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  • New Broom
  • Robert Fyne
Every Step a Struggle: Interviews with Seven Who Shaped the African-American Image in Movies. Frank Manchel. New Academica Publishing, 2007 495 pages; $42.00.

On an auspicious November morning, after Vice President Richard M. Nixon— following a protracted, down-to-the-wire, dirty tricks election campaign—politely acknowledged John F. Kennedy’s razor-close victory, most Americans could feel the change in the air. Clearly the early 1960s became watershed years: an Irish-Catholic occupied the White House, an Atlanta-based clergyman rallied for civil rights, Cold War ideologies realigned, and, over in Hollywood, big-spending moguls, staring at their bottom line, revamped their industry to compete with television’s living room popularity. Plainly, in every nook and cranny, a new broom was sweeping across the nation.

Motion pictures, of course, needed a blood transfusion. After the studio system collapsed, producers looked for different ways to entice audiences back into their fold. Wide-screen epics, three-dimensional photography, and adult themes attracted viewers while independent films and foreign titles aided box office revenues. In the same breath, sagebrush Westerns, shoestring B-mellers, and lavish Technicolor musicals lost ground as more realistic photoplays entered the fray. Also on their way out were stereotypical dramas, those formula pictures highlighting racial and ethnic issues where Oriental, Black, or Latino issues were basically caricatured and then dismissed. Without question, the times—to paraphrase Bob Dylan —“they were a-changing.”

Caught in the middle of these seismic upheavals and spearheaded by liberal artistic freedom, Hollywood headed for higher ground. Almost overnight progressive pictures—no longer controlled by federal censorship restrictions—heralded social issues previously slated as unmarketable: drug addiction, free love, student unrest, governmental conspiracies, military cover-ups, and in-your-face African-Americans. Why not? With so many diverse topics to choose from, everyone got into the act. Cash-driven producers sought greater profits, offbeat directors pushed their envelopes into uncharted waters, outspoken actors demanded a stronger voice regarding script and distribution, and a vocal coterie of Black performers, fed up with years of racial stereotyping, simply told filmdom enough was enough.

What followed resembled a volcanic explosion. Pushing aside the traditional Birth of a Nation, feet-do-your-stuff, Stepin Fetchit storylines, the screen resounded [End Page 89] with no-nonsense, get-out-of-the-way African-American heroes. Titles such as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and Shaft cautioned audiences to watch out because—after years of menial characterization—a new sheriff was in town. Who were these players? How did they shatter well-established stock roles? How did they force Hollywood’s hand? These are some of the questions that a professor emeritus examines in a first-rate study, Every Step a Struggle: Interviews with Seven Who Shaped the African-American Image in Movies.

As Dr. Frank Manchel explains the “once accommodating marginalized Black performers not only rebelled against White society but also their rebellious actions became the focus of the narratives.” To clarify this point, he sat down with seven movie or theater luminaries and culled much information about a bygone era that eventually disappeared and reemerged in a new format. From the rudimentary silent days into the sound era, then the Second World War and its aftermath, Dr. Manchel’s text covers much ground, detailing how both America and Hollywood changed.

Beginning with Lorenzo Tucker, the light-skinned romantic actor whose sobriquet, the Black Valentino, ballooned his box office appeal and then Lillian Gish, the innocent heroine of Griffith’s 1915 Civil War epic, these interviews spell out many issues associated with early filmmaking. Another personality, Clarence Muse, the highly credited character actor, recalls the many problems he encountered after being cast as an Uncle Tom while the legendary King Vidor remembers the day-by-day difficulties in making Hallelujah (1927).

Woody Strode, a one-time professional football player, whose friendship with John Ford pushed his career, reminisces about obstacles that formed a constant roller coaster ride while Charles Edward Gordone, the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Award, sardonically analyzes contemporary race issues. And, lastly, Frederick Douglass O’Neal, the former Actors Equity Association president...

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