"What's a geek?" That question gave me more insight into my dad's knowledge and embrace of the arts. Dad didn't talk much about his youth. Not nearly as much as Mom did. Dad had to be questioned, drawn out. Not Mom. She freely talked about herself. A lot. He was a brawny man, reserved but not unapproachable. Attractive, but not what most folks would call handsome. He was far more knowledgeable than society gave him credit for being. Keep in mind this was when the Civil Rights movement was a new, young, unified voice. Dad was a veteran who'd purchased the house I grew up in with the benefit of a G.I. Loan after having served in the segregated Army of World War II. He was a working class man in South Central Los Angeles, a diverse yet predominantly Black section of L.A. Dad was a postal clerk at what was the city's main post office located in the downtown area.
In our music cabinet were some of Dad's records. Jazz records by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. A theme album by Paul Robeson. An album of spoken word excerpts from Laurence Olivier's 1948 film adaptation of Shakespeare's HAMLET. The love theme to the film FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLLS. An album of Brazilian dance music. A hit record by Betty Hutton. I asked "What's a geek?" because the word came up in the opening scenes of an old movie Dad was watching on local TV one afternoon. The movie was a favorite of his. He'd seen it in a theater when it opened. It was the dark 1947 thriller, NIGHTMARE ALLEY, starring Tyrone Power. Dad answered my question, told me the name of the old movie and, about Tyrone Power in the movie, he said "It's the best thing he ever did." This was way back in the early 1960s when I was well under the age of 13. Dad watched the movie. I went outside to play in the backyard.
Zoom ahead to my adult years doing entertainment reports on TV in New York City. I learned that the enormously popular Tyrone Power pleaded with his 20th Century Fox studio boss to let him star in the gritty, unsettling NIGHTMARE ALLEY. Power wanted to challenge himself and prove that he was not just a very handsome movie star whom audiences loved seeing in action adventures and love stories. Power made NIGHTMARE ALLEY, a tale of greed that starts with a carnival act. It flopped at the box office and was pretty much eased out of theaters a month after its release. It was replaced by Power in big, colorful, audience-pleasing action adventures. I would learn too that, despite the box office and critical failure of the film, NIGHTMARE ALLEY was Power's favorite of all the movies he made in his long movie career. Today, the 1947 thriller is considered to be a film noir classic that was unjustly unappreciated in its initial release.
When I learned all that, I always thought "My Black dad back in South Central L.A. was way ahead of the curve before Caucasian critics reappraised it." By the way, when I was a young man and saw 1947's NIGHTMARE ALLEY on television, I loved it just as much as Dad did.
Here's a trailer for the Tyrone Power film.
NIGHTMARE ALLEY has been remade by Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican filmmaker who gave us PAN'S LABYRINTH and THE SHAPE OF WATER. The remake opens in December. Take a look at the trailer. Bradley Cooper steps into the role Tyrone Power played.
The highly anticipated Steven Spielberg remake of WEST SIDE STORY also opens this December. The original won several Oscars including Best Picture of 1961. Rita Moreno won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. George Chakiris won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. To me, the original is a work of film art. It's rarely mentioned, but the original came out during those early, strong days of the Civil Rights movement. Remember, Dr. Martin Luther King's historic March on Washington (which Rita Moreno attended) was in August 1963. With the musical's storyline of bigotry towards immigrants and racism towards Latinos, it felt socially relevant then and, with our country's previous administration, in our current decade. Rita Moreno has a supporting role in the remake. Here's a trailer.
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