"The summer of 1963 saw an upsurge of Hollywood engagement in the movement, as more A-list stars, such as Paul Newman and Marlon Brando, proved their willingness to organize on their own risk controversy while doing so. The examples set by the Leading Six, as well as King's first visit to Los Angeles in June 1963, motivated them. Newman agreed to speak at a Rally for Freedom celebrating King's leadership at Birmingham, and a reception at Burt Lancaster's home with about 250 guests followed. Newman and Brando proved the top donors and soon went to Gadsden, Alabama, in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate between city officials and civil rights activists."
Raymond (2017)
Above: Fundraiser at Burt Lancaster’s home. Left to right: Tony Franciosa (face cut off), Ralph Abernathy, Paul Newman, Polly Bergan, Joanne Woodward, King, Celes King III (behind Davis), Sammy Davis, Marlon Brando, Lloyd Bridges (partial photo.) 1963
Above: Rev. Ralph Abernathy (co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) speaking at the reception after the Freedom Rally at the home of Burt Lancaster. Present are Dr. King, Marlon Brando, Atty. Jack Tenner, Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, and Gilbert Lindsay. Los Angeles. 1963.
Above: Speaking at the reception after Freedom Rally is the famed actor Marlon Brando. The reception was held in the home of Burt Lancaster, with 250 people in attendance. During the reception Martin Luther King Jr. said, “You can help us in Birmingham by getting rid of segregation in Los Angeles.” Overall Freedom Rally generated $75,000: $35,000 at rally, $20,000 at Burt Lancaster’s home and $20,000 pledged by Sammy Davis Jr. 1963
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- Raymond, E. (2017). No on 14. In: B. J. Schulman & J. E. Zelizer (eds.) Media Nation: The Political History of News in Modern America
- photographs and their descriptions via and via and via
"A typescript letter, signed, dated 15 January, 1959, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Marlon Brando on 1959 Petition Campaign and YOUTH MARCH FOR INTEGRATED SCHOOLS... headed stationery, the letter informing Brando "At the now-famous Youth March for Integrated Schools last October, you will recall that ten thousand young people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial and there voted to return this Spring to Washington "to press for the laws which will guide and sanction our advancement to a fuller, more just interracial democracy"...we are now in the process of reconstituting and enlarging the committee to acheive (sic) the objectives of the Lincoln Memorial meeting through a Petition Campaign for hundreds of thousands of signatures and a Youth March carrying the Petitions to the Congress and the White House on April, 18, 1959..."
The letter goes on to ask for Marlon Brando's help... "We need the help of important Americans for whom the youth of the nation have respect. You are such an American. We would be honored if you would lend your name to the sponsorship of the Petition Campaign and Youth March for Integrated Schools of 1959...1p.", signed in blue ballpoint pen by Martin Luther King, Ralph Bunche and A. Philip Randolph, with reply card, stamped addressed envelope and typescript petition; accompanied by five Western Union telegrams, including: one from Martin Luther King Jr. to Marlon Brando, dated 18 March, 1965, inviting him to ..."join me in a march to Alabama's capitol beginning at Brown's Chapel in Selma, Sunday March 21, at 1.00P.M."; another to Martin Luther King from Brando, dated 10 June, 1964, the telegram telling King "I recently returned from the hosptal after having had an attack of sever bleeding from an ulcer. I have been subject to great personal strife in my own life and am obliged to go into Court Thursday. I feel honored that you asked for what assistance I could give. I cannot at this time be of assistance. It distresses me that I will not be able to join you..."; and a letter from the Rally For Freedom Committee, dated 29 May, 1963, thanking Brando for his donation of $5,000" (literally via) realised a price of USD 13.200,- at Christie's.
WESTERN UNION
TELEGRAM
June 10, 1964
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, C/O DR. HAYLING, 79 BRIDGE ST., ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
DEAR DR. KING:
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR CALLING. I RECENTLY RETURNED FROM THE HOSPITAL AFTER HAVING HAD AN ATTACK OF SEVERE BLEEDING FROM AN ULCER. I HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO GREAT PERSONAL STRIFE IN MY OWN LIFE AND AM OBLIGED TO GO INTO COURT THURSDAY. I FEEL HONORED THAT YOU ASKED FOR WHAT ASSISTANCE I COULD GIVE. I CANNOT AT THIS TIME BE OF ASSISTANCE. IT DISTRESSES ME THAT I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO JOIN YOU. I FEEL THAT THOSE WHO TAKE ACTIVE PART IN DEMONSTRATIONS FOR EQUALITY AND FREEDOM ARE THE HEROES OF OUR TIME AND DESERVE NATIONAL HONOR AND ACCLAIM AND I REGARD IT AS AN HONORABLE DUTY TO PARTICIPATE. I WILL BE OUT OF THE COUNTRY HOPEFULLY BY FRIDAY BUT I WILL RETURN BY THE FIRST OF AUGUST AND AT THAT TIME I AM SURE I WILL BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ACTIVITIES OF LIBERATION. WITH GREAT RESPECT AND REGRET I AM SINCERELY YOURS.
MARLON BRANDO
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images via and via, transcript of the telegram via
"Hello. My name is Sacheen Littlefeather. I'm Apache and I am president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee. I'm representing Marlon Brando this evening and he has asked me to tell you in a very long speech, which I cannot share with you presently because of time but I will be glad to share with the press afterwards, that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry – excuse me – and on television in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee. I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity. Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando." Sacheen Littlefeather
"Ask most kids about details about Auschwitz or about how the American Indians were assassinated as a people and they don't know anything about it. They don't want to know anything. Most people just want their beer or their soap opera or their lullaby." Marlon Brando
In March 1973, Marlon Brando (1924-2004) declined the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in "The Godfather". Instead, he asked Sacheen Littlefeather - actress, activist for Native American civil rights and then-president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee - to attend the ceremony in his place (via and via). This was one of the most political and powerful moments in Oscar history (via and via) and not everybody appreciated it (John Wayne, for instance, was not amused). A "tsunami of criticism" followed (via).
One of Marlon Brando's reasons was the way the film industry portrayed Native Americans. At that time, a "high proportion of the Western made up to the 1950s, (...), showed Indians as hostile savages attacking the whites." They were "represented as motiveless and insanely violent" and "merely the backcloth to the inevitable white settlement of the West" (Stokes, 2013).
Apparently, people did not only have a problem with her message but with her being a woman as well:
"Oh, I got threats. They said, 'Why did they send a woman to do a man's job?' [The people backstage] said they’d give me 60 seconds, or they’d arrest me. John Wayne was in the wings, ready to have me taken off stage. He had to be restrained by six security guards. Afterward people questioned my authenticity, they said I wasn’t even Indian."Sacheen Littlefeather
"They were booing because they thought, 'Well, this moment is sacrosanct and you’re ruining our fantasy with the intrusion of a little reality'". Marlon Brando
"Remember, I was making a profound statement: I did not use my fist, I did not use profanity, I used grace and elegance and quiet strength as my tools." Sacheen Littlefeather
After her brief speech, Littlefeather was escorted away by two security people who protected her. People made "some very stereotypical sounds" and threw tomahawk chops towards her. Her activism brought renewed attention to Wounded Knee but also the end of her career. The actress was not hired again as people within the industry were afraid hiring her would shut down their productions (via).
The following day, the New York Times printed Brando's unfinished Oscar speech:
That Unfinished Oscar Speech
For 200 years we have said to the Indian people who are fighting for their land, their life, their families and their right to be free: ''Lay down your arms, my friends, and then we will remain together. Only if you lay down your arms, my friends, can we then talk of peace and come to an agreement which will be good for you.''
When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember. And by any interpretation of history, however twisted, we did not do right. We were not lawful nor were we just in what we did. For them, we do not have to restore these people, we do not have to live up to some agreements, because it is given to us by virtue of our power to attack the rights of others, to take their property, to take their lives when they are trying to defend their land and liberty, and to make their virtues a crime and our own vices virtues.
But there is one thing which is beyond the reach of this perversity and that is the tremendous verdict of history. And history will surely judge us. But do we care? What kind of moral schizophrenia is it that allows us to shout at the top of our national voice for all the world to hear that we live up to our commitment when every page of history and when all the thirsty, starving, humiliating days and nights of the last 100 years in the lives of the American Indian contradict that voice?
It would seem that the respect for principle and the love of one's neighbor have become dysfunctional in this country of ours, and that all we have done, all that we have succeeded in accomplishing with our power is simply annihilating the hopes of the newborn countries in this world, as well as friends and enemies alike, that we're not humane, and that we do not live up to our agreements.
Perhaps at this moment you are saying to yourself what the hell has all this got to do with the Academy Awards? Why is this woman standing up here, ruining our evening, invading our lives with things that don't concern us, and that we don't care about? Wasting our time and money and intruding in our homes.
I think the answer to those unspoken questions is that the motion picture community has been as responsible as any for degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing his as savage, hostile and evil. It's hard enough for children to grow up in this world. When Indian children watch television, and they watch films, and when they see their race depicted as they are in films, their minds become injured in ways we can never know.
Recently there have been a few faltering steps to correct this situation, but too faltering and too few, so I, as a member in this profession, do not feel that I can as a citizen of the United States accept an award here tonight. I think awards in this country at this time are inappropriate to be received or given until the condition of the American Indian is drastically altered. If we are not our brother's keeper, at least let us not be his executioner.
I would have been here tonight to speak to you directly, but I felt that perhaps I could be of better use if I went to Wounded Knee to help forestall in whatever way I can the establishment of a peace which would be dishonorable as long as the rivers shall run and the grass shall grow.
I would hope that those who are listening would not look upon this as a rude intrusion, but as an earnest effort to focus attention on an issue that might very well determine whether or not this country has the right to say from this point forward we believe in the inalienable rights of all people to remain free and independent on lands that have supported their life beyond living memory.
Thank you for your kindness and your courtesy to Miss Littlefeather. Thank you and good night.
Trivia: Scandals around Brando's Oscar trophy continued. Leonardo DiCaprio, who was given Marlon Brando's Oscar trophy for his performance in "Wolf of Wall Street", gave it back this year because the production company was "skewed up in a billion dollar money-laundering scheme" (via).
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- Stokes, M. (2013). American History through Hollywood Film: From the Revolution to the 1960s.
- image via
"Why can’t we get used to the idea that someone can be an “old woman” and also a person who is interested in style?" Senior Planet
According to a survey of 2.000 people carried out in Britain, the average age when men and women should stop wearing jeans is 53.
"It's surprising to see our research reveals that many people think jeans are the reserve of the younger generation, suggesting that we should all put denim back on the shelf at the age of 53." Catherine Woolfe, Marketing Director at CollectPlus
"Denim is such a universal material and with so many different styles available it's a timeless look that people of all ages can pull off." Catherine Woolfe, Marketing Director at CollectPlus
"What rubbish. I am 75 and will continue to wear jeans as long as I can get them on. I look great in them as do all my friends, skinny or ample. The whole point of jeans is that they fade, and adapt themselves to your shape." Sarah Carter
"Dear Dr. King, I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School. While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I'm a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."(via)
On 20th September 1958, a decade before his assassination, Martin Luther King was stabbed in his chest with a steel letter opener by Izola Curry (who passed away in March 2015). As the tip of the blade had come "right up against his aorta" the next day the New York Times reported that King would have died had he merely sneezed. Among his mail was a letter from a young student at White Plains High School in New York. "And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it."(via)
"Days later, when I was well enough to talk with Dr. Aubrey Maynard, the chief of the surgeons who performed the delicate, dangerous operation, I learned the reason for the long delay that preceded surgery. He told me that the razor tip of the instrument had been touching my aorta and that my whole chest had to be opened to extract it. 'If you had sneezed during all those hours of waiting,' Dr. Maynard said, 'your aorta would have been punctured and you would have drowned in your own blood.'" (via)
On 4th April 1968, Martin Luther King was standing on Lorraine Motel's (which is now part of Memphis's National Civil Rights Museum) second-floor balcony when James Earl Ray's bullet entered through his right cheek. King died within an hour after an emergency chest surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital. His autopsy revealed that although he was only 39 years old, he "had the heart of a 60 year old." 13 years in the civil rights movement had taken their toll (via).
President Johnson declared 7th April a national day of mourning, more than 100.000 mourners followed King's coffin through the streets of Atlanta. During his funeral, a recording of Martin Luther King's last sermon was played:
"I'd like someone to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. . . . I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. . . . And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity."(via)
James Baldwin was born on 2 August 1924. He was an essayist, a playwright and novelist who was particularly known for his essays on black experience. With his texts he educated white US-Americans on what it meant to be black. Baldwin encountered discrimination in public because he was African-American and witnessed much violence. He moved to France: "Once I found myself on the other side of the ocean, I see where I came from very clearly...I am the grandson of a slave, and I am writer. I must deal with both." (via)
"If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that Americans consider it a disease says more about them then it says about homosexuality."
Baldwin was black and gay - two labels he refused to accept: "Those terms, homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual are 20th-Century terms which, for me, really have very little meaning." (via). He was well aware of the difference between what it felt like to be 'white and gay' and 'black and gay': "I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly."
James Baldwin died in exile on 1 December 1987.
"A Talk to Teachers", delivered on 16 October 1963 as "The Negro Child - His Self-Image":
(...) Now, if what I have tried to sketch has any validity, it becomes thoroughly clear, at least to me, that any Negro who is born in this country and undergoes the American educational system runs the risk of becoming schizophrenic. On the one hand he is born in the shadow of the stars and stripes and he is assured it represents a nation which has never lost a war. He pledges allegiance to that flag which guarantees “liberty and justice for all.” He is part of a country in which anyone can become president, and so forth. But on the other hand he is also assured by his country and his countrymen that he has never contributed anything to civilization – that his past is nothing more than a record of humiliations gladly endured. He is assumed by the republic that he, his father, his mother, and his ancestors were happy, shiftless, watermelon-eating darkies who loved Mr. Charlie and Miss Ann, that the value he has as a black man is proven by one thing only – his devotion to white people. If you think I am exaggerating, examine the myths which proliferate in this country about Negroes.
(...) Later on when you become a grocery boy or messenger and you try to enter one of
those buildings a man says, “Go to the back door.” Still later, if you happen
by some odd chance to have a friend in one of those buildings, the man says,
“Where’s your package?” Now this by no means is the core of the matter. What
I’m trying to get at is that by the time the Negro child has had, effectively,
almost all the doors of opportunity slammed in his face, and there are very few
things he can do about it. He can more or less accept it with an absolutely
inarticulate and dangerous rage inside – all the more dangerous because it is
never expressed. It is precisely those silent people whom white people see
every day of their lives – I mean your porter and your maid, who never say
anything more than “Yes Sir” and “No, Ma’am.” They will tell you it’s raining
if that is what you want to hear, and they will tell you the sun is shining if
that is what you want to hear. They really hate you – really hate you
because in their eyes (and they’re right) you stand between them and life. I
want to come back to that in a moment. It is the most sinister of the facts, I
think, which we now face.
(...) What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic
ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really
appear to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to
be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left
Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else
to make it. That’s all. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.
Those who were making it in England, for example, did not get on the
Mayflower. That’s how the country was settled. Not by Gary Cooper. Yet
we have a whole race of people, a whole republic, who believe the myths to the
point where even today they select political representatives, as far as I can
tell, by how closely they resemble Gary Cooper. Now this is dangerously
infantile, and it shows in every level of national life. When I was living in
Europe, for example, one of the worst revelations to me was the way Americans
walked around Europe buying this and buying that and insulting everybody – not
even out of malice, just because they didn’t know any better. Well, that is the
way they have always treated me. They weren’t cruel; they just didn’t know you
were alive. They didn’t know you had any feelings.
On 27 August 1963 thousands of US-Americans headed to Washington - it was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. On 28 August 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his speech "I Have a Dream". James Baldwin was "prevented from speaking at the march on the grounds that his comments would be too inflammatory" (via). The march was supported by celebrities such as, for instance, Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Harry Belafonte (via), Burt Lancaster, Josephine Baker, Joan Baez (via), James Garner, and Paul Newman (via).
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