BOOTLEG FILES 856: “The Strollin’ 20s” (1966 all-star television special).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There is most likely a rights clearance issue.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.
Black entertainers have been part of the American television experience since the medium’s beginning, with no less a figure than the legendary Ethel Waters starring in an eponymous special in 1939 when television was still mostly experimental and extremely limited in its reach. Once television became more prominent in American living rooms, Hazel Scott and Billy Daniels briefly had their own programs, while in the mid-1950s NBC’s decision to have Nat King Cole host his own variety show created unexpected controversy when no national sponsor was willing to back the program. Harry Belafonte headlined a 1959 special that was sponsored by Revlon, but he rejected further productions backed by the company when he was ordered not to integrate his song and dance ensemble.
Black singers and dancers were routinely featured as guests on variety programs in the 1950s and 1960s, and it was not uncommon for White hosts to interact with their Black guests. But the American networks were not eager to have a Black star as the center of attention of a program, either as a series or a standalone special. A couple of stars went abroad for a chance in the spotlight – Sammy Davis Jr. didn’t get his own production until he appeared on Canadian television while Lena Horne snagged several specials for British television.
By the mid-1960s, however, the television industry began to acknowledge and appreciate the wealth of Black talent available – and the industry also began to push back against the threats of Southern affiliates refusing to broadcast programming that starred Black entertainers. Harry Belafonte recognized the shifting tide and stepped forward to produce a program featuring an all-Black cast.
But rather than focus on the then-current challenges facing Black Americans, Belafonte opted to produce a safely nostalgic (and non-political) view of Black culture during the 1920s – specifically, in the Harlem section of New York City, which was in the midst of a cultural and economic flowering. And to bring in an added sense of prestige, he contracted Langston Hughes – a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance – to write the script for the show. Belafonte tapped his friend Sidney Poitier as the show’s on-screen narrator; Belafonte only appeared briefly to introduce the show.
The resulting production, “The Strollin’ ‘20s,” was not lacking in star wattage – Diahann Carroll, Sammy Davis Jr., Duke Ellington, George Kirby, Paula Kelly, Gloria Lynne, Brownie McGhee,
Nipsey Russell and Joe Williams were in the cast. The production also benefitted from an extensive publicity campaign, including a cover story in Life magazine. But the resulting effort was significant only as a historic achievement and not for the merits of its contents.
To be frank, “The Strollin’ ‘20s” came across as being too benign for its own good. At no point in the hour-long special did the viewer get the feeling of Harlem in the 1920s – instead, it felt like a bunch of then-contemporary stars who were unable to shut off their well-established personas and absorb the kinetic energy of the bygone era. When Sammy Davis Jr. and Diahann Carroll performed a duet, you didn’t get past the fact two 1960s superstars were vamping to old-time music. And when George Kirby and Nipsey Russell performed a sketch involving an inebriated man and his bartender, the scene could easily have been redone with Frank Fontaine and Jackie Gleason without losing a chuckle in the Black-to-White transition. Even Sidney Poitier as the on-screen narrator came across as being too antiseptic – he was a happy tour guide through a too-happy neighborhood of a distant time where the White folks didn’t intrude.
Even in 1966, critics knew something wasn’t clicking here. Life magazine’s coverage bluntly admitted the show did not confront “the bitter, troubled present” but instead luxuriated in “the blythe bygone days.” New York Times critic John S. Wilson lamented that the Harlem of “The Strollin’ ‘20s” presented “just a pleasant, spic-and-span, almost average neighborhood” instead of the epicenter of a vibrant, thriving, innovative Black culture.
“The Strollin’ ‘20s” aired in a color broadcast on CBS on February 21, 1966. The network did not receive any protests from its Southern affiliates, which gave the okay for broadcasters to begin further integrating Black performers into their programming and highlighting Black stars in their own shows – including Sammy Davis Jr., who hosted his own show later that year.
To date, “The Strollin’ 20s” has yet to be made available for home entertainment release – it would seem that clearing the music and performance rights is too costly. A black-and-white 16mm print was uploaded to YouTube, and so far that is the only way anyone can view this mild but historically notable milestone in American television history.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.
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