First African American Tennis Players To Win Wimbledon

Posted: 9/6/2015

Trigger

Just watched parts of PBS American Masters Althea Gibson. Very fascinating how this woman become to be the best female tennis player of her time in 1957.

Only in 1975, Arthur Ashe won the male contest at Wimbledon.

Implications

The importance of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 is quite overblown. African Americans were advancing without the heavy hand of the federal government.

I am not sure whether the above documentary also showed the influence and importance of the trainer of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe and many other African-American tennis players of that time. On the webpage to this documentary we read “Though a talented tennis player, Gibson was a street kid who lacked the genteel manner associated with the sport. It was under the tutelage of Dr. Hubert Eaton of Wilmington, NC and Dr. Robert W. Johnson [1899-1971] of Lynchburg, VA, two African American physicians who loved tennis and helped young African Americans who wanted to play, that she flourished.” Dr. Johnson probably deserves a documentary of his own. Wikipedia says about Dr. Johnson: “Known as the "godfather" of black tennis, Johnson founded an all-expenses-paid tennis camp for African-American children and hired instructors.[2] In these years in the segregated South, they had no public courts where they could learn tennis, and many did not have money for lessons. Johnson was instrumental in encouraging the athletic careers of both Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, whom he personally coached.”

Superb American Ballet Theatre Documentary

Posted: 8/8/2015

I can highly recommend this documentary about “American Ballet Theatre: A History - Full Episode” by PBS’s American Masters series. Lot’s of interviews with current and former dancers, e.g. Misty Copeland and many others.

There were so many slow motion dance scenes like I have never watched ballet before.

Great Bing Crosby Documentary On American Masters

Posted: 6/27/2015

Trigger

Just watched for the first time Bing Crosby Rediscovered - Full Film on PBS American Masters (first aired on 12/2/2014). This is a highly recommendable film!

I had no idea that this guy was so much more than a popular singer and movie star.

Some Takeaways

1. The first mega multi media star in the U.S.
2. He sold the most top songs ever!
3. One of the first to use microphone and tape recordings (had even a venture in tape recorders)
4. Interesting rivalries between Bing Crosby and e.g. Frank Sinatra
5. An easy going guy trying to live a sunny life and trying to have fun. He was quite a comedian.
6. Helped several other singers (e.g. Judy Garland) when their careers were at a crossroad because of personal life issues
7. His long running show together with Bob Hope is amazing (I did not really know about it, because it was before my time)
8. Frequent performances during World War II before military audiences overseas (I thought, it was Bob Hope?)
9. Secured a remuneration for Louis Armstrong performance on TV equal to what was customary for white performers
10. Generally stayed away from politicians and presidents (smart move)
11. Tragic first marriage and tragic loss of his four sons from his first marriage
12. I am sure, I forgot something … :-)

"A Fierce Green Fire" An Extremely Biased And One-sided American Master

Trigger

Just watched “AMERICAN MASTERS/A Fierce Green Fire” by PBS (Aired: 04/22/2014 Expires: in 9 Days (6/4/14). Asked many times before: Why do these PBS movies expire so early?)

Here is the blurb (emphasis added):

“American Masters: A Fierce Green Fire is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, spanning 50 years of activism. Chronicling the largest movement of the 20th century, the film tells vivid stories about people fighting – and succeeding – against the odds, from the Grand Canyon to Love Canal, from the oceans to the Amazon. A film by Academy Award-nominee Mark Kitchell.”

Extremely Biased And One-Sided Story

This film probably covers most of the well known highlights of environmentalism and the organisations and people involved in it. This film could be considered propaganda or self-congratulatory. It is an ideological narrative divorced from inconvenient facts.

The film is full of interviews of at least of two dozen or so activists etc., but it does not show one interview of a critical or contrarian view. See e.g. Patrick Moore.

The Love Canal Touchstone

Of course, this story features prominently in this film.

However, that this tragic event was almost entirely caused by government entities (like Niagara City, the board of education of that city and so on) was not mentioned at all in this film. The film does not mention that the toxic waste content of the former dump was well known to government entities since 1953 when they purchased love canal. Apparently, the chemical company (Hooker Chemical Company) involved disposed of its waste in way that was legal at the time; followed accepted best practices of the time; and it was approved by government. Was not Niagara Falls in those days (1950s) “one of the capitals of the world’s chemical industry”?

From 1953 onwards, Niagara City built schools and kindergartens on the dump site despite the fact that the chemicals were released and disturbed. It is surprising that it took until the second half of 1970s before the scandal became notorious. In 1957, the chemical company even warned the board of education that their development plans are hazardous and irresponsible. The company even tried to prevent the selling of the land to developers in the late 1950s.

I will not go into details here as they are well documented e.g. article on Wikipedia and by a nine page article “Love Canal/The Truth Seeps Out” published in 1981 by Reason Magazine. It is astonishing that this American Master disregarded this information and misleads the audience. If you read in particular the latter article you will find out that there is a lot more to the story like a hapless chemical company that would not sue journalist Michael Brown’s book “Laying Waste: The Poisoning of America by Toxic Chemicals ” for libel (As an aside: Surprisingly, there is no article on this book on Wikipedia nor does the above Wikipedia article on Love Canal have much to say about this book. There is also no article on Wikipedia about this journalist.).

To Be Continued

I am sure more could be said about the other so called touchstones of environmentalism portrayed in this film, but I do not have the time for further research at the moment.