Growing up as a white Jewish kid in London in the 1960’s carried with it a great deal of cultural delights in a decade that was hailed as ‘swinging,’ but as I grow older I realise that my slice of middle-class England was so frightfully British.
We may have given birth to the Beatles and the whole Liverpool sound back then, but everything was still white and far too wholesome.
We never had our version of Ellis Haizlip who I am just now embracing and who was responsible for a whole new slew of rich black uncensored avant-garde culture on TV, the likes of which have never been since on our screens ever since. A new documentary co-directed by Haizlip’s niece Melissa finally acknowledges his remarkable contribution to both TV and black culture.
“Mr Soul!” is a glorious celebration of Haizlip’s achievement in his efforts to change the whole landscape of TV programming, which serves as a great catch-up for Brits (like me) who had sadly missed out on his work at the time.
Haizlip was a well-known producer of Black theater when he was approached in the late 1960’s to help create a “Black Tonight Show” on TV.. .He accepted the offer on the condition that the program was more original than just apeing the existing successful ‘white’ one.
So soon after it started in 1968 Soul! quickly became the most viewed TV program for many Black Americans, who up to then had rarely seen themselves reflected on the small screen. Haizlip started his run with well-meaning by rather awkward presenters, and so quickly ended up doing that job being the face of the show too.
The five year run that Soul! enjoyed on American TV was also one of the most turbulent times in US history and Haizlip never shied away from screening from what could be considered as politically controversial. Unlike most TV producers of the time he was a quietly spoken intellectual who nevertheless insisted on bringing his own vision of “Black love and Black strength and Black encouragement” to this predecessor of PBS.
Melissa Haizlip and her co-director Samuel D. Pollard used a wealth of wonderful archival footage from the very first TV appearance of Patti Labelle singing “Somewhere over the Rainbow” to jazz avant-gardists such as Max Roach and Rahsaan Roland Kirk
However what Haizlip and his team so successfully established was a totally new program format by combining the very best black entertainers (he gave Ashford & Simpson their very first break) with the black political rhetoric of James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Stokely Carmichael, Kathleen Cleaver, and Sidney Poitier.
The latter benefited from being live and without the censor’s 7 minute delay at the beginning . (And when it was imposed on him Haizlip insisted that the bleep be very loud and noticeable)
Hazilip had impeccable taste as his quests over the years read like a who’s who of music, dance, theater, literature and politics. Even more incredible was that all this power had been entrusted in him when he was an openly gay man.
He put people of color front and foremost on mainstream television in an era where they were never (or very rarely) on other channels. Not only that it was first class programming that somehow achieved the very delicate balance of being both entertaining and very informative.
It was of course really all too good to be true and when Richard Nixon swept into power with his enormous hatred of all things liberal, the writing was on the wall for this program and so much else on Public Television.
However as this excellent documentary clearly demonstrates the legacy of Hazilit and Soul can never be underestimated for the indelible mark they left on black culture at that time. If you compare it to present day television which has become come so commercially driven and far too castrated politically, it really makes you wish for the return of these good old days.
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