Kantor gave us a lot of Americana

MacKinlay Kantor

MacKinlay Kantor was a writer who deserves to be remembered better than he is. Kantor gave us a story that was the basis for the best-known movie about scouting, as in the Boy Scouts. Once ensconced in the most pure American tradition/values, the Boy Scouts seem to have crashed and burned. Isn't that something? Really unbelievable. Justified, though, based on the sordid behavior that eventually became known. 

The Catholic Church has at least survived up until now. Scouting, no. But Kantor's story "God and My Country" was the basis for the movie "Follow Me, Boys!" from 1966. Movie was timed to coincide with the young years of the boomer generation. What power we had to determine what was important in our culture. The boomer generation left footprints like no other. But we will pass from the scene like all other generations. 

New values have come into play like gender neutrality. I confess I cannot even follow all the stuff that is happening with gender. But the Boy Scouts? Once a pillar for American wholesomeness, filed away in a dustbin. It was right in line with Norman Rockwell. 

America can survive and maybe even prevail without the Boy Scouts. "Scout's honor" was offered as a humorous line in the movie "Hoosiers," right? As if to suggest it meant nothing. I have used it that way myself, to prompt a chuckle perhaps. 

Let us emphasize that "Follow Me, Boys!" was a product of Walt Disney. In this era, the Disney productions sought to impress various political or philosophical viewpoints. It was subtle, perhaps barely noticeable in the eyes of boomer youth. Now that we're older, we recognize it. The important thing is that we can recognize and react to it. 

You should read the current popular book "Forget the Alamo" to get things straightened out in your head about the Alamo story, to be sure. Walt Disney was anti-communist which is fine to an extent, but people impassioned by this often seem to just be protecting their own personal wealth. The attitude can obviously morph in some dangerous directions. Disney made a myth out of the Alamo and propped up this folk hero Davy Crockett. Coonskin cap. Boys everywhere learned the theme song. In my neighborhood we altered the lyrics to have some fun. 

But whatever, Disney the man and his company had a vision of America that was never really planted in reality. 

The author Kantor was supremely gifted and with a talent for evoking sentiment. I am utterly fascinated by this: Kantor was known for his limited use of punctuation! He shied away from quotation marks too! 

 

The return from war story

I'm thinking of Kantor today because recently I had the opportunity to re-watch the movie "The Best Years of Our Lives." The opening portion of the movie is as sentimental as you can get. I still have to dry my eyes about halfway through that portion. My eyes have to be clear to appreciate the rest. 

Movie producer Samuel Goldwyn commissioned Kantor to write a screenplay shortly after WWII. The theme would be "veterans returning home." Kantor titled his work "Glory For Me." He was disappointed about the title change. Kantor's screenplay or novel was in something called "blank verse." 

The screenwriter Robert Sherwood changed some details. Well, that's the way it goes in corporate entertainment. Kantor did not take all of this in stride. Nevertheless the movie was a boffo success all the way around. Indeed, by any yardstick. 

So I suppose it could not have been done without Kantor. Soldiers returning home: that's the story. So we see their particular challenges. I have enjoyed watching the movie, especially (by far) the opening part, as the three central characters become acquainted with the return home. Then we see the reunion with family/friends. We see adjustment challenges of leaving war, returning to normal life. 

 

The dead don't matter

I am reminded of a poignant comment during the O.J. Simpson trial: "We reserve our sympathies for the living." The masses of war casualties are forgotten because they literally exist no more. They didn't survive to give sanctimonious speeches at Memorial Day programs. We cannot appreciate their "take" on things. Instead we have the survivors. 

I have felt that in an understated way, "The Best Years of Our Lives" takes a generous view toward WWII. Look at it this way: how would the lives of the three men have proceeded if the war had never happened? Dull and full of ennui? Instead the war was the most dramatic possible chapter any young man could have experienced. You just had to survive it. Odds were not super-good of that. 

The military service gave these guys a sense of identity and pride they could not have dreamt of otherwise. In a way, Hollywood put forward a template about "the good war" that made us all more sympathetic to future military actions. Look how the nation was so slow in recognizing the sheer futility of Vietnam. 

Boomer boys like me not only grew up with the Boy Scouts, we grew up with WWII movies, carefully sanitized to not show the full carnage, and with war-themed toys: facsimile weapons, even plastic "hand grenades" that worked with caps for "cap guns." You'd expect all of this to generate some PTSD in our fathers. If it did, it was kept under wraps. 

 

A thread in Kantor's stories

I realized that the two Kantor-inspired movies cited here - "Follow Me, Boys!" and "The Best Years of Our Lives" - have a fascinating theme or commonality. I hugely congratulate the late writer on this. I wonder how many others have noticed this. Here it is: the idea of how a purely chance encounter or impulse can have life-changing results. The three servicemen in "The Best Years of Our Lives" meet in a fleeting way, as they seek plane transportation home after their service commitment. They hop on a military aircraft that has rounds to make. They are headed for fictional "Boone City." Their lives become intertwined. 

And then in "Follow Me, Boys!" Fred MacMurray as the heroic character is playing saxophone with a traveling band when the band bus passes through a typical small town. On main street the character sees a "help wanted" sign on a storefront. Is this the American ideal? He leaves the band, befriends the shop owner and grows into a pillar of the community, gets married etc. And, becomes the iconic scoutmaster. You might say he's a hero like Davy Crockett if you want to subscribe to all that. 

 

Money talks

Whither the Boy Scouts? The Boy Scouts of America reached a settlement with sexual abuse survivors in 2021. The sum was $850 million. And so goes the deconstructing of Norman Rockwell's America, eh? We might pine for an America that in truth never existed, eh? 

Kantor had a fascinating and overall impactful career. I have touched upon just a portion of it here today. His name ought to be bigger. Scout's honor.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com