BLACK in WHITE films. 🖤

  Mr  Edmund Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. When I first read about Edmund Lincoln Anderson I was delighted to learn he was the first African American to be in a radio show as a regular member of the cast. The Jack Benny Show was aired on television from 1950 to the 1965. “Rochester” was the name of his character in the show. There is a story that despite his face begin recognised across American he was still asked to leave a hotel because he was black. He checked out as asked and so did the entire cast in a show of solidarity. I don’t remember him in Gone with the Wind but during his career he appeared in over sixty films. Usually as you would expect, playing a porter or chauffeur except the film The Green Pastures in which he played Noah! Anderson invested his earnings well and became quite wealthy. At one time he was America’s highest paid African American actor and was on the 100 wealthiest African American list in 1962. He liked racing and owned horses.

One Saturday afternoon some years ago I watched a film called ' All The Fine Young Cannibals '. By the closing credits I was gob smacked, why had I never seen this film before? I looked online to purchase on DVD or video but no luck. To my knowledge it has not been shown on TV since.  Like too many black artists Ms Bailey is hardly known; a real shame she was a great talent and won awards for her stage performances including Hello Dolly!  Come on Queen Latifa where is your a biography of Ms Bailey, you could play her with relish.                       

 Ernest Trimmingham. First black man to have his play performed on London stage. One of my favourite actors is James Mason. Whilst reading his book Before I Forget  *  I came across the name Ernest Trimmingham.  Mason and Trimmingham had boarded in roooms at a house in Endell Street, London at the same time and became friends.  Mason wrote that Trimmingham was one of very few black actors around in London after the first world war.  Trimmingham was apparently very tall, a snappy dresser and had a love of book shops on Charing Cross Road.  I have not been able to find a nice picture of Trimmingham just the following cartoon.* *Hamish Hamilton of London *Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo.

I was very saddened to hear of the death of Mr James Earl Jones. When Star Wars was first released in 1977 I was at school. Until I saw that film my only other Si Fi watch had been the TV show 'Lost in Space'.  The actor inside Darth Vader's costume was the man from the Green Cross Code road safety adverts, David Prowse. The character as we all know was voiced by James Earl Jones. Although I went to an all girls school his voice always reminded me of that of an headmaster, the sort that you would never dare disobey. Although, in some films it had a beautiful comic twist, such as the "I want to be left alone" character in Fields of Dreams Terence Mann or King Jaffe Joffer.in Coming to America . He was magnificent as a lawyer defending a racist serial killer in an episode of Law and Order . I really regret I missed the opportunity to see him on stage as Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof .  I think it was a lovely goodbye message from Mark Hamill who simply wrote ...

I recently saw  T he Well  (1951) .  A little black girl is missing after being seen talking to a white man who is a stranger in town. The film deals with the racial tensions which build up due to misinformation. (Always a dangerous situation).  The child's father is played by Ernest Anderson.  At the start of his career Anderson played the usual porter parts but in 1942 received a National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for his role as a  law student innocent of a hit and run incident which leaves a white woman injured and her child died.  The film was called  In this Our Life (1942). Anderson wanted to play a qualified paralegal but the film company thought that would not be accepted by a white audience, so with the formidable support of the film's leading lady Bette Davis the director agreed he could be a student working in a lawyer's office, studying part time for the bar.  I think Anderson was very handsome. My mother used to say a...

Among the great authors I learned about at my south London state school, I was never told about James Baldwin.  I am a little ashamed to admit I never read any of his work until recently. I have seen the film version of his book If B eale Street could talk  (2018) and   it is very good. Between 1999 and 2021 I visited New York almost every year (except 2001) and walked around Harlem where Beale Street is.  I love the song  Across 110th street  by Bobby Womack. Harlem reminded me of Brixton in the 1970s; children's noise, music and women doing hair on the pavement (sidewalk). Like Brixton, The Harlem I visited in 2023 is being gentrified and losing its old school character. What a shame. James Baldwin was one of the characters in Truman Capote vs. The Swans . They were friends. How refreshing to see a black man in a piece set in the 1970s who is not a drug dealer or criminal.