Then, in January 1977, the nation was struck in a form of sluggish blow. A TV mini-series known as “Roots”, based mostly on Alex Haley’s best-selling ebook, premiered on tv each evening. Healy had traced his household’s black roots again to Africa and their traumatic journey to America. It appeared like everybody within the nation was glued to the present. Black viewers cried. Some reportedly wanted remedy as a result of the present was so actual and uncooked. The white public started to speak about black individuals – and slavery – as by no means earlier than.
My household was fascinated by Fiddler, the cautious slave within the film “Roots” performed by Louis Gossett Jr., who died Friday at age 87. Gossett was one in all that small group of black actors who got here on the scene within the Sixties and managed to simply get by and go. From theater to tv to movement footage. He gained an Academy Award for his position as a sergeant within the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman.” He was additionally my cousin.
My grandfather, Julius Haygood, and Eddie B. Ray, have been brother and sister. Eddie B had a daughter, Helen, who was Lou’s mom. My Aunt Bertha spoke to me on the telephone after she heard of Lou’s dying and shared tales of them taking part in collectively as kids in Georgia. Though he grew up in Brooklyn, Gossett typically visited his household within the South. “I bear in mind one time we have been close to a hornet’s nest. Lou stated to me, ‘Why cannot the hornet kill you?’ I instructed him I might outrun them. He stated he might outrun them too. Nicely, they got here after us. They solely received him.” She laughed on the reminiscence.
Lou, who had a profession on Broadway earlier than turning to the massive and small screens, impressed me to strive appearing. And shortly I used to be there, swept up – as many actors prefer to say – into group theatre. There was a small position within the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” And later bigger roles, in Neil Simon’s play, within the play Lonnie Elder. It is gotten some first rate evaluations. I began watching Brando’s movies. After which got here the decision from relations: “Go along with your cousin Lu, rattling it! He is his household!” California appeared a good distance from Columbus. I went to New York Metropolis as an alternative. I am coming into the world of appearing from the East Coast! Then perhaps I will attain out to Lou. I failed in New York Metropolis and ended up in retail.
However each time Lou appeared in a TV film or film, I made an effort to catch him. Amongst them have been many movies, together with “A Raisin within the Solar,” “The Proprietor,” “Touring with My Aunt,” “The Niger River,” and “The Depth.” A brother and half-brother of mine went to Los Angeles, God bless them, and gave them non permanent lodging. After my retail profession fell aside, I discovered my profession in journalism and ebook writing.
Through the years, I exchanged notes with Lou and despatched him a few of my books. Once I began engaged on a movie about black historical past in Hollywood, I knew I needed to go to Lou. Aunt Bertha gave me his telephone quantity. “Hey Cuz,” he stated once I reached him, “How are you?” No formalities in any respect. I instructed him about my ebook mission. “I lived it,” he stated. He moved from California to Georgia and lived simply over 20 miles exterior of Atlanta. I requested him to suggest a lodge. “I am within the woods. You may keep at my place.”
It was 2020 once I traveled to fulfill him. It was really a home within the woods, however it was very big, and it was the primary home in my life that had a pool. He prompt swimming. I begged. We have Aunt Bertha on the telephone. They remembered the wasp assault. Later, after he took a nap, his tales started to return: “I used to be on this play, and each evening I needed to speak rudely to the character taking part in my mom. Nicely, my mom got here to the play one evening. She got here again to the stage and got here as much as me and slapped me. Laborious.” Then she stated: “By no means speak to a woman that method once more!”
He talked about James Edwards, Billy Dee Williams, Harry Belafonte, Eartha Kitt, and Sidney Poitier. He talked about his travels to Europe within the Nineteen Seventies and the remedy he acquired with the respect he hardly ever acquired in America. He talked about “A Raisin within the Solar” which was in it on Broadway and within the film model. “Sydney, Claudia and Robbie argue about who the play actually is,” he stated of his fellow forged members. “They needed to outdo one another.” He talked concerning the nightclubs the place black actors would congregate on the planet of Hollywood within the Sixties, which could possibly be very chilly for black performers. He talked about hanging out with Jimmy Dean and John Cassavetes. “It was very particular and I needed to do it,” he stated of “Roots.” He praised liberals in Hollywood, who he stated stood up for black actors: “These males — Lou Wasserman, Orson Welles, Tallulah Bankhead — fought for us.”
One night we sat down at an Atlanta restaurant for dinner. On our method again to his home, we handed the studio the place he was rehearsing the musical model of “The Shade Purple,” which will probably be launched in 2023. We stopped at a retailer. It was a tender Georgia evening. And I watched him emerge with a beautiful, cheerful strut, as if he was able to tackle Hollywood as soon as once more.
Will Haygood, a former Washington Put up reporter, is a visiting scholar at Miami College in Ohio. His most up-to-date ebook is Colorism: One Hundred Years of Black Movie in a White World.
