This week we're traveling to Depression-era Mississippi with O Brother Where Art Thou! Join us for a discussion of Baby Face Nelson, Pappy O'Daniel, Man of Constant Sorrow, selling your soul at the crossroads, and, of course, Dapper Dan pomade.

Sources:

Film Background:

Christopher Orr, "30 Years of Coens: O Brother, Where Art Thou?" The Atlantic (17 September 2014). https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/09/30-years-of-coens-o-brother-where-art-thou/380289/ Roger Ebert, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (29 December 2000) https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/o-brother-where-art-thou-2000 . Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Brother,_Where_Art_Thou%3F "Tim Blake Nelson- Biography" https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0625789/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm Zack Sharf, "The Coen Brothers and George Clooney Uncover the Magic of 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?" at 15th Anniversary Reunion," IndieWire (30 September 2015). https://www.indiewire.com/2015/09/the-coen-brothers-and-george-clooney-uncover-the-magic-of-o-brother-where-art-thou-at-15th-anniversary-reunion-57292/

Baby Face Nelson:

British Pathe, "Farewell Baby Face aka "Baby Face" Nelson Killed (1934)" https://youtu.be/yKmuM7vDdLc "Baby Face Nelson" Natural Born Outlaws (2016). https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B016YLTDPG/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r "Lester Gillis ("Baby Face" Nelson)" FBI History, Famous Cases & Criminals https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/lester-gillis-baby-face-nelson "Lester Joseph Gillis (Baby Face Nelson)" FBI Records: The Vault https://vault.fbi.gov/George%20%28Baby%20Face%29%20Nelson "A Byte Out of History: Man on the Run: The Last Hours of "Baby Face" Nelson" https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2004/november/nelson_112904 "Baby Face Nelson" Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Face_Nelson Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 (Pengiun, 2009). John Fox, "Lessons at Little Bohemia," https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/newss-lessons-at-little-bohemia/view Michael Woodiwiss, "Gangbusting and Propaganda," Double Crossed: The Failure of Organized Crime Control (Pluto Press, 2017). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1rfsnbn.15 Matthew Cecil, "J. Edgar Hoover's FBI," The Ballad of Ben and Stella mae: Great Plains Outlaws Who became FBI Public Enemies Nos. 1 and 2 (University Press of Kansas, 2017). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69zw2.8

Cracker:

Gene Demby, "The Secret History of the Word 'Cracker," NPR Code Switch (1 July 2013). https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/01/197644761/word-watch-on-crackers Martha Nelson, "Nativism and Cracker Revival at the Florida Folk Festival," The Florida Folklife Reader (University Press of Mississippi, 2012) https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2tvptm.17 Zsolt K. Viragos, ""Celtic Oddities": Patterns of Cracker Culture in the American South," Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies 18:1/2 (Spring-Fall, 2012): 101-119. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43488463 Mozell C. Hill and Becode C. McCall, ""Cracker Culture": A Preliminary Definition," Phylon 11:3 (3rd Qtr., 1950): 223-31. https://www.jstor.org/stable/272007 Google Books Ngram Viewer "white of you" https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=white+of+you&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cwhite%20of%20you%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cwhite%20of%20you%3B%2Cc1 John Stapler and Faye Goldberg, "The Black and White Symbolic Matrix" (1973) https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED085461.pdf Mark Liberman, "Ask Language Log: "...white of you" (4 June 2011) https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3179

Man of Constant Sorrow:

John Garst, ""Man of Constant Sorrow": Antecedents and Tradition" Country Music Annual 2002 (University Press of Kentucky, 2002). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130ht6t.6 "Ralph Stanley" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Stanley#Biography Carl Lindahl, "Thrills and Miracles: Legends of Lloyd Chandler," Special Double Issue: Advocacy Issues in Folklore Journal of Folklore Research Vol. 41, No. 2/3 (May-December, 2004): 133-71. See also Barbara Chandler's work in the same issue. https://www.jstor.org/stable/i291343

Robert Johnson and the Crossroads:

Scanned copy of Robert Johnson's Death Certificate: https://web.archive.org/web/20160305144848/http://blues.jfrewald.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/cert_back.jpg Robert Johnson, Essential Mississippi Delta Blues, Full Album: https://youtu.be/fDfPHQux51A Philip J. Deloria, "Broadway and Main: Crossroads, Ghost Roads, and Paths to American Studies' Future," American Quarterly 61, 1 (2009) Ayana Smith, "Blues, Criticism, and the Signifying Trickster," Popular Music 24, 2 (2005)

Pappy O'Daniel:

W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel Radio Broadcast, August 1941. Full broadcast available at https://youtu.be/inJQ7swZxuw Jefferey Jenkins and Justin Peck, "Building Toward Major Policy Change: Congressional Action on Civil Rights, 1941-1950," Law and History Review 31, 1 (2013) David Witwer, "The Racketeer Menace and Antiunionism in Mid-Twentieth Century US," International Labor and Working-Class History 74 (2008)

Dapper Dan:

Pomade Shop: https://pomadeshop.com/en/pomades/pomades-for-beginners/832/dapper-dan-men-s-pomade Rockabilly Rules: https://www.rockabilly-rules.com/en/Dapper-Dan-Mens-Pomade.html