The AUDELCO Theater Awards (1980)

The headline on the New York Post of November 17 [1980] forewarned readers that it would "SNOW!" that night. And the snow came. So did the rain and the cold night air that nipped at noses and fingertips. But November 17 was a special night for the black theater community. It was the night of the Eighth Annual AUDELCO Black Theatre Awards ceremony during which awards in sixteen categories would be presented. And it would take something stronger and more devastating than a cold snap to keep people away.

These were theater people, a dauntless lot. Elegantly dressed in fur coats, evening gowns, and tuxedos, they filled the 750-seat ultra-modern Aaron Davis Hall/Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts at City College in Harlem to honor their own. The love and respect they felt was evident in the abundance of smiles, kisses, embraces, and handshakes bestowed on their colleagues before they entered the theater. It was also evident by the thunderous applause and cheers that greeted the announcement of each nominee's name.

The audience may also have been applauding and cheering the fact that November 17, 1980 marked the return to Harlem of  AUDELCO (Audience Development Committee)*, after an absence of two years because the organization was unable to find adequate space. After all, Harlem has long been the entertainment capital of black America. Many of our most significant black artists grew up and/or launched their careers in this world-famous community. So the awards were more than just a celebration of contemporary black achievement in theater. They were a tribute to Harlem's glorious past, a past which has given us people such as Earle Hyman,** one of four recipients of the AUDELCO Outstanding Pioneer Award for 1980.

 Fellow actor Frederick O'Neal worked with Hyman in the American Negro Theatre in the 1940s when Hyman became a member at age 17. Here is what O'Neal said about this remarkable actor who studied the plays of Ibsen and the Norwegian language and has played Othello more times than any other actor, living or dead:

"Earle spent four or five years playing with the Norwegian State Theatre. ...[O]ne of those years Earle won the award for the best artist of the season. ...[O]nly two performers have won it since its inception. And the only other person...was Charlie Chaplin.

"There is a bust of Earle," continued O'Neal, "in the State Theatre in Oslo today."

Earle Hyman was not present at the awards ceremony because he was in Norway directing a play. His award was accepted by Owen Dodson, the director, playwright, and poet.

While Debbie Allen and Gregory Hines, the co-hosts, kept the audience in stitches with sight gags and witty comments, the basketball player Earl Monroe, the actress Josephine Premice, and the dancer Judith Jamison were among those presenting the awards to overjoyed recipients.

Amidst all this glitter and gaiety were a few serious moments. Most notably Ossie Davis's short and eloquent speech upon accepting the AUDELCO Board of Directors Award for his wife, Ruby Dee, and himself. This award honored their lifelong contribution to the black theater.

"If we are ever to become Africans again," remarked Davis, "we must do it first through our art."

It was past midnight when the Eighth Annual AUDELCO Awards ceremony ended. The audience streamed out of the theater and into the lobby where drinks and hors d'oeuvres awaited them. Many people moved through the crowd, eating, drinking, and chatting at the same time. They were having a good time and it seemed as if they didn't want the evening to end.

* Author's Note: AUDELCO was founded in 1973 by Vivian Robinson (1926-1996). It's aim, says its website, was "to stimulate interest in and support of performing arts in black communities."

** According to the entertainment website IMDb.com, Earle Hyman (1926-2017) portrayed Russell Huxtable, the father of Bill Cosby's character, Dr. Cliff Huxtable, in 41 episodes of The Cosby Show (1984-1992).

The manuscript for this article was recently found in a folder and was written on November 26, 1980. I presumably wrote it for either the New York Amsterdam News or the Black Theatre Alliance Newsletter. This article has been slightly edited.

The Life And Murder Of A Gay Actor

Scott Simon, the host of NPR's Weekend Edition, recently did a fifteen-minute segment in which he interviewed the novelist Thomas Mallon about his latest book, Up With the Sun (Knopf, 2023).

The book is a biographical novel about Dick Kallman, a closeted gay former TV and movie actor-turned-antiques dealer, who was murdered along with his life partner Stephen Szladek in February 1980 in their Manhattan apartment by three burglars. (Both men were gunshot victims.) The trio stole paintings, jewelry, and other items from the apartment. They were later caught and convicted but the stolen items were never recovered.

When Mallon mentioned that Kallman was the star of the short-lived sit-com called Hank (1965-1966), it didn't ring any bells for me until I read a description of the show on Wikipedia and IMDb.com. Kallman played Hank Dearborn, a young man thirsting for higher education, who illegally audits college classes by assuming the identity of absent students, with the help of a professor, played by Lloyd Corrigan.

In 2010, an anonymous commenter on the website datalounge.com, which ran a brief mention of the murders and theft, asked, "Was there ever a book written on the crime?" The answer now is an emphatic yes, although the book is a fictionalized story. Maybe Up With the Sun will inspire someone to do a true-crime retelling. In the meantime, I'm hoping the book, described by the publisher as "part crime story, part showbiz history, and part love story," will be as enjoyable as other fictional Hollywood books such as When the Stars Come Out by Rob Byrnes (Kensington, 2006) and Father of Frankenstein (later renamed Gods and Monsters when it became a film) by Christopher Bram (Dutton, 1995).

The Slap That Was Seen Around The World

According to People magazine (May 9, 2022 issue), actor Will Smith traveled to India right after slapping comedian/actor Chris Rock at the Oscars on March 27. Smith slapped Rock because Rock made a joke about Smith's wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who has hair loss as a result of alopecia.

The trip to India was "for spiritual purposes, to practice yoga and meditation." Too bad Smith didn't do those things prior to Oscar night. He would have avoided being banned by the Academy for ten years. Some people have to learn the hard way.

Humphrey Bogart's F.Y. Fund

In 1934, Humphrey Bogart starred on Broadway as a gangster in Robert Sherwood's The Petrified Forest. The play (later to become a movie also starring Bogart) was so successful, it allowed Bogart to put aside some money in what he called the F.Y. fund. (The F.Y. no doubt stood for Fuck You.) The F.Y. fund, writes Stefan Kanfer in Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart (Vintage Books/Random House, 2011), was "money that would give him the freedom to spurn trivial roles from now on."

We should all follow Bogart's example and establish a F.Y. fund. It would be the perfect safety net.

Queen Latifah As Bessie Smith In A Made-For-TV Biopic

The multi-talented Queen Latifah stars as blues singer Bessie Smith in the biopic Bessie. It premieres tonight  on HBO. (Mo'Nique co-stars as Smith's fellow blues singer Ma Rainey.) I learned of the film several weeks ago when I saw an ad for it on the side of a city bus.

Bessie Smith, who was called "The Empress of the Blues," died in a car accident in 1937 at the age of  43.

Unfortunately I won't be able to watch the film because I don't subscribe to cable TV. But I look forward to seeing it when it comes out on DVD.

A Hollywood Romance Story

On the table in front of the Harlem Children's Zone's Baby College on Seventh Avenue were several books, all offered for free. A sign in the window cautioned passersby to limit themselves to one book.
I chose Audrey and Bill: A Romantic Biography of Audrey Hepburn and William Holden by Edward Z. Epstein, a celebrity biographer. To my surprise it was an "Advance Uncorrected Proof" for a book published last month (April). I seldom come upon free books published that recently.

Hepburn and Holden's short-lived romance, which began when they co-starred in Billy Wilder's Sabrina, should be fascinating reading.

Ian McKellen As Rupert Murdoch?

If there is ever a theatrical biopic or TV miniseries planned on the life, times, and media empire of Rupert Murdoch, an excellent candidate to play the role would be Ian McKellen, who bears some resemblance to the media mogul.