Ronald “Butch” Lewis, known in the fight industry for tenaciously landing his light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks a massive $13.5 million purse for what turned out to be a brutal, one round KO at the hands of Iron Mike Tyson, apprently suffered a massive heart attack. Lewis, age 65 and more active in recent years in the music and TV fields than in boxing, was in or around his stately home in Delaware when he went into cardiac arrest.
Other close friends of Lewis were actor Denzel Wasdhington and former Black Entertainment Television Network owner turned NBA Charlotte franchise owner Bob Johnson. The celebrity trio often sat at ringside at major fights together and I think they may have had “ringside seats” together at President Barack Obama’s Inauguration.
Later on in his illustrious life, soul signer supreme, Soul Brother Number One, Mr. James Brown did a jail stint for drug use. When he got out of jail, he had a comeback concert at an historic theater in the Hollywood area and the promoter of the event was none other than Butch Lewis.
Lewis’ sartorial trademark was his “Chocolate Tuxedo” look which only mean he wore a tuxedo without a shirt underneath it. Lewis even had one of his sons at ringside for a big fight dressed the same way.
Lewis grew up in Philadelphia, was always fascinated by boxing and became a close friend and associate of first Smokin’ Joe Frazier and then Muhammad Ali.
In the boxing industry, Lewis oversaw the development of Leon Spinks when Lewis was a VP to Bob Arum’s Top Rank company, including that incredible night in Las Vegas when Leon, with only eight pro bouts, took a unanimous decision over “The Greatest” in Las Vegas.
Source: www.examiner.com
Today I ventured to the Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con with three goals in mind. To meet Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree and Billy Dee Williams. As my business partner and I made our trek, we talked about our continued love of the 1970′s, the films, the animation from the Saturday morning cartoons and the comics. We even discussed how this could be a small turning point in our lives as we continue to follow our passion by meeting these 1970′s film icons.
Once we arrived at the Philadelphia Convention Center I saw Pam Grier with her manager crossing the street heading toward the center. I shouted out “THERE’S PAM GRIER” and startled my business partner. I acted like I was a crazed fan screaming “WHERE’S THE CAMERA”…it was one of my funnier moments. I was reminded that I came here to take a picture with her and may have a chance to talk to her.
We parked the car and walked to the Convention Center, turned the corner and BAM, people with and without tickets were stacked up in the same line, all the way around the block waiting to get in. The process for entry was a nightmare…a 35 minute wait once I was in the Convention Center, and this was with tickets that I pre-ordered and paid for over the internet. When we finally arrived for the picture Pam Grier was gone. Well as anyone who PAID to have their picture taken at these events in hopes of having a 1 to 2 minute conversation would have been…I was ticked off. But I kept my cool and demanded my photo, since the Convention Center was ridiculously slow in processing my intake, which prevented me from seeing Pam on time.
Finally after much complaining a photographer escorted me to Pam’s booth and I was introduced to her. She was ever so gracious and kind. She shook my hand and for what felt like an eternity we stood arm in arm and I had my photo taken. I took a minute to gain my composure and I walked over to her booth and had a chance to talk to her about The Museum of UnCut Funk (MOUF), it’s mission and how we would love to do an interview with her. She expressed an interest and gave us a timeframe that would be good. I thanked her again and proceeded to pick up my Pam Grier and Billy Dee Williams photos.
There was as lag in time to pick up photos so we visited Richard Roundtree at his booth. He too was kind and gracious. I told him about the MOUF and our collection, especially items related to him and his body of work. Like Pam Grier he expressed interest in being interviewed. My photo of Richard will be mailed to me due to a back log in processing photos.
Billy Dee Williams was more reserved and since I had taken a photo with him earlier I introduced myself and shared with him our mission at The Museum of UnCut Funk. He too took my card and like the others seemed interested in an interview.
I can’t tell you if or when these interviews will come to fruition. We will certainly do our best to make them happen. But what I will tell you is that yesterday was one of the best days I have had while pursuing my passion.
Sista ToFunky
Clarice Taylor, the actress and comedian best known for playing grandmothers on “The Cosby Show” and “Sesame Street,” has died at the age of 93. Taylor died of congestive heart failure in her home in Englewood, N.J., on Monday, said her son, William Taylor.
During a career that spanned five decades, Taylor performed on radio and TV, in film and on stage, including in the original Broadway cast of the musical “The Wiz.”
Her films included the 1971 Clint Eastwood thriller “Play Misty for Me” and, besides “The Cosby Show,” she had another recurring TV role on “Sesame Street,” where she was grandmother to the character David.
Both Taylor and Earle Hyman, who played her husband on “The Cosby Show,” received Emmy nominations in 1986 for their roles as Anna and Russell Huxtable, parents of Bill Cosby’s character and grandparents of the Huxtable youngsters.
While touring with “The Wiz,” she roomed with Phylicia Rashad, who played Cosby’s wife on the “The Cosby Show.” She told The Associated Press in a 1987 interview that she decided to audition to play Rashad’s mother.
The Wiz broadway window card is a part of The Museum of UnCut Funk Collection
“I spent three hours making up my face and putting on my tight clothes,” Taylor said. “I didn’t want to look too old to be her mother.” She didn’t get the part.
Later, however, she was asked to audition for the part of Cosby’s mother. “I put on a gray wig, a bandana over that, flat-heeled shoes and a long dress with no shape to it,” she told the AP. “Bill saw through my act. I read five lines and he said, ‘If you’re going to go through all of this – you’ve got the part.’”
In 1987, she played the pioneering black female comedian Jackie “Moms” Mabley in an original off-Broadway play, “Moms,” with future “Law & Order” regular S. Epatha Merkerson also in the cast. Taylor later toured as Mabley in a one-woman show.
The Clarice Taylor as “Moms” Broadway window cards is a part of The Museum of UnCut Funk Collection
She also played the role of Addaperle, the Good Witch of the North, in the stage version of “The Wiz,” which opened in 1975. Taylor began her acting career with Harlem’s American Negro Theatre, and in the late 1960s was one of the original members of the New York-based Negro Ensemble Company.
Born Sept. 20, 1917, in Buckingham County, Va., she grew up in Harlem, where she skipped school to watch the sassy comedian Moms Mabley perform at the Apollo Theater. Taylor told the AP she portrayed Mabley in “Moms” because she was determined that the world not forget her. “She was so special and so wonderful,” she said in the 1987 interview. “Here’s a Black woman born in the last century who made a living at her craft. She never cleaned house or picked cotton. She went through a lot but she stuck with it.”
Taylor is survived by two sons, William and James, and four grandchildren.
Source: Associated Press
Emmy, Tony and Oscar winning production, set and costume designer Tony Walton (All That Jazz, Mary Poppins and Broadway’s Pippin just to name a few) shared his Oscar nominated set and costume work for the 1978 film The Wiz. The film was the adaptation of the hit Broadway musical of the seventies and the Black version of the L. Frank Baum classic The Wizard of Oz. Directed by Sidney Lumet, it featured Diana Ross as Dorothy, Nipsey Russell as the Tinman, Richard Pryor as The Wiz and a young Michael Jackson as The Scarecrow. Lena Horne played Glinda the Good Witch.
Universal spent a record $24 million on the production, making the movie the must expensive musical made up until that time. Studio execs were worried Ross was too old to effectively play Dorothy and rumor had it she won the coveted role by promising to deliver the pop sensation as The Scarecrow. Sadly Jackson’s dance skills were never fully utilized in the film. And even sadder for his fans, he had only one solo number, “You Can’t Win” which was at the film’s end.
The multi-talented Walton designed the sets along with Philip Rosenberg, creating a yellow brick road out of Congoleum at the Astoria studios in Queens. Apparently the flooring company came out with a style called Yellow Brick Road in their collection shortly after the film premiered. Many of the film’s special effects were created with matte paintings, as evidenced by the Manhattan skyline scenes below, by the Hollywood master Albert Whitlock.
Kerry James Marshall was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, and was educated at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, from which he received a BFA, and an honorary doctorate in 1999. The subject matter of his paintings, installations, and public projects is often drawn from Black popular culture, and is rooted in the geography of his upbringing: “You can’t be born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955 and grow up in South Central, Los Angeles near the Black Panthers headquarters, and not feel like you’ve got some kind of social responsibility. You can’t move to Watts in 1963 and not speak about it. That determined a lot of where my work was going to go,” says Marshall. In his “Souvenir” series of paintings and sculptures, he pays tribute to the Civil Rights movement with mammoth printing stamps featuring bold slogans of the era—Black Power!—and paintings of middle-class living rooms where ordinary Black citizens have become angels tending to a domestic order populated by the ghosts of Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and other heroes of the 1960s.
Marshall creates a comic book for the twenty-first century, pitting ancient African sculptures come to life against a cyberspace elite that risks losing touch with traditional culture. Marshall’s work is based on a broad range of art-historical references, from Renaissance painting to black folk art, from El Greco to Charles White. A striking aspect of his paintings is the emphatically Black skin tone of his figures, a development the artist says emerged from an investigation into the invisibility of Blacks in America and the unnecessarily negative connotations associated with darkness. Marshall believes “you still have to earn your audience’s attention every time you make something.” The sheer beauty of his work speaks to an art that is simultaneously formally rigorous and socially engaged.
“I persist, trying to make pictures that inscribe Black existential realities without sacrificing a sense of majesty. I’m driven by a desire to meaningfully provoke others’ curiosity, to paint without cynicism. I still believe in mastery; in the service of imagination it can exceed the limitations of circumstance.”
— Kerry James Marshall
Source: PBS, Greg Kucera Galley, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Christies.com and Wikipedia
The 1970s produced the film genre that would become known as ‘Blaxploitation’. These films were made specifically with an urban Black audience in mind. These movies were larger-than-life, action-packed and full of funk and soul music. These films also incorporated progressive social and political commentary. From Pam Grier to Bill Cosby, check out who delved into this genre and what the actors have been doing since the 1970s.
Pam Grier’s fame grew in the 1970s when she starred in several Blaxploitation films like ‘Coffy’ and ‘Foxy Brown’. Grier revitalized her career and paid homage to the ’70s genre in 1997 when she appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Jackie Brown.’ Her role as Jackie Brown earned her a Golden Globe nod for Best Actress.
Grier played Louis Williams in ‘Mars Attacks!’ in 1996 and Carol in ‘Holy Smoke’ in 1999. Grier’s acting resume is extensive and lately she’s hit the television screen. She played Kit Porter on ‘The L Word’ for 5 years and appeared in ‘Smallville’ in 2010.
Richard Roundtree is known as a leading man in many Blaxploitation movies. His private detective role as John Shaft, in the movie ‘Shaft’ in 1971) earned him notoriety and sequels in ‘Shaft’s Big Score’ and ‘Shaft in Africa’. He even starred in a television series dedicated to the character.
Roundtree played John Shaft’s uncle in the film interpration of ‘Shaft’ in 2000 and more recently and the character Mr. Shaw on ‘Desperate Housewives’ in 2005. In 2011 he popped up on an episode of ‘The Mentalist,’ though he’s better known for roles in the movies ‘Se7en’ and ‘George of the Jungle.’
Football legend, Jim Brown, is not only known for being one of the greatest players in the NFL, but he was also an integral part of the Blaxploitation genre. Pictured here, Brown played Gunn in ‘Black Gunn’ (1972). The star of the movie, Brown plays an LA nightclub owner who’s after the mob.
Brown is known for his role as Robert Jefferson in ‘The Dirty Dozen’ (1967). After the ’70s, he appeared in numerous films like ‘Mars Attacks!’ alongside Pam Grier and ‘Any Given Sunday.’ But he wasn’t the only NFL star to hit the big screen during this decade.
Fred ‘The Hammer’ Williamson starred in ‘Black Caesar’ in 1973, paying homage to previous gangster movies. The former defensive back also hit the big screen in the ’70s with ‘Black Eye’ and ‘MASH.’ In 1973, Williamson posed nude for ‘Playgirl’ magazine.
Since his Blaxploitation days, Williamson has continued his acting career. He starred as Nick in ‘Vigilante’ in ’83 and was in ‘From Dust Til Dawn’ in 1996. A well balanced actor, Williamson’s appeared in films like ‘Starsky & Hutch’ and ‘Pushing Daisies.’ He’s also done work on the other side of the camera. He produced and directed ‘Mean Johnny Barrows’ and has gone on to produce over a dozen more films.
Judy Pace starred as Iris in ‘Cotton Comes to Harlem’ (1970). A prominent actress during the decade, Pace has come to be known as one of the most beautiful women to ever appear on screen.
After being dubbed the personification of Black Beauty in the ’70s, Pace’s career continued to thrive. She’s been in dozen’s of TV series from ‘Kung Fu’ to ‘Sanford and Son’ to ‘Bewitched.’
Nichelle Nichols popped up during the ’70s in ‘Truck Turner.’ Her career began before this decade, when she played Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek.’ She became one of the first black women to be featured in a strong role on a TV series. Her inter-racial kiss with William Shatner’s Captain Kirk character earned her even more notoriety.
Since her role- alongside Isaac Hayes in ‘Truck Turner,’ Nichols has continued to act. Recently she was on the series, ‘Heroes’ in the role of Nana Dawson. She’s also been in numerous ‘Star Trek’ spin-offs. Nichols has volunteered time and worked for NASA.
Billy Dee Williams starred in two Blaxploitation films, ‘The Take’ and ‘Hit!’ in the early ’70s. But, he’s most widely known for his role of Lando Calrissian in numerous ‘Star Wars’ installments. In the intense film, ‘Hit!,’ Williams plays a federal agent, out to destroy a drug ring. He is also known for his great work in Lady Sings the Blues and Mohgany starring Diana Ross.
Williams played Brady Lloyd in the 80′s series ‘Dynasty’, and has had recurring roles on ‘General Hospital’ and ‘Dairy of a Single Mom.’ He also recently made an appearance on ‘White Collar’.
Trina Parks popped up in the ’70s as an actress with a few roles. Most notably, she played Syreena in ‘Darktown Strutters’ and Thumper in ‘Diamonds are Forever.’
Parks hasn’t acted since the ’70s, but her claim to fame remains the fact that she was the first Black woman to be a Bond Girl. In 2002, she was part of the ‘Bond Girls Are Forever’ TV documentary.
Jim Kelly appeared in a handful of Blaxploitation films in the ’70s. They include ‘Black Belt Jones’ (top l.) and ‘Enter the Dragon’ (bottom l.). In ‘Black Belt,’ Kelly used his martial arts skills to play a Kung Fu expert who kicks apart the Mafia. He became a top martial arts film star of the early ’70s with his distinguishable, funky Afro hairstyle.
In ‘Enter the Dragon,’ Kelly appeared alongside Bruce Lee. But his roles since the Blaxploitation days have been limited. Kelly had a small role in the series, ‘Highway to Heaven’ and he popped up in ‘Ultimatum’ in 1994.
Antonio Fargas was a big name back in the Blaxploitation days. He had roles in ‘Cleopatra Jones’ and ‘Foxy Brown.’ Fargas became best known for his role as Huggy Bear in the ‘Starsky and Hutch’ series. He also appeared in two Wayans brothers parodies, ‘I’m Gonna Git You Sucka’ (1988) and ‘Don’t Be a Menance’ (1996). Lately he’s appeared in a recurring role, Doc, on ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ and he’s had one-off roles on series like ‘Brothers’ and ‘Numb3rs.’
Melvin ‘Block’ Van Peebles is a well known director from the ’70s, his most popular film being ‘Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.’ This movie helped create the Blaxploitation genre.
Melvin Van Peebles is also an actor and has appeared as Elmo in ‘Black, White and Blues’ and on ‘All My Children’ as Melvin Woods. His son is actor Mario Van Peebles, started his acting career in ‘Sweet Sweetback’s.’
The younger Van Peebles appeared in ’The Cotton Club’ during the 1980′s. He is better known as Malcolm X from ‘Ali’ and Samuel Woods on ‘All My Children.’ In 2003, the father and son teamed up again to produce and star in ‘Baadasssss!’.
Source: Roseanne Salvatore and Partrick Montero at www.nydailynews.com
The Museum of UnCut Funk celebrates and pays homage to a few of our favorite Black sports heroes who rocked the 1960′s and the 1970′s (“The Greatest Decade Ever”).
Jim Brown was born on February 17, 1936, in St. Simons, Georgia. He was an outstanding professional football player who led the National Football League in rushing for eight of his nine seasons. He was the dominant player of his era and one of the small number of running backs rated as the best of all time.
In high school and at Syracuse University in New York, Brown displayed exceptional all-around athletic ability, excelling in basketball, baseball, track, and lacrosse as well as football. In his final year at Syracuse, Brown earned All-America honours in both football and lacrosse. Many considered Brown’s best sport to be lacrosse, and he was inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the U.S. Lacrosse National Hall of Fame.
From 1957 through 1965, Brown played for the Cleveland Browns of the NFL, and he led the league in rushing yardage every year except 1962. Standing 6.2 feet and weighing 232 pounds, Brown was a bruising runner who possessed the speed to outrun opponents as well as the strength to run over them. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in seven seasons and established NFL single-season records by rushing for 1,527 yards in 1958 (12-game schedule) and 1,863 yards in 1963 (14-game schedule), a record broken by O.J. Simpson in 1973. On November 24, 1957, he set an NFL record by rushing for 237 yards in a single game, and he equaled that total on November 19, 1961. At the close of his career, he had scored 126 touchdowns, 106 by rushing, had gained a record 12,312 yards in 2,359 rushing attempts for an average of 5.22 yards, and had a record combined yardage (rushing along with pass receptions) of 15,459 yards. Brown’s rushing and combined yardage records stood until 1984, when both were surpassed by Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears.
At 30 years of age and seemingly at the height of his athletic abilities, Brown retired from football to pursue a career in motion pictures. He appeared in many action and adventure films, such as Slaughter (1972) and Slaughter’s Big Rip Off (1973). Brown was also active in issues facing Blacks, forming groups to assist black-owned businesses and to rehabilitate gang members.
Julius Erving was born on February 22, 1950, in Roosevelt, New York. Erving—called as “Dr. J” by his fans—became known for his style and grace on and off the court during his sixteen-year professional basketball career. A solid player in high school, Erving went on to play for the University of Massachusetts in 1968. At the university, he played on the school’s varsity team for two seasons, averaging more than 26 points and 20 rebounds per game.
Erving left college in 1971 to play for the Virginia Squires, a team in the American Basketball Association (ABA). With the Squires, he scored more than 27 points per game in his first season. But it was the move to the New York Nets in 1973 that allowed Erving to really shine. He helped the team win ABA championships in 1974 and 1976 and received the league’s Most Valuable Player award for each of those seasons. He earned a lot of fans and attracted a lot of attention for his athletic performance—graceful spins, dramatic jump shots, and powerful slam dunks. He was considered by many to be one of the league’s leading players.
In 1976, Erving switched leagues, moving to the National Basketball Association (NBA) to play for the Philadelphia 76ers. In his eleven seasons with the team, he helped them win the 1983 NBA championship. Erving was also selected as the league’s Most Valuable Player in 1981 and played in 11 NBA All-Star games. At the time of his retirement in 1987, he had played in more than 800 games, scoring an average of 22 points per game in the NBA. His career scoring total was more than 30,000 points during ABA and NBA careers.
Erving may have retired, but he hasn’t really left the game. He has worked as a sports analyst for the NBC television network and as an executive for the Orlando Magic, a Florida-based NBA team. He has also pursued many other business opportunities.
Henry Louis Aaron was born on February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama. Formerly baseball’s all-time home-run king, Aaron played 23 years as an outfielder for the Milwaukee (later Atlanta) Braves and Milwaukee Brewers (1954–76). He holds many of baseball’s most distinguished records, including runs batted in (2,297), extra base hits (1,477), total bases (6,856) and most years with 30 or more home runs (15). He is also in the top five for career hits and runs. Aaron also had the record for most career home runs (755) until Barry Bonds broke it with his 756th home run on August 7, 2007, in San Francisco.
Born in a poor black section of Mobile called “Down The Bay,” Aaron and his family moved to the middle class Toulminville neighborhood when he was a young boy. When he got to high school, Aaron played shortstop and third base on his school’s team. Aaron, perhaps sensing he had a bigger future ahead of him, quit school in 1951 to play in the Negro Leagues for the Indianapolis Clowns.
It wasn’t a long stay. After leading his club to victory in the league’s 1952 World Series, Aaron was recruited the following June to the Milwaukee Braves for $10,000. The Braves assigned their new player to one of their farm clubs, The Eau Claire Bears. Again Aaron did not disappoint, getting named Northern League Rookie of the Year.
A year later, the 20-year-old Hank Aaron got his Major League start when a spring training injury to a Braves outfielder created a roster spot for him. Following a respectable first year (he hit .280), Aaron charged through the 1955 season with a blend of power (27 home runs), run production (106 runs batted in), and average (.328) that would come to define his long career. In 1956, after winning the first of two of his batting titles, Aaron registered an unrivaled 1957 season, taking home the National League MVP and nearly nabbing the Triple Crown by hitting 44 homeruns, knocking in another 132, and batting .322.
That same year, Aaron demonstrated his ability to come up big when it counted most. His 11th inning homerun in late September propelled the Braves to the World Series, where he led underdog Milwaukee to an upset win over the New York Yankees in seven games.
With the game still years away from the multi-million dollar contracts that would later dominate player salaries, Aaron’s annual pay in 1959 was around $30,000. When he equaled that amount that same year in endorsements, Aaron realized there may be more in store for him if he continued to hit for power. “I noticed that they never had a show called ‘Singles Derby,’” he said.
He was right, of course, and over the next decade and a half, the always-fit Aaron banged out a steady stream of 30 and 40 homerun seasons. In 1973, at the age of 39, Aaron was still a force, clubbing a remarkable 40 homeruns to finish just one run behind Babe Ruth’s all-time career mark of 714.
But the chase to beat the Babe’s record revealed that world of baseball was far from being free of the racial tensions that prevailed around it. Letters poured into the Braves offices, as many as 3,000 a day for Aaron. Some wrote to congratulate him, but many others were appalled that a Black man should break baseball’s most sacred record. Death threats were a part of the mix.
Still, Aaron pushed forward. He didn’t try to inflame the atmosphere, but he didn’t keep his mouth shut either, speaking out against the league’s lack of ownership and management opportunities for minorities. “On the field, Blacks have been able to be super giants,” he said. “But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again.”
In 1974, after tying the Babe on Opening Day in Cincinnati, Aaron came home with his team. On April 15, he banged out his record 715th homerun at 9:07 P.M. in the fourth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was a triumph and a relief. The more than 50,000 fans on hand cheered him on as he rounded the bases. There were fireworks and a band, and when he crossed home plate, Aaron’s parents were there to greet him.
Overall, Aaron finished the 1974 season with 20 homeruns. He played two more years, moving back to Milwaukee to finish out his career to play in the same city where he’d started.
After retiring as a player, Aaron moved into the Atlanta Braves front office as executive vice-president, where he has been a leading spokesman for minority hiring in baseball. He was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1982. His autobiography, I Had a Hammer, was published in 1990.
In 1999, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of breaking Ruth’s record, Major League Baseball announced the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the best overall hitter in each league. Hank Aaron was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002.
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Boxer, philanthropist, social activist Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. Once one of the top American boxers, Muhammad Ali has shown that he is not afraid of any fight—inside or outside the ring. Growing up in the segregated South, Ali experienced firsthand the prejudice and discrimination that Blacks faced during this era.
At the age of 12, Ali discovered his talent for boxing through an odd twist of fate. His bike was stolen, and Ali told a police officer, Joe Martin, that he wanted to beat up the thief. “Well, you better learn how to fight before you start challenging people,” Martin reportedly told him at the time. In addition to being a police officer, Martin also trained young boxers at a local gym.
Ali started working with Martin to learn how to box, and soon began his boxing career. In his first amateur bout in 1954, he won the fight by split decision. Ali went on to win the 1956 Golden Gloves Championship for novices in the light heavyweight class. Three years later, he won the Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions and the Amateur Athletic Union’s national title for the light-heavyweight division.
In 1960, Ali won a spot on the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team. He traveled to Rome, Italy, to compete. At 6 feet 3 inches tall, Ali was an imposing figure in the ring. He was known for his footwork, and for possessing a powerful jab. After winning his first three bouts, Ali then defeated Zbigniew Pietrzkowski from Poland to win the gold medal.
After his Olympic victory, Ali was heralded as an American hero. He soon turned professional with the backing of the Louisville Sponsoring Group. During the 1960s Ali seemed unstoppable, winning all of his bouts with majority of them being by knockouts. He took out British heavyweight champion Henry Cooper in 1963 and then knocked out Sonny Liston in 1964 to become the heavyweight champion of the world.
Often referring to himself as “the greatest,” Ali was not afraid to sing his own praises. He was known for boasting about his skills before a fight and for his colorful descriptions and phrases. In one of his more famously quoted descriptions, Ali told reporters that he could “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” in the boxing ring.
This bold public persona belied what was happening in Ali’s personal life, however. He was doing some spiritual searching and decided to join the black Muslim group, the Nation of Islam, in 1964. At first he called himself Cassius X, but then settled into the name Muhammad Ali. Two years later, Ali started a different kind of fight when he refused to acknowledge his military service after being drafted. He said that he was a practicing Muslim minister, and that his religious beliefs prevented him from fighting in the Vietnam War.
In 1967, Ali put his personal values ahead of his career. The U.S. Department of Justice pursued a legal case against Ali, denying his claim for conscientious objector status. He was found guilty of refusing to be inducted into the military, but Ali later cleared his name after a lengthy court battle. Professionally, however, Ali did not fare as well. The boxing association took away his title and suspended him from the sport for three and a half years.
Returning to the ring in 1970, Ali won his first bout after his forced hiatus. He knocked out Jerry Quarry in October in Atlanta. The following year, Ali took on Joe Frazier in what has been called the “Fight of the Century.” Frazier and Ali went for 15 rounds before Frazier dropped Ali to the ground, scoring a knockout. Ali later beat Frazier in a 1974 rematch.
Another legendary Ali fight took place in 1974. Billed as the “Rumble in the Jungle,” the bout was organized by promoter Don King and held in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali fought the reigning heavyweight champion George Foreman. For once, Ali was seen as the underdog to his younger, powerful opponent. Ali silenced his critics by defeating Foreman and once again becoming the heavyweight champion of the world.
Perhaps one of his toughest bouts took place in 1975 when he battled longtime rival Joe Frazier in the “Thrilla in Manila” fight. Held in Quezon City, Philippines, the match lasted for more than 14 rounds with each fighter giving it their all. Ali emerged victorious in the end.
By the late 1970s, Ali’s career had started to decline. He was defeated by Leon Spinks in 1978 and was knocked out by Larry Holmes in 1980. In 1981, Ali fought his last bout, losing his heavyweight title to Trevor Berbick. He announced his retirement from boxing the next day.
In his retirement, Ali has devoted much of his time to philanthropy. He announced that he has Parkinson’s disease in 1984, a degenerative neurological condition, and has been involved in raising funds for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Over the years, Ali has also supported the Special Olympics and the Make a Wish Foundation among other organizations.
Muhammad Ali has traveled to numerous countries, including Mexico and Morocco, to help out those in need. In 1998, he was chosen to be a United Nations Messenger of Peace because of his work in developing countries.
In 2005, Ali received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush. He also opened the Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, that same year. “I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given,” he said. “I believed in myself and I believe in the goodness of others,” said Ali. “Many fans wanted to build a museum to acknowledge my achievements. I wanted more than a building to house my memorabilia. I wanted a place that would inspire people to be the best that they could be at whatever they chose to do, and to encourage them to be respectful of one another.”
Despite the progression of his disease, Ali remains active in public life. He embodies the true meaning of a champion with his tireless dedication to the causes he believes in. He was on hand to celebrate the inauguration of the first African-American president in January 2009 when Barack Obama was sworn-in. Soon after the inauguration, Ali received the President’s Award from the NAACP for his public service efforts.
As he has done every year since its inception, Ali hosted the 15th Annual Celebrity Fight Night Awards in Phoenix in March 2009. The event benefited the Celebrity Fight Night Foundation and the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center.
Ali has been married to his fourth wife, Yolanda, since 1986. The couple has one son, Asaad, and Ali has several children from previous relationships, including daughter Laila who followed in his footsteps for a time as a professional boxer.
Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. was born on July 10,1943, in Richmond, Virginia. The oldest of Arthur Ashe, Sr. and Mattie Cunningham’s two sons, Arthur Ashe, Jr. blended finesse and power to forge a groundbreaking tennis game. He became the first, and currently only, African-American to win the men’s singles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, or the Australian Open.
Ashe’s childhood was marked by hardship and opportunity. Under his mother’s direction, Ashe was reading by the age of four. But his life was turned upside-down two years later, when Mattie passed away.
Ashe’s father, fearful of seeing his boys fall into trouble without their mother’s discipline, began running a tighter ship at home. Ashe and his younger brother Johnnie went to church every Sunday, and after school were required to come straight home. Arthur, Sr. even clocked the distance: “My father…kept me home, out of trouble. I had exactly 12 minutes to get home from school, and I kept to that rule through high school.”
About a year after his mother’s death, Arthur discovered the game of tennis, picking up a racket for the first time at the age of seven, at a park not far from his home. Sticking with the game, Ashe eventually caught the attention of Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, Jr., a tennis coach from Lynchburg, Virginia, who was active in the black tennis community. Under Johnson’s direction, Ashe excelled.
In his first tournament, Ashe reached the junior national championships. Driven to excel, he eventually moved to St. Louis to work closely with another coach, winning the junior national title in 1960 and again in 1961. Ranked the fifth best junior player in the country, Ashe accepted a scholarship at UCLA, where he graduated with a degree in business administration.
Ashe continued to refine his game, gaining the attention of his tennis idol, Pancho Gonzales, who further helped Ashe hone his serve-and-volley attack. The training all came together in 1968, when the still-amateur Ashe shocked the world by capturing the U.S. Open title. Two years later, he took home the Australian title, and in 1975 registered another upset by beating Jimmy Connors in the Wimbledon finals.
For Ashe, however, success also brought opportunity and responsibility. He didn’t relish his status as the sole Black star in a game dominated by white players, but he didn’t run away from it either. With his unique pulpit, he pushed to create inner city tennis programs for youth; helped found the Association of Men’s Tennis Professionals; and spoke out against apartheid in South Africa—even going so far as to successfully lobby for a visa so he could visit and play tennis there.
Ashe’s causes were shaped by both his own personal story and his health. In 1979, he retired from competition after suffering a heart attack, and wrote a history of African-American athletes: A Hard Road to Glory (3 vols, 1988). He also served as national campaign chairman of the American Heart Association.
Ashe was plagued with health issues over the last 14 years of his life. After undergoing a quadruple bypass operation in 1979, he went under the knife again in 1983 for a second bypass. In 1988, he underwent emergency brain surgery after experiencing paralysis of his right arm. A biopsy taken during a hospital stay revealed that Ashe had AIDS. Doctors soon figured out that Ashe had become positive for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, from a transfusion of bad blood during his second heart operation.
Initially, Ashe kept the news hidden from the public. But in 1992, Ashe came forward with the news after he learned that USA Today was working on a story about his health battle. Finally free from the burden of trying to hide his condition, Ashe poured himself into the work of raising awareness about the disease. He delivered a speech at the United Nations, started a new foundation, and laid the groundwork for a $5 million fundraising campaign for the institution.
He continued to work, even as his health began to deteriorate, making it down to Washington D.C. in late 1992 to participate in a protest over the U.S. treatment of Haitian refugees. For his part in the demonstration, Ashe was taken away in handcuffs. It was a poignant final display for a man who was never shy about showing his concern for the welfare of others.
On February 6, 1993, Arthur Ashe passed away. Four days later he was laid to rest in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia. Some 6,000 people attended the service. Ashe, who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985, was married to Jeanne Moutoussamy from 1977 until his death. They have one daughter, Camera.
Born on August 21, 1936, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and known as “Wilt the Stilt” and the “Big Dipper,” Wilt Chamberlain was one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He scored more than 30,000 points during his professional career.
Chamberlain was a standout player at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. He played on the school’s varsity team for three years, scoring more than 2,200 points in total. Standing at 6-feet 11-inches, Chamberlain physically dominated other players. He eventually reached his full height of a staggering 7-feet 1-inch tall. Many of his nicknames were derived from his stature. He hated being called “the Stilt,” which came from a local reporter covering high school athletics. But Chamberlain didn’t mind “Dipper” or “Big Dipper,” a nickname given to him by friends because he had to duck his head down when passing through a doorframe.
When it came time for college, Chamberlain was sought after by many top college basketball teams. He chose to go to the University of Kansas, making his college basketball debut on the Jayhawks in 1956. Chamberlain helped the team make it to the NCAA finals in 1957. The Jayhawks were defeated by North Carolina, but Chamberlain was chosen as the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Continuing to excel, he made the all-America and all-conference teams the following season.
Leaving college in 1958, Chamberlain had to wait a year before going professional due to NBA rules. He chose to spend the next season performing with the Harlem Globetrotters before landing a spot on the Philadelphia Warriors. In 1959, Chamberlain played his first professional game in New York City against the Knicks, scoring 43 points. His impressive debut season netted him several prestigious honors, including NBA Rookie of the Year and NBA Most Valuable Player. Also during this season, Chamberlain began his rivalry with Celtics defensive star Bill Russell. The two were fierce competitors on the court, but they developed a friendship away from the game.
Chamberlain’s most famous season, however, came in 1962. That March, he scored his first 100-point game. By season’s end, Chamberlain racked up more than 4,000 points, becoming the first NBA player to do so, scoring an average of 50.4 points per game. At the top of his game, Chamberlain was selected for the All-NBA first team for three years in a row—1960, 1961, and 1962.
Chamberlain stayed with the Warriors as they moved out to San Francisco in 1962. He continued to play well, averaging more than 44 points per game for the 1962-1963 season and almost 37 points per game for the 1963-1964 season. Returning to his hometown in 1965, Chamberlain joined the Philadelphia 76ers. There he helped his team score an NBA championship win over his former team. Along the way to the championship, he also assisted the Sixers in defeating the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Division Finals. The Celtics were knocked out of the running after eight consecutive championship wins. Crowds gathered to watch the latest match between two top center players: Chamberlain and Bill Russell.
Traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1968, Chamberlain again proved that he was a competitive, successful athlete. He helped the Lakers win the 1972 NBA championship, triumphing over the New York Knicks in five straight games, and was named the NBA Finals MVP.
By the time he retired in 1973, Chamberlain had amassed an amazing array of career statistics. He played in 1,045 games, and achieved an average of 30.1 points per game. This average was the NBA record until Michael Jordan broke it when he retired in 1998. To this day, Chamberlain still holds the record for the highest number of points scored in a single game, and remains notable for never fouling out of an NBA game.
After his retirement, Chamberlain explored other opportunities. He published his autobiography, Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door in 1973. He tried coaching for a time, and was a popular pitchman for commercials. Chamberlain later branched out in acting, appearing in the 1984 action film Conan the Destroyer with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Still, his feats as a player were not forgotten. In 1978, Chamberlain was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was named one of the top all-time 50 NBA players in 1996. In 1991, Chamberlain claimed another, more unusual distinction, when he wrote in his book A View from Above that he had slept with more than 20,000 women during his lifetime.
Chamberlain died of heart failure on October 12, 1999, at his Los Angeles home. He once said that “no one cheered for Goliath,” but the response to his passing proved that to be false. “Wilt was one of the greatest ever, and we will never see another like him,” said basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His former rival Bill Russell told the press that “he and I will be friends through eternity.”
Source: IMDB, History Channel, A&E, ESPN and Wikipedia
Leontyne Price, a lyric soprano, is one of the world´s leading lyric sopranos. Her career in concerts and opera has brought her the praise of public and critics alike. Miss Price was born in Laurel, Mississippi on February 10, 1927, and received her B.A. in 1948 from the College of Educational and Industrial Arts (now Central State College) in Wilberforce, Ohio. She later accepted a scholarship to Juilliard where she studied with Florence Page Kimball. After seeing her in the student production of Verdi’s Falstaff, Virgil Thompson, the noted critic selected her to sing in the revival of his Four Saints in Three Acts which was performed on Broadway for two weeks in 1952.
She then played the role of Bess in the 1952 revival of Porgy and Bess, and continued in the part on a tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department. During the run of Porgy and Bess, she introduced works by Stravinsky, Henri Saguet, John La Montaine and others at such places as the Metropolitan Museum in New York and Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.. In 1954, she gave a successful Town Hall recital and, the following year, sang Tosca for the NBC-TV Opera Company. She later appeared on this network in The Magic Flute (1956); Dialogue of the Carmelites (1957), and Don Giovanni (1960).
Miss Price made her Metropolitan debut in Il Trovatore on January 27, 1961. Since then, she has made numerous recordings of operas and operatic arias. She is married to the noted black bass baritone, William Warfield. Just one season after she had made her Met debut as Leonora in Verdi´s Il Trovatore, Miss Price had her first Met opening in 1961 in the title role of Puccini´s The Girl of the Golden West. Since then, she has made numerous recordings of operas and operatic arias. In September of 1966. Miss Price opened the Metropolitan Opera season in the role of Cleopatra. The opera (Anthony and Cleopatra) was said to have been written by composer Samuel Barber with her in mind. In the world of opera, Miss Price ranks alongside Birgit Nilsson, Joan Sutherland and Renata Tebaldi as one of the most esteemed and celebrated sopranos of the contemporary era. Her voice is said to be the perfect Verdi voice; her Aida is often regarded as the paragon against which all others should be measured.
Source: Classic Black
Janet MacLachlan, who played the compassionate schoolteacher in Martin Ritt’s Oscar-nominated “Sounder” (1972), has died at age 77. A highly respected stage, film and television actress, Maclachlan was known for a serious, no-nonsense style that led her to be often cast as a judge, nurse, doctor, psychiatrist, teacher or social worker. She was highly visible during the transitional period of the 1960s and 70s, when African-Americans fought against negative stereotypes on screen and began to make significant inroads in front of and behind the cameras.
MacLachlan died Monday, October 11 at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Hollywood. She had been admitted two days earlier suffering from cardiac symptoms, family members said.
She was born Janet Angel MacLachlan in Harlem on August 27, 1933, to James and Ruby MacLachlan, both Jamaican immigrants. She attended the all-girl Julia Richman High School and excelled in math, graduating in 1950. According to a New York Times interview, it was in high school that Maclachlan “felt black” for the first time, as there were only three other African-American students on campus. “It was very strange because I had come from an all-black school and I didn’t know how to deal with it,” she said.
MacLachlan’s first acting experience was in a Harlem Boys Club play, as a teen. Later, while she was attending Hunter College, she studied drama in a private class taught by Sidney Poitier, who instilled in her not only the importance of refining her craft but also of developing a point of view. “He had a tendency to lecture me because I had no attitudes and no beliefs and I was very wishy-washy,” she once recalled. “He wanted me to help find out who I was and not to let people tell me what to do.”
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1955, MacLachlan worked at clerical jobs while studying acting at the Harlem YMCA, the Herbert Berghof Acting Studio and the Little Theatre of Harlem. After a few years she had worked her way up to become an executive secretary and office manager for a New York public relations firm, but the business world was unsatisfying and she felt the calling of the stage. In 1961, MacLachlan impulsively gave up her job and its then-decent salary of $175 per week and traded it for a $5-a-week stipend to understudy Cicely Tyson in two productions simultaneously: “Moon on a Rainbow Shawl” and Jean Genet’s controversial off-Broadway play, “The Blacks: A Clown Show.” After Tyson’s departure from “The Blacks,” MacLachlan played the role of Virtue, the prostitute, for six weeks, working alongside such acclaimed and established actors as James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett, Jr., Maya Angelou and Roscoe Lee Browne. Suddenly her acting career was off and running. That same year she appeared in the parody “Raisin’ Hell in the Son” and was called the “most memorable member of the cast” by a New York Times reviewer.
Robert Hooks, who portrayed Deodatus Village (a role first played by James Earl Jones) in “The Blacks,” remembered MacLachlan as “…a brilliant woman and a great individual and super talent. I always admired her acting ability, and just as a strong black woman she was there all the way. Not necessarily a feminist but just a strong black woman with strong beliefs about feminism. There was a pridefulness in her work, and she refused to do the silly stuff.
“She played the role of Virtue, a role that Cicely Tyson originated, and that’s when I got so taken with her,” Hooks continued. “It was probably the meatiest role she’s ever done, because she was one of those actresses who never really got the big shot, the Cicely Tyson-type shot as an artist, but when she did do the roles she mastered them. We had a wonderful time, because most of our scenes were together. I witnessed the depth of her character study, and I was right there on the stage with her when she was doing it.”
MacLachlan made her Broadway debut in December 1962 in Peter Feibleman’s “Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright” at the Booth Theater; the cast featured an array of established and up-and-coming black thespians from the New York stage, including Roscoe Lee Browne, Al Freeman Jr., Rudy Challenger, Ellen Holly, Diana Sands, Claudia McNeil, as well as Tyson and Hooks. MacLachlan then spent time with the repertory company at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, honing her craft by appearing in “Hamlet,” “Death of a Salesman” and “The Miser.”
By 1964 she had moved to Hollywood and was signed by Universal as a contract player. MacLachlan had one-shot parts on TV series such as “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” “Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater,” “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.” and “The Fugitive.” Through the late 1960s and early 70s she appeared on “The Invaders,” “The FBI,” “Ironside,” “The Mod Squad,” The Name of the Game” and other series. Two of her best TV roles, both of which aired in 1967, are an African girl in an episode of “I Spy” with Bill Cosby, which was shot on location in Greece, and a first-season episode of “Star Trek” in which MacLachlan played an Enterprise crewmember named Lt. Charlene Masters.
MacLachlan made her feature film debut in “Up Tight” (1968), a remake of John Ford’s “The Informer” with the Irish Republican Army’s struggle against the British replaced by a faction of the black power movement in a Cleveland ghetto. This politically charged, controversial film was released shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (it begins with documentary footage of King’s funeral procession) and depicted the struggle between groups advocating nonviolent and armed resistance. It was the first American-made film by director Jules Dassin since his blacklisting and exile in Europe, and its cast was a virtual who’s-who of black Hollywood in the late 1960s, including Ruby Dee, Roscoe Lee Browne, Frank Silvera, Max Julien, and Raymond St. Jacques. MacLachlan played Jeannie, girlfriend of the leader of a militant gang (St. Jacques).
Dick Anthony Williams (actor, “Up Tight”): “She was a great teacher and a solid, grounded actress. We had great, great respect for each other. We’d been in a number of things together: “Up Tight,” “The Sophisticated Gents” and other things. She quietly went about her work; she didn’t go for a great deal of fanfare like some actors. She was a very fine actress and fine person, and she’ll be terribly missed.”
Although MacLachlan was not always outspoken about her political beliefs, she did not hesitate to express her views on the status of African-Americans in Hollywood. In a 1968 interview with Soul magazine, she said, “There really hasn’t been, say on television, a truthful honest black character on any show in a continuing role … 99 percent of the writers are white. And they don’t really know. So what they are doing is writing white roles for black people. The only way to correct that is to have black writers.”
During the early 1970s, MacLachlan avoided the Blaxploitation pictures that were in fashion and instead focused on film roles reflecting her desire to bring credible African-American characters to the screen. In “Change of Mind” (1969), a bizarre sci-fi-drama wherein a white man’s brain is transplanted into a black man’s skull, she played the dead black man’s confused and conflicted widow. In “Halls of Anger” (1970) she was Lorraine Nash, a no-nonsense high school teacher who counsels a fellow educator (Calvin Lockhart) whose classroom is a tempest of racial tensions. “…tick… tick… tick…” (1970) had MacLachlan playing a rather thankless role as the wife of a black sheriff (Jim Brown) in a small, racially divided southern town. “The Man” (1972), based on an Irving Wallace novel and scripted by Rod Serling, cast MacLachlan as the rebellious daughter of the first African-American president of the United States, played by James Earl Jones.
Paul Bogart (director, “Halls of Anger”): “She was a serious actress, and she didn’t have a lot of attitude, which was easy for black actors at that time to have. She was devoted to her craft. All I know is that I liked her a lot, and I depended on her and I was grateful when I had her.”
Contributor: Steve Ryfle
The Movie Posters featured in this article are from the archives of The Museum of UnCut Funk.
The Museum of UnCut Funk is all about celebrating the power of THE FUNK and of 1970′s Black Culture. As we continue to provide information on one of the most powerful and productive decades in Black history, we also want to pay homage those those who passed this year who were major players during this period and beyond.
As the year 2010 closes and southern states in the U.S, continue to rewrite our history, The Museum of UnCut Funk proudly acknowledges the civil and human rights, public service, music and art achievements that these great Black Americans gave to the world.
All of your hard work and service was not done in vain…Rest in Peace.
The Museum Of UnCut Funk honors:
Percy Sutton – Politician
Juanita Goggins – Legislator
Manute Bol – Athlete and Humanitarian
Paul R. Jones – Major Collector of African American Art
Teena Maria – Funk, R & B Singer
Lena Horne – Singer and Actress
Janet MacLachian - Actress
Gary Coleman – Actor
Jefferson Thomas – Little Rock Nine
Teddy Pendergrass – R&B Singer
Vonetta McGee – Actress
Benjamin Hooks – Civil Right Activist
Abbey Lincoln – Jazz Singer
Albertina Walker – Opera Singer
Soloman Burke – Soul Singer
Dorothy Height – Civil Rights Activist
RIGHT ON!!!
Comedy has always been a tool for artists to ease the pain of social issues, stereotypes and racial injustice. It has also brought front and center the positive transformation of pain into humor. Perhaps no ethnic group has displayed this with such commercial success as Blacks, but this transformation has not come without great struggle and criticism from forces both internal and external of their cultural experience. It is without dispute, Black humor has left a distinct impression not only in our society but in the greater world experience as well.
Please visit The Museum of UnCut Funk to see our current exhibition on Black Comedians who paved they way for today’s comics.
Rodney is a child actor who appeared in TV commercials for the fast-food chain Jack in the Box in the early 1970s, as well as in numerous roles in television and movies.
In the spots, he was seen trying to wrap his mouth around the super-sized Jumbo Jack hamburger. The tag line “It’s too big to eat!” became a catch-phrase. Another spot showed Rodney giggling while singing the song “Take Life A Little Easier,” which was released as a single by Bell Records in the fall of 1973 in the wake of the commercial’s popularity. The 45 approached Billboard Magazine’s Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart in October 1973, peaking at #112. At the age of five, Rippy became the youngest person ever to make any Billboard music chart.
Rippy subsequently had guest-roles in many popular television shows, including The Six Million Dollar Man, Marcus Welby, MD, Police Story, and The Odd Couple. He also appeared frequently on talk shows such as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Dinah’s Place with Dinah Shore. Rippy also had a co-starring role on the CBS Saturday morning children’s show The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine.
Rodney made his big screen debut in the Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles in 1974. He portrayed a young Sheriff Bart aboard his parents’ buckboard wagon after a brutal Sioux nation attack. When the chief, portrayed by Brooks, allows the pioneers passage, for being darker than they are, Rippy says his only line, “Thank you.”
In a Peanuts newspaper comic strip dated July 3, 1974, Snoopy awakens from a dream in which he “had been invited out to dinner by Rodney Allen Rippy!”
In the mid 1970s, uber-cute child actor Rodney Allan Rippy was a sensation as the spokesperson for the Jack in the Box restaurant chain…so much so that Shindana Toys thought he needed his own doll.
Rodney was critically injured in a motorcycle accident in North Carolina in September of this year. It was last reported that he is recuperating in a trauma unit. The Museum Of UnCut Funk wishes him well.
Comic actor Marlon Wayans‘ next screen role could turn out to be portraying a real-life comedy icon.
EW.com reports that Wayans is in talks to play Richard Pryor, the groundbreaking comedian whose troubled life will be depicted in an upcoming biopic, “Richard Pryor: Is it Something I Said.”
Wayans is reportedly being considered for the part after fellow funnyman Eddie Murphy dropped out of negotiations early on. The film was written and will be directed by Bill Condon of “Dreamgirls,” who originally shopped it as a vehicle for Murphy.
Sources at the Entertainment Weekly that Wayans, best known for such over-the-top comedy films as the “Scary Movie” franchise and “White Chicks,” impressed producers in a 13-minute screen test in which he “transforms into Pryor.”
The Pryor project, scheduled to begin shooting in the spring, is being made by Sony Pictures and Adam Sandler‘s production company. Variety.com reports that Sandler is considering playing a small role as Pryor’s first agent.
Budgeted at about $20 million, the movie will cover Pryor’s controversial life and career as a raunchy standup, beloved movie star and troubled drug addict who famously set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine.
Pryor died in 2005 at age 65 after a series of health problems, including multiple sclerosis.
Stickin’ It To The Man
In the early 1900′s the term “The Man” was used to describe a boss figure. This term later began to be applied to anyone who hassled a group of people and eventually to anyone in a position of power.
In the 1960′s “The Man” began to see widespread usage by the Black Power Movement to describe the white oppressors that the movement was fighting against. A number of newspapers from the era used the term and it quickly gained currency, both among Black activists and those who struggled in solidarity with them.
During the 1970′s the term “The Man” became a part of the vernacular of the Blaxploitation film era. “The Man” referred to the police, the mob, the politicians and anyone who was white with power. In most cases “The Man” held the key to the destruction or redemption of Black characters in these films.
There were a number of white actors and actresses who got their start in Blaxploitation films and saw their careers take off after they made their Blaxploitation film debuts. The Museum of UnCut Funk presents a new visual DocuFunk short called “The Man” that pays homage to Blaxploitation’s “other” stars.
Rosalind Cash was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on December 31, 1938. As a young woman, she took off with only $20 in her pocket to seek her fame and fortune in New York City. At first things were difficult: “I had a cold-water one-room apartment in Harlem sharing a kitchen I didn’t dare use because of the rats,” she told The Guardian. But Cash attended the City College of New York, and managed to ferret out the first stirrings of independent black theater in the city. She made her stage debut in 1958 in a production at the Harlem YMCA, performing in a play by Langston Hughes called Soul Gone Home.
In 1968 she landed a role in Washington, D.C., in a production of The Great White Hope, a play about the career of Black boxer Jack Johnson. The part was a choice one, but at the same time an even better opportunity opened up: a slot with the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC), a pioneering organization devoted to presenting plays by Black writers and furthering the careers of Black actors and theater personnel. Cash pulled out of the Washington production, having to turn over two weeks’ salary to the theater involved, so that she could return to New York and join the NEC. She was one of the company’s founding members.
Cash emerged as a star of the company, appearing in several productions her first year, including a play called Kongi’s Harvest by the South African writer. The following year she played the lead in a production of Lonne Elder’s Ceremonies of Dark Old Men, one of the most-performed Black theatrical works of the day. Cash would reprise the role in a 1975 television version of the play. She continued to appear with the NEC through the 1970s, and also landed high-profile roles with other theatrical organizations; in 1973 she took on the role of Goneril in Shakespeare’s King Lear in a New York Shakespeare Festival production. That role, too, she would later play on national television.
Hollywood had its eye on the talented young actress, however, and the focus of Cash’s efforts gradually shifted in that direction. After a small part in 1971′s Klute, she broke through with the female lead role in the science-fiction action thriller The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston. The role, in one of the first Hollywood action films to feature a Black lead character, was one that several leading Black actresses of the day had set their sights on. Cash not only won the role, but blew audiences away with her powerful performance. “Her first appearance in the film is ,” noted writer Stephen Bourne in The Independent. “Strong and aggressive, she looked ready to steal the film form under Heston’s nose…” The second half of the film, unfortunately, toned down Cash’s character. Still, she was named to the annual Top Ten Stars of Tomorrow list compiled by the industry firm Quigley Publications, the first Black named since the list had been created in 1941.
For several years, other lead roles came Cash’s way. In the Black-oriented murder mystery Melinda (1972), she had, in the words of film historian, “her best role of this period as a woman on the edge, holding on for dear life, struggling to keep a relationship with a man who hardly seemed her equal.” She also landed roles in mainstream hits like The New Centurions (1972) and Uptown Saturday Night (1974), but these came at a price. Cash was cast as a good-natured ; the role did not appeal to her, but like other serious Black actresses of the 1970s, she found that parts suited to her talents were very hard to come by.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Cash turned her attention to television, winning guest slots on such series as “Starsky and Hutch,” “Police Woman,” “Kojak,” and “Hill Street Blues.” In 1977 she appeared opposite O.J. Simpson in the made-for-television movie A Killing Affair, in which Simpson played a police officer who has an affair with a white coworker. She chose her film roles carefully, appearing mostly in projects that she found significant. In Wrong Is Right (1982), she played the first Black woman to become U.S. Vice President. That year she was also featured in Sister, Sister, a film written by poet Maya Angelou that drew on her full range as an actress perhaps more than any other; she co-starred with and Irene Cara in a story of the reunion of three adult sisters. Sister, Sister earned Cash a nomination for an NAACP Image Award, as did Go Tell It On the Mountain (1986), based on a novel by James Baldwin.
Cash gradually gained greater recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s, winning induction into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1992. Television work continued to come steadily, with appearances on The Cosby Show, thirtysomething, and other series. The onetime cold-water-flat-dweller finally found steady employment with a recurring role on the daytime soap opera General Hospital, on which she played the of an extended Black family. On October 31, 1995 Rosalind died of cancer at the age of 56 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Rosalind’s Filmography:
Klute, 1971.
The Omega Man, 1971.
The New Centurions, 1972.
Melinda, 1972.
Hickey and Boggs, 1972.
The All American Boy, 1973.
Amazing Grace, 1974.
Uptown Saturday Night, 1974.
Cornbread, Earl and Me, 1975.
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, 1975 (made for television).
Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde, 1976.
The Monkey Hustle, 1977.
A Killing Affair, 1977 (made for television).
The Class of Miss MacMichael, 1979.
Wrong Is Right, 1982.
Sister, Sister, 1982 (made for television).
Go Tell It On the Mountain, 1984 (made for television).
The Offspring, 1987.
Forced March, 1990.
Second Coming, 1992.
A Dangerous Affair, 1995 (made for television).
Tales from the Hood, 1995.
The Movie Posters are from the collection of The Museum of UnCut Funk.
Born in 1927, Sidney Poitier grew up in the small village of Cat Island, Bahamas. His father, a tomato farmer, moved the family to the capital Nassau, when Poitier was eleven. It was there that he first encountered cinema. Even at a young age Sidney recognized the ability of cinema to expand one’s view of reality. At the age of sixteen, Poitier moved to New York and found a job as a dishwasher. Soon after, he began working as a janitor for the American Negro Theater in exchange for acting lessons.
While working at the American Negro Theater, Poitier was given the role of understudying Harry Belefonte in the play Days of our Youth. Filling in for Belefonte one night, Poitier made his public debut. This led to a small role in the Greek comedy Lysistrata. Though nervous and unsure of his lines, Poitier was a big hit. He continued to perform in plays until 1950, when he made his film debut in No Way Out. No Way Out, a violent tale of racial hatred, made him a hero back home in the Bahamas. The colonial government deemed it too explosive and censored it.
No Way Out American 1950
Throughout the fifties, Poitier made some of the most important and controversial movies of the time. Addressing issues of racial equality abroad, he made Cry, The Beloved Country, about apartheid in South Africa. He later took on problems closer to home in Blackboard Jungle and The Defiant Ones. This film was about two escaped prisoners who must overcome issues of race in their struggle for freedom. For his role in The Defiant Ones, Poitier was nominated for an Academy Award. Sidney made several films during this period and some of his other great works included Go Man Go!, Edge of the City, Mark of the Hawk and Porgy and Bess.
In 1959, Poitier returned to the stage with a stirring performance of Walter Lee in Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the first play by a Black playwright to show on Broadway. It was an insightful and moving reflection of Black family life, and it had great popular appeal. Poitier would reprise his role for the Hollywood adaptation in 1961. During this time Poitier starred in Paris Blues, Pressure Point, The Slender Thread, The Long Ships, The Greatest Story Ever Told and The Bedford Incident. It was not until 1963, for his role in Lilies Of The Fields, that the movie industry saluted Poitier with its greatest award. In an era where Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Prize and Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court, Sidney Poitier was the first Black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor.
A Raisin In The Sun 1961
Paris Blues 1961
Lilies of The Field 1963
The Bedford Incident 1965
Poitier followed up this triumph with an electrifying performance as a Black detective from the north trying to solve a murder in a southern town in Norman Jewison’s In The Heat of The Night. Having concerned himself with the problems of racial inequality in many of its manifestations, Poitier tackled one of the great taboos of the time. With Patch Of Blue and Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, he focused on interracial romance. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner was the first Hollywood movie about interracial romance not to end tragically. By the time of its completion in the late sixties, Poitier was one of Hollywood’s most popular stars. Poitier also starred in The Lost Man, For The Love of Ivy, To Sir With Love and Duel at Diablo.
A Patch of Blue 1965
Dual at Diablo 1966
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 1967
In The Heat of The Night 1967
For The Love of Ivy 1968
To Sir, With Love 1968
The Lost Man 1969
During the 1960′s fallout from the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, Poitier became the target of criticism from segments of the Black community. Accused of being too passive in a scathing article in the New York Times, Poitier retreated to the Bahamas to reassess his life. When he re-emerged in the 70′s, he shifted his energies from acting to directing. Beginning with Buck and The Preacher, Poitier directed a series of highly entertaining films, including A Warm December, Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do it Again and A Piece Of The Action. During the 1980′s he directed the hit comedy classic Stir Crazy, starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, Hanky Panky, Fast Forward and Ghost Dad starring Bill Cosby in 1990.
Buck and the Preacher 1972
A Warm December 1973
Uptown Saturday Night 1974
Let’s Do It Again 1975
A Piece Of The Action 1977
Stir Crazy 1980
Hanky Panky 1982
Fast Forward 1985
Ghost Dad 1990
After a decade away from acting, Sidney returned to the screen in 1988 for Shoot to Kill. Returning to apartheid-free South Africa nearly fifty years after Cry, The Beloved Country, Poitier played one of the great heroes for racial equality, Nelson Mandela. In the 1997 television docudrama Mandela and De Klerk, Poitier returned triumphantly to a theme he had dealt with throughout his career. After half a century in show business and fifty-five roles, Sidney Poitier’s indomitable strength and commitment shine through in everything he does: “I was saying to an audience, this is who I am; look at me”.
Below are more posters from films starring Sidney Poitier, which are a part of The Museum Of UnCut Funk collection.
They Call Me Mr. Tibbs 1970
The Organization 1971
Brother John 1971
The Wilby Conspiracy 1975
Samuel R. “Chip” Delany won four Nebula Awards by the age of 26 and is arguably the best science fiction writer in the world. After his seventh novel, Empire Star (1966), Samuel Delany began publishing short fiction professionally with The Star Pit. It appeared in Worlds of Tomorrow and was turned into a popular two-hour radio play, broadcast annually over WBAI-FM for more than a decade. Two tales, Aye, and Gomorrah and Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones, won Nebula Awards as best SF short stories in 1967 and 1969. Aye, and Gomorrah contain all the significant short science fiction and fantasy Delany published between 1965 and 1988.
Samuel Delany made our Kool Cats and Hip Chicks list because he is one of the few Blacks who wrote for DC Comics during the 1970′s, scripting two issues of Wonder Woman. When asked about his writings for comics Mr. Delany said to NYC Press:
“I’ve loved comics for years, I really enjoy writing about them. Still, it’s not my genre. So I tend to wait till I’m asked. Twenty-two-odd years back, packager Byron Preiss and artist Howie Chaykin came to me, wondering if I’d be interested in doing a science fiction comic. I said, sure, it sounds like fun”.
Wonder Woman #202 is part of The Museum of UnCut Funk Collection.
Wonder Woman #203 is part of The Museum of UnCut Funk Collection.
Samuel R. Delany was born in 1942. The native New Yorker teaches English and Creative Writing at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he is the Director of the Graduate Creative Writing Program. In July of 2002 he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. He is the nephew of the The Delany Sisters…yes The Delany Sisters…Sadie and Bessie of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ The First 100 Years.
Juanita Moore started her acting career in the early ’50s, a time during which very few Black actresses were given roles of substance in major-studio films. Fortunately, Juanita’s roles began improving as Hollywood tentatively developed a social consciousness toward the end of the decade. In 1959, she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Imitation of Life (1959), a glossy updating of a once-controversial Fannie Hurst novel about racial inequity.
Within the next decade Hollywood underwent several sociological upheavals, and Juanita Moore was one of the beneficiaries; she became a fixture in Blaxploitation films of the ’70s. She appeared in the following films:
Uptight 1969 is from the collection of The Museum of UnCut Funk
The Skin Game 1971 is from the collection of The Museum of UnCut Funk
The Mack 1973 is from the collection of The Museum of UnCut Funk
Fox Style 1973
Thomasine and Bushrod 1974 is from the collection of The Museum of UnCut Funk
The Zebra Killer 1974 is from the collection of The Museum of UnCut Funk
Abby 1974 is from the collection of The Museum of UnCut Funk
The Museum of UnCut Funk salutes Juanita Moore, a Blaxploitation Icon.
Dorothy Height marched alongside Martin Luther King and led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, was known for her determination and grace as well as her wry humor. She remained active and outspoken well into her 90s and often received rousing ovations at events around Washington, where she was easily recognizable in the bright, colorful hats she almost always wore.
In awarding the congressional medal, President George W. Bush noted that Height had met with every U.S. president since Eisenhower, and “she’s told every president what she thinks since Dwight David Eisenhower.”
Height was born in Richmond, Va., before women could vote and when blacks had few rights. Her family moved to the Pittsburgh area when she was 4. Distinguishing herself in the classroom, she was accepted to Barnard College but then turned away because the school already had reached its quota of two black women. She went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees from New York University.
As a teenager, Height marched in New York’s Times Square shouting, “Stop the lynching.” After earning her degrees, she became a leader of the Harlem YWCA and the United Christian Youth Movement of North America, where she pushed to prevent lynching, desegregate the armed forces and reform the criminal justice system.
She traveled to Holland and England as a U.S. delegate to youth and church conferences, and in 1938 was one of 10 young people chosen by Eleanor Roosevelt to spend a weekend at the first lady’s Hyde Park, N.Y., home preparing for a World Youth Conference at Vassar College.
One of Height’s sayings was, “If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time.” She liked to quote 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said the three effective ways to fight for justice are to “agitate, agitate, agitate.”
In the 1950s and 1960s, she was the leading woman helping King and other activists orchestrate the civil rights movement, often reminding the men heading not to underestimate their female counterparts.
Height was on the platform at the Lincoln Memorial, sitting only a few feet from King, when he gave his famous “I have a dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963.
“He spoke longer than he was supposed to speak,” Height recalled in a 1997 Associated Press interview. But after he was done, it was clear King’s speech would echo for generations, she said, “because it gripped everybody.”
She lamented that the feeling of unity created by the 1963 march had faded, that the civil rights movement of the 1990s was on the defensive and many black families still were not economically secure.
“We have come a long way, but too many people are not better off,” she said. “This is my life’s work. It is not a job.”
When Obama won the presidential election in November 2008, Height told Washington TV station WTTG that she was overwhelmed with emotion.
“People ask me, did I ever dream it would happen, and I said, ‘If you didn’t have the dream, you couldn’t have worked on it,” she said.
Height dedicated most of her adult life to the National Council of Negro Women, where she first worked under her mentor, Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded the group. Height took over in 1957 and led it until 1997, fighting for women’s rights on issues such as equal pay and education. She developed programs such as “pig banks” to help poor rural families raise their own livestock, and “Wednesdays in Mississippi,” in which black and white women from the north traveled to Mississippi to meet with their Southern counterparts in an effort to ease racial tensions and bridge differences.
To celebrate Height’s 90th birthday in March 2002, friends and supporters raised $5 million to enable her organization to pay off the mortgage on its Washington headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, just a few blocks from the White House. Herman said Height “believed very strongly that we as black women deserved to be on this corridor of power.”
Dorothy Height, a leading civil rights pioneer of the 1960s, died Tuesday April 20, 2010 at age 98, Howard University Hospital confirmed.
Source: Associated Press
Without question, one of the most breathtaking beauties to emerge out of the 70′s ”Blaxploitation” era was actress Vonetta McGee. This lovely sister, born in San Francisco on January 14, 1945, possessed the complete package; looks, talent and determination which should have made her a marquee name in Hollywood. Instead, this tantalizing, tan, and talented lady found herself in in the land of Blaxploitation, where her some would considerable her talents were laid to waste.
Although the air was thick with civil and social issues, still, a beauty such as Vonetta’s would rarely go unnoticed. She was encouraged to participate in the Miss Bronze California beauty contest, where she walked away with the crown. A film career followed and Vonetta took off for Europe where she earned small roles in several low-budget movies. She returned to the States in 1969 and won a small part in the film The Lost Man, which starred Black screen icon, Sidney Poitier. The film got her some notice, but it would be three long years before she would get her first major movie role.
The Lost Man Movie Poster is a part of The Museum of UnCut Funk collection
In 1972, Vonetta was cast in the murder mystery Melinda, playing the title character. Although her part was small (she is murdered early on in the film), it was vital, earning her rave reviews from both the New York Times and Village Voice, which both proclaimed her “the most beautiful woman in film!”
Melinda Movie Poster is a part of The Museum of UnCut Funk collection
Over the next few years, Vonetta’s resume would fill up with leading lady roles in “blaxploitation classics” such as Blacula, Shaft in Africa and Detroit 9000. She was working steadily but the roles were far from challenging. More often than not, she was cast as the supportive, understanding girlfriend, whose primary lot in life was to look cute and not get in the way of their super-macho male co-stars. Whereas Pam Grier, at the same time, was cementing herself as Hollywood’s first Black Super-Woman, Vonetta was still waiting for the meaty role which would make her a household name. Ironically, she had lost an opportunity to play a super-heroine herself when the lead role in the 1973 film Cleopatra Jones, which was written by her then boyfriend, Max (Julien of The Mack fame), went instead to super model Tamara Dobson.
Blacula, Shaft in Africa and Detroit 9000 Movie Posters are a part of The Museum of UnCut Funk collection
Throughout the period, Vonetta continued to work but had yet to see an A-Budget script. In 1975, that changed when Clint Eastwood chose her to star alongside him in The Eiger Sanction, which he also directed. It was a bit of cinematic history, being that it was the first time a Black actress had been cast as the female lead in a mainstream Hollywood film opposite a white actor. Sadly, the role gave Vonetta about as much to do as her “Blaxploitation” films had, leaving her still knocking at stardom’s door by Hollywood’s standards.
More of Vonette’s Filmography in Movie Poster Art Form:
1968: Faustina
1984: Repo Man
1990: To Sleep with Anger
Contributor: Keith Brooks
The Museum of UnCut Funk is shocked and sadden at the passing of Vonetta McGee on July 9, 2010.
