Booker T & Them: A Blues

11. Flashback c. 1903. Which treats of Hollywood’s 1st flicker; Seeking Freedom; Opposites Attracting; Fair Usage; Uncle Tom; Syncretism; & Attempted Unions

( 126 ) Flashback c. 1903. Which Treats of Hollywood’s 1st Flicker; Seeking Freedom; Opposites Attracting; Fair Usage; Uncle Tom; Syncretism; & Attempted Unions 11 Americans—i.e., bourgeoisie whites for whom, to their chagrin, it has not all been a total love-in—it being the grab & claim: the making of a nation via conquests & checkbook annexation of Others bested, all blameless, under the shameless name of the U.S.’s Destiny Manifested; the all being the dissatisfied some, seeking release from the beastly realization of hypocrisy of, as Mark Twain puts it, “the moral splendor of our high and holy civilization[s]” imposed persuasion on red, black, & brown folks doing just fine up till time of America’s interest & invasion. The sense, by said ingrate bourgeoisie malcontents, that since the inevitable 01 Harris text.indd 126 12/13/11 11:25 AM ( 127 ) fulfillment of His will started, inexplicably part of their partisan spirit departed, leaving them with a downhearted ennui, which with hindsight we see was nothing but the blues; prompting their seeking a guilt-freeing, personal, & communal-reviving change of pace, & saving of face from the ever-accelerating new; maybe a chance to dance, as if a dark-townish romp & stomp will jar the nuisance of burdensome, privileged propriety from their backs & brows, & they can gorge on immodest joys sirens sing in their public play-praising songs, as if—if they overexert & sweat like the new colonized & bottom workers on the rise they will slip the bounds of being lashed to the mast of their polite & comfy; as if a prancing rout, not with, but at least to devil music will absolve their doubting, profiting body & souls about their country’s imperialistic goals. This as 2billion dollars per is about to be made on sheet music. Much of it negro sourced, inspired, or associated. This, as, Big Bucks: the backers, bankers, brokers; smart money, their steady hand in the till & on the tiller, who sign the checks & weekend at beach houses, or upstate estates, or down on a Southern coast. Them. Sitting in the box seat big chair, deciding if or when & when where who & how much, as lions & gladiators of commerce & governance tussle in the Coliseum of commerce, & yea, or nay as the final say, miss the boat as on the left coast the good ship Hollywood is launched by former captains of rags & junk. 01 Harris text.indd 127 12/13/11 11:25 AM ( 128 ) Out East Money sneers, snipes—moving pictures! Just feed for the trough of amusement from which the rag & a penny sops slop. Moving pictures, Ha-Ha. Leave the bohunk, dago, heeb, kraut, paddy, polock marginal diversions to the slavering, mongrel, shinny-men (with their noses, Ha Ha, for rubbish). Leave them, & the women(!) they let do it, to it, for the fad it is, a shining bob soon to fade, & good riddance. We, for Christ’s sake, will bond with Big Money, the sure, rock-solid bet . . . The first time a negro is portrayed on film a white man in blackface being Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s title character is it. & Mark Twain, still not over the upshot of the Spanish-American War’s draw-down, continues his crusade against the U.S. military’s campaign of atrocities, the water torture of a Filipino priest being a point of note. 01 Harris text.indd 128 12/13/11 11:25 AM ...