Bobby and Anti-War Protests (A theory only!)

Update:  Someone very knowledgeable posted in my comments pointing out alot of things I either didn't know or had forgotten regarding the NYC jail, Allen Ginsberg, and some other stuff in the following letter that explains it a little better!  For instance, on the envelope (which I don't currently have an image of), the postmark is 2/27/68 which indicates an arrest for reasons other than what I had theorized.  Bobby may still have been a peaceful protester of Vietnam on his own time, but I no longer believe that had any connection to the February arrest.  

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This week I decided to really try to dig into Bobby's February 1968 arrest.  The one that caused him to write the letter to Allen Ginsberg asking for money to get out of jail?  Here's an image of it that I was able to still find, by the way:

(Please note, I do not own this!  Found it in an image search about Allen Ginsberg and Bobby Driscoll)

I've already elaborated on this letter before and said how I wondered if Bobby was having some hallucinations from illness or was high when he wrote it, due to some of the people he mentions -- his dad, Billy Sunday, Arch Obler, the latter two names belonging to famous people who I doubt he was with at the time (if he meant the Billy Sunday I'm thinking of, he was already dead).  It is always possible this was written in code to Ginsberg, and if that was the case, we'll probably never know what it means.

But!  Then I got to looking at the poem Bobby wrote once, called "For America."  In it, he says the following:

Hold your hailing voices high

steady the trembling lamb

our sacrifice must seem sublime

do not reveal your sweat yet

bite your lips for the time

soon the light will be off of us

and the pallor of this will be shown

do not curse in the microphone

or spit toward the camera

or lay open the fly of our love

(Published in The Great Society by A Heddaoua Publication in 1967; Bobby went by Robert O'Driscoll here)

This is my favorite of his, because honestly, it's the only one that makes sense to me.  You can maybe get a smidge of reason out of certain lines of "Sunday Bonnet Smile", but his other poems - "The Crystal Poem" and "Red Star" -- completely escape me.

... And even though I'm not sure about this at all, I think it has to do with protests.  The two hot social issues that were going on around Bobby's poetry era were Civil Rights and the Vietnam War.  Something's always told me this was a poem about the Vietnam War, cautioning Americans not to become violent in their protests, lest they not be taken seriously... and I believe that now more than ever, because I did find out that Allen Ginsberg was an advocate of Vietnam non-violent protest from researching a little about his life.  Given the fact that, as this letter indicates, Ginsberg and Bobby were friends, it casts an entirely new light on the poem.  Had Bobby adopted Ginsberg's stance of peaceful protest?

Bobby was said to be a gentle soul.  If ever he chose to protest something, I can imagine he would be peaceful.

So that lead me to want to find out more about this arrest.  We know times were tough for Bobby during those last few months of his life, and it's debatable whether or not he was clean or had switched to different substances that last little while.  His needlemarks had healed, but some sources say his autopsy reported methadrine in his system.  If he was clean, he was probably doing what we in the recovery field call "white-knuckling," trying to go off of it on his own without treatment, maybe because he knew he was dying and wanted his last few months to matter.  Did that, to him, mean taking an active role in government?  Of course all this is conjecture.

BUT... I was able to find one headline regarding arrests in the Bronx in February of 1968, and that was in the New York Times.  It read "200 Protest Bronx Arrests."  Could protesting have been what Bobby was doing in the Bronx that month?  Might he have felt he'd have an extra pull with Allen Ginsberg to send him money because he was doing what he felt was a good thing?

What's more, could Arch Obler and Billy Sunday have been nicknames for people they both knew who were also actively involved in the cause?  That still doesn't explain the "in jail with my father" part, but maybe it casts some understanding on the relationship Bobby and Allen might have had back then.

Now, if I was a really good blogger, I'd have read that article and actually found out if the protest was even about the Vietnam War and what its nature was -- peaceful or violent.  That still wouldn't have told us whether or not Bobby was actually there, but it does offer a theory.  However... I don't have a subscription to the NY Times, and as much as I love Bobby and discussing his life with you all, I'm not paying for one just to read that one article.

So that's where my readers come in!  Anyone have access to the NY Times website and can provide us with a picture of what this protest was about?  It might be interesting to discuss whether or not we think this was something Bobby was a part of.  It would be most helpful if we could establish what date in February this letter was sent, and compare it to the date of the protest (which was February 9, 1968).  In the end, we might still only have theories, but theories are still great material for discussion and understanding.

Bold Stare

I've seen this picture just a small handful of times online, and it drives me crazy I have yet to locate an original. But once I do, you better believe it's mine.  Well, provided I could pay for it.  I edited it a bit to reflect the feel of the image, and kind of mask the poor quality...

What I love so much about it is how Bobby tilts his head and gazes intently into the camera as though trying to convey his true, authentic spirit to the viewer.  I do know this picture seems to have been one of the set that came with the article "Nightmare Life of a Child Star."  He's not smiling in any of them, so I figure the photographer was going for a more somber mood.

But this.

It's one of those times when you can practically feel another person's energy jump out and grab you.  That's put a bit weirdly, but do you know what I mean?  There are alot of facets to Bobby's personality from what we have read and can tell.  His eyes can convey warmth, humor, bravado/mischief (as I see twinkling forth in the shot below from "Day is Done"), and in this one, sensitivity and depth.  

It occurred to me also that during this interview, Suzanne was said to be with him.  I wonder if the photographer was keen to get a picture of them together, but Bobby declined?  It might have not happened that way, but it could have.  He definitely seemed to know how to keep his boundaries, as back when he was soon to marry Marilyn, he wouldn't give the location or time of his ceremony to the reporters.  I love how he could be pretty transparent about himself, yet still keen to protect his family and friends from public scrutiny.  For his faults and unwise decisions, Bobby was many shades of a gentleman at heart.  We don't know, but his keeping Suzanne off-camera could have been a reflection of that.  We never got to see a public shot of him and Didi together, either, but that could have just as likely been because no one really cared about him as a celebrity by the time they got together.

Anyway, I'm glad we have those stills -- particularly this one -- to represent his adulthood.  There was never much else.  If you hadn't seen it before, I hope you enjoyed seeing it!  Happy Sunday!

In Honor of Easter...

I showed you guys this a few posts ago, but I did it as almost an afterthought so I deleted that post to re-share it here.

I found a super bad-quality version of this online in a 2001 copy of the Catholic newsletter The Anchor.  The original post listing all the celebrities in this picture with Bobby is still available if you scroll down a bit.  But I ordered the hard copy of this article, and even though it's still not horribly clear, it's better than the copy I found online. I love how, in the sea of polite, subdued smiles, Bobby is the only one big-smiling. I hope you can see it!  Such a great show-off of his warm and friendly personality.

So I came to discover that almost all the celebrities in this picture were a part of a Triumphant Hour broadcast in 1952 (which is accurate to the age I thought Bobby was in this pic).  This was a Family Theater Easter broadcast that actually ran for several years.  Bobby apparently took part in it in 1948 and 1954 in addition to this year.  It grieves me that no copies of this -- not even a transcript -- can be found now.

This picture may have been taken after the celebrities recorded for the show. 

Bobby was definitely a person of faith, as is evidenced by the "religious" nature which was ascribed to him by many who knew him (Brian Keith O'Hara told us about some of this in the Yahoo Group dedicated to Bobby about ten years ago).  He was said to have been mostly nondenominational, but "leaned Catholic."  His mother told us about the bust he sculpted of Jesus, and went on to tell about his uncle being a Baptist minister and his aunt having been killed by South American natives on the mission field.  These things may have attributed to his desire to learn more about God.  I talked about the likelihood of his growing up Presbyterian here.  If his dad was Catholic, as he appeared to be, and his mother was Baptist, Presbyterian was probably a good blend of the two.  As he got more involved in the Beatnik culture, he seems to have dabbled in some mysticism and likely took some theological side roads for awhile, but the literature found at his death indicates a revisiting of his Christian roots.

I'd love to hear more about his faith, in his own words...  but I digress!  As this was a picture taken on or around Easter, it felt fitting to repost today, and to talk a little more about.

Happy Spring to my lovely, faithful readers!