Chapter 6

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Chapter 6 The 1950's Black Stars
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• Nobel Prize for Ralph Bunche
• Sit-ins, boycott in Mississippi
• The rise of Martin Luther King
• Emmett Till lynching in Mississippi
• Brown vs. The Board of Education

1950's Eisenhower Age
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Overview

• This era embedded confidence within the African
  American Community
• Its impact reinforced dignity and pride of self,
  and ultimately made black actors take on more
  prominent character roles.

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Stars of the era

• Ethel Waters- New generation earth-mother figure

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Ethel Waters

• Born in Chester Pennsylvania
• Rose from poverty to an overnight success
• Nicknamed Sweet Mama Stringbean

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Ethel Waters

• Became known on-stage in Cabin in the Sky
• Her outbursts on the set of that film remain a
  Hollywood legend
• That led to a six year layoff
• At this point in her career she began begging for
  roles

7
Ethel Waters

• The Member of the Wedding
• Marked the first time a black actress was used
  to carry a major-studio white production
• It ignited the comeback of Ethel Waters on the
  movie scene

8
Ethel Waters

• Because of this movie, Ethel Waters became more
  than just a representative of the long-suffering,
  strong, black woman
• She was the spark to an era that needed a sign of
  heroism
• In the end, her image loomed larger than life
  over the decade

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Stars of the era

• Dorothy Dandridge- The tragic Mulatto

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Dorothy Dandridge

• She had infused the apathetic Eisenhower age with
  her great intensity and risen as its most
  successful black leading lady.
• In a period that prided itself on appearances,
  she was a great beauty.
• Her eyes were dark and vibrant, her hair long and
  silky, her features sharply defined. And she had
  the rich golden skin tone that had always
  fascinated movie audiences, black and white.

11
Dorothy Dandridge

• On occasion, Dorothy Dandridge exhibited all the
  characteristics of her screen predecessors (Nina
  Mae McKinney, Fredi Washington, and Lena Horne),
  but most important to her appeal was her
  fragility and her desperate determination to
  survive.
• In a way never before demonstrated by a black
  personality, she used her own incongruities and
  self-contradictions to capture and extend the
  mass imagination.

12
Dorothy Dandridge

• The daughter of a Cleveland minister and a
  comedienne-actress named Ruby, she performed as a
  child with her older sister Vivian in a
  vaudeville act billed as The Wonder Kids.
• At fifteen she and Vivian along with another
  black girl appeared as the Dandridge Sisters.
• They performed at the Cotton Club, where Dorothy
  met Harold Nicholas of the dancing Nicholas
  Brothers.

13
Dorothy Dandridge

• Carmen Jones was the celebrated movie that
  established her as the definitive tragic mulatto.
• Her performance earned her an Oscar nomination as
  best actress of the year.
• Although she lost the award to Grace Kelly, no
  black performer had ever before been nominated
  for a leading actor award.

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Dorothy Dandridge

• Island in the Sun (1957)
• First of her interracial-love roles
• Dorothy Dandridge was the first black woman ever
  to be held in the arms of a white man in an
  American movie.
• Because she was permitted to bring integrated
  love to the mass audience in an age about to
  erupt in chaos over the issue of integration, she
  remains a socially significant figure in this
  film.

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Dorothy Dandridge

• Dorothy Dandridge was found dead, the victim of
  an overdose of anti-depression pills.
• In the end, Dorothy Dandridge lived out and
  apotheosized the role she was always best as the
  doomed tragic mulatto, trapped, so the film
  industry believed, because of her color.

http//www.imdb.com/title/tt0172348/trailers-scree
nplay-E12464-6-3
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Stars of the era

• Sidney Poitier- One of the most important leading
  men in the movies

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Sydney Poitier

• Born in Nassau, Bahamas in 1927, being the
  youngest out of 8.
• Came to New York in the 1940s not having any
  thoughts of a film career.
• His first audition was a complete disaster but
  gave him the inspiration to seriously pursue an
  acting career.

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Sydney Poitier

• Old type character that America had always
  cherished. Not impulsive or threatening, they
  were sexless and sterile.
• When insulted, his character were never one to
  fight back, they always minded their manners.
• Poitier always knew the white world meant no
  harm.
• He had morals that were set by decency, duty and
  intelligence.
• Reason always dictated his actions, as well as
  his love for his fellow man.

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Sydney Poitier

• - Sydney Poitier became a star because of his
  talent he defined the character of the old tom
  dressed up with the modern intelligence.
• His first film was No Way Out in 1950
• - The movie got critical praise saying it was a
  harsh, outspoken picture with implications that
  will keep you thinking about it long after you
  leave the theater.

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Sydney Poitier

• Poitiers films in the 1950s were important
  because they were all made to please the mass
  white audience at a time when the main topic of
  conversation was school desegregation.
• Audiences still respond to his sophistication and
  charm, his range and distinct heroic qualities.
• His movie characters single-handedly made
  audiences believe things would work out, that
  they were worth working out.

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Sydney Poitier Films

• Cry, the Beloved Country(1952)
• Red Ball Express(1952)
• Go, Man, Go (1953)
• The Blackboard Jungle(1955)
• Something of Value(1957)
• Band of Angels(1957)
• The Mark of the Hawk(1958)
• Edge of the City(1957)
• The Defiant Ones(1958)
• A Raisin in the Sun(1961)
• The Long Ships(1964)

http//www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/p
oitier_s_footage.html
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Other significant actors of the era

• Richard Wright Writer of Native Son
• Jackie Robinson baseball player
• Althea Gibson tennis player
• Woody Strode football player
• Louise Armstrong trumpeter
• Nat King Cole crooner
• Harry Belafonte - Calypso

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Richard Wright

• Wrote Native Son eras earliest problem picture
• One if its first casualties
• Black Americans proudest literary achievements

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Woody Strode

• Los Angeles Rams football player
• Most successful transition from athlete to actor
• Most significant role in Sergeant Rutledge
• - Marked an important step in the evolution of
  racial consciousness of John Ford

25
Harry Belafonte

• Romantic Hero
• Usually cast in good guy roles
• Black Buck
• Political pot boiler in Island in the Sun
• - There he woos and captivates an aristocratic
  white matron

http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-118036304
6251208984qharrybelafontehlen