Outside of automobile driven by Charles Frame, murdered during 1952 Widen Strike

Saturday, April 26, 2007 12:40 PM

Kelley Thompson, one of West Virginia’s outstanding new filmmakers, made a unique visit. He brought over the just completed film, “The Widen Film Project,” to my home, giving me a scene by scene explanation of his amazing film about Widen, a little town in Clay County, West Virginia. We sat down together since I am recovering from serious health problems and truly enjoyed a personal screening of the best researched, most wide-ranging but still friendly film about Appalachia I have ever seen. The UMWA spent $500,000, J.G. Bradley spent $1,000,000 in 1952 dollars fighting for years starting in 1952, finally ending in 1957, over who was going to control one of the largest non-union mines in the Eastern U.S. One man was murdered, bridges were blown, and eventually 200 miners lost their jobs in 1957 when a new company bought the Widen mine. It was Bill Blizzard’s last major role as a union organizer after his victory at Blair Mountain in 1921. J.G. Bradley, one of the most powerful coal miner owners not only in WV but the country, finally lost his 50 year war against the UMWA, leaving his adopted state forever.Kelley Thompson, a self-taught filmmaker who has made many recent films including ones for January Johnson, a Charleston dance leader, worked with Terry Lively, president of the WV Filmmakers Guild, on several of her films, and more has spent thousands of hours researching this film. He began in spring 2006 interviewing Clay seniors . He then went to Richard Fauss, film archivist at the WV State Archives, looking for footage. Eventually I contacted him, and the mega-project began. People I work with, people all over the state, started bringing their stories to Kelley. One such person was William C. Blizzard, the son of Bill Blizzard. Various member of the West Virginia Labor History Association including Gordon Simmons, were interviewed. The interviews just continued….and more yet will take place in the near future.Thompson has made a unique hybrid film, both showing the positive side as well as a few parts of the dark side, of this once ultimate company town, Widen. Hopefully he will be able to add some extra footage to the commercial DVD that will be released. If ever there was a film that showed the microcosmic world reflecting the macrocosmic forces that truly control our universe, it is this.The murder of Charles Frame on September 7th, 1953 is of course the single most intense story partially revealed. I know that one miner was convicted, he was sent to prison, but his sentence was commuted. Thompson was unable to find a copy of the commutation record in the state archives. Given that Frame’s brother is still alive, as are other people who were present at the murder, one has to wonder if some local prosecutor might re-open the case of who killed Charles Frame. We shall see.Bob Webb provided outstanding music for this film and a cast of hundreds of Clay County people were involved in helping Thompson create this film. Hopefully when the film is shown around the state, country, and world, people will learn a lot more than they knew about a lost mountain town called Widen that for a while was the ultimate “corporate paradise” utopia that has ever existed….and what forces led to its demise.

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