CALIFORNIA STATE OF MIND: THE LEGACY OF PAT BROWN {MOTION PICTURE}
Summary
This documentary film focuses on the life and career of California state governor Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown, who served from 1959-1967. The program begins with Brown's 1958 appearance on the quiz show "What's My Line?", and Tom Brokaw comments that he was the "grandfather of modern California." Granddaughter Sascha Rice talks about her memories of Brown and his friendly nature and fondness for engaging her and others in lively debates and conversation. Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger discusses his interest in taking risks and "thinking big," knowing that California would grow to be an important American power. The problems of drought, homelessness and unemployment plaguing the state today are reflected in the issues of Brown's time, which included racial tension and backlash from the Vietnam War, and his era is described as a "road map" for later developments. Born in San Francisco in 1905, Brown grew up in a "time of optimism" as the city rebuilt itself after the great earthquake of 1906. Using old recordings of Brown discussing his past, Rice discovers that Brown's father was an entrepreneur with a "get-up-and-go" attitude who encouraged his children to productivity through his many business ventures. Brown was unable to attend college for financial reasons, but went to law school at night and ran for state assembly at age twenty-three, losing dismally. Inspired by President Roosevelt, he "converted" to the Democratic Party and ran for district attorney, eventually winning in 1943. He was forced to ask his father to close his illegal gambling room as to not endanger his campaign, which he did (temporarily), and Brown ascended to attorney general in 1950 and mounted a campaign for governor in 1958, winning by a landslide.
His first order of business was to make changes in California's higher education policies; population growth was leading to its becoming a "mega-state," and Brown created a "master plan" that included new campuses and lowered tuitions, successfully rendering education accessible to all. Brown's daughter notes that he would be "dismayed" to witness today's tuition increases and changes. He then set his sights on equality and desegregation, supporting a fair housing bill forbidding racial discrimination in the sale and rental of homes, which barely managed to pass despite much controversy and opposition. Water, however, was "the center of his vision," and he created a highly ambitious bill proposing the building of dams and manmade rivers to channel much-needed hydration from the north of California all the way to the south. With the help of forbidding Senator Hugh M. Burns, he managed to get the bill passed, and then campaigned amongst the working people to raise the money for the project. The accessibility of water was and is essential to California's agriculturally-based economy, and Rice visits the plants still in operation today.
Brown also focused on death penalty cases, particularly the case of convicted rapist Caryl Chessman. He found Chessman's condemnation for a non-fatal crime to be "barbaric," and received hate mail for his efforts to commute the sentence. Chessman was executed anyway in 1960, and Brown and his wife were booed at the Olympics following the incident. At the Democratic National Convention of that same year, Brown was seriously considered as a candidate for Presidential hopeful Lyndon Johnson's running mate, but out of respect for John F. Kennedy and his commitment to serving as governor, Brown opted out of the offer, causing the press to regard him as "weak." However, the strength of his family, particularly of his wife Bernice, kept him grounded during the difficult time. Brown's son Jerry soon rose in fame and eventually became governor himself, although he and his father "looked at things differently" and often engaged in debates. He encouraged his other children into politics, including Rice's mother Kathleen, who became state treasurer and eventually ran for governor as well. Her opposition to the strict Proposition 187, however, which banned undocumented residents from using public services like health care, cost her the election.
In 1962, Brown ran against Richard Nixon, who had little love for the state of California and chose to employ McCarthyism and paint Brown as a "Red appeaser." The Cuban Missile Crisis towards the end of the campaign seriously frightened the American people, but Brown pulled off a win and was christened the "Giant-Killer." At the same time, at UC Berkeley, protests and sit-ins against the Vietnam War were gaining steam, and Brown, having missed out on college, felt that the students were squandering a great educational opportunity. The migrant farm workers, led by Caesar Chavez, began to strike over their treatment from big agricultural companies, and were dismayed when Brown was forced to side with the conglomerations rather than with them for political reasons. Proposition 14 threatened to undo the fair housing law, citing citizens' right to "privacy," and when it passed in 1964, Brown wrote an impassioned letter to the L.A. Times denouncing its bigotry. Race riots finally broke out in 1965 in South Central Los Angeles, and Brown hurriedly returned from a trip to Greece and went straight to the problem areas to work on the issues, which went largely unreported by the press, thanks in part to racist Chief of Police William Parker. Brown created a commission to investigate the cause of the riots and planned his final campaign in 1966, running against "some Hollywood actor": Ronald Reagan. Reagan focused on campus unrest and attempted to blame Brown and his Democratic party for all of the social tension, and Brown was alarmed by his level of conservatism. Proposition 14 was eventually overturned, but Brown lost to Reagan, still working hard on political matters until the very end of his term.
Kathleen Brown recollects telling her father about her own political loss, and in 2011, his son Jerry was sworn in as California's 39th governor, drawing on his father's optimism in the people to "create good." Many associates discuss Brown's significant impact as "a great political builder," focusing on his groundbreaking state water plan and highlighting his belief in the government to help people and enact positive changes, despite being increasingly regarded as "the enemy" of the people. Brown's children comment on Brown's belief in the need for people to "take care of one another" and contribute to society, working together to improve the state he so loved.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: 2011
- RUNNING TIME: 1:31:04
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 106788
- GENRE: Documentary
- SUBJECT HEADING: Documentary; California; Politicians
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Hilary Armstrong … Executive Producer
- Julia Mintz … Producer
- Sascha Rice … Producer, Writer, Director
- Katherine Ripley Frisoli … Co-Producer
- Erin O'Malley … Associate Producer
- Zora A. Wolter … Line Producer
- Christian Heaton … Line Producer
- Laura Nix … Writer
- Kim Carroll … Music by
- Tom Brokaw
- Bernice Brown
- Kathleen Lynn Brown
- Edmund Gerald Brown (See also: Pat Brown)
- Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr.
- Hugh M. Burns
- Caesar Chavez
- Caryl Chessman
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- John F. Kennedy
- Richard Nixon
- William Parker
- Ronald Reagan
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Arnold Schwarzenegger