Lee Russell/Library of Congress

Children looking at posters in front of movie, Saturday, Steele, Mo., August 1938.

Profiles: Charles MacArthur

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

Born 1928
Western New York state

I had never been down to the rail yard, but everybody told us about some code on the rails where you could get food. We lived right next door to the church in the parsonage. Dad was a Methodist minister.

I went to the movies. Four times in a year was the most we ever could afford to go to the movies. And it cost 12 and 15 cents for admission, so money was terribly tight. The two things we wanted to see ... cartoons were shown at that time once every couple of movies. Whenever a cartoon came on the screen, all of the kids would cheer. Now when I see cartoons on television I say “What, a damn cartoon again?”

Interview by Michael Lawson

This profile was produced with help from sources in the Public Insight Network from American Public Media.

What Went Wrong

Donald Barlett and James Steele are revisiting America: What Went Wrong, their landmark 1991 newspaper series, in a new project with the Investigative Reporting Workshop. Over the next year, the project team will examine how four decades of public policy has shaped America's ongoing economic crisis.

Issues

Back Story

The authors talk about What Went Wrong

Donald Barlett and James Steele talk about the project, and why they decided to revisit a book they wrote two decades ago, in a series of video clips produced by the Workshop.

Nation's Story

Who pays the taxes?

We feature charts, maps, photos and other visualizations that reflect the state of the economy as part of our What Went Wrong project. This column chart shows the growing disparity between what individuals and corporations pay in taxes. In the 1950s, the difference was 22 percent. Recent figures show the difference is 62 percent.

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Read an Excerpt

America: What Went Wrong on Google Books

Check out the first chapter of Barlett and Steele's 1992 book here.