Field of history
Fenway Park takes the lead in 'Iconic America' on PBS
A billionaire philanthropist and history buff, David Rubenstein is chairman of the Kennedy Center and the National Gallery of Art, the buyer of the last privatelyowned Magna Carta for $21.3 million, and now host and executive producer of PBS’s wide-ranging eight-episode historical series “Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories with David Rubenstein.”
Wednesday’s premiere profiles Boston’s Fenway Park. Future episodes cover the American Cowboy, LA’s HOLLYWOOD sign, Atlanta’s Stone Mountain and Route 66.
Fenway Park and the Red Sox, bought by the Henry Group in 2001 for $660 million, is now worth almost $5 billion
“When the current owners bought it,” Rubenstein, 73, said in a phone interview, “they actually thought about building a new stadium and ultimately decided to keep it.”
The oldest stadium in Major League Baseball, “I didn’t realize until I got into this that it’s the number one tourist attraction in Boston,” Rubenstein said. “If you go there when there are no games, people are there all the time to get tours. Fenway Park is almost like a religion. Like the Red Sox. People are just so passionate about the park and the team.”
Fenway’s infamous Curse of the Bambino is here as an examination of racism in sports, which also figures in Rubenstein’s Stone Mountain episode.
“Let me explain. In the whole surface of the Earth, the largest piece of granite that comes out of the Earth’s surface is something called Stone Mountain, a very visible symbol throughout Atlanta.
“In the early part of the 20th century it was used for Ku Klux Klan rallies in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. In the early ‘60s, because the Klan liked it, symbols of the Confederacy and slavery were carved into the Mount.
“They have Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, carved, gigantic figures in the Mount. In 1972 it was dedicated by the vice president of the United States.
“Think about it. In 1972 we have the vice president coming to say, ‘These are great symbols for our country. Thank you.’ These are people that seceded from our country and arguably are traitors against our country. We fought the Civil War because of that.
“What they’re doing is promoting the ‘Lost Cause’ or slavery by having those symbols on the wall. The fact they still have it there is what we wanted to talk about. Some people, like African Americans, they go there because there’s like a Disneyland around Stone Mountain now and they ignore the symbol of it.
“I wanted to raise the question: Is it still a good symbol of our country?”
“Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories with David Rubenstein” premieres Wednesday on PBS