Take One (Nov-Dec 1972)

picture still wasn’t finished. Finally, after about $100,000 had been spent, Strand swore that $25,000 would do it. Much of the money had come from Corliss Lamont, whose father was a millionaire. Corliss Lamont was, and still is, a fine person. Corliss and Abe Isserman figured that Strand would never finish the damn thing without an overseer — so they hired me. They gave me the $25,000, and | prepared a budget. | told Strand that this was all the money there would be, and proceeded to dole it out in dribs and drabs. | was in on one filming sequence, which was shot at my law office on Fifth Avenue. And | had to see about adding all the music, dubbing in the voices and so forth. We did the dubbing at a studio called Reeves Sound, around 47th and Broadway. It might still be there. The narrator was Paul Robeson. Marc Blitzstein conducted and composed the score. (In case you've forgotten, he wrote the American version of Threepenny Opera.) | begin to forget all the people in Native Land — Howie DaSilva was surely one of them, Art Smith and Everett Sloane I’m pretty sure of, Bromberg and Carnovsky | think. Damn it, | wish | could remember — my memory hasn’t gone bad on me yet, it’s just that I’ve suddenly gone back over 30 years, and all of the old visions and recollections have returned in a surge of irrelevance... But Robeson! What a guy he was. He had been my hero for years. An AllAmerican football player in the '20s — he WIN SOMETHING! Ree = ' i ‘fe IT’S ALL HERETHE PROGRAMS — THE WAGERS — THE POST PARADES THE RACES — THE ROAR OF THE CROWD THE PHOTO-FINISWES — THE PAYOFFS — THE WINNERS — THE LOSERS! A NIGHT AT THE RACES ee MORE THAN A MOVIE AN EVENT! AVAILABLE FROM RONINFIUIM axsercss TAKE A GAMBLE WITH THIS ONE! played for Rutgers, and it was rare that anyone made All-American who didn’t play for the Big Three: Yale, Harvard or Princeton. Walter Camp, who selected the All-American team in those days, seldom left the Ivy schools to select a player — but he couldn't overlook Robeson. Robeson went on to become an AllAmerican singer, actor, and activist in the labor and progressive movement. He was the original Crown in Porgy and Bess, | saw him as Othello, and who could forget him singing Kern’s Old Man Ribber? His voice was as distinctive as Caruso’s — deep, rich and velvety. And now | met him! He was a huge bear of a man, 6’4” and big all over. We were introduced, he took my hand in his with a hard grip (my hand nearly disappeared), and boomed, “Hello, Joe.” In retrospect, |’m surprised | didn’t faint in sheer ecstacy — and | had met many important people in the revolutionary movement. Anyway, it took about a month and Native Land was in the can at last. It was a fine picture, although uneven in spots. | was given a round of applause, and even got $200 as a fee. | was glad to get it — money was different then, and as a young lawyer | found fees not too often. The film opened at the World Theater, in New York, in 1941. It got mixed reviews. The left-wing press raved; the right-wing press was not so friendly. Audiences were fair. And then disaster struck. In 1939, A. Hitler and J. Stalin (of sy a) % S nt & & oa “~ & 3 (212) 757-5715 blessed memory!) had signed a nonaggression pact. The policy of the American Communist Party was set by events in the Soviet Union, and our struggle was aimed at the US government and the capitalists for civil liberties, the right to strike, picket, organize, etc. “Keep the US Neutral,” was the slogan. However, Hitler swept across Europe and began to increase his excesses against the Jews. Native Land was released at this point, and BAM!, within two weeks Hitler had torn up the pact with Russia and the German blitzkrieg invaded the Soviet Union. Overnight, the Party and the liberals shifted their policy (in accordance with word from the Comintern), and the slogan became: “Open the Second Front! Stop Hitler! America Into the Breach!” What chance did Native Land stand? We were dead! The US government had suddenly become our savior — it would save the USSR. Our guns and tanks and planes and doughboys would turn the trick, “and we won't come back ’til it’s over over there.” Tum de tum tum. Native Land closed, and in three months the bombs were bursting over Pearl Harbor. | went to work for Republic Aviation, building Thunderbolts, and Native Land went into limbo — where it has resided ever since. I’ve never heard of a revival until very recently. | wonder what its history might have been, if not for the war. |’d give a lot to see Native Land [END once more. Our Doll... the “Come up and see me sometime” girl of our dreams (!) has just had a luscious book published about her. It’s large and lovely. The cover looks like this: The Films of MAE WEST contains the story of every stage play and every movie she’s ever been in — PLUS the details of that never-tobe-forgotten act, “Mae West and Her Muscle Men” that stunned Las Vegas! $13.75 Just published and available wherever books are sold GEORGE J. MCLEOD, Limited Publishers and Publishers Representatives 73 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario MU5-2P8