rudova511701d

Actor Sidney Poitier was very famous when I was a child. He stood out as he was one of the few famous talented black actors in the 1950s and 1960s, who had great respect by Hollywood and in general the white community. Sidney was born to a poor black family in Cat Island in the Bahamas. There was no electricity, no plumbing and no indoor toilets. However, since everyone in the neighborhood was black and poor, Sidney knew no difference. He had a strict, quiet, loving mother and father. Sidney felt that his very disciplined childhood gave him the foundation for strong survival skills throughout his whole life. It wasn't until he was a teenage and ended up in Miami, Florida, where he found out that his being black would be an obstacle that he would constantly run up against. He was fascinated by the luxuries of running water and electricity in the United States, but he didn’t care for the discrimination he experienced in Florida. He heard of the Promise Land in Harlem, New York. So he traveled to New York and worked as a dishwasher to support himself. Finding the New York winters harsh, he joined the army so he could have some warmer clothes and a roof over his head. But, the army turned out to be difficult and Sidney attacked an officer, by the toss of a chair, so that he could be discharged. As a fluke, he ended up trying out for a role in the theater when he saw an ad that said the director was looking for a young black actor. Well, the rest, as you say is history. Sidney, of course, got better at his art, and ended up in movies, where eventually he became quite famous and respected. However, although he was respected, he was not always accepted. On a promo movie tour in Georgia, he walked into a very fine restaurant for dinner. Although the restaurant was happy to have this famous actor patronize their business, they told him that they would have to close him off from the others and drape a big black sheet around his table. He was told it was the law. Sidney decided instead to walk out of the restaurant. He writes that it wasn't easy for him at times, but that he knows that he had to go through a lot to make the way for the black actors of today. He said that he felt bad for those could not make it in the industry during his time, while he had been very blessed. He writes a little bit about his first failed marriage and how it affected his relationship with his children. I think this memoir just gives us a taste of this wonderful actor, but it was a very good taste indeed.

2022-10-29 03:15