We shouldn’t let February get away from us without acknowledging that this is Black History Month. Tropic Cinema is celebrating the occasion with a weekly Sunday afternoon film screening, each sponsored by a local non-profit organization.
Last Sunday, the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration and Scholarship Committee gave us “The Six Triple Eight,” the new Kerry Washington film about the 855 Black women who volunteered to fix a three-year backlog of mail during World War II.
This Sunday at 2 p.m. the American Legion Auxiliary Unit #168 will present “Imitation of Life,” that 1934 Claudette Colbert classic about racial identity.
Following that, we get “Luther: Never too Much,” the new documentary about singer Luther Vandross – sponsored by Myrna E. Sawyer Key of the Gulf #5 Eastern Star. And “Passing,” a 2021 film about two mixed-race friends who take different paths in life – brought to us by Coral City Elks Temple #400.
If you haven’t ever seen “Imitation of Life” (the 1934 version, not the later Lana Turner remake), you’ll want to drop by the Tropic.
Here we have Bea (Claudette Colbert) and her housekeeper Delilah (Louise Beavers), two single mothers who start a pancake restaurant using a secret family recipe. Eventually, they package the ingredients and get rich selling Delilah’s Pancake Flour.
Yes, you’re supposed to think: Aunt Jemima.
But that’s not what this edgy movie is really about.
Both Bea and Delilah have daughters. Being light-skinned, Delilah’s daughter Peola (Fredi Washington) decides to pass for white. This breaks her mother’s heart.
“Imitation of Life” was based on Fanny Hurst’s same-named novel. Hurst got the inspiration from a road trip to Canada she took with her friend, the African-American short-story writer Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston had been Fannie Hurst’s executive secretary and often traveled with her. The trips contributed to Hurst’s understanding of racial discrimination.
Fannie Hurst became one of the most widely read female authors of the 20th century, her romantic themes often dealing with social issues of the day, such as women’s rights and race relations.
Hurst supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, unequal pay and gender inequality, and African American equality – causes that she sometimes described as “a general sensitiveness to small people … the lost and the threatened.”
Most of Hurst’s short stories were published exclusively in The Saturday Evening Post (I was once editorial director there years later) and Cosmopolitan. She is considered “one of the great trash novelists,” in the vein of Jacqueline Susann, Judith Krantz, and Jackie Collins.
Her second novel, “Imitation of Life,” was a bestseller. It is considered her best novel. However, Langston Hughes criticized it, calling it “Limitations of Life.” And the two films (1934 and 1959) based on the book raised hackles for its “romanticized mammy figure” and its “tragic mulatto theme.”
However, one recent critic argued, “Let it be stated unequivocally that this is one of the most remarkable films of the 1930’s – unique in that it deals squarely with aspects of the racial question decades before it became common to do so.”
Director John M. Stahl took a somewhat unique turn with “Imitation of Life,” casting a young black actress (Freddie Washington) as someone passing as white. Many later films (including Douglas Sirk’s 1959 remake) chose to cast white actresses in such roles.
Nonetheless, the 1934 film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Assistant Director, and Best Sound Recording at the 7th Academy Awards. And Time Magazine has named it one of “The 25 Most Important Films on Race.”
Ironically, despite playing a pancake chef, Louise Beavers made it clear she detested kitchen work and particularly hated pancakes and waffles.
Despite her own feelings about such roles, Beavers built a career on portraying “cheerful domestics” in films.
As for her performance in “Imitations of Life,” Hollywood columnist Jimmy Fidler wrote: “I also lament the fact that the motion picture industry has not set aside racial prejudice in naming actresses … If the industry chooses to ignore Miss Beavers’ performance, please let this reporter, born and bred in the South, tender a special award of praise to Louise Beavers for the finest performance of 1934.”
And Variety called Louis Beavers’ performance “masterly,” adding: “This lady can troupe. She takes the whole scale of human emotions from joy to anguish and never sounds a false note.”
One recent viewer observed, “As the black mother, Louise Beavers is heartbreaking in the simple power of her performance. Joyously serving up love & pancakes, or devastated by her daughter’s rejection of their race, Miss Beavers makes her audience feel her every emotion. This was the finest role of her film career, and she makes the most of it.”
Beavers became one of the first black actresses to have her own television show, “Beulah” (1952-1953).
“Imitation of Life” is her best – and most heartfelt – film. As a friend of mine said, “This film is a part of growing up black in America. I saw it as a kid and I don’t know anyone who hasn’t cried. But it is what it is, a true testament to the times.”
As for Fannie Hurst, approximately 30 films have been made from her fiction. But this is the one to see – especially during Black History Month.
Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com
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