Reader, I Married Him: An Interview with Alison Mills

Abstract

Alison Mills is the author of Francisco (1974), an autobiographical novel about a young black woman's disillusionment with her early success as an actress in Hollywood, her emerging interest in the 1970s Black Arts Movement, and her love affair with an independent black filmmaker. The novel is based on Mills' own experience as a performer in the late 1960s when she appeared in pioneering television programs featuring African-American actors and entertainers. She had regular roles on Julia, which starred Diahann Carroll, and on The Leslie Uggams Show. She has also appeared in several films directed by her husband, Francisco Newman, including Ain't Nobody Slick (1972) and Virgin Again (2000). Francisco was the first novel published by the Berkeley, California, publisher Reed, Cannon, and Johnson. Originally founded by African-American writers Ishmael Reed, Steve Cannon, and Joe Johnson, the press is now known as I. Reed Books. Harryette Mullen interviewed Alison Mills in Los Angeles, California on August 8, 2002. Alison's husband, Francisco Newman, died May 22, 2003.

Alison Mills is the author of Francisco (1974), an autobiographical novel about a young black woman's disillusionment with her early success as an actress in Hollywood, her emerging interest in the 1970s Black Arts Movement, and her love affair with an independent black filmmaker. The novel is based on Mills' own experience as a performer in the late 1960s when she appeared in pioneering television programs featuring African-American actors and entertainers. She had regular roles on Julia, which starred Diahann Carroll, and on The Leslie Uggams Show. She has also appeared in several films directed by her husband, Francisco Newman, including Ain't Nobody Slick (1972) and Virgin Again (2000). Francisco was the first novel published by the Berkeley, California, publisher Reed, Cannon, and Johnson. Originally founded by African-American writers Ishmael Reed, Steve Cannon, and Joe Johnson, the press is now known as I. Reed Books. Harryette Mullen interviewed Alison Mills in Los Angeles, California on August 8, 2002. Alison's husband, Francisco Newman, died May 22, 2003.

MULLEN: Let's start with your full name.

MILLS: Alison Susan Mills. That was my maiden name. So my full name is Alison Susan Mills Newman.

MULLEN: Is it all right to mention your age?

MILLS: Sure, I'm fifty—wait a minute, I was born in 1951, so what does that make me? Is this 2002? (Laughter) I'm fifty-one. I was born in Long Island, New York, on March 20, 1951.

MULLEN: Will you tell me a little about your family: your parents and grandparents; how you were raised, what kind of family background, the family values you were raised with—that sort of thing?

MILLS: Okay. I'll start with my parents. My father was a scientist, a chemist who worked at McDonnell Douglas. He just passed away. I guess he was about eighty. His father was a waiter. He had odd jobs like being a waiter, and I think he was a chef. I think he also was a porter on a train, and that was considered a prestigious job, to be a porter.

MULLEN: They got to travel, and they got pretty good pay, with all the tips.

MILLS: It was pretty good pay. My grandmother was a housewife. She baked the most beautiful cakes and kept the most beautiful home. They owned a home.

MULLEN: Where was this?

MILLS: This was in New Rochelle, New York.

MULLEN: Those are your grandparents, your father's parents?

MILLS: My father's parents. They're really interesting to me because my grandfather was a product of rape. His mother worked for an Italian, somebody, and—as I understand, this is the story—the man raped his mother and he naturally refused to marry her and naturally refused to recognize the child, and so my grandfather is the product of that. Then my grandmother, as I understand, came from a family of freed slaves. They were ex-slaves. I have a picture of them on my wall at home. On her side of the family...