A Response to Wonder Bar by Pia Santaklaus

Hi Brett,

 

I found today’s Chauvel Cinemateque movie WONDER BAR (1934) very interesting. A mish-mash of ad-hoc ideas pulled together perhaps as a vehicle to showcase the Busby Berkeley other-worldly dream sequence near the movie’s close which in itself is virtually a smaller film within the film and extremely ‘fantastical’ in scope.

 

As such, I will discuss this brash ‘bit’ which featured Al Jolson singing ‘Going to heaven on a mule’. This imaginative and boldly-realised second number by Berkely in WONDER BAR, "Going to Heaven on a Mule" renders an African-American heaven which might be seen as racial stereotyping. Al Jolson is in his blackface routine, perhaps using his black persona to cryptically and comfortably represent downtrodden Jews (as Shirley Clarke much later successfully used blacks to represent downtrodden females in her own underrated 1963 masterpiece THE COOL WORLD).

 

Al Jolson portrays a poor, dying field worker in overalls and worn work shirt, (looking like the future scarecrow in the 1939 Wizard Of Oz film). Jolson departs his old shack for the modern art deco heavenly after-world where the concentration of wealth and abundance makes him happy. Most of the singing and dancing takes place in this art deco heaven where gay angels give Jolson wings and Bill Bojangles Robinson tap-dances in tights. Al Jolson is accompanied by his beloved mule.

There’s an old religious belief that the streets of heaven are paved with gold (See Revelations 21:21 and Isaiah 54: 11-1), furthermore, in the apocryphal book of Tobit 13:16-17, “the gates of Jerusalem will be built with sapphire and emerald and all walls with precious stones. The towers of Jerusalemwill be built with gold...” It goes on to say that the streets of Jerusalem will be paved with ruby and stones of Ophir. (Ophir is believed to be an unknown location of solid gold).

 

Besides the segregated heaven that holds only African-Americans, other potential controversial references include pork chops growing on trees, gambling (rolling dice) and even the reading of a Hebrew newspaper; perhaps implying that in ‘heaven’ (The New Jerusalem?), the downtrodden of Earth will be rewarded and able to do whatever they want; Anyone can even eat pork, gamble, etc. and it wouldn’t be sinful (The Book of Revelations states that New Jerusalem will be free of sin).

 

It’s interesting that Jolson rides a mule into heaven. Mules remain a most complex animal symbol, laden with a variety of roles. The mule (or donkey) was traditionally the symbolic beast of jesters and fools; seen in other light, the mule is hero, victim, star, defender of the ignorant to the right of knowledge, or even sexual entertainer for obvious pornographic reasons. At other times, the mule is considered completely stupid ‘the dumbest beast of all’. In WONDER BAR, the mule possibly symbolizes Christ’s humility. As Christ’s ancestor Solomon had also ridden a mule into Jerusalem (See 1 Kings 1:33), Christ too rode a mule into Jerusalem to show that he was King of the future (Jerusalem symbolizing the future).

 

Jews consider Jerusalem the holiest city and Christians place great significance on Jerusalem as well, believing it to be the site of The Crucifixion and that before the return of the ‘son of man’ (second coming) a New Jerusalem will be built. The origins of New Jerusalem began with the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the capture of the Babylonians when Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon burnt Jerusalem in 586 BC. Ancient Jews hoped to restore Jerusalemwhen Ezekiel prophesied its restoration. In the Bible, New Jerusalem is a city of God. It is a literal, physical city that is mystically and divinely reconstructed like the original Jerusalem. Concepts of a paradise (heavenly) garden within a walled enclosure, with abundance of delight and water echo in New Jerusalem.

 

In the Book of Revelations, New Jerusalem is an earthly location where believers will live forever with God. Many Christians view New Jerusalem as a current reality and as such, a concept of heaven. New Jerusalem is “pure gold, like clear glass”, brilliant like very costly stone and the streets are paved with gold. (Gold is a symbol of eternity as it defies the effects of aging).

It is said there are 12 gates in the heavenly wall and an angel at each gate.

I suspect that the movie version of THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) borrowed a lot from Busby Berkeley’s visual concepts in THE WONDER BAR (1934). The ‘Wonderful Wizard Of Oz’ himself lives in an art-deco jewel-city (Emerald City) where the streets are paved with gold (The yellow brick road). At the gates of the city we find a guard peeping through a little opening-closing window. In WIZARD OF OZ Dorothy predicts Oz is ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ as Al Jolson predicts in WONDER BAR that he will ride to the end of the rainbow and get to heaven on a mule. Sure enough we see blackface-Jolson progressing towards heaven, riding his beloved mule across a span of bridge-in-the-sky shaped like an arch/bow.

 

Many myths and legends exist about rainbows leading to God. In Japan a rainbow is sometimes thought of as a ‘floating Bridge of Heaven’. Pet lovers believe that there is a bridge connecting Earth and Heaven called ‘The Rainbow Bridge’. When a particularly beloved pet dies, it goes there, ‘just this side of heaven”, where there is a lush, green, happy spot with food, water, sunshine and comforts always available. Once there, old, frail beasts feel young and playful again; The only sadness is that they miss their beloved human owner (on Earth) who is not there yet, although in time the pet will again see its master coming and excitedly they meet and embrace. The human and the loving, trusting pet finish crossin the Rainbow Bridge together, never to part again.

 

The interpretation potential of the whole Going to heaven on a mule’ sequence is staggering. Berkeley was an excessive wizard of odd.

Perhaps some other time, some other place, there will be opportunity for further contemplations. At this point we should avoid Rainbow Bridge as I hear it is currently teeming with ‘lions and tigers and bears’

 

Oh my!

 

Pia Santaklaus