In his second inaugural address, in 1937, Franklin Roosevelt pointed out that one-third of the nation was living in poverty. Two years later, Studs Terkel used this speech as a point of departure in Home Sweet Home, a radio play about life in urban slums during the Great Depression. Written under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration, the play advocated the creation of government-funded public housing, a solution now decried as a tremendous failure.
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“It was written 50 years ago, so it’s a little old-fashioned,” Terkel concedes. “But then it was a dream. A remarkable woman named Elizabeth Wood was the head of the Chicago Housing Authority at that time, and she felt people have to be treated with dignity and allowed to use their own imaginations.”
Home Sweet Home will be performed by the Equity Library Theatre on Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM in the Kraft Television Theatre at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, 800 S. Wells. After each performance, a panel discussion will be held addressing radio’s role in altering political and social agendas during the 1930s and ’40s. Terkel will appear at the Saturday discussion. Other panelists include Himan Brown, radio producer and director of The Inner Sanctum and Dick Tracy, and on Sunday Les Weinrott, producer and director of the radio program Those Websters. The suggested donation is $3. Seating is limited; call 987-1500 for reservations.
