References in Popular Culture
- In the 1938 motion picture Holiday the character of Linda Seton played by Katharine Hepburn describes how she tried to help some strikers in Jersey. "I never could decide whether I wanted to be Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale or John L. Lewis."
- In an episode of the Jack Benny radio program, a friend brings a baby over to Benny's house. When the infant breaks a jar of home-made chili, Benny demands fifteen cents as compensation. When his friend protests by saying that he shouldn't have to pay because the baby is a minor. Benny retorts: "I don't care if he's John L. Lewis!" causing the audience to roar with laughter at the minor/miner play on words.
- In another episode of the Jack Benny Radio Program from 21 January 1945, Mary complains that the hotel is so far underground that they are mining coal in the lobby, and the bellhops have lamps on their Helmets. Jack explains it by saying that the desk clerk's name is John L. Lewis.
- The seventh verse of the song "'31 Depression Blues," recorded by the New Lost City Ramblers and sung by Mike Seeger, includes the line "And the public said 'John L, it can never be done,' / But somehow he got the miners' battle won."
- In the second expansion Wrath of the Lich King from the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft there is an NPC that teaches mining named after Jonathan Lewis.
- In John McCutcheon's song "Ghosts of the Good Old Days," he makes reference to a common Appalachian practice: "Hung three pictures above the old sofa; it was Jesus, FDR, and John L./So we knew how to pray, we knew how to vote, and we knew how to really give 'em hell."
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“Popular culture entered my life as Shirley Temple, who was exactly my age and wrote a letter in the newspapers telling how her mother fixed spinach for her, with lots of butter.... I was impressed by Shirley Temple as a little girl my age who had power: she could write a piece for the newspapers and have it printed in her own handwriting.”
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