Homer Price / reflection

Some of my earliest reading adventures were with Homer Price. I read the crazy doughnut story, which has been made into movies, dozens of times and especially loved it when the poor kid -- Rupert Black -- got the doughnut with the diamond bracelet. Even though the passage below would surely give some folks fits, there seems to be a guilelessness to its offensiveness, and Robert McCloskey was such a mensch that it's hard to get mad.

"(T)onight (Friday) was the dress rehearsal of the Pageant. Homer and Freddy and a couple of their friends were taking the part of Indians. They were going to be powdered all over with cocoa, striped with mercurochrome, and draped with towels around their middles. Homer had to get to rehearsal right on the dot, because he started the Pageant by rubbing two sticks together to make a fire. Most of the Pageant was historical, all about Ezekiel Enders and the founding of Centerburg. The organist of the African Baptist Church wrote the words and music for a long choral work, which the choir was going to sing all the while the Pageant was being acted."

William Thomas Jr. / Buckwheat

This is a studio portrait of William Thomas Jr., the child actor who played Buckwheat in the Little Rascals / Our Gang film shorts of the '30s and '40s. His was reputedly the longest continuing character in the popular serials. The serials were criticized by many for perpetuating harmful racial stereotypes, but celebrated by others for featuring black and white children co-existing amicably. Thomas left the series in '43 and entered military service. He never performed in another motion picture. He was not quite 50 when he died 40 years ago this October.

In White America / reflection

Much of my life has been about making discoveries and connections.

One of my earliest memories of serious theater was a production of Martin Duberman's "In White America," performed in a small chapel at Claflin College. It may have been reader's theater. It was 1970 or '71.

I was not familiar with the work but was riveted, chilled and touched by the stories, documented tales of personal and impersonal encounters between the races. The six member cast of black and white actors was a mix of students, faculty and guest performers. In looking back, I figure that by the time I saw this staging, the play had been circulating for a few years. It's original off-Broadway production in 1963 included Moses Gunn (a distinguished stage performer and co-founder of the Negro Ensemble Company) and Gloria Foster (later known to millennials as the Oracle in the Matrix films).

She won an Obie for her performance.

Duberman was born in 1930 the son of a Ukrainian immigrant. He is a historian, biographer and retired professor who was also a tireless civil rights and gay rights activist. In the preface to the 1964 edition of his play, Duberman wrote (in part):

"My starting point was the wish to describe what it has been like to be a Negro in this country (to the extent that a white man can describe it). Neither popular journalism nor professional history has made much effort to tell this story. Both have been dominated by whites, and the whites, whether from guilt, indifference, or hostility, have been slow to reveal the American Negro's past. The revelations are painful, but they must be faced if the present is to be understood, and the future made more tolerable."

Here are a couple of scenes from the play's Second Act.

Oscar Picks

Oscar prognostication is a harmless (and useless) activity that folks who love movies toss at anyone who will listen. I don't know the movie business well enough to really handicap any of the pictures that made the cut this year, but I know that "best" is such a loaded term that it is almost meaningless as a label for quality or importance.

"Big" does not necessarily equal "best," neither do "edgy," "uncompromising," "artful," "sincere" and "truthful." I would attach at least one of those words to each of the nominated pictures. Which is the best? HTFSIK? But here are my thoughts, FWIW.

"The Irishman" was huge, Scorsese's homage to Scorsese, and he's already been celebrated for directing a mob picture.

"Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood" was Tarantino playing in the same auteur's revisionist sandbox he played in with "Inglourious Basterds."

Haynes' "Joker" pulled no punches and Joaquin Phoenix was his usual uncannily committed self. He's protean and fascinating in a picture that puts a disturbing, painted face on gun violence. Maybe too sympathetic?

Gerwig's "Little Women" was a thoroughgoing, beautifully composed empowerment statement using familiar material. Though lovely, no surprises.

Mangold's "Ford v Ferrari" featured some thrilling racing sequences but lacked a firm emotional center. Waititi's "Jojo Rabbit" had tons of heart but satirizing Nazism has been done before and it didn't win then either.

Baumbach's "Marriage Story" is so raw and abrasive in its honesty that audiences likely felt battered by the scheming and vitriol.

This leaves Mendes' phenomenal cinematographic achievement "1917" and Bong Joon-ho's savage opera buffa of class warfare "Parasite."

If Academy voters pick "Parasite" as Best Foreign Picture, the big winner will likely be “1917."