Hi, I'm John Clayton and this is New Hampshire Crossroads.

Theme Music Today we're in Portsmouth, which is really the center of cafe culture in all of New Hampshire.

And what gives this city so much of its character are the Paris-like bistros we see right here.

We're going to take a look at one today.

It's called Cafe Brioche.

Also on tonight's program, we'll see the Civil War through the eyes of a New Hampshire photographer.

Yes, we'll run around the flag Boys will rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom Henry P. Moore is a very interesting, enigmatic, mysterious sort of guy.

And part of the hook of this exhibition is that we don't know that much about him.

Then we'll meet the characters who helped bring Archie Comics to life.

One of my favorite memories growing up is around the dinner table, after Dad had been up in the studio all day, and he'd come down and try his gags out that he'd written, see if he got a laugh.

And we'll see the triumphant return of a great tradition at Saint Anselm College.

I came to Saint Anselm in the fall of 1933.

But that's when the football began on the on the collegiate level.

And it was a very exciting time.

But first, let's find out what makes Café Brioche so special.

Bonnie Coffin, are you a regular here at Café Brioche?

Yes, I certainly am.

What brings you back time and again?

Well, the coffee is great and the food is great.

And the atmosphere is great.

I saw you sitting here, reading the paper, enjoying your coffee like you're not in any kind of a hurry.

No I'm not.

Does it foster that kind of leisure?

Yes it does.

I've seen people, they look like they might be able to sit here all day.

Nobody even says a word to them.

We've been here 15 years, next month.

We've got a very strong, loyal clientele.

Same crowd every single morning.

Anything else?

No, thank you.

There's something about Portsmouth that really kind of shies away from the chain culture and prefers the independent, isn't there?

Yes, very much so.

People who live in Portsmouth are very loyal to locally owned coffee shops and, I think, I don't know what the average per capita consumption of coffee is here in Portsmouth, but I'm sure it's quite large.

I must tell you that there are a number of other excellent coffee shops here in Portsmouth and they're all over the place.

Very convenient.

And they're generally excellent.

And do you always start your day with a small coffee like that?

It’s small, yeah, it's it's it's a teeny little espresso.

No, I'll start with a large one.

Actually, it's now 9:30 and I've been in here at 6:30 sharp.

So I'm probably working on my third or fourth cup of decaffeinated coffee.

Okay.

I'm going to be getting a refill here at Café Brioche in Portsmouth, but meanwhile, we're going to Concord, New Hampshire, to the Museum of New Hampshire History.

We're going to take a look at a Civil War photography exhibit by Henry P. Moore.

Music We're tenting tonight on the old campground Give us a song to cheer The nobility of the cause was to wage this war, to preserve the Union and to fight for human freedom.

And ultimately, everyone knew the war was about slavery.

And at the same time, many of the soldiers and sailors, the white soldiers and sailors in that Union Army could not express the full humanity of black people.

And while they were laying down their lives to preserve the Union and free slaves, they were at the same time caricaturing black people by going to these minstrel shows, telling racist jokes and all the rest.

And the the repertoire of Moore's photographs and Moore's own mentality made very clear that fundamental and defining tension about race and freedom in mid-19th century America, race and freedom.

That's the American story.

And these photographs that that depict white men from the North willing to die in a war about freedom, who at the same time maintain a sense of racist superiority and character of black people.

That's the American conundrum.

And that's part of what the appeal was to me to work on this project.

The Union forever!

Hurrah, boys, hurrah!

Down with the traitor and up with the stars While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again Shouting the battle cry of freedom When Henry P. Moore went down to South Carolina in 1862, he was given, by the third New Hampshire Regiment, they gave him a tent in and amongst their own tents.

What he did is he set it, set it up as his darkroom.

You can see it's modified.

And then he wrote on it DAGTYPS which is an abbreviation for the word daguerreotype The word still meant portrait photography.

So just like the surgeon and the band had their names on their tents, Henry Moore’s had DAGTYPS there people knew where to find him.

And he kind of used the outside part of the tent as a studio.

And so you could see he made a real effort to make a, a place to take his pictures so that his subjects, when they sat in front in a sense would be framed by these devices and there would be, you know, a composed and interesting photograph.

All of these photographs were carefully staged, some less so than others.

But for instance, the state of photography at the time was such that you could not move, or it would create a blur.

And so Moore was a master at creating the sense of animation.

If you look at this group of musicians, they look animated.

They really look like they're playing.

So Moore had a an entertainer's ability to get people to do what he wanted.

He was clearly very accomplished at getting subjects to pose in certain ways.

Many are the hearts that are weary tonight wishing for the war to cease Many are the hearts looking for the right to see the dawn of peace This is H.P.

Moore's photograph of the 3rd New Hampshire Band.

One of the members of the band was Nathan Gove, this little boy sitting on the drum here, and he was the drummer boy.

He enlisted as a drummer boy with his father, who was a fife player, and his brother, who played drum in one of the other, in one of the companies.

The band was sort of a special aspect of the 3rd New Hampshire Regiment.

Many of the members of the regiment, in their letters, would talk about how much they liked the band, how how glad they were to have the band.

The band played at funerals and marches and other events.

Sometimes the officers would pay the band to come if they were giving a dinner or something like that, and they would play.

The band didn't have to, they weren't armed, they didn't carry guns, and they didn't have to fight in the battles.

They did serve as ambulance stretcher carriers.

the battle cry of freedom The band master, who received a good pay, was able to hire servants, and one of the servants he hired was probably this little boy here.

His name is Billy Seabrook.

He was connected, he was a former slave from one of the plantations in the area.

Music These band members were mostly from taken from organized town bands from Fishervile and Concord area, although there were some from other areas.

The sun’s low down the sky, Lorena The frost gleams where the flow’rs have been One of the fascinations of 19th century viewers was technology.

Part of what Moore’s photographs do is they depict the changing state of military and naval technology at this time.

What's captivating about this particular picture is how the captain of the schooner is sort of made one with his mortar.

He has the same jaunty angle as the mortar.

He and the mortar clearly upstage the crew.

And I think that, that Moore probably had in mind the captain here as the purchaser of this photograph.

Yes, we’ll rally round the flag, boys, we’ll rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom We shall gather from the hill-sides We’ll rally from the plains shouting the battle cry of freedom Henry P. Moore is a very interesting, enigmatic, mysterious sort of guy.

And part of the hook of this exhibition is that we don't know that much about him.

Henry P. Moore was born in Goffstown, New Hampshire, around 1835 or so.

We don't know exactly when he was born, but what we know is that Henry Moore was a businessman from Concord, always an entrepreneur, flighty, given to a passion of the moment.

He might have also been actually quite short.

He might have been too small for military service.

We're not quite sure why a man of his age was not in the army, but he never was.

He went south several times, with the troops, but never as a soldier.

He was a businessman.

He was an entrepreneur.

He went to these camps to make money.

Set up a tent, set up a business, began to provide photographs, which he was selling to anyone who would buy them on the spot, and later from his studio back in New Hampshire.

They were about a dollar each.

You can keep in mind that an enlisted fellow made between $10 and $12 a month.

So it was a part of what adds to the mystery of Henry P. Moore is the fact that we're not really sure exactly what he looked like.

We don't know of any photographic image of himself.

dying tonight dying tonight dying on the old campground Music We're back at Café Brioche with owner Paul Norton.

And Paul, we've been hearing a lot of people talk about the coffee, but they also rave about the pastries.

What are you working on?

Working on cream puffs with strawberries right here.

We have chocolate nuns, which is a very traditional French dessert.

Vanilla custard eclaires, whipped cream eclaires There's really a cafe culture in Portsmouth that might be hard for people around the state to understand.

Is there something about the city that lends itself to that kind of culture?

Portsmouth is a very walking town.

The foot traffic over this corner is amazing.

People love sitting outside eating.

No matter what restauran it is, they just love being outside.

It's that European flavor.

The tradition of the coffee shop is really more European than American.

But there is a great American tradition returning to the campus at Saint Anselm College.

Music History is being made here at Saint Anselm College.

The college, located on the outskirts of Manchester, opened its doors more than a century ago.

Founded by Benedictine monks, Saint Anselm has always been, and wishes to remain, a small college with a strong family spirit.

There is a genuine shared community here, a lived community of shared values that the students are invited into.

Hard work and strong school traditions have won students and faculty the right to a reputation as one of the finest Catholic liberal arts colleges in the United States.

Music One of the oldest weekend traditions at the school ended more than half a century ago.

Saturday afternoon football.

I came to Saint Anselm in the fall of 1933.

That's when the football began on the, on the collegiate level.

And, it was a very exciting time.

Very exciting time for everybody here.

And in those days, we always had, the night before, bonfires and pep rallies and so on.

With some of the football players would speak, the coaches, of course, and occasionally we had some visitors from the, from the city.

Some of the officials would stop by to wish us well, and so on.

And this just created that wonderful collegiate atmosphere that everybody was looking for, I'm sure, particularly in those days and at that time.

Athletics has always been a part of Saint Anselm.

It was an all-boys school in the late 19th century.

So those photographs you see of the young men suited up in the leather, date back that far for a reason.

They were getting up for prayer at 5:30 a.m.

and going to Mass and living a dormitory life in silence, except for during the classroom.

They had a very regulated lifestyle, at some point during the day, they had to bust loose during recreation time and I think having athletics in that kind of all-male environment has always been important.

Music That’s because Saint Anselm College has a football history that dates back to the turn of the century.

Schools from throughout New England would come here in hopes of upsetting the often-favored Hawks.

Music This film, shot in 1938, shows the team playing in-state rival, the University of New Hampshire.

We had our own band, augmented by some local instrumentalists to help swell the sound, I’m sure.

And, and all together with, with your cheerleaders and the band playing, we had a very, very exciting kind of atmosphere, if you take that word exciting away from me, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Music But in 1941, the tradition and the pageantry came to an end.

America was at war.

Young men and women were needed overseas.

(Cheers) But today it's back.

Today's game will be the first in 58 years.

And some of the players from those early days have come back to see it.

From what I understand, you didn't have quite this many players on your squad, did you?

No, at at the height of our squad, we had 36.

(Crown cheering) I think it means a lot to these kids to have you here, too.

Hopefully.

I hope you enjoy the game.

Hope the outcome is what you're looking for.

Thank you very much.

I know you’ve been waiting 58 years for this.

Yeah, glad I survived.

Music (Crowd cheering) For the thousands who have come to watch Saint Anselm play today, the activities on the field are really only a sidebar to a more important story.

What ended 58 years ago has been resurrected.

So the story is not about winning or scoring touchdowns.

It's about history and school tradition.

Tell me Padre, what does it mean to the Anselmian community to have football back on Saturdays?

It's been a tremendous, tremendous boon to the spirit of the campus, I think.

we've been talking about this now for, for many years, and it's hard to believe that the day has arrived, but, I was down here early, watching the clock tick down.

(Crowd cheering) And isn't that a big part of bringing football back, is to generate that sense of community here on campus?

Absolutely.

And it's been a tremendous opportunity to get our alumni back on campus for the fall season and to meet students and faculty and bring them all together.

And it's been a wonderful opportunity.

The anticipation has been unbelievable.

Music (Church bell) We're back at Café Brioche, enjoying some of the outdoor ambiance.

I'm with Kathleen and Mike Scherer.

Kathleen, what is it about Café Brioche that brings you back?

The people, just sitting here and watching the activity of Portsmouth go by.

It's just a lovely, lovely place to be.

There really is a European feel to this, isn’t there?

Yes.

This versus a chain or large place, this just has the, the ambiance of Portsmouth, which I really like.

And to come down here and sit here in the sunshine and have a cup of coffee, early in the morning.

I feel that there are worse ways to start a day.

Oh, look at that.

Perfect.

One thing about hanging out at Cafe Brioche is you meet a lot of characters.

We're going to meet some people who brought some other characters to life in the town of Meredith, New Hampshire, the home of Archie Comics.

Music You know Archie?

The Archie, the one known worldwide?

You know, Riverdale High School.

Archie and Jughead.

Veronica and Betty, Miss Grundy, Mr.

Svenson, that whole gang?

Music Well, guess what?

All of that came out of the mind of a cartoonist named Bob Montana as he sat in this studio located on a farm in Meredith, New Hampshire.

Music Archie was conceived in 1941 by Bob Montana and his publisher, John Goldwater.

But it took World War II, and the GIs overseas, to build its popularity and propel Archie into a national prominence.

Its a prominence which lasted even after the war ended.

Music It was after the war, in an explosion of demand for comics, that Bob Montana moved his family to Meredith, the same town where he used to spend summers as a boy with his vaudeville parents.

Meredith was a favorite place for vaudeville entertainers to spend their summers, so Bob's lifetime connections with New Hampshire not only gave him a stimulating place to work, it also provided him with experiences that ended up in the comic strip.

Music This is the diary that Bob kept for a year and a half while attending Haverhill High School.

He later would graduate from Central High School in Manchester, and this diary shows just how much Bob observed of what was going on around him and how those memories became Riverdale High School, and the whole cast of characters who populated the town of Riverdale.

Music Bob was a man who had a true zest for life, right up until his sudden death in 1975 from a heart attack.

He had a true sense of community service as well, both of which can be attested to by this group of friends who met with producer Chip Neal in Meredith.

I'd go to bed about 11:30 at night after listening to the 11:00 news, and I'd look out my kitchen window across lots.

You can see Montana down at his drawing table with his head in his hand.

Get up at 6:30 in the morning and look out.

Here's Montana, still sitting at the drawing board with his head in his hands.

And I said to the wife, I don't think that guy ever sleeps.

It was always a treat when he came in the post office because he was always the same.

And - How was that?

Always had a joke anecdote of some sort.

All I can say is that, Bob was everybody's friend and almost everyone in town knew him, so.

He was a lot of fun he’s always, always had things jumping.

Yeah.

I ran a local service station, and my only involvement with Bob was through the business and knowing him personally, and I was in a couple of his strips throughout the years.

So.

Have you lost weight since then?

Considerable, yes!

And, I didn't smoke a cigar, but he always had a cigar in my mouth.

But it was just a little something that he added.

And it was a treat to see him daily when he came in.

Now, are you, did you end up in, in any of the characters?

Yeah.

Oh, which one was that?

As, as the postmaster.

Music Bob created adventure for himself and the people around him.

Three of his children recall those days.

Because there was always something going on.

He always had a project.

When that was done, he had another one.

Whether it was doing the, getting into the organic farming or making a movie.

Or trip out on a boat.

Yeah, he had a way of taking an ordinary event.

Even when we were traveling, we'd stop on the road to do a picnic.

He would find the most prime spot to have a picnic on the hillsides in Italy or something.

Without even trying, he would just create this atmosphere of beauty and pleasure and fun and just had a knack for it.

He took up scuba diving probably when he was 50.

He tried everything.

Cross-country skiing, mountain climbing.

He wanted to experience everything there was in life.

Just a big adventure.

And you all were along for the ride.

We've been riding along ever since.

Nonstop.

He took you off to other countries as well, right?

Yes.

That was just great.

Just for the experience.

Well, it was good because he could work anywhere in the world, and he just needed a post office box to mail in the strip every week.

Yeah.

And that was so he could live, we could live anywhere.

And he had us stay for two years at a time in each country.

And so we got to go to those local schools, and it gave us an opportunity to really get to know the people and the culture and even the language and, you know, learn a lot about, you know, other people that live in different countries.

And it was a great opportunity.

One of my favorite memories growing up is around the dinner table, after Dad had been up in the studio all day, and he'd come down and try his gags out that he'd written, to see if he got a laugh.

You don't create this person every day without it becoming you, and and he was Archie.

You know?

Well he wouldn't admit that.

Archie wasn't, well, if Archie was a teenager, then I guess my dad was perpetually a teenager.

And the children, they would have a paper hooked up on the wall here.

And if they had funny situations or something happen in school, like, the coach almost swallowed his whistle, that sort of thing.

They'd just write it down.

Music This is a self-portrait of Bob.

It shows how important Archie was in his life.

But what it doesn't show is how important his life was to those around him.

That's something that's well preserved through his friends and family.

Music We hope you enjoyed our visit to Café Brioche here in Portsmouth.

Until next week, for New Hampshire Crossroads.

I'm John Clayton.

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Theme Music