Posted on August 23, 2020
Born on this date in 1900, Malvina Reynolds was a true Turn-of-the-Century child! Her parents were Jewish socialists who immigrated to the U.S. before Malvina was born. Reynolds was born and raised in San Francisco, California, and she wasn't allowed to get her high school diploma because her parents were opposed to the U.S. involvement in World War I. Not getting the diploma didn't stand in Reynolds's way, though; she went to UC Berkeley and earned a BA and MA in English. She married a carpenter and union organizer, raised a child, and earned a Doctorate in 1939.
But she wasn't able to find a job teaching at the college level, despite her PhD. She was a woman; she was Jewish; she was socialist. And the nation was suffering from the Great Depression! So....
Reynolds got a job as a social worker, wrote a column for a Marxist newspaper, worked in a factory making bombs (!), and eventually took over her father's tailor shop.
That tailor shop was located in Southern California (Long Beach, to be exact). And Reynolds began to meet some famous people like folk singer Pete Seeger. All of a sudden - in her late 40s - she launched a songwriting career!
That tailor shop was located in Southern California (Long Beach, to be exact). And Reynolds began to meet some famous people like folk singer Pete Seeger. All of a sudden - in her late 40s - she launched a songwriting career!
Reynolds wrote songs recorded by amazing musicians such as Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Marianne Faithful, the Seekers, the Searchers, the Limeliters, and others. She wrote songs for Women for Peace, for the Nestle Boycott, and for a variety of sit-ins and protests.
She even wrote songs for Sesame Street!
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| Reynolds played a songwriting character named Kate on Sesame Street! |
Reynolds's most famous songs are Little Boxes (about the development of suburbia) and What Have They Done to the Rain? (about nuclear fallout).
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| When Reynolds drove by Daly City, south of San Francisco, she turned the wheel over to her husband and wrote the song "Little Boxes"! |
Pretty rad to have such a successful music career so late in life!
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