THE LIFE & TIMES OF PETEY GREENE Don Cheadle stars as Petey Greene At the heart of Focus Features’ new movie in Talk to Me. Talk to Me is Petey Greene, an average Joe with a bigger than average mouth who lived in times worth talking about. RALPH WALDO ‘PETEY’ GREENE Talk to Me’s real star is an unlikely cultural icon. Michael Gibson Michael BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD PETEY GREENE WASN’T NO SAINT. drinking with me!’” pregnancy as easily as he attacked message: none of his wealth, He was a drug addict, a convict At some point, Greene made the politicians and promoted social popularity or success had come (excuse me, ex-convict) and self- decision that if people weren’t going reforms. while he was out on the streets styled friend of the pimp and to treat him, he was going to treat The subjects that he tackled wheeling and dealing. He deeply prostitute. He was a fast talker, himself, and, unfortunately for him, spoke to the hearts and minds of the believed that only in America did small time thief and a total lush. Greene talked faster than he ran. people who heard him because everyone, no matter what their He was also the voice of a city in Greene landed himself 10 years in finally someone was speaking their background, have some opportunity a time of upheaval and confusion. the Lorton Reformatory for armed language. He was catty, he was loud for success. Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) robbery after trapping himself in a and he was adored. “I’m concerned about the plight takes on the role of Petey Greene in freezer locker while running from He spoke during times of crisis, of my people, and I don’t come from Focus Features’ new movie Talk to police. when race riots were rising up all Africa, and I ain’t gonna drive no Me (in theaters July 13), a piece that All of a sudden he was following over the country, when some of the Cadillac back over there in no takes us back to the days of mesh in the footsteps of his father and key figures in America – both black jungles,” he said to the Post. African- underwear and flower power to every stereotype of black men and white – were being felled by Americans were just that – meet an unlikely cultural icon born in1960s America. assassins’ bullets. He was there for Americans, and when he said it, he out of the mid to late 1960s. But Greene could not be held. Vietnam and the draft, the moon was talking to blacks as well as Greene was a Washington, D.C. He achieved an early parole after he landing and Woodstock. Momen- whites. native, born and bred on the streets soothed an allegedly suicidal inmate tous times called for a momentous Before his death from cancer in of the “Chocolate City” to which he off of a 300-foot water tower (or flag speaker, and this oddball fit the bill. 1984, Greene was a two-time Emmy would eventually play guidance pole, accounts differ). In 19 minutes, Greene’s hijinks extended far past winner with his radio show and counselor. His father was incar- he had the man safely on the ground his substance abuse and verbosity successful television program “Petey cerated, and it was his grand- again, a time span that could not (one he got over, one he didn’t). His Greene’s Washington.” He worked mother, whom he affectionately compare to the six months he general notoriety secured him a visit with his community through the called ‘Aunt Pig,’ that cared for the allegedly spent cajoling his buddy to the White House, an honor he said anti-poverty program United young man through his childhood. into climbing up there in the first he would have refused had he known Planning Organization and or- In later interviews with the place. how boring it was going to be. ganized the group Efforts for Ex- Washington Post, he would lament But his little scheme worked, However, he didn’t walk out totally Convicts (EFEC). that his grandmother had not lived and Greene was paroled for his empty handed. Greene was different and special to see him in his heyday. selfless actions and general good “Truly it was very nice,” he said because he had a thumb always on Greene made it to high school behavior. While serving his sentence, in the Post. “I even stole a spoon.” the pulse of the people. He spoke to before dropping out and joining the Greene befriended the brother of If Greene was famed for the them, and they spoke back because army while he was still a teen. He WOL program director Dewey “spoon incident,” he was even better he did not shy away from the harsh shipped out to Korea that year, but Hughes played in the movie by known for his self-awarded “Ph.D. in truths with which they coped daily. the military life was not his racket. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men). poverty.” He never forgot where he It’s no real wonder that By 1953, he’d been discharged for Upon Greene’s release, Hughes got came from, and to assure his somebody stood up to make a movie drug abuse. him a job at WOL on his own show listeners of that fact, Greene invited out of this heroic and woefully “When I was begging for wine called “Rapping with Petey Greene.” society’s rejects onto his show: undertold story. Maybe it’s even a and whiskey no one ever [treated Soon, his confrontational style prostitutes, pimps, etc. subconscious call for the next Petey me],” Greene joked to the made him loved by the masses and He was a peacock in an age of Greene to come forward, someone Washington Post, looking back on hated by the elite to whom he gave pigeons, prancing around in his tie- brazenly unprofessional and shock- his years scrounging for the cash to no quarter. dyed clothes and buying expensive ingly real to point out that some- get drunk. “Now when I go No subject was off limits. Greene Cadillacs. But even in his thing’s going wrong in our white drinking, they say, ‘Petey was talked about prostitution and teen flamboyant moments there was a picket America. HISTORIC EVENTS TIMELINE MAJOR EVENTS OF portant choice on the part of Between 1965 and 1970, America was shaken by Talk to Me’s Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor) March 19: The first two scholarships President Johnson who had at- and Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) in the SEC to be awarded to black tempted to brand himself as a Civil 1965 athletes in the SEC were given to Rights president. wars between peoples, wars between races and Greg Page and Nat Northington of Jan. 4: President Lyndon B. Johnson the University of Kentucky. From Dec. 12: Guess Who’s Coming to good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll — and Petey Greene announces his “Great Society” this point on, the population of Dinner, a film starring Sidney reform package. The central goals black athletes began a rapid rise in Poitier and Katharine Hepburn, were to eliminate poverty, end racial the United States, particularly in released this year. It was the first was making his own waves on the air. injustice and improve education for football and basketball. film featuring an interracial couple all Americans. where the parents gave the couple The Great Society would October: The Black Panthers Party the green light and was shown in its eventually lead to Medicare and was formed by Huey P. Newton. entirety in the south – kiss and all. Medicaid. Based on the teachings of Marxism and Leninism, the Black Panthers MAJOR EVENTS OF Feb. 21: Malcolm X (born Malcolm aimed to secure equal rights to Little), a Muslim minister and Black freedom, property and education Nationalist leader is assassinated. for all blacks. They were widely 1968 He spent his career pointing out the considered to be extremists and legal and religious contradictions in were feared particularly by the white In general, 1968 was a heartbreaking white mistreatment of blacks. majority. year for America. The Vietnam War took a turn for the worse, and some March 7: On one of Martin Luther Nov. 8: Edward Brooke becomes the of the brightest leaders of the age King, Jr.’s marches from Selma to first black person appointed to the were gunned down. It was a de- Montgomery, civil rights marchers Senate. He was elected by the state moralizing year. were gassed and beaten by law of Massachusetts and would be the enforcement in what was widely only black man in the Senate until Jan. 30: The Tet Offensive, an condemned as “Bloody Sunday.” 1993. unexpected attack on the part of the Viet Cong fighters rocks American Aug. 6: The Voting Rights Act is Dec. 26: Dr. Moulana Karenga of forces. Though they were eventually passed, a measure meant to make it the California State University of beaten back, the VC managed to class single mother whose struggle Tommie Smith and John Carlos, had paid. The festival lasted three harder for polling places to deny Long Beach created Kwanzaa, a recapture much of the surrounding was to balance her nursing career who won Gold and Bronze re- days and became symbolic of the blacks the vote. Pan-African celebration meant to countryside. with her home life. And she was spectively, both raised their fists in flower child, free love culture. create a shared socio-historical It achieved its goal of inflicting black.