But he did not achieve the heights of success he had enjoyed during the 1920s. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/elmer-gantry, "Elmer Gantry Matthew Gregory Lewis After Elmer writes a critical comment about him on a blackboard, Zechlin, who is suspected of heresy, is forced into retirement by the Seminary. When he at last finds the courage, now that he is out of the church, to speak his mind, he is viciously attacked and blinded by fundamentalist fanatics. ), Elmers friend Jim Lefferts, a freethinker, has a somewhat wider list than Elmer: an encyclopedia, Pickwick, Swinburne, Ingersoll, and Paine. Ferguson, Charles W., Review of Elmer Gantry, in Critical Essays on Sinclair Lewis, edited by Martin Bucco, G. K. Hall, 1986, pp. WebElmer Gantry has a great plot. A popular singer with a voice like French silk pie, Page is most famous for her hit song Tennessee Waltz. When she first appears onscreen, shes got such presence you might think she was the main heroine. Elmer Gantry and Sister Sharon Falconer, the two main religious leaders of the film, are portrayed as morally dubious though Gantry has a small redemption and Falconer clearly truly believes in her cause. In Bible stories, in the words of the great hymns, in the anecdotes which the various preachers, quoted, he had his only knowledge of literature. Lewis exercises his bitterness against the failures of the church by making the church itself accountable for Elmers being no better educated. He is no Harry Zenz or Bruno Zechlin, who have both thought deeply about theology and have emerged as atheists. Sin, Sin. In the following essay excerpt, Lundquist suggests that Lewis portrays religion as stifling, as a manifestation of the pioneer mentality that characterized the old American and has become a threat to the new American. The pious but stupid Eddie complains that [E]verything we Baptists stand for is threatened by those darn so-called liberals . He is referring to the practice of open communion, which is favored by liberals, as opposed to the closed communion of the fundamentalists, according to which only Baptists are allowed to participate in the rite. , Sinclair Lewis: An American Life, McGraw Hill, 1961, pp. It tells of people in troubled times trying to sort out life's essential challenges. Elmer is the great man steadily making his way upward in the worldthe man of immoderate personal ambitionand the great man hasnt time for scruples. A brooding look at revivalist religion in which the over-the-top acting of Burt Lancaster steals the show . Its a movie about driving passions so hot and strongfor a sale, for salvationthey burn a person up. As the music dies, Gantry picks up where they left off and continues the hymn. The merit of this argument is undermined because it is given by Babbitt, not out of caring for the citizens of Zenith, but rather because he stands to gain the most financially from the revival. Elmer despises him. Think about how Jim would view Elmer, and how he might react to what Elmer says. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance The preacher tries to warn him off. British guitarist and vocalist. NATIONALITY: British He manipulates his way into Sister Sharon Falconer (played brilliantly by the late Jean Simmons who should have won an Oscar for her performance in this role). But the only good ministers of the Gospel seem to be those who, like Dr. Bruno Zechlin, the Old Testament scholar at Mizpah, have given up their religious beliefs. Judson Roberts, the enthusiastic, apparently confident evangelist who converts Elmer, admits to himself that his preaching is dishonest. A hundred and eleven people died that night, including all the gospel-crew save Elmer.. This tended to undermine the uniqueness of Christianity and the literal interpretation of the Bible. Special Effects winner, with presenters Polly Bergen and Richard Widmark. retrospective of Burt Lancaster films continues at the Trylon Microcinema through November, the month marking the 100th anniversary of Lancaster birth (Nov. 2, 1913), withElmer Gantryon November 11 and 12. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. They were intended to feed the American dream, but instead fashioned the nightmareout of books! date the date you are citing the material. Elmer Gantry was drunk, the novel opens, and Lancaster is terrific as the boozing, womanizing traveling salesman.Gantry is a believer, of a sort. Taken from the classic Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name, director Richard Brooks garnered an Oscar for Best Screenplay for his adaptation, and Burt Lancaster won his sole Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Elmer Gantry. He soon discovers he has a gift for preaching, and he loves the feeling of power he gets when his sermons move his congregation. There is a definite give and take between Gantry and Falconer and the congregants in Elmer Gantry. Hes the all-American salesman: hed believe, really believe, in anything he thought youd buy. But he is caught stealing from the collection and is fired. The last date is today's As a boy, the Baptist church was all he knew. B. In this essay, Aubrey discusses how Lewiss characterization in Elmer Gantry serves his satiric purpose. I'm talkin' about divine love - not carnal love. He is a well-educated Englishman in his early thirties with a colorful past. He meets Elmer on a steamer home from Europe and invites him to lecture on behalf of Napap. Lewiss version of what passed for religion in the United States of the 1920s brought him threats against his life and gave his name the same rhetorical function in Protestant fundamentalist sermons as that of Clarence Darrow, Darwin, and the devil himself. If there was a soul to be saved - Gantry would save it. Elmer Gantry is a fast talking, hard drinking traveling salesman who always has a risqu story and a hip flask to entertain cronies and customers alike. He joins up with Mrs. Evans Riddle, who teaches New Thought, a Westernized version of Indian religion. Fifty years since I married a preacher! Or maybe as something more. In the novel, people in Nebraska say that Sharon Falconer compares with the great evangelists of the past, naming Gipsy Smith as one of them. She teaches classes in Concentration, Prosperity, Love, Metaphysics and Oriental Mysticism, and invites Elmer to join her. Tries to give the kid a break. It is success that proves faith in this religion, not the other way round. More mundane examples include the star power of Scientology and Christian rock concerts. But occasionally Lewis tries to endow him with a soul, as in the incident of his conversion at Terwillinger College. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Gantry, why dont you believe in God?. As a sojourner on this earth, she goes on, trying to explain how in these months she has kept her sanity and her faith, I dont feel terribly entitled. Two years before adapting Elmer Gantry to the sceen, writer and director Richard Brooks, also adapted and directed The Brothers Karamazov (1958), which featured William Shatner (the original Captain Kirk) in his first movie role, as the saintly brother Alexei. Finally, the Elmer Gantry script is here for all you quotes spouting fans of the Burt Lancaster movie. Evangelist Billy Sunday called Lewis "Satan's cohort". Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). He thinks they might, for all he knows, be true, and that is enough for him. On a rainy, cool day Ha Tien is a warm and welcoming site. publication online or last modification online. He also raised large amounts of money at his meetings, and like Elmer Gantry, he was one of he first evangelists to spread his message through the new technology of radio. Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. WebHow does the novel Elmer Gantry end? Laws, the number of times youve explained! "Elmer Gantry", directed by Richard Brooks, is one of his best. Lewis seems determined to avoid religious discrimination: all sects appear in equally bad light. ****. McPherson was involved in a scandal in 1926. He looks stern and Elmer is afraid of him. Whatever I may choose to do, though it might be sin in one unsanctified, with me God will turn it to his glory. In the following essay excerpt, Light examines quixotic elements in Elmer Gantry. Bell, a Black youth who had recently transferred out of Central to the High School for Recording Arts, was on Centrals campus to visit one of his former teachers. He really shines as a tarnished, immoral salesman who spends Christmas at a bar and leaves with one of the ladies during the Great Depression in the heartland. The debate between fundamentalists and liberals is conducted amongst the students at Mizpah. In fact, the film's theatricality can almost be seen as a strength, for it's constructed like a well-written play. He dealt with the connection between small-town provinciality and the religious proclivities of the time, the relationship between the gospel of Christianity and the gospel of business; and, because the novel was written out of the atmosphere surrounding the Scopes Monkey Trial, he dealt with the conflict between science and religion. At his Lively Sunday Evenings, Elmer gets up to many publicity-generating stunts. WebLove is the voice of music. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." -- Albert Schweitzer 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Burt Lancaster is bold and provocative as the title character who is preaching to you one moment and drunk and surly the other. He returns to it in the context of Sharons revival meetings. The one completely positive character in the book, Frank Shallard, wants to make Christianity an active force for social good; as it is, it is a negative force, a threat to freedom. Now dont you go explaining! The English novelist and playwright Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818), known as Monk Lewis, a popular wri, Lewis, Wyndham It applied the methods of historical and literary analysis in order to determine the authorship, date and place of composition of the books of the Bible. It's strange, the way this movie opens and builds so strongly, and then has such an unsatisfying ending. It is the hour! After several failed efforts to hear God calling him to the ministry, Gantry shares a bottle of whiskey with Jim and emerges with the feeling of having received the call. Many reviewers have already remarked on this terrific movie far better than I can, so this message is really for younger people interested in serious film. He does not really hate sin, because it is useful to him: the more vice he can discover and denounce, the more his reputation as a man of God grows. Ive made herby prayer and by having a right to be her!. He became known in the 1920s for his books that satirized the spartan materialism and intolerance that But they could be healed constantly, and of the same disease.. And she does look sexy in a slip. Lundquist, James, Sinclair Lewis, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1973, pp. As a preacher, he shamelessly plays on peoples emotions and their fear of Hell. Lulu later meets Elmer again many years later in Zenith, where they resume their clandestine affair. Throughout the novel, clergymen and the church are presented in an extremely unflattering light. Shortly Frank meets more of real life than he is prepared for. As in Babbitt and Arrowsmith, we are made aware that there are sinister forces combining to strike at the very foundations of American liberties. As a character, Dr. Gantry lacks verisimilitude, and he lacks it more the longer he lives.. As Mark Schorer has pointed out, Elmer is rarely aware of himself as a hypocrite and achieves neither insight nor growth. Elmer is, obviously enough, an example of the latter. Juanita Klauzel is Elmers girlfriend in Cato, Missouri, when he is a student at Terwillinger College. Driven by ambition to become a bishop, he is hugely successful, and is given bigger and bigger churches. McGarry is accused by the fundamentalists of heresy, and he does not seem to accept the traditional dogmas of the Methodist Church: [T]he only dogma he was known to give out positively was the leadership of Jesusas to whose divinity he was indefinite.. [5], However, the book was a commercial success. He is a social climber and a publicity seeker. I am not going to tell you that youre sinners, for which of us is not a sinner? Which man seems to have the more vitality? Nevertheless, it is possible to recognize the working of quixotic elements throughout the novel, especially in the fancifully conceived Sharon Falconer and in the character who is a foil for Elmer, Frank Shallard. WebJones had probably read in the library at Schofield Barracks or from Lowneys collection Sinclair Lewiss Elmer Gantry, a satirical novel about a hypocritical revival preacher. publication in traditional print. The purpose of Napap is to make life conform to the ideals agreed upon by the principal Christian Protestant denominations. This would be accomplished by combining into one association all the moral organizations in Americathe Anti-Saloon League, the Lords Day Alliance, the Watch and Ward Society, and the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Moralsand then lobbying for legislated morality. He wears fine clothes, yet he rides the railways like a vagabond. He is immediately attracted to her and also sees her revival meetings as a way to make money. Dont be afraid! Thats Elmer Gantry. At a revival meeting he does not like to include all the preachers in town. A fast-talking traveling salesman with a charming, loquacious manner convinces a sincere evangelist that he can be an effective preacher for her cause. Lewiss personal life was troubled, and he and his second wife were divorced in 1942. "You're all sinners! But for my money it is Jean Simmonds, surely robbed of her own Oscar here, who has the most impressive part. After exposing the professors secret, Gantry receives an anonymous gift of thirty dimes, which he uses to buy photographs of strippers. External Reviews In his travels he comes across the traveling revival show of evangelist Sister Sharon Falconer. Wests point is a telling one. When I was a youngster fascinated by the Batman TV show and Lost in Space, I saw Elmer Gantry for the first time. Continuity mistake: At the end, there is a scene in a burning church. Lit by fire, Lancaster (Elmer Gantry) preaches to a crowd. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Elmer joins the Methodists and is sent to the small town of Banjo Crossing, where he falls in love with Cleo Benham, the daughter of a church trustee. Edward J. Piacentino, "Babbittry Southern Style: T. S. Stribling's Unfinished Cathedral". Now famous, Elmers ambitions know no bounds, especially when he starts to work with the National Association for the Purification of Art and the Press. Sacrilege is a word that was used often in the violent arguments that accompanied the publication in 1927 of Elmer Gantry. At the start of the novel Elmer is a college football player so little given to piety that he is known as Hell-cat. At the end of the book he is Dr. Gantry, minister of the large Wellspring Methodist Church in Zenith, with hopes of becoming the head of a national moral-rearmament organization, the National Association for the Purification of the Arts and the Press (Napap). Fired from the ministry after going drinking rather than contacting his new church, he works for two years as a traveling salesman. Modern, yet extreme examples of this include ISIS, a violent terrorist organization that is somehow able to recruit privileged teens from Western countries, and the Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, which used liberal ideology to attract minorities and young people. WebElmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) is a slick traveling salesman who is a boozer and a dog hound. He befriends local reporters in hopes of getting his name in the papers, and eventually he leads a raid on Zeniths red-light district. Later he was to learn that references to Dickens, Victor Hugo, James Whitcomb Riley, Josh Billings, and Michelangelo give a sermon a very toney Chicago air. Though he does not have quixotic benignity, helpfulness, or idealism, he does have visions of how the ministry can be useful to him; he sees thousands listening to himinvited to banquets and everything , and he dreams of hundreds of beautiful women [who weep] with conviction and rush down to clasp his hand., In addition to his hypocrisy and his ignorance, Elmer is a liar, a sinner, and a coward. Those who believe in the doctrines of the church are presented as fools or morons, and are easy targets for malicious fun. Elmer Gantry shows the necessity and sincerity involved in these functions, as well as the dangers of falling into the trap of hypocrisy and greed, through its highly humanized leads, Elmer Gantry and Sister Sharon Falconer. At Sparta, Elmer gains statewide fame for his sensational sermons denouncing drinking and other sins. On publication in 1927, Elmer Gantry created a public furor. The couple abandons their campaign against Elmer and leave Other Kansas City ministers Lewis interviewed included Burris Jenkins, Earl Blackman, I. M. Hargett, Bert Fiske, and Robert Nelson Horatio Spencer, who was rector of a large Episcopal parish, Grace and Holy Trinity Church, which is now the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri. Her maiden milk is proof of Gods goodness act supposedly converts tents full of adults, but one wonders if even Midwestern farmers without television (this is the 1920s) would find her compelling. His specialty is in denouncing vice, and in Zenith he even leads a police raid on the local dens of iniquity. In many ways, of course, Elmer is the worst of them all. The novel's protagonist, the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, is initially attracted by booze and easy money (though he eventually renounces tobacco and alcohol) and chasing women. One attendant of the revivals even describes himself as only being a good Christian when a revival is in town, and then going back to his old ways once it is gone. Overhead traveling cranes are used in industrial buildings to lift and transport heavy jobs, machines, and so on, from one place to another. Elmer Gantry: Sin. I had boycotted it for years, thinking it was too anti-Christian to support with my money, either renting or buying it. Elmer Gantry Book Details Author Bio for Lewis, Sinclair Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was a noted American writer. He is ordained despite the examiners doubts about his orthodoxy, and he takes charge of a small church in Catawba. Elmer Gantry was raised by his mother, a staunch Baptist, in the small town of Paris, Kansas. The fundamentalists also have to deal with outright skeptics, like Jim Lefferts, and covert atheists like Dr. Zechlin. Edward A. Martin, "The Mimic as Artist: Sinclair Lewis". Ill lead you safely through the flames! When Elmer tries to make her escape, she pushes him away. Its hero makes his way, with the help of native cunning and oratorical ability, through almost the whole domain of religion in the United States.