Rant #3,120: Island In the Sun

Harry Belafonte, 96, passed away yesterday.

I have to tell you, I always thought of the actor and activist as sort of “second fiddle” to Sidney Poitier, who also used his perch as a famous actor to take often controversial stands on different matters, including civil rights.

And I do believe that Belafonte kind of suffered in comparison to his friend, because while Poitier’s presence was growing on screen to massive heights—he was undoubtedly our country’s top male actor in the late 1960s—Belafonte’ star was kind of being eclipsed by his own activism, and his career kind of wavered from the mid-1960s on.

As Poitier was ascending, Belafonte was descending.

But of course, this really was kind of true, and kind of not, but the fact of the matter was that Belafonte and Poitier were both pivotal characters in the civil rights movement, using their notoriety, their fame and yes, their money, to help propel this movement.

They are inextricably linked, and now they are linked in the great beyond.

I really fist discovered who Harry Belafonte was in the mid to late 1960s, apart from the successes he had on the big screen and on record.

With his activism, his career seemed to be relegated to television, and his appearances on two TV specials made me sit up and take notice.

On one, where he appeared with Julie Andrews, he sang a duet with the actress, but the two performers’ movements during one of the show’s musical segments, in particular, irked many.

I don’t remember the song at all, but I do remember that Andrews and Bellefonte, among other things, laid together, side by side, during the performance, which was a definite no-no in the mid to late 1960s.

Not only was it overtly sexual, maybe too sexual for the time, but Andrews, being white, and Belafonte, being black, added to the uneasiness that the performance produced for many viewers.

And then there was his performance with Petula Clark, a musical performance that I am still trying to get right in my head.

Again, on a TV special, Belafonte sang a duet with Clark—and again, I do not recall what song it was--and if I remember it correctly, during the length of the performance, their hands were pretty much not necessarily all over each other, but touched several times, again between a white woman and a black man, anther no-no for those times.

This performance, the more famous of the two I just described, irked many to the point that there were demands for the scene to be re-shot, but that request—or demand—fell on deaf ears.

But I do believe it was edited, because if I remember correctly, at the end of the performance, Clark kissed Belafonte on the cheek, or Belafonte bussed Clark, but that part was not shown.

I could be wrong on this, but I do seem to remember that the entire segment caused a mountain of controversy, because it simply was an act that was not done and not shown on network TV at the time.

I was just a kid when this stuff happened, but I did live in an integrated area in Queens, so maybe I was a little more hip—and a little more understanding—than a lot of people were to the interaction between a black male and a while female than maybe others were—

But the fact of the matter is that the immense popularity of both Andrews and Clark at the time got those shows and segments aired, and Belafonte was simply the black guy in those performances, deferring his power to the two white, female singers.

Later, as I grew older in both age and mindset, I understood a little bit more about Belafonte’s place in society.

Yes, I do have one of his records in my collection, the one with “The Banana Boat Song” on it, but I also grew more aware of his politics and his continued performances on the small screen and the large screen.

And like Poitier, I agreed with his stances on many matters, but I also was on the other side of some of the things he supported.

But whatever side that I was on, you had to respect this guy, a great talent who certainly paved the way for Poitier to live his life in the public eye, whether he was on television, the movies or leading a protest march or shining a bright light on a social matter.

Did his political stances restrict his overall fame?

Probably, but I do believe that like Poitier, he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I am super busy on Thursday with various things that I must do, so I am going to have to skip tomorrow’s Rant.

I will speak to you again on Friday, so have a great rest of today and an equally good Thursday, and I will be back at my normal perch on the final day of the work week.

Speak to you then.