Tag: marlon brando

Civil Rights Roundtable 1963

Post author By Ambrose Heron
Post date 03/03/2011

The Documentary Channel has posted a fascinating round table discussion of the Civil Rights movement from 1963.

Hosted by David Schoenbrun of CBS, it took place on that day of March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28th 1963. and features James Baldwin, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Sidney Poitier.

Brando talks about his awakening and how it will affect other dispossessed minorities, saying the march is:

“one step closer to understanding the human heart”

Heston talks about picketing restaurants in Oklahoma and how he could no longer pay lip service to:

“a cause that is so urgently right in a time that is so urgently now”

When the discussion broadens out to the wider subject of human freedoms around the world, the parallels with recent protests in the Middle East are hard to ignore.

> The Documentary Channel
> Find out more about African-American Civil Rights Movement at Wikipedia

Tags charlton heston, harry belafonte, james baldwin, marlon brando, sidney poitier

Amusing Interesting

Meet Marlon Brando

Post author By Ambrose Heron
Post date 08/06/2010

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This footage of Marlon Brando doing a press junket in 1965 is hilarious.

It took place at Hampshire House in New York and features him talking to a variety of journalists about Morituri, a World War II film which also starred Yul Brynner, Janet Margolin and Trevor Howard.

As the voiceover says at the beginning, the reporters ask predictable questions but he gives few predictable answers.

My guess is that he was was deeply fed up with the process but decided to have a few drinks and enjoy talking about anything but the film.

You can also check out Part 2 and Part 3.

Highlights include:

The way he admits open scepticism about the whole business of promoting a Hollywood film.
His still-relevant insight into the ‘merchandising aspect’ of the press (just substitute Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor for Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie)
The interviewer who cuts to Brando whilst he is eating roast beef and vegetables.
The bit where he speaks on the street to a French TV crew – in fluent French – before asking a random woman about Civil Rights.
A discussion of a baboon and man’s capacity for violence.
A German-speaking contest with another journalist
The way he chats up a young female journalist (“How old are you? 21 in March?”) who turned out to be Miss USA the previous year.