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Black Soldiers in Liberal Hollywood
Katherine Kinney Cold Wars: Black Soldiers in Liberal Hollywood n 1982 Louis Gossett, Jr was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Gunnery Sergeant Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman, becoming theI first African American actor to win an Oscar since Sidney Poitier. In 1989, Denzel Washington became the second to win, again in a supporting role, for Glory. It is perhaps more than coincidental that both award winning roles were soldiers. At once assimilationist and militant, the black soldier apparently escapes the Hollywood history Donald Bogle has named, “Coons, Toms, Bucks, and Mammies” or the more recent litany of cops and criminals. From the liberal consensus of WWII, to the ideological ruptures of Vietnam, and the reconstruction of the image of the military in the Reagan-Bush era, the black soldier has assumed an increasingly prominent role, ironically maintaining Hollywood’s liberal credentials and its preeminence in producing a national mythos. This largely static evolution can be traced from landmark films of WWII and post-War liberal Hollywood: Bataan (1943) and Home of the Brave (1949), through the career of actor James Edwards in the 1950’s, and to the more politically contested Vietnam War films of the 1980’s. Since WWII, the black soldier has held a crucial, but little noted, position in the battles over Hollywood representations of African American men.1 The soldier’s role is conspicuous in the way it places African American men explicitly within a nationalist and a nationaliz- ing context: U.S. history and Hollywood’s narrative of assimilation, the combat film. -
Anti-Apartheid Solidarity in United States–South Africa Relations: from the Margins to the Mainstream
Anti-apartheid solidarity in United States–South Africa relations: From the margins to the mainstream By William Minter and Sylvia Hill1 I came here because of my deep interest and affection for a land settled by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, then taken over by the British, and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which once imported slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that former bondage. I refer, of course, to the United States of America. Robert F. Kennedy, University of Cape Town, 6 June 1966.2 The opening lines of Senator Robert Kennedy’s speech to the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), on a trip to South Africa which aroused the ire of pro-apartheid editorial writers, well illustrate one fundamental component of the involvement of the United States in South Africa’s freedom struggle. For white as well as black Americans, the issues of white minority rule in South Africa have always been seen in parallel with the definition of their own country’s identity and struggles against racism.3 From the beginning of white settlement in the two countries, reciprocal influences have affected both rulers and ruled. And direct contacts between African Americans and black South Africans date back at least to the visits of American 1 William Minter is editor of AfricaFocus Bulletin (www.africafocus.org) and a writer and scholar on African issues. -
The Archaeology of Black Theatre
The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with Scroll down to read the article. The Archaeology of Black Theatre by VeVe A. Clark INTRODUCTION Black theatre history is turning artifacts into living monuments. During the 1970s, important studies of the Federal Theatre, black community theatres in California, Trinidad Carnival and the Ejagham Leopard mime from Nigeria and Cameroon have unearthed, analyzed and described performances and texts as diverse as the black world itself. (1) What these books have in common, besides impeccable scholarship and readibility, is their fundamental approach. They each treat theatre as cultural expression combining literature, art and sociology. Why such milestones in black theatre history have appeared at this time is a question not easily answered. All of these recent works have made full use of primary sources - a rare circumstance for most researchers in black theatre. There may be another distinction these studies suggest as well. Each demonstrates a commitment to the use of ethnographic and oral history techniques in a field that generally relies solely on written archives. Perhaps, as of the '70s, a new methodology for the study of black theatre has emerged. From my own work in the field and analysis of the literature devoted to world theatre, I have come to call the new methodology archaeology. (2) How archaeology in a black context differs from the literal definition of the term, what archaeology collects, analyzes and describes, how an archaeologist distributes the results of analysis are subjects in need of scholarly dis- cussion. -
Lee Says He'll Play Othello' After Native Son' Closes Ruby 'S Huge New Aloha R Anch Popular Spot Orson Wolios to NEWS of THEATRES
SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1941 THE PHOENIX INDEX, PHOENIX, ARIZONA PAGE SEVEN Lee Says He'll Play Othello' After Native Son' Closes Ruby 's Huge New Aloha R anch Popular Spot Orson Wolios To NEWS OF THEATRES "¦’ »'*• ¦¦'i ¦-—g=rrr . ¦¦. • ”wi ¦!-.iL. '¦ ly* •y_ * «•¦».¦ ¦ » 1 ¦ 1 ¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦'.-.'¦ ¦¦.—» ¦ 1 jtjii¦ 1 ¦ Be The Director By BERNICE AND DELORES CALVIN a NEW— (C) —Canada (Bigger Thomas) Lee, has been i4// Alone And Lonely” Is offered to do the leading role in Shakespeare’s ‘ Othello” next season,,as soon as ‘‘Native Son’’ closes. And it will be directed by the master of showmen,Orson Welles, who de- serves at least 1-3 of the credit for “Native Son" being the huge success that it is. (Author Richard Wright .and actor Destined For Hit Parade Canada Lee get the other 2-3rds). This important secret Mr. Lee modestly revealed to U 3 when we visited him backstage j Pearson, Sanders in his dressing room after his June 3rd performance. Asked They Wrote Hit Nufnber who would be in the leading feminine lea- Vlr. Lee replied: Really Have One, “I don’t know. You see, the oth- —: er actors haven’t even been chos Asserts Dorsey c-n yet.” In Topsy s Roast And that’s not all. This actor NEW YORK CITY— <SNS) has two picture offers pending, When Jimmy Dorsey’s Decca re- both from R.K.O. “I’m not sure cord of “A.!l Alone and Lonely” was yet what they’ll be like. I don’t released last week a lot of people want any yassuh mess or Stephin were very happy Swing master Fetchit stuff. -
No Surrender! No Retreat!
No Surrender! No Retreat! No Surrender! No Retreat! African American Pioneer Performers ofTwentieth~Century American Theater Glenda E. Gill Palgrave Macmillan NO SURRENDER! NO RETREAT! Copyright © 2000 Glenda E. Gill. All rights reserved. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-312-21757-0 No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. ISBN 978-1-349-62002-9 ISBN 978-1-137-05361-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-05361-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data to be found at the Library of Congress. Design by Letra Libre, Inc. First edition: April 2000 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 To the memory of my mother and father, Olivia Dunlop Gill and Melvin Leo Gill Sr. and to the memory of my maternal grandparents, Sanford Lee and Lu9' Tandy Dunlop Until the lions have their own historian, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. -Kenyan proverb Table of Contents Preface and Personal Memoir xi Foreword by Daniel Lamer XV Acknowledgements XlX Chapter I What Shall the Negro Dance About? 1 Chapter II Crucible and Community: The Vision of Rose McClendon 21 Chapter III The Silencing of Paul Robeson 35 Chapter IV Measure Her Right: The Tragedy of Ethel Waters 59 ChapterV Marian Anderson: A Serene Spirit 75 Chapter VI Five Interpreters of Porgy and Bess 91 Chapter VII Swifter than a Weaver's Shuttle: The Days of Canada Lee 107 Chapter VIII Pearl Bailey: The Black Dolly Gallagher Levi 137 Chapter IX Ossie and Ruby are One! 151 Chapter X James Earl Jones: "My Soul Looks Back , and Wonders How I Got Over 173 Chapter XI Morgan Freeman's Resistance and Non-Traditional Roles 193 Chapter XII Has Anything Changed? 205 Index 219 Preface and Personal Memoir n 15 April 1999, distinguished African American actor Charles S. -
A Journal of African Studies
UCLA Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies Title Apartheid and Cinema Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/77k54213 Journal Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 13(1) ISSN 0041-5715 Author Ssali, Ndugu Mike Publication Date 1983 DOI 10.5070/F7131017123 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California APARTHEID AND CINEMA by Ndugu Mike Ssali The first cinema show was exhibited to a special group of white South Africans on April 19, 1895 in Johannesburg. 1 That makes South Africa one of the first partakers of the 'motion picture' novelty. Cinema has since remained part of the South African social and cultural fabric, although only one scholar, Thelma Gutsche , has studied in any detail the history of the cinema in that country. This paper proposes to discuss and analyze two major as pects of the subject that have been overlooked by film histor ians. The first is a historical survey of those films which the South African power structure allowed the Blacks to see and participate in. The second objective is to examine how and why those films were selected, and the social impact they were in tended to have on the Black community in South Africa. URBAN SCENE SETTING The Dutch East India Company's employees established a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. After two bloody campaigns against the Khoikhoi, 1659-60 and 1763-74, the Dutch went on to defeat the Xhosa in front-ier wars in 1779-81 and 1793. But in 1795 the British displaced the Dutch at the Cape. -
Printing Shop
ons Post Reward In Hit-Run Death of Mother 10c Detroit Tribune Crusader Tot Tho Invincible Triumphant Divine Rights of Man 1 VOLUME 30—NUMBER 37 DETROIT, MICHIGAN, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1952 PHONES WO. 4-820&—WO. 2-4937 ' FIRST’ Ip 'IS - iNd UNION PRINTING SHOP MkmSmk<&’.''WvKF j• *• /.-. ;, -ragg *N ' :#% »->\ %\ W Jb-hyf .- 4 »% *< ' I- STUDY OF ALLIED TRADES UNIT - -'^%«Hj > x %(?n 4r - x XvH(i * ;.^sBSSI «# *.. MBf, JmL. Information Sought On OK Sought Mj&Bi&am£&£■>: 3Km pH :>- ': ’ yjm] - m: TfHBSS K8,,/'': Hit Run Car Driver Pressmen, I <£Kzl&. seat:’-* JV wrm « f COFT'Kfc WITH IKE MikinK hit first visit to Harlem last Wednesday, Mint'* accepting the lUpuh- Bis. ipSktV:' Dwight Compositors Bill Mniiiwtion, Gtnrr*l Eisenhower waa tendrred nn early morning “coffee klatrh” try the "Dawn Patrol’’ the community. Shown offering (between *ip») Fatality Honien of the of her felicitation* at the In Month-Old ■berma Hotel, U Miea Lucille Pickett (left), famed beautician, who hope* to become Harlem's first Whether race pressmen Ksembl) woman in November. Mrs. Mamie Eisen bower look* on. (Newmpre** Photo.) In a renewed effort to bring to justice the hit-run and compositors will be al- driver who killed tly*ir mothei about h month ago, two lowed to work for the firit sons took all of their savings last Friday to post a reward time in a printing shop own- of *SOO for information leading up to his apprehension. ed and operated by Negroes They art Robert Arnold. J'.. to case, since the in Michigan was be de- 4704 Tirtman. -
PEOPLE Tbells for Most New Les and Now Smith Is Co-Produc- Yorkers
C olumbia U niversity RECORD May 3, 2002 3 Actor/Activist Canada Lee Brought to Life in New Play by Arts Alumna Lee,” a two act play based on BY JO KADLECEK the actor and activist’s life, a play that took Smith six years in he name “Canada Lee” all to complete. It was work- doesn’t ring a lot of shopped last May in Los Ange- PEOPLE Tbells for most New les and now Smith is co-produc- Yorkers. Ask what they know ing it as it opens in New York Carol Gluck, the George about him and you’ll probably May 9—the 50th anniversary of Sansom Professor of History, get blank stares and apologies. Canada’s death— at The Kraine has been honored with the Ful- Mona Z. Koppelman Smith, a Theater, 85 East Fourth Street bright Program 50th Anniver- 1994 graduate of Columbia’s and runs through May 26. sary Distinguished Scholar playwriting program in the Smith has even recruited fel- Award by the Japan-United School of the Arts, hopes to low Columbia alumni to help: States Educational Commis- change that. Traci Burwitz Mariano, MFA sion, in recognition of her Smith first came across Lee’s ’93, will direct the showcase “scholarship of the highest name shortly after graduating production and her husband order” and contributions to from Columbia while she was Mike Mariano, MFA ’93, will international understanding working as a booking manager be the set designer. “in the true Fulbright spirit.” for the jazz singer, Carla White. Co-producer, JoAnne Mey- Award ceremonies will be held Smith—twice the winner of ers, is donating her public rela- in Tokyo in May, where Gluck Columbia’s John Golden Award tions services and has launched will give an address, and in for her plays, “Borderlands,” a web-site, www.canadalee. -
Orson Welles' Intermedial Versions of Shakespeare in Theatre, Radio and Film
ORSON WELLES’ INTERMEDIAL VERSIONS OF SHAKESPEARE IN THEATRE, RADIO AND FILM by Clara Fernández-Vara B.A. English Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), 2000 Thesis Supervisor: Peter S. Donaldson Submitted to the Department of Comparative Media Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, September 2004. © 2004 Clara Fernández-Vara. All rights reserved The author thereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part. 2 3 INDEX ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 9 PARADOXES AND AMBIGUITIES IN ORSON WELLES’ OEUVRE ............................................ 17 ORSON WELLES AS AUTEUR ............................................................................................... 23 THESIS STRUCTURE............................................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER 1: 1937-1939: THE FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT AND FAUSTUS; THE MERCURY THEATRE AND JULIUS CAESAR .................................................. 36 THE FABRICATION OF A THEATRE STAR ............................................................................ 36 THE FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT: THE -
Canada Lee-Man out Front
CANADA LEE - MAN OUT FRONT by Motion Factory Films • PO Box 814, Wainscott, NY 11975 • 818-915-9795 To Whom It May Concern: I am writing to inform you of our current production, Canada Lee - Man Out Front, the first documentary film to explore the remarkable life and legacy of African-American actor/activist, Canada Lee. During his brief but renowned career as a star on Broadway, radio and in Hollywood, Lee was considered by many critics to be the greatest African-American actor of his generation and one of the greatest actors of any race. Canada Lee was an indomitable presence during his lifetime. Working alongside such landmark individuals in American history as: Paul Robeson, Orson Welles, Langston Hughes, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Sidney Poitier, he won the praise of critics such as Ed Sullivan and Brooks Atkinson. Even FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover took a personal interest in Lee’s activities, as indicated in his FBI files. Labeled “subversive” and “radical,” Lee was blacklisted at the height of his career and died prematurely at age 47. Tragically, unlike other monumental figures of American socio-political history, Canada Lee remains virtually unknown. Until now. Man Out Front highlights the genuine human triumph and tragedy of Lee’s personal life within the provocative historical context of an America embroiled simultaneously in the tumult of a Red Scare and on the verge of a Civil Rights Movement. Lee’s widow, Frances Lee Pearson, granted to me personally the exclusive production rights to her husband’s life story. She was interviewed numerous times for this project before her death in 2005. -
{PDF EPUB} Young Orson the Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane by Patrick Mcgilligan
Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Young Orson The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane by Patrick McGilligan Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane by Patrick McGilligan. I must admit that I approached this book with hesitation. Although the author has edited excellent interviews with blacklist victims and screenwriters from Hollywood’s Golden Age to the 1990s, his biographies have sometimes tended to go into National Enquirer territory distracting from a more objective consideration of artistic achievement. McGilligan is at his best when he sympathizes with his subject matter. His explorations of the work of Fritz Lang (2013), Clint Eastwood (2002), and Nicholas Ray (2011) often leave much to be desired since his critical insights often lack the rigor of his otherwise unbiased journalism when he does not succumb to negative subjectivity. Even Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) has received detailed criticism by Australian Hitchcock expert Ken Mogg on his valuable Web Page “The Macguffin” and one can question whether stories about an aged director’s use of hookers or another’s alleged home movie recording of sexual exploits add much to understanding person and work. However, after learning first hand of favorable reactions to the galleys of McGilligan’s new book on Welles from critics such as Joseph McBride and Jonathan Rosenbaum as well as the enthusiastic approval of Chris Feder Welles and finishing the nearly 800 page book yesterday, I must add my contribution to the positive voices that have acclaimed this study so far. -
Orson Welles' Intermedial Versions of Shakespeare in Theatre, Radio and Film by Clara Fernindez-Vara B.A
Orson Welles' Intermedial Versions of Shakespeare in Theatre, Radio and Film by Clara Fernindez-Vara B.A. English Studies Universidad Aut6noma de Madrid, 2000 SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SEPTEMBER 2004 © 2004 Clara Fernaindez-Vara. All rights reserved The author hereby grants MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part. Signature of author: adg!!r--- Comparative Media Studies July 27th,2004 Certified by: Peter S. Donaldson Professor of Literaure, Section Head, Literature Thesis Supervisor Accepted by: Henry Jenkins Prof ss iterature and Comparative Media Studies MASACHURES INs'rFu. Chairman, OF TEOHNOLOGY Director of Comparative Media Studies FEB 1" 2008 ARCHIVES LIBRARIES ORSON WELLES' INTERMEDIAL VERSIONS OF SHAKESPEARE IN THEATRE, RADIO AND FILM by Clara Fernindez-Vara B.A. English Studies, Universidad Aut6noma de Madrid (Spain), 2000 Thesis Supervisor: Peter S. Donaldson Submitted to the Department of Comparative Media Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Comparative Media Studies at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology, September 2004. © 2004 Clara Fernindez-Vara. All rights reserved The author thereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document