he comes across the traveling revival show of evangelist Sister Sharon Falconer. The following was written for REL 360: Popular Culture/Public Humanities. Happiness is the key to success. How long would a drunkard listen to the counsel of one who had never been inside a saloon? She is a widow who owns a millinery and dressmaking shop. [2][3] He also forms a Committee on Public Morals, persuades the police to make him a temporary lieutenant, and personally leads raids on the red-light districts. The result would be the fascist state against which Babbitt, in anticipation of 1984, warns. A typical picaresque narrative chronicles the exploits of a rogue, an immoral but not criminal character who lives by his wits. Continuity mistake: At the end, there is a scene in a burning church. Since religions are often sold with a spin to attract the most people or a certain group of people, it is important that potential followers examine the reasoning and intentions of religious leaders. And even these emotions were represented in the House of the Lord, in the way of tacks in pew-cushions, Missionary Suppers with chicken pie and angels-food cake, soporific sermons, and the proximity of flexible little girls in thin muslin. The incident is not strictly necessary for the plot, and Leffertss father never appears in the novel again. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance Eventually pressure from Gantry and his own conscience force Frank to resign from the ministry and turn to social work. 14, Twayne, 1962, pp. Elmer thinks he is fat and pompous, but respects him nonetheless. On the train he meets a traveling salesman who invites him for a drink, which results in Elmer failing to keep his appointment at the church. He befriends local reporters in hopes of getting his name in the papers, and eventually he leads a raid on Zeniths red-light district. WebBethel Merriday, by Sinclair Lewis, free ebook. WebHollywood legend Burt Lancaster nabbed a Best Actor Oscar as glad-handing, soul-redeeming charlatan Elmer Gantry, a huckster who spins his talent for preaching into a mtier behind the pulpit. Elmer Gantry shows the necessity and sincerity involved in these functions, as well as the dangers of falling into the trap of hypocrisy and greed, through its highly humanized leads, Elmer Gantry and Sister Sharon Falconer. publication online or last modification online. 2 hr 26 min. A lady runs by Elmer in a blue jacket, and her jacket is on fire. In The Master, Joaquin Phoenix plays an alcoholic failure who falls in thrall to cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Or maybe as something more. While working for the Daily Courier in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1908, he wrote an editorial about fraudulent evangelists, which suggests that the seeds of Elmer Gantry were already being sown. He is a born salesman well versed with the bible. He becomes one of the first clergymen in the country to have his services broadcast by radio, and in 1924, he travels to Europe with Cleo. Despite their reservations about the dignity of revival-style preaching, many of the pastors agree that it would be best for their congregations to get excited about Christianity again in hopes that this would subsequently bolster attendance. During his Yale career Lewis also traveled widely, including a trip to England working on a cattle boat, and he also lived in the Utopian colony at Englewood, New Jersey, which was founded by the novelist Upton Sinclair. "Elmer Gantry , Sinclair Lewis: An American Life, McGraw Hill, 1961, pp. North, who is in charge of the National Association for the Purification of Art and the Press, known as Napap. The impact of religion on Elmer Gantry symbolizes what it has done to the American spirit. If there was a soul to be saved - Gantry would save it. Elmer Gantry is a fast talking, hard drinking traveling salesman who always has a risqu story and a hip flask to entertain cronies and customers alike. Amplifying and connecting marginalized voices, Dance as deep listening: Weave by Rosy Simas Danse comes to the Ordway, Ritual and revelation: Black Ensemble Players reimagine Shakespeare, North Minneapolis takes back food systems, land through urban agriculture, Ha Tien Market still finds home along the Green Line, despite problems, St. Pauls school resource officer policies still leave district room for improvement, Hiawatha Collegiate High School goes beyond beating the odds for students of color, [COMMUNITY VOICES] Non-criminal technical violations are increasing Minnesotas prison population, Community Voices: [PHOTOS] Minneapolis comes out strong for Families Belong Together nationwide march, IGGERS DIGEST | Katar River: flavors and aromas of Ethiopia. The subject was tastefully handled and written for adults. Elmer Gantry appears as a minor character in two later, lesser-known Lewis novels: The Man Who Knew Coolidge and Gideon Planish. Lewis indicates the shaping of minds and values in such a village as Elmers: The church and Sunday School at Elmers village, Paris, Kansas, a settlement of nine hundred evangelical Germans and Vermonters had been the center of all his emotions, aside from hell-raising, hunger, sleepiness, and love. He graduated from Yale in 1908 and worked in various jobs in the publishing industry, including editor, reporter, manuscript reader, and reviewer. 12631. For that matter, one year after Elmer Gantry, Burt Lancaster appeared in the same movie as William Shatner, Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). The evangelist Sharon Falconer, although she is not attached to any particular church, is no exception to the anti-religion theme. Elmer would probably not be able to answer this question. And Tom Cruise, and the whole celebrity-studded cult of Scientology; Cruise jumping on Oprahs couch or in his fantastic role as the preacher of male supremacy in Magnolia.