In our current broadcasting environment, you can find a documentary about almost every famous figure and cultural event you’ve heard from the heyday of the 2000s until today. barney into the short-lived HQ Trivia spree. Many of them seem unnecessary and tend to fly under the radar. However, following the passing of Harry Belafonte, there is one thing that fans of television history should not overlook.
Praise continues to pour in after Belafonte, 96, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure. It’s hard to summarize the breadth of his career without doing some intense deep diving. His limited filmography, which never elevated him to the leading male status of his friend and industry rival Sidney Poitier, doesn’t capture all of his fame. Nor does he have a record-breaking music career. Still, a 2020 documentary showing his one-week residency This show tonight His 1968 book offers a useful entry point for understanding all the intricacies of its cultural makeup.
As one speaking head said at one point in the movie, “The Harry Belafonte legend has many facets.”
Sit-In: When Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show, director Yoruba Richen, It can be viewed on Peacock and has a runtime of just 77 minutes. Likewise, it’s a relatively fast-moving movie that might need some rewinding. But the point of the film, like any good documentary, is to spark curiosity, not just about Belafonte, but about the cultural moment his career embodied.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy assassinations, Vietnam War protests, and the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, 1968 was one of the most turbulent and important years in American history. Every weekday evening at 23:30, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson It offered Americans some level of escapism and comic relief in the safety of their homes (for some). The documentary explains that the iconic presenter is downright non-political and shy away from “going into the soapbox.”
But Carson did not completely avoid the social upheaval of the time. Instead, he decided to “give the microphone to someone already famous for being outspoken,” to put it in modern activism terms: Belafonte. At this point, the most important screen contributions of the actor are, carmen jones And island in the sunwas more than ten years ago. And his energy was focused on music and social justice work. Anyone familiar with Belafonte’s activism knew that he was often in conflict over his personal reputation and obligations to the Black community.
But when Carson gave him full authority to host Tonight Show On his own terms, he couldn’t turn down the opportunity. And according to Belafonte, interviewed in the documentary, its first night on the air was the show’s highest-rated episode. Tonight Show‘s history.
Journalist Tamron Hall, who appeared in the film, speculates that Belafonte probably booked his own guests—many of his personal friends—as well as hosting. The cast of the week was an eclectic collection of artists and activists, including Dionne Warwick, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tom and Dick Smothers, Paul Newman and Poitier. Sadly, many of these interviews have been lost to history as NBC would be recording over old episodes at the time – thankfully the document includes some audi0 recordings of the week provided by archivist Phil Gries.
Due to the lack of footage, sitting protest first of all, it gets closer to the guest spots of King and Kennedy. The interview clips aren’t exactly entertaining and mostly unsettling, given their fate later that year. However, one of the most compelling parts of the documentary focuses on Belafonte’s relationship with Kennedy and how he helped transform the senator from someone initially humiliated by the Black community into a more empathetic leader.
sitting protest it also contextualizes Belafonte’s hosting business within our current landscape of political experts. The film suggests that Belafonte was a pioneer of the satirical news genre, which is ironically lacking in people who look like Black actors. In 1968, Belafonte’s combination of heavy subject matter and entertainment was extremely new and, of course, important. The document includes clips from The Smother Brothers, who satirized President Lyndon Johnson on variety shows and got into trouble with CBS, to get a sense of how strict the networks were about political content.
As a result, the movie does its best with the lack of archival footage that would otherwise seem so important. Richen manages to fill these gaps with Belafonte’s own memory of the historic week. His anecdotes are ultimately more profound and informative than comments from some of the film’s talking heads, such as The Roots drummer Questlove, comedian Robin Thede, and journalist Wesley Morris. Still, anyone who watches this movie will more clearly understand Belafonte’s appeal and radicalism as a public figure. Above all, viewers will recognize him as an innovator.