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DOCUMENTSSacco and Vanzetti Works by David RothauserTwo novels plus stage plays, screen plays, a musical play and articles about the Sacco-Vanzetti case. David Rothauser is the Founder of Memory Productions, an independent film/video company dedicated to making films that tell the stories of people who should forever be remembered for their contribution to the world we live in and for their undying love of human kind.
David received The Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Award from the Community Church of Boston in 1999.
Following are David's works on Sacco and Vanzetti:
FILM
The Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti
The Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti is a film about the most famous criminal/political case in American jurisprudence. The Sacco-Vanzetti case rocked Boston and the world from 1920-27. It resonates as much today as it did in the 1920's when terrorist bombings, fear and hatred of immigrants, judicial prejudice and mass deportations dominated the hi-ways and by-ways of Americana. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti become involved with the Anarchist movement. Their names were on a list of immigrants marked for deportation or for criminal prosecution. They were arrested and charged with the crime of murder and robbery. In 1927 the two men were executed in Boston. Fifty years later, Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, cleared their names by proclamation.
The film may be purchased directly from Memory Productions, 90 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, drothauser@gmail.com. www.hibakusha-ourlifetolive.org
THEATRE
Sacco-Vanzetti In Words and Music, a stage play.
Mr. Sacco and Mr. Vanzetti, a stage play.
The Shoemaker and the Fishpeddler, a screenplay.
Other Works by David Rothauser:
East Wind Rain - A Historical Novel about the espionage behind the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941
Pole Dancing For Jesus A Hip-hop stage play/musical about the 2020 United States presidential election.
The First All-American President - A stage play about the first Native American president of the United States of America.
LITERATURE
Bartolomeo Vanzetti - Nicola Sacco
The Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti
A Historical Novel
Many books have been written about the Sacco-Vanzetti case, but only this one is written from the perspective of Sacco and Vanzetti and only this one has uncovered legal evidence, The Right To Allocution, ignored during the trial. Had it been applied, could have changed the outcome of the trial in favor of the two defendants. By 1927 legal scholars and trial lawyers had ignored the Right to Allocution. The book examines every legal argument of the case while delving deeply into the characters’ thinking and motivations for their actions, both from the defense and prosecution point of view.
INTRODUCTION TO THE DIARY OF SACCO AND VANZETTI, A HISTORICAL NOVEL
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants arrive in New York in 1908. Sacco settles in Massachusetts, quickly finding work in a series of shoe factories, where he immediately immerses himself in night classes to learn English. Vanzetti, a professionally trained pastry chef in Italy chooses another path. Hard physical labor. After years traveling the highways and byways of America, he settles in Plymouth Massachusetts, working as a fish peddler.
We follow their introduction into the dreaded anarchist movement at the time of the infamous "Red Scare Raids" throughout the U.S. They quickly become earmarked for deportation by the U.S. Department of Justice. They are eventually arrested, charged and convicted of a robbery and murder of two payroll guards at a shoe factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts in 1920. Seven years later they are executed for the crime at Charlestown State Prison in Boston. Fifty years later their names are cleared by a public proclamation issued by former Presidential Candidate and Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis.
During their seven years of incarceration Sacco and Vanzetti perceive and interpret the unfolding of their lives through their struggle to comprehend not only the complexities of the English language under extreme duress, but also the legal mumbo-jumbo of courtroom proceedings. As observers of their own demise Sacco and Vanzetti discuss, analyze, argue over, make jokes about and spiritually embrace the people and environment of their fate.
Elizabeth Glendower Evans becomes a major figure in their lives. A Boston Brahmin, shareholder in the Lawrence textile mills, Mrs. Evans joins the Sacco-Vanzetti defense committee, raises enormous amounts of funding to maintain the defense and leads a coterie of Beacon Hill women to teach English to the condemned men. "Auntie Bee" as she prefers to be called becomes a "second mother" to Nick and Bart who cherish her and return her love unconditionally.
Judge Webster Thayer, a man on a mission in collusion with his prosecuting attorney, Fred Katzmann, succeeds in turning the civil trial into a political witch hunt to cleanse the country of foreign born radicals who they perceive are working to overthrow the U.S. government.
The story lays bare the intense pressure of the times on the two immigrants, the fear of terrorist bombings and a paranoia of a Communist takeover of the U.S. Government. Sacco and Vanzetti become institutionalized in Bridgewater Hospital for the Criminal Insane, petition for clemency, rejoice when another prison inmate confesses to the crime, only to be rejected by the trial judge. Two last minute reprieves give the men hope, only to be dashed by Governor Fuller who signs their death certificate. An unidentified attorney challenges Judge Thayer over the Right to Allocution in a surreal epilogue that proves to be the missing link that might have saved Sacco and Vanzetti ... too late.
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