City of Proud Memories (1934)

[Music] in Old Charleston where history has been piling up for two and a half centuries even the modern streets lead you straight into a proud and gracious past here's the old exchange scene of one of the grandest parties Charleston ever saw that was in 1791 and the guest of honor was George Washington the folks down here have a slogan Charleston America's most historic City they even have a city hall that dates from 181 as we approach City Hall Park we have our first glimpse of the famous rot iron gateways of Charleston the finest specimens in America of a handicraft that nobody seems to have time to practice nowadays Sir William pit in stone and without his arms stands in the park this was the great man who stood up in the House of Commons and rejoiced that the colonists had resisted the mother country Charleston set up this statue 5 years before the Revolution and then during the siege of 1780 the British by chance took an ironic Revenge when a shot from their guns carried away sir Williams arm and here's an old building the Old Powder Magazine which dates clear back to sometime in the 1600s they built it of Taffy lime and oyster shells a fiery Spirit of the old days lived in this house Colonel Rett who led the little Fleet that rid the Carolina coast of pirates and here's the spot where Carolinians of those old days used to do their pirate hanging here Bonet a real big shot in the pirate trade met his end with 60 others this Bonet was a remarkable chap a man of good family and of means well educated and with charming manners he rose as high as a first class pirate could in those days and then a sudden drop not far away we found another of those beautiful rot iron gateways they date from way back before the Machine age and in that distant day every graceful curve and detail was laboriously worked out over an anvil by some sturdy arm long since still like the doorways and old Mansions of the city the Gate Post and Iron Work of Charleston are studied every year by ambitious students of architecture from up North This Old House 20 years older than our Republic is remarkable for housing invading commanders Sir Henry Clinton and Lord cornales During the Revolution and the Yankee General during the dark days of 65 everywhere is an old time almost an old world charm and quaintness but behind many of these quiet rows of old house fronts you will often find lovely Gardens and enclosed Courtyards where there goes on a pleasant and Placid life such as a casual stranger seldom sees and everywhere of course the Negroes and everywhere you have Negroes you'll have music [Music] the real Negro quarters in Charleston may not boast classic Colonial architecture in all its flower but it has a quaintness all its own somebody has called Charleston the most civilized city in the United States and in one way at least it is a highly civilized place for here where tradition Reigns Supreme and the possession of a proud old name is the finest thing a man can have money means little that is it's useful enough heaven knows but it won't buy respect or social position it's the one place where social life isn't organized around wealth Charleston is a city with a voice all its own a place with a distinctive Rhythm one most characteristic tone heard here as hardly anywhere else is the Cry of the Negro street vendor who at any minute is likely to come upon us from some quaint alley or from one of those picturesque conglomerations of old buildings that give the town its peculiar charm and here's Papa Joe calling his Wares as he passes this stately row of fine old houses listen to him and see if you can tell what he's sell Believe It or Not Papa Joe is announcing that he has fresh shrimp for sale folks here are proud because the houses are Antiques and Papa Joe is proud because his shrimp art Antiques and all three the houses Papa Joe and the shrimp all of them are familiar Charleston institutions looking through Church Street we see one of the most beautiful churches in America Old St Phillips Washington attended services at an earlier St Phillips on this same site soon afterwards Charleston had a great fire a blaze broke out in the steeple and the church was saved only by the courage of a negro sailor who climbed to the top of the steeple and tore away the burning shingles they gave him his freedom a purse of money and a fishing boat in 1835 there was another fire but the Negro sailor wasn't on hand this time and Old St Philips burned to the ground the present church is rounding out its first century so I guess it's all right to call it Old St Phillips they call St Phillip the Westminster of the South because so many of the Gallant men of our heroic early days lie at rest here you won't find General gadson's grave because in his will he directed that it be leveled and left unmarked he added that he disliked ostentation of any kind William Rhett who caught all those pirates rests here and John C Calhoun pride of Carolinian statesmanship and this is the grave of Edward rage the extraordinary thing about Edward rut's Tombstone is that it goes into great detail as to that gentleman's virtues and achievements and rutage was a very able citizen but it doesn't say a word about his being one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence which after all is his chief claim to the attention of posterity rutage along with two other signers midleton and Hayward was an early patron of Charleston College the alma M of a long line of Carolina's leaders that same Arthur Middleton who signed the Declaration of Independence lived in this fine old Tudor mansion and right down to our own time his descendants have occupied it Arthur Middleton died at the early age of 45 and rests in a tomb on the estate secured in his Fame as an Ardent Patriot and an elegant and accomplished gentleman to beautify their place the middletons brought over two English landscape gardeners this was nearly 200 years ago and today the famous Middleton Gardens look pretty much the same the finest collection of aers in America is here and Moss Laden Live Oaks which not only make this a fairy land of beauty but which have a fine tradition clinging to them for it was here that the fine gentlemen of Charleston Patriots all met to plot the Revolution and here Francis Marian unrolled his daring band of Raiders Marian a guest at this house one evening found the doors locked that was a little custom of hosts in those days who didn't want want the party to break up until the wine was all gone Maran who didn't like wine that well jumped from the Second Story and broke his leg and so when the British captured Charleston and nearly all the American officers Marian was away at his Plantation with a game leg but free it was through these woodlands and swamps that Marian was soon leading his little band of Patriots in many a terrifying raid against charlton's Red Coats Marian's men were farmers and hunters and every foot of this difficult country was known to them it all looks peaceful now but it was here that in those Brave Days hearts beat high with heroism and the Sheltering trees are so many monuments to The Dashing exploits of Marian and his men another spot of imperishable Fame is the fort in the harbor from which Colonel mtry defeated the invading British Fleet in 1776 as for the battery down on the waterfront it is here according to the proud phrase of charlestonians that the Ashley and coer rivers joined to form the Atlantic Ocean and now for our last glimpse of Charleston a gracious old city where memories and traditions live and thrive in a congenial air Old St Michael's Church which you see there has watched over centuries of our old South the South that Washington and lafay ATU the south of Calhoun and Wade Hampton the south of today rich in its Heritage of Great Men and great Deeds let's join those old Chimes of St Michaels in saluting a city where romance and sentiment and heroic memories have reality [Music]