So this morning, I looked it up, and sure enough, I found I Passed For White, with a trailer available on Youtube! I was even more surprised to find that this film stars one of my favorite actors, heartthrob James Franciscus, in one of his very early roles.
The movie is based on the memoir of the same name by Reba Lee (a pen name), as she told it to Mary Hastings Bradley, a prolific author of mysteries, travel books and short fiction.
Wikipedia provides the information about the book from its dust jacket:
Reba Lee is a young Negro woman whose skin is almost white. Brought up in Chicago's vast colored neighborhoods, she knew quite early that something made her different from her darker family and schoolmates. Finally, grown-up and with a job, she ran away from home to another city and passed herself successfully as a white girl. Now began a difficult and tense, although fascinating, life for Reba. Intelligent and quick-witted as well as beautiful, she soon made a circle of friends for herself; listening, watching, imitating, she began to learn the knack of living in a white world, and outwardly at least, she was as assured and poised as any of the people she met. And then she met a man and fell in love with him and he with her. They were engaged, married.
Fighting to keep her hard-won happiness, the secure happiness of being a white woman married to an attractive white man, Reba kept at bay the strain of a life of constant lying and an ever-present sense of danger. Until, with the knowledge that she was pregnant, came the enveloping terror that the baby might be dark-skinned. "Reba Lee", naturally, is a pen name. Mary Hastings Bradley, well known in America for her mystery stories and travel books, has set down Reba's story as it happened, simply and with its considerable natural suspense, making only the changes necessary to protect all of the people concerned.
After reading the dust jacket description and watching the trailer, I'm dying to read the book and see the movie!
Are you familiar with either one? Also, have you ever known or heard of anyone who "passed for white"? Not necessarily black to white, but anyone of a non-Anglo group who passed for Anglo.
Thanks for visiting and have a great week!
15 comments:
Very interesting and sad that the author didn't or couldn't feel comfortable embracing exactly who she was rather than trying to pass for something she wasn't. Sounds like a fascinating book and movie.
It seems that the people who do pass lead incredibly painful lives, especially if they cut off ties with their families. Sad:(.
I've never heard of that one...but I'll be looking for it, too. Gotta love that movie poster...can it get any more Pulp Fictiony?
@Teri Anne: Tell me about it, LOL!
I hadn't seen or heard of this movie either! When I saw the title, I was wondering if it was about the actress you profiled here a few months ago (whose name now escapes me). Fascinating story!
I profiled Fredi Washington a few months back. This actess is Sonya Wilde. I'm not sure whatever happened to her.
We haven't heard of this one....
I thought Imitation of Life and Pinky were the only movies around about passing. I guess those are the only ones that I know of!
Wow - I can't even imagine how difficult that would be. No ties to family, constant worry. Intense.
I agree. Some have done it, but I can only imagine their pain.
I haven't heard of the film, or the book before.
Yup--I don't think many people have.
Passing, by Nella Larsen, is a classic on this topic. Reading that and the occasional short story - it was a popular plot in African American lit of the 20s and 30s - it's often depicted as causing a kind of soul sickness.
Apart from the fact that Reba Lee lived before 1967, there is still evidence that people whose skin tone is a darker shade than "socially acceptable" continues to be problematic at least in parts of the USA.
Ms Lee's capabilities earn her job offer as a typist yet her race of "Negro" demotes the employment prospects to an elevator operator!
Similarly, here in Australia, when a light skinned Indigenous person signed rental agreement which was rescinded when her husband was discovered to have darker tone, despite both having permanent work.
Character, ability, ought to hold more sway than how much skin pigment melatonin creates in an individual.
I'm grateful that God loves us equally. It would behove us to respect His workmanship.
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