Kansas City Star: Posters for black sports movies are a lobb
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:43 pm
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment ... 65606.html
ROBERT W. BUTLER BBUTLER(at)KCSTAR(dot)COM
Posters for black sports movies are a lobby for cinematic history
Movie posters start out as advertisements. With just a little time they become triggers for our collective memories.
The current show of posters from black-themed sports movies at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is a case in point.
If you’ve seen any of the films advertised, then it’s all too easy to conjure up the emotions evoked by the movie-watching experience and to recollect memorable scenes and sensations.
But even if you’re unfamiliar with the specific movies, the show “The Black Athlete on Film” offers a panorama of 20th-century American life.
Culled from the collection of Separate Cinema, a black film archive in Hyde Park, N.Y., this free show’s oldest and rarest piece isn’t even a proper movie poster. It’s a framed handbill for the 1921 silent film “As the World Rolls On,” starring the former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson.
“The film was only released to black theaters,” said Bob Kendrick, the museum’s head of marketing. “What’s really interesting is that it was shot here in Kansas City by Andlauer Productions.”
In fact, the handbill bears a photo of the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Baseball League and another of Johnson and several other black athletes posed against a stone railing that Kendricks thinks might have been in Swope Park.
Sadly the movie — described in the handbill as “A delightful film and free from any touches of vulgarity” — may no longer exist.
The show is organized mostly by the sports represented.
There are African-American football films, ranging from the 1971 made-for-TV movie “Brian’s Song” (it made stars of Billy Dee Williams and James Caan) to recent titles such as 2000’s “Remember the Titans,” with Denzel Washington, and “The Express,” last year’s screen biography of Ernie Davis, the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy.
Basketball is represented by the likes of Spike Lee’s 1998 movie “He Got Game” (“Denzel is definitely the actor seen most often on these posters,” according to Kendrick), 1951’s “The Harlem Globetrotters” (the hoopsters played themselves opposite Dorothy Dandridge), the acclaimed 1994 documentary “Hoop Dreams” and 2000’s “Love & Basketball.”
The last poster is of particular interest because of its artwork. While most of the posters employ photographs, the “Love & Basketball” entry features a drawing of a young man and woman embracing. Together in their upraised hands they cradle a basketball.
One of the show’s biggest sections centers on boxing. Among the oldest items is a 1938 poster advertising a newsreel of the complete championship bout between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. In the years before TV, many fight fans happily sat through entire matches captured on grainy black-and-white celluloid.
Muhammad Ali is featured on several posters, including “AKA Cassius Clay” and “Keep Punching,” which starred Henry Armstrong. Today Armstrong is no longer a household word, but, as Kendrick explained: “He was a black boxer who held championships in three weight divisions. He was a superstar in his time.”
A real rarity is a Spanish-language poster for “Spirit of Youth,” a screen bio in which fighter Joe Louis played himself. The poster promises “Boxeo! Musica! Canciones! Emocion!” (“Boxing! Music! Singing! Emotion!”)
Baseball has its own wall, with several titles featuring Jackie Robinson. Andre Braugher portrayed a young Robinson in 1990’s “The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson.” The movie chronicled an incident in World War II in which the future baseball great, then an Army officer, faced charges for refusing a civilian driver’s order to give his seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus.
Robinson played himself in 1950’s “The Jackie Robinson Story” (“You’ll HIT with him! You’ll RUN with him! You’ll SLIDE with him!”).
And then there are the sports not usually associated with black athletes.
In 1977 Richard Pryor played racecar driver Wendell Scott in “Greased Lightning.” According to Kendrick, as early as the 1920s a black racing circuit existed, but Scott was the first black driver to gain national attention.
In 1993 “Cool Runnings” celebrated the Olympic toboggan team from steamy Jamaica (the fanciful poster art features several colorful tropical shirts zipping through the snow); more recently in “Pride,” Terrence Howard portrayed real-life urban swimming coach Jim Ellis.
There’s even a wall in the show devoted to black athletes who starred in nonsports movies.
“The Hammer” is a 1972 actioner starring Kansas City Chief Fred “Hammer” Williamson, who has appeared in more than 100 films and TV shows.
Even more celeb-heavy was 1974’s “The Black Six,” a crime/action melodrama featuring the Lions’ Lem Barney, the Vikings’ Carl Eller, the 49ers’ Gene Washington, the Dolphins’ Mercury Morris, the Steelers’ “Mean” Joe Greene and the Chiefs’ Willie Lanier.
In addition to the posters, the show also features clips from the films shown on monitors and pieces of black sports movie memorabilia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
posters from black sports movies
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum presents “The Black Athlete on Film” through May 3 in the Changing Gallery of the American Jazz Museum, 1616 E. 18th. Admission is free during regular museum hours (9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday).
ROBERT W. BUTLER BBUTLER(at)KCSTAR(dot)COM
Posters for black sports movies are a lobby for cinematic history
Movie posters start out as advertisements. With just a little time they become triggers for our collective memories.
The current show of posters from black-themed sports movies at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is a case in point.
If you’ve seen any of the films advertised, then it’s all too easy to conjure up the emotions evoked by the movie-watching experience and to recollect memorable scenes and sensations.
But even if you’re unfamiliar with the specific movies, the show “The Black Athlete on Film” offers a panorama of 20th-century American life.
Culled from the collection of Separate Cinema, a black film archive in Hyde Park, N.Y., this free show’s oldest and rarest piece isn’t even a proper movie poster. It’s a framed handbill for the 1921 silent film “As the World Rolls On,” starring the former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson.
“The film was only released to black theaters,” said Bob Kendrick, the museum’s head of marketing. “What’s really interesting is that it was shot here in Kansas City by Andlauer Productions.”
In fact, the handbill bears a photo of the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Baseball League and another of Johnson and several other black athletes posed against a stone railing that Kendricks thinks might have been in Swope Park.
Sadly the movie — described in the handbill as “A delightful film and free from any touches of vulgarity” — may no longer exist.
The show is organized mostly by the sports represented.
There are African-American football films, ranging from the 1971 made-for-TV movie “Brian’s Song” (it made stars of Billy Dee Williams and James Caan) to recent titles such as 2000’s “Remember the Titans,” with Denzel Washington, and “The Express,” last year’s screen biography of Ernie Davis, the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy.
Basketball is represented by the likes of Spike Lee’s 1998 movie “He Got Game” (“Denzel is definitely the actor seen most often on these posters,” according to Kendrick), 1951’s “The Harlem Globetrotters” (the hoopsters played themselves opposite Dorothy Dandridge), the acclaimed 1994 documentary “Hoop Dreams” and 2000’s “Love & Basketball.”
The last poster is of particular interest because of its artwork. While most of the posters employ photographs, the “Love & Basketball” entry features a drawing of a young man and woman embracing. Together in their upraised hands they cradle a basketball.
One of the show’s biggest sections centers on boxing. Among the oldest items is a 1938 poster advertising a newsreel of the complete championship bout between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. In the years before TV, many fight fans happily sat through entire matches captured on grainy black-and-white celluloid.
Muhammad Ali is featured on several posters, including “AKA Cassius Clay” and “Keep Punching,” which starred Henry Armstrong. Today Armstrong is no longer a household word, but, as Kendrick explained: “He was a black boxer who held championships in three weight divisions. He was a superstar in his time.”
A real rarity is a Spanish-language poster for “Spirit of Youth,” a screen bio in which fighter Joe Louis played himself. The poster promises “Boxeo! Musica! Canciones! Emocion!” (“Boxing! Music! Singing! Emotion!”)
Baseball has its own wall, with several titles featuring Jackie Robinson. Andre Braugher portrayed a young Robinson in 1990’s “The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson.” The movie chronicled an incident in World War II in which the future baseball great, then an Army officer, faced charges for refusing a civilian driver’s order to give his seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus.
Robinson played himself in 1950’s “The Jackie Robinson Story” (“You’ll HIT with him! You’ll RUN with him! You’ll SLIDE with him!”).
And then there are the sports not usually associated with black athletes.
In 1977 Richard Pryor played racecar driver Wendell Scott in “Greased Lightning.” According to Kendrick, as early as the 1920s a black racing circuit existed, but Scott was the first black driver to gain national attention.
In 1993 “Cool Runnings” celebrated the Olympic toboggan team from steamy Jamaica (the fanciful poster art features several colorful tropical shirts zipping through the snow); more recently in “Pride,” Terrence Howard portrayed real-life urban swimming coach Jim Ellis.
There’s even a wall in the show devoted to black athletes who starred in nonsports movies.
“The Hammer” is a 1972 actioner starring Kansas City Chief Fred “Hammer” Williamson, who has appeared in more than 100 films and TV shows.
Even more celeb-heavy was 1974’s “The Black Six,” a crime/action melodrama featuring the Lions’ Lem Barney, the Vikings’ Carl Eller, the 49ers’ Gene Washington, the Dolphins’ Mercury Morris, the Steelers’ “Mean” Joe Greene and the Chiefs’ Willie Lanier.
In addition to the posters, the show also features clips from the films shown on monitors and pieces of black sports movie memorabilia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
posters from black sports movies
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum presents “The Black Athlete on Film” through May 3 in the Changing Gallery of the American Jazz Museum, 1616 E. 18th. Admission is free during regular museum hours (9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday).