Cbr14bingo Bodies – Bingo
Mobituaries is a fascinating, eminently readable collection of humorist Mo Rocca’s obituaries for people and phenomena that didn’t get the attention they deserved at their passing. It’s the kind of book you can just pick up, open at random and immediately be drawn in. Certainly, some of the subjects of Mobituaries are people you have heard of (Audrey Hepburn, Herbert Hoover) but Mo Rocca will reveal things about them that might not have been featured in a traditional obituary or that have been forgotten over time. Many more Mobituaries are for people you have never heard of but should have. And then there are the phenomena rather than people that have “passed” — belief in dragons and Medieval medicine for example. Rocca manages to provide plenty of factual information in a humorous but respectful way that will really stay with you. These are insightful well informed essays, as is evident from the impressive “works consulted” section at the end.
Amongst the subjects with whom you would have some familiarity already, I was especially interested in Audrey Hepburn, Herbert Hoover and Marlene Dietrich. Hepburn and Dietrich were internationally famous Hollywood stars while Hoover was a not-much-respected president who was in office when the Great Depression struck. Yet all three of them accomplished impressive things outside of the realm for which they were most famous. Dietrich’s obituary focuses on her anti-Nazi activism before and during WWII, something that she was very proud of and that meant much to her for the entirety of her life. Hepburn’s childhood war experience had a profound impact on her adult life. Her father had supported fascism in the UK but Audrey as a child in Holland supported the anti-nazi forces and suffered from hunger — a suffering that she remembered her whole life and which informed her volunteer work for UNICEF. Hoover, before the presidency, had led an impressive life of government service and philanthropy. Having come from modest means, he and his wife became rather well known geologists and even wrote definitive texts on the subject. In various roles in government, Hoover helped organize aid and coordinate support in tragedies (even using his own wealth to help war victims in WWI) and as Secretary of Commerce, he set standards for manufacturing and measurements that improved the quality of life for all Americans. It’s a damn shame he became president and ruined his legacy!
The selections on people you’ve probably never heard of before are quite a revelation. A good number of these entries are related to the American Civil Rights movement. Did you know that before Rosa Parks, Elizabeth Jennings in 1854 sued to be able to ride a NYC cable car after being thrown off? She won. Before Jackie Robinson, Moses Fleetwood Walker integrated the American Association baseball (1880s) via the Toledo Blue Stockings. Rocca points out that it was in response to activism such as Jennings’ and Walker’s that “color lines” came to be drawn more boldly and forcefully. Rocca has a number of entries related to black politicians from the South winning office during Reconstruction only to have these gains stripped away by white segregationists within a few short years.
The Mobituaries for phenomena are also fascinating glimpses into history, some of it quite recent. “Death of a Diagnosis: Homosexuality as a Mental Illness (1952-1973)” is one I won’t forget, as the individuals who fought for it risked so much; we owe them a debt of gratitude, and this work was done in the early 1970s — not so long ago. Rocca also covers the death of the station wagon, Prussia and Disco, along with the above mentioned belief in dragons and medieval medicine. While the entries are short — usually no longer than a few pages— Rocca manages to thoroughly cover the “rise and fall” of the phenomenon.
Mobituaries would be a wonderful gift for anyone, young or old, interested in history or pop culture. There is also a podcast that covers everything in this book and more.
