Last night (after much nail-biting), I posted a story on race relations in America, pre-1970s that suggested — based, no not on any pro-Southern, pro-white ideology (which I have none of — au contraire) but based on a certain amount of (ahem)… evidence — that members of the civil rights movement (white or black) perhaps did not always suffer as much at the hands of murderous Southern racists as some of them like to remember… (This coming from a blond male with blue eyes took some daring, you must admit…)
Might it be that the narrative, notably all the movies that we get from Hollywood, is slightly exaggerated?!
I have more than one reason to believe so, notably when I came upon a series of TV show excerpts from the 1960s. In "What's My Line?", part of the program was to have blindfolded jury try to figure out the identity of a given celebrity answering their yes-or-no questions. The mystery challenger therefore would necessary change his or her voice.
If you've never heard Sean Connery speak with the voice of a girl, you'll want to check it out…
But not just Sean Connery, also… Muhammad Ali.
And check out Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole: there is no way that they can change their voices to pretend to be a girl!
(But be forewarned, once you start watching the line-up of 20th century celebrities, it's hard to stop…)
In any case, check out how much fun the former Cassius Clay is having. Having with — white people!
Isn't this different from what we get from biopics of one civil rights martyr after another?
I have to admit I haven't seen Ali. But somehow I doubt that Michael Mann included the scene of Muhammad Ali as the mystery challenger on What's My Line.
