High-lights of the Smithsonian "Entertainment Nation" Exhibit and Report from DC and Mt. Vernon

The “Entertainment Nation” exhibit at the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington, DC, highlights several Tokin' Women and men, and other sheroes and heroes. It opens with a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," and the guide told us the exhibit was years in the making. (Garland was 13 years old when she sang "La Cucaracha" in a film short.)

The first Tokin' Woman I caught was Bessie Smith, with copy that said, "Pioneering African American blues women such as Bessie Smith sang about the virtues of economic and sexual independence from men...in 'Any Woman's Blues' she laments her affections for a man who continues to let her down." Smith also sang about reefer in "Gimme a Pigfoot" (1933). 

Included in the exhibit are Billie Holiday's 1939 recording of "Strange Fruit" and the Aretha Franklin album cover, "Young Gifted and Black" (a Nina Simone song), in front of the dress worn by Billie Jean King when she defeated Bobby Riggs in the 1973 "Battle of the Sexes." 

Very Important Pothead Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's jersey (#33) is included, along with a photo of Kareem executing a sky hook, and the text, "Basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ended his 20-year run in 1989 with a career 38,387 points, an NBA record that held until 2023...Early in his career he united his interest in Black history with his religious conversion to Islam and dedicated much of his time to social justice movements." Kareem made a study of the science on marijuana while a student at UCLA and decided to try it. He continues to activate with thoughtful commentary on his Substack site. 

 

Willie Nelson's red bandana is in the exhibit, and the accompanying text calls him a "bandana-wearing country music outlaw." It continues, "As the wolves of Wall Street prospered from Reaganomics, farm families struggled with doubling debt, interest rates at a staggering 21.5%, and collapsing crop prices.....Willie Nelson and other musicians took up their cause in a series of Farm Aid concerts that raised millions and moved a rural crisit to center stage." While wearing his iconic red bandana, Nelson recently chatted with Kaitlan Collins about the time he smoked pot on the White House roof during the Jimmy Carter administration.  

 

Presented along with the chairs sat in by Edith and Archie Bunker on "All in the Family" and Mr. Rogers' tennis shoes are the bullwhip and leather jacket Harrison Ford sported as "Indiana Jones" and a costume worn by Lucy Lawless as "Xena: Warrior Princess" (shown). Ford has never come out as a pot smoker, although some like Bill Maher have called for him to do so. Lawless came out as a supporter of medical cannabis in her native New Zealand in 2016. 

Sandwiched between a dress worn by The Supremes and Phyllis Diller's wig, gloves, and cigarette holder, a sort-of psychedelic poster (shown, above) is included with the sign, "Can you find the bands The Fugs and The Grateful Dead? Beat poets Alan Ginsburg and Neal Cassidy?" Beside a photo of a sign announcing an Acid Test, the caption says, "Many young Americans turned to countercultural entertainments, including recreational drugs, in hopes of finding themselves. In 1965 author Ken Kesey hosted the first of what he called 'Acid Tests,' parties fueled by the hallucinatory drug LSD, popularly known as acid....Acidheads sought pleasure and mind-altering insights, but recreational use of LSD sparked intergenerational debate about social norms and mainstream values." The debate continues: On a recent podcast, Joe Rogan and Matthew McConaughey discussed the nature of history of psychedelic experiences. 

Also depicted are Ellen DeGenreres's coming "out" and The Dixie Chicks' protest of the war in Iraq, asking the question, "When you protest what you feel are unjust or unnecessary acts by our government, are you a patriot or a traitor?" 

Already the Trump administration has scrubbed mention of his impeachments at the greater Smithsonian, and he has laid out his objections to the institution here. See it while it's still around. 

Around DC, I saw a few groups of National Guardsmen / other LEOs hanging around, not on patrol and looking bored (three at the Washington monument, six at the Lincoln). Tourists seemed largely ethnic (Asian, East Indian). Cab/Uber drivers all Arab. Service workers (restaurants, etc.) all Hispanic or Black. We are a melting pot. 

 

Another exhibit we saw, "The Two Georges" at the Library of Congress, quotes King George as saying George Washington would be the greatest man in the world for stepping down from office (something Trump ought to learn). Washington’s farewell address upon resigning the presidency, included in the exhibit, is read every year on his birthday in the Senate.  

The next day, I traveled to Washington's home Mt. Vernon, where I found out that this year's hemp seedlings there were eaten by geese. Since staffers had to go through much rigamarole from the state of VA to grow them, they decided not to replant this year. Generally they grow and process it onsite, I was told. I got to the spinning house where hemp is mentioned as a crop Washington grew. The period-costumed spinner there said it didn’t have to be carded as finely as linen, since it was mostly used for rope. 

It was also noted by our Mt. Vernon guide that while Washington had to be talked into opening a distillery, he at one time ran the biggest one in the US, after switching to growing wheat when the price of tobacco dropped in Europe. It was Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton’s idea to place an excise tax on whiskey; he was a city boy who didn’t understand that subsistence farmers needed a cash crop. Washington reportedly didn’t feel the pinch at his level of production, and used his troops to enforce the law against the Whiskey Rebellion. 

 

I hear that today, a group of citizens that has walked from Philadelphia (once our nation's capital) to DC will present a copy of The Constitution to Congress as part of the We Are America march. As Trump continues to dismantle our Constitution and any dissent from the press while targeting left-wing groups and suspected narco-traffickers,  sending in troops to Memphis and betraying our country while enriching himself, let's keep the protests going.