Judith E. Smith - Becoming Belafonte: Black Artist, Public Radical

Mark Crispin Miller, Series Editor

This series begins with a startling premisethat even now, more than two hundred years since its founding, America remains a largely undiscovered country, with much of its amazing story yet to be told. In these books, some of Americas foremost historians and cultural critics bring to light in our nations history episodes that have never been explored. They offer fresh takes on events and people we thought we knew well and draw unexpected connections that deepen our understanding of our national character.

By Judith E. Smith

BECOMING BELAFONTE

BLACK ARTIST, PUBLIC RADICAL

University of Texas Press

AUSTIN

Copyright 2014 by the University of Texas Press

All rights reserved

First edition, 2014

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Smith, Judith E., 1948 author.

Becoming Belafonte : black artist, public radical / by Judith E. Smith.

pages cm (Discovering America)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-292-72914-8 (cloth : alkaline paper)

1. Belafonte, Harry, 1927 2. African American civil rights workersBiography. 3. Musicians, BlackUnited StatesBiography. 4. Actors, BlackUnited StatesBiography. I. Title. II. Series: Discovering America series.

ML420.B32S55 2014

782.42164092 dc23

[B]

2014006424

doi:10.7560/729148

ISBN 978-0-292-76733-1 (library e-book)

ISBN 9780292767331 (individual e-book)

For the 1940s radicals of Belafontes generation, for my 1960s generation who took it to the streets, and for all the new ways our children are finding to carry it on

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Harry Belafonte appeared on the periphery of my research on Lorraine Hansberry for my book Visions of Belonging, but as the first black Hollywood movie producer, he emerged as a critical player in new research on representations of racial citizenship in Hollywood filmmaking between 1949 and 1965 that I began as a fellow in the Charles Warren Centers Film and History seminar in 20022003. Untangling the threads of his screen persona, his musical celebrity, and his work for television moved him to center stage and prompted this book.

Extraordinarily generous friends and colleagues helped me along the way. The brilliant scholarship of Rachel Rubin taught me new ways to read, and how to listen to and think deeply about music and culture; her steadfast support infused this project from the very beginning. Ron Cohens historical research on folk music and the Left is foundational for all who venture into these fields; he generously directed me to research, sources, and personal contacts, and encouraged my work at every turn. I have relied on pathbreaking scholarship on the black left by Mark Solomon, Robin Kelley, and Jim Smethurst, and on their friendship and encouragement as well. My fellow travelers in postwar cultural history Dan Horowitz and Ruth Feldstein, and in the wartime and postwar literary left, Mary Helen Washington and Alan Wald, have frequently shared research and insights over many years. I am also the grateful beneficiary of a generous group of people willing to share historical memories with me, sometimes in multiple conversations: Harry Belafonte, Burt DLugoff, Taylor Branch, Oscar Brand, Irving Burgie, Len Chandler, Robert DeCormier, Olga James, Chiz Schultz, and Alice Spivak.

The work of documenting Belafontes extensive public record was made possible by the collective resources of many scholars, friends, and librarians. I want to thank those who led me to research materials I drew on in writing Becoming Belafonte: Taylor Branch, Margaret Burnham, Lizabeth Cohen, Ron Cohen, Nancy Cott, Elena Tajima Creef, Nancy Falk, Crystal Feimster, Ruth Feldstein, Dayo Gore, Molly Geidel, Andrew Hannon, Dan Horowitz, Evan Joiner, Ahmed Kathrada, Alice Kessler-Harris, Kimberly Lamm, Randy MacLowry, Sarah Malino, Jeffrey Melnick, Mark Crispin Miller, Georgia Parker, Steve Ross, Rachel Rubin, Steve Schewel, Chiz Schultz, Toru Shinoda, Terry Signaigo, Maren Stange, Tracy Heather Strain, Lynnell Thomas, Mary Tiseo, Susan Tomlinson, Shane Vogel, Alan Wald, Lary Wallace, Tom Zaslavsky, and Seyna Bruskin. Particularly helpful were collections at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California Cinematic Arts Library, UCLA Film and Television Archives, New Yorks Paley Center for Media, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at NYU, and the Library of Congresss Motion Pictures, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Special thanks to the expert guidance of Kristine Krueger at AMPAS, Ned Comstock at USC; Lauren Pey at John F. Kennedy Library, Diana Lacha tanere and staff at Schomburg Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books and the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Divisions; Peter Filardo and Sarah Leila Moazeni at Tamiment Library; Bryan Cornell at Recorded Sound Reference Center and Josie Walters-Johnson, Motion Picture Division, Library of Congress.

While teaching full-time, I was able to temporarily employ a far-flung network of graduate students to help me track down additional research materials: Joey Fink located Taylor Branchs interviews with Belafonte housed at the University of North Carolina; Tad Suitor went through Apollo materials at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History; Heather Vermeulen combed through the Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten papers in the James Weldon Johnson collection at the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library at Yale; Brittany Adams reviewed materials at UCLAs Film and Television library. For many years, I have been able to rely on the extraordinary and meticulous research expertise of Michael Beckett, who knows how to locate any kind of source and productively comb through newspapers both pre- and post-digitizing. My ability to research extensively in the black press has been considerably expanded by his skills. Pembroke Herbert and Sandi Rygiel at Picture Research Consultants, Ron Cohen, and Michael Beckett were tremendously helpful in locating and gaining rights to some of the photographs reproduced here.

My colleagues in American Studies at University of Massachusetts, Rachel Rubin, Lynnell Thomas, Bonnie Miller, Aaron Lecklider, Marisol Negron, Jeffrey Melnick, Phil Chassler, Patricia Raub, Paul Atwood, and Shauna Manning, have made our department a very stimulating environment for thinking about Belafonte, even when our work responsibilities compete with writing projects. Along the way I have also benefitted from scholarly conversation and companionship offered by Crystal Feimster, Mary Frederickson, Karen Miller, Virginia Reinburg, Sharon Strom, and Susan Tomlinson. A sabbatical leave granted by the University of Massachusetts Boston in 20112012 gave me the space for full-time writing, during which many scholars and friends responded graciously to research queries: my thanks to Martha Biondi, Celia Bucki, Paul Buhle, Irving Burgie, Jelani Cobb, Ron Cohen, Robert De Cormier, John DEmilio, Tom Doherty, Lew Erenberg, Eric Foner, Crystal Feimster, Mary Frederickson, Vicki Gabriner, Molly Geidel, John Gennari, Keith Gilyard, Van Gosse, Aram Goudsouzian, Jim Green, Matthew Jacobson, Geoffrey Jacques, Tammy Kernodle, Aaron Lecklider, Robbie Lieberman, David Levering Lewis, Randy MacLowry, Jeffrey Melnick, Ethelbert Miller, Paul Mischler, Milt Okun, Leah Rosenberg, Rachel Rubin, Dave Samuelson, George Schuller, Toru Shinoda, Jim Smethurst, Faith Smith, Mark Solomon, Alice Spivak, Lawrence Squeri, Maren Stange, Michelle Stephens, Tracy Heather Strain, Susan Tomlin son, Penny Von Eschen, Alan Wald, and Mary Helen Washington.