Hallelujah, I'm a Bum - Reagan & Gilder

Does Hallelujah, I’m a Bum prefigure the beliefs of Ronald Reagan and George Gilder?

By Denise Noe

Released in 1933 and directed by Lewis Milestone, Hallelujah I’m a Bum is a well-crafted musical comedy set in the time period in which it was made. The legendary Al Jolson plays a happy-go-lucky hobo named Bumper living with a bunch of hobos in New York City’s Central Park. Bumper has been nicknamed the Mayor of Central Park by his fellow homeless. He appears content to go around in ragged and soiled clothes while leading an aimless life of casual adventuring.

Bumper has made the acquaintance of New York City’s Mayor John Hastings (Frank Morgan), who likes the shiftless hobo but believes he needs reforming, i.e. ought to get a job and live like ordinary folks with a roof over his head and clean clothing. However, Bumper prefers the life he already has.

Enter June Marcher (Madge Evans). Pretty, sweet, lithe, charming June. Bumper is smitten and determines to become a man whom she can view as a suitable suitor. For reasons I can’t explain without giving away too much of the plot – and I don’t want to spoil this delightful movie for those who have not yet had the pleasure of watching it – he must also, at least temporarily, contribute to the lady’s support.

The above leads Bumper to see the light and decide to get and keep a job. This decision does not sit well with his fellow hobos who form a self-described kangaroo court and call it the People of the Park vs. Bumper’s Going to Work. They soon conclude that Bumper has gone insane and allow him on his way.

That way is one of conscientiously working at a nine-to-five, being regularly cleaned up, and well dressed.

In some respects, Hallelujah I’m a Bum appears to champion the beliefs of major figures who would come to fame – at least political fame – decades after the film was made. Conservative Republican President Ronald Reagan spoke of those who are “homeless by choice.” The homeless of Hallelujah I’m a Bum appear to have made just that choice. They are quite happy to be living without roofs over their heads. They seem to be carefree and averse to work.

The movie also appears to anticipate the views of social conservative George Gilder. In his 1973 book Sexual Suicide, later revised and reissued as Men and Marriage, Gilder put forth the view that marriage to women civilizes the male sex drive and constructively channels men’s potentially destructive aggressive urges. The bums of the movie are unmarried as well as unemployed. The movie suggests that the desire for the love of a good woman is all that they need to lead them to clean themselves up, get jobs, and become good citizens.

Indeed, Hallelujah I’m a Bum may have taken the position that the homeless are vagrants by choice because the reality – that many if not most of them could not support themselves no matter how hard they try – was too painful for its Depression era audience. Many people went to the theater in order to escape from the gritty truth, not to be reminded of it. As musical comedies often do, Hallelujah I’m a Bum presented an invitingly dreamlike world.

While Hallelujah I’m a Bum is not intended to be realistic there is at least one sense in which it reflects the reality of life in the early 20^th Century when it was released, the reality of life in our own 21^st Century, and what appears to have been a reality throughout human history: those at the bottom, like those at the top, tend to be men. There is an exception among the park people named Apple Mary (Dorothea Wolbert) but she is a token woman among an overwhelmingly male population.

The film may also reflect the reality that, to the extent that homelessness IS a choice, it is one unlikely to be made by females. The reasons for this are not due to a sexist conspiracy, whether patriarchal or matriarchal, but to certain biological realities for which no human is to blame. Females get pregnant and give birth. It is extremely hard to adopt a vagabond’s carefree life of riding the rails or sleeping out in the open when one is pregnant or in labor. Giving birth usually means caring for newborns and it is unlikely that babies will flourish if they are cared for out in the open. Another factor that would dissuade girls and women from choosing the hobo’s life is that the way male and female genitals are constructed makes us especially vulnerable to rape. However, it should be noted that male homosexual rape is a reality among the homeless – and a horrible, life-scarring reality.

While people who choose to be homeless are indeed likely to be male, it is also true that relatively few of the homeless are the sort of devil-may-care hobos who populate Hallelujah I’m a Bum. People frequently become homeless because their labor is inadequate for self-support. Women of whom this is true usually receive enough aid through either public or private sources to put roofs over their heads; men do not. The truth that men are so disproportionately likely to crash through the social glass cellar should be a top concern for people who care about men.