Passing Interest: Racial Passing in US Novels, Memoirs, Television, and Film, 1990–2010

10. Smiling Faces: Chameleon Street, Racial Passing/Performativity, and Film Blackness

255 10 Smiling Faces Chameleon Street, Racial Passing/Performativity, and Film Blackness Michael B. Gillespie In 1985, an article in the Detroit Free Press (“Super Duper Imposter Says He Aided in Surgeries”) recapped the exploits of William Douglas Street Jr., a black man and self‑professed “Great Imposter” whose run of vari‑ ous criminal acts of impersonation began in the late 1960s. The article featured excerpts from a jailhouse interview with Street, who at the time was serving a prison term for unpaid loans he received while posing as a student at the University of Michigan.1 Upon reading that article,Wendell B. Harris Jr. began researching for a film project based on Street’s exploits that what would eventually become Chameleon Street (1989). Emblematic of the best sense of independent cinema and alternative financing, Harris raised a 1.5 million dollar budget with the help of his family and black businessmen in the Flint, Michigan, area. He spent three years visiting and corresponding with Street, writing the script, shooting the film, and completing post‑production.2 The film would go on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival (1990). Harris, a Julliard‑trained actor, stated how he identified with Street’s masquerades in terms of acting: What I immediately saw when I read the first article on Doug was his ability to act, and act convincingly. That’s the test of an actor: Does the audience believe? Part of the addiction 256 / Michael B. Gillespie that Doug has to the act of impersonation is the moment when he looks into somebody’s eyes and he can see that he is pressing the right buttons to make them believe his perfor‑ mance. That’s maybe the purest part of the high he gets from impersonating, because he certainly doesn’t look for money. In fourteen years he made less than four thousand from the impersonations. (Moon 150–51) Harris’s noting of Street’s ability to “act convincingly” suggests something of the way in which Street’s impersonations operated to impress a belief and solicit a truth. But it is the measure of what constituted a “profit” for Street that remains a rich puzzle. After all, if the motivation for Street’s impersonations was a kind of material profiteering that could be accounted for in terms of a net gain, then that might offer a satisfactory explanation. Yet, the return on Street’s investment is not so immediately measurable. As the primary inspiration for Chameleon Street, the passing life of William Douglas Street Jr., the way he freely enacted multiple identity roles and negotiated with several cultural poses, signals something more than the curious adventures of a minor celebrity. Street first received some measure of national attention in Febru‑ ary 1971 due to a UPI story that was picked up by newspapers across the country. The story recounted Street’s attempt to try out for a spot on the roster of the Detroit Tigers baseball team by passing himself off as Jerald Lee Levias, also known as Jerry Levias, an NFL wide receiver for the Houston Oilers. Street had tried out for the Detroit Tigers two summers earlier and had even attempted to make the roster of the Bos‑ ton Red Sox while impersonating a sports reporter for Time magazine.3 Street’s 1971 ploy as Levias was initially successful. He portrayed himself as an athlete who had grown tired of the NFL and now wanted to play the sport he had always loved. Street as Levias was considered a star try‑ out by the Detroit Tigers organization to such an extent that they flew him down to training camp in Florida. Upon arriving, Street borrowed money from a Tigers player by claiming that his finances were still tied up with the Houston Oilers and that he would pay back the loan once he was on the team payroll. In spite of his less than stellar play in the field, Street’s ruse was only discovered after the real Levias contacted the Tigers inquiring why the organization was circulating rumors about his NFL retirement. Street was not prosecuted. A few weeks after the Tigers ruse was exposed, Street was, however, prosecuted for passing bad checks Smiling Faces /   257 at an Orlando hotel where the Minnesota Twins were staying. He claimed he was a member of the team. Shortly after the Orlando misdemeanor, Street returned...