John Llewellyn Lewis

And I had one always on the end of my nose.

And my eyebrows grew together like that labor, what was his name, John L. Lewis, was that, remember his name? Well, I had them John L.

Lewis eyebrows.

And remember, I'm from the South, and the worst thing that you can say about a Southern woman back in those days was, she's loose.

The miners resolved to defend their $100 a month pension.

Instituting what John L. Lewis called the no day work week emboldened the steel workers to walk out of the mills.

Within 24 hours, 96% of all steel production in the country was completely shut down.

United Steel Worker contracts were due to expire on the 15th, but the writing was on the wall.

Don't listen to nobody but me.

Don't listen to Walter Winchell, Gabriel Heater, Ed Sullivan, Luella Parsons, Jimmy Fiddler, J. Edgar Hoover, Billy Rhodes, John L. Lewis, Dan Burley, Mr. Anthony, and nobody.

Pay attention to me.

If something happened to you this summer, you'll say I didn't tell you.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, like I would-- It was just-- It br- uh, reminded me of the, you know, the stories of, like, uh, John L. Lewis, not, not the civil rights organizer, the, uh, United Mine Workers guy from, like, back in the-

Mm-hmm

... nineteen thirties.

We need now to introduce several players who are lost again to the 21st century but were vivid in my childhood.

John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers.

Phil Murray of the steel workers and Walter Ruther of the auto workers.

Unions were extremely powerful.

Now, at this particular stage, of course, coal was hugely important to America for heating homes, for pretty much everything, for running trains and so on and so forth.

And there were 500,000 coal miners.

And the leader of the unions, a man called John L. Lewis, whom you mentioned, was a hugely important and a very, very dramatic kind of a figure.

He had come to prominence during the 1930s when basically he had been on the side of Franklin Roosevelt.

pick up my morning paper on the front page.

There's a picture of John L. Lewis.

John L. Lewis on the front page.

I study his face.

I'm trying to figure which eyebrow has the Tony.

If the rattlesnakes loses their rattles, uh, how they notify you when they about to strike?

Well, they don't send John L. Lewis around with no note, I can tell you that.

[laughing]

Yeah.

[laughing]

Shed their zippers?

Yeah, they do that 'cause they got permission from John L. Lewis.

[laughing]

Do you suppose he's got a big appetite this morning?

That's like asking if John L. Lewis has eyebrows.

[laughs]

Well, come on in, Walter.

She probably knows what the secret word is already.

Having a secret word with a mind reader is like carrying coals to John L. Lewis.

Roberta, let's make it fair.

If your partner says the secret word, I'll pay you $100 instantly.