{"id":42993,"date":"2024-03-01T18:40:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T23:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=42993"},"modified":"2024-03-01T18:40:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T23:40:58","slug":"the-bootleg-files-the-strollin-20s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/01\/the-bootleg-files-the-strollin-20s\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: The Strollin’ ’20s"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 856:<\/strong> \u201cThe Strollin\u2019 20s\u201d (1966 all-star television special). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.
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\nAMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> There is most likely a rights clearance issue.
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: <\/strong>Not likely.<\/p>\n

Black entertainers have been part of the American television experience since the medium\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.
\n<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 Sammy Davis Jr. didn\u2019t get his own production until he appeared on Canadian television while Lena Horne snagged several specials for British television.<\/p>\n

By the mid-1960s, however, the television industry began to acknowledge and appreciate the wealth of Black talent available \u2013 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. <\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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 \u2013 a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance \u2013 to write the script for the show. Belafonte tapped his friend Sidney Poitier as the show\u2019s on-screen narrator; Belafonte only appeared briefly to introduce the show.<\/p>\n

The resulting production, \u201cThe Strollin\u2019 \u201820s,\u201d was not lacking in star wattage \u2013 Diahann Carroll, Sammy Davis Jr., Duke Ellington, George Kirby, Paula Kelly, Gloria Lynne, Brownie McGhee,
\nNipsey 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.<\/p>\n

To be frank, \u201cThe Strollin\u2019 \u201820s\u201d 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 \u2013 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\u2019t 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 \u2013 he was a happy tour guide through a too-happy neighborhood of a distant time where the White folks didn\u2019t intrude.<\/p>\n

Even in 1966, critics knew something wasn\u2019t clicking here. Life magazine\u2019s coverage bluntly admitted the show did not confront \u201cthe bitter, troubled present\u201d but instead luxuriated in \u201cthe blythe bygone days.\u201d New York Times critic John S. Wilson lamented that the Harlem of \u201cThe Strollin\u2019 \u201820s\u201d presented \u201cjust a pleasant, spic-and-span, almost average neighborhood\u201d instead of the epicenter of a vibrant, thriving, innovative Black culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Strollin\u2019 \u201820s\u201d 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 \u2013 including Sammy Davis Jr., who hosted his own show later that year.<\/p>\n

To date, \u201cThe Strollin\u2019 20s\u201d has yet to be made available for home entertainment release \u2013 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.<\/p>\n