美国国家公共电台 NPR Before 'Humans Of New York,' Terkel Showed Dignity In Everyday People In 'Working'

Before 'Humans Of New York,' Terkel Showed Dignity In Everyday People In 'Working' 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0003:41repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

We're going to spend the next couple of minutes talking about work and what work means. In a few minutes, we'll hear from the author of a new book about the African-American women who found work with NASA and, against all odds², became instrumental to the first manned trip to space. The book is called "Hidden Figures," and my conversation with author Margot Lee Shetterly is coming up. We'll also hear about the performer who gives a voice to working people in song, Bruce Springsteen. He has a new memoir³, and we'll hear about that.

But first, we want to listen to some of the interviews that inspired a best-seller and a musical about work more than 40 years ago. In the early 1970s, author Studs Terkel went around the country interviewing people about their jobs, most of them not very glamorous⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

STUDS TERKEL: How would you describe your work?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: I'm a processing clerk.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: I'm a carpenter from South Carolina.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Boring, monotonous⁵.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Your mouth gets tired, tired of talking.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: I started working when I was about 12 years old.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: I mean, you got to work. Nothing wrong with it - people have been doing it for years.

MARTIN: The result was a book called "Working." It became a best-seller and even inspired a Broadway musical. "Working" struck a chord for the same reason a project like the popular Humans Of New York blog does now. It revealed the dignity and even the poetry in the lives of people you see all around you. But almost none of the actual interviews conducted by Studs Terkel have ever been heard until now. For decades, the reel-to-reel tapes were packed away in Terkel's home office. Our partner, Radio Diaries, along with Project &, went through them for this series, Working Then and Now. Today, we hear Terkel's interview with Eddie Jaffe, a legendary⁶ New York press agent famous for publicity⁷ stunts⁸ on behalf of his clients.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TERKEL: So how many years have you been a press agent, roughly?

EDDIE JAFFE: Well, you know, I started 32 years ago. And in the course of the years, I did everything from strippers to a thing called roller derby, Hell on Wheels, from gangsters⁹ to Billy Graham.

TERKEL: Really? Gangsters to Billy Graham?

JAFFE: Yeah.

TERKEL: You handled both?

JAFFE: Yeah. But don't forget, Studs, that I spent most of my life learning techniques that are of no value anymore.

TERKEL: What does that mean?

JAFFE: A client would come to me and say, I want to be a star. Get me attention. And I - maybe I'd get her in Life magazine. Today, she can go on the "Carson" show - if she can get on there - and get more attention that I could've gotten her in a year. And this has helped destroy press agentry as we knew it.

TERKEL: Well, in these 30 years of being quite an imaginative press agent, you feel you've done meaningful work?

JAFFE: Well, there was a physical kick out of seeing things you're responsible for in the papers. But being a publicity man is a confession¹⁰ of weakness, in a way. In other words, it's for people who don't have the guts¹¹ to try to get attention for themselves. You spend your whole life telling the world how great somebody else is, and this is a frustrating¹² thing.

TERKEL: Your imagination, you know, the ideas you had, do you feel it could've been used some other way?

JAFFE: Oh, sure. I mean, almost everybody, I think, looks back on their life and says, I wasted it. And being a press agent gives you a far greater opportunity to do this than almost any other occupation, you know?

(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)

JAFFE: I'll tell them five. I'll be out in five minutes.

TERKEL: Eddie, it's OK.

MARTIN: Eddie Jaffe interviewed by Studs Terkel. Jaffe died in 2003 at the age of 89. Terkel died in 2008 at the age of 96. Our thanks to Radio Diaries podcast and to the Studs Terkel Archive at WFMT. Tomorrow on Morning Edition, Lovin' Al gives Studs Terkel some tips and tricks about parking cars in Chicago.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

3 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

4 glamorous   

adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的

参考例句：

• The south coast is less glamorous but full of clean and attractive hotels.南海岸魅力稍逊，但却有很多干净漂亮的宾馆。
• It is hard work and not a glamorous job as portrayed by the media.这是份苦差，并非像媒体描绘的那般令人向往。

5 monotonous   

adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的

参考例句：

• She thought life in the small town was monotonous.她觉得小镇上的生活单调而乏味。
• His articles are fixed in form and monotonous in content.他的文章千篇一律，一个调调儿。

6 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

7 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

8 stunts   

n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He did all his own stunts. 所有特技都是他自己演的。
• The plane did a few stunts before landing. 飞机着陆前做了一些特技。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 gangsters   

匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year's earnings. 歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。
• One of the gangsters was caught by the police. 歹徒之一被警察逮捕。

10 confession   

n.自白，供认，承认

参考例句：

• Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
• The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。

11 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》