While discussing the efforts by the Screen Actors Guild and others to broaden racial lines in casting and other aspects qualifying for Oscars, I heard a dismaying statement. I had forgotten that Burt Lancaster played Jim Thorpe in the 1951 biopic of his stunning achievements at the 1912 Olympics and beyond. I have nothing against the actor who portrayed Thorpe, and, as a young teenager I thought it a wonderful movie experience when my friends and I would “tool” to Hollywood Boulevard, dressed up to stand in line to see the latest flick, featuring whatever star appealed to our fantasies.
As broad-minded as we thought we were in the ’50s in Burbank, California, a middle-class environment, we didn’t consider the inequality of the studio system in not casting people of different color and faith in prominent roles. We loved our musical idols, Harry Belafonte, the great Ella, Louis Armstrong, and dozens more, without thinking about their portrayals in cinema. Dorothy Dandridge may have been one of the few black women who were recognized as glamorous stars. We certainly didn’t object to other translations of culture, such as Simone Signoret and Yves Montand being the leads in the French film of the quintessential American tale of the Salem witch trials, “The Crucible.” We just figured great actors were playing signal roles, and it didn’t matter the nationality or race, though it is doubtful the original “Seven Samurais” masterpiece, directed by Akira Kurosawa, would have succeeded without Japanese performers.
So it is a complex situation. Personally, I would like to see a society in which the color of one’s skin or coming from a different heritage wouldn’t matter. Recently, I conducted a class for skiers and others who opt for an intensive summer school session in order to make winter ski season a bit less stressful. As usual, I was enthralled with the abilities of the students and their understanding of the subject, “American Literature of the Immigrant.” One student project chronicled the history of “The Lost Boys,” refugees from the Sudan who arrived and adjusted to the wildly different reality of their new culture. We may imagine that their tall, dark-black physiognomy made it even more difficult for them, though many Americans embraced them and helped them succeed.
I know talent reigns in considering show-business awards, and I have seen more possibilities in my lifetime than, if had thought about it, I would have expected. Our screens are now filled with images of many races portraying a variety of characters. In my generation, censorship and conformity in depictions of racial stereotypes and social mores dominated our movies and television: Lucy and Desi slept in twin beds, and portrayals of mixed-marriage couples were forbidden. Actually, miscegenation was a crime in many states.
We have grown in tolerance and acceptance. I am glad we are heading toward more equality and the resulting changes in the entertainment world, but as a member of the Eisenhower generation, I am sorry that it has taken so long.