The Great White Hope

Last updated

The Great White Hope
GreatWhiteHopePlay.jpg
Book cover of the play
Written by Howard Sackler
Characters
  • Jack Jefferson
  • Eleanor Bachman
  • Goldie
  • Tick
  • Pop Weaver
  • Dixon
  • Clara
  • Cap'n Dan
  • Al Cameron
  • Mama Tiny
  • Scipio
Date premiered1967
Place premiered Arena Stage
Washington, D.C.
Original language English
Subject Pugilism; racism
GenreDrama
Settingyears before and during WWI

The Great White Hope is a 1967 play written by Howard Sackler, later adapted in 1970 for a film of the same name. [1] [2]

Contents

The play was first produced by Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in October 1968, directed by Edwin Sherin with James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander in the lead roles. The play won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Subsequent touring companies of the play featured Brock Peters and Claudette Nevins in the lead roles.

The play is based on the true story of Jack Johnson (fictionalized under the character name "Jack Jefferson") and his fight against Jim Jeffries, Johnson's first wife, Etta Terry Duryea, the controversy over their marriage and Duryea's death by suicide in 1912. [3]

Background

While the play is often described as being thematically about racism, this is not how Sackler viewed his work. Though not denying the racist issues confronted in the play, Sackler once said in an interview, "What interested me was not the topicality but the combination of circumstances, the destiny of a man pitted against society. It's a metaphor of struggle between man and the outside world. Some people spoke of the play as if it were a cliché of white liberalism, but I kept to the line straight through, of showing that it wasn't a case of blacks being good and whites being bad. I was appalled at the first reaction." [4]

In a comment, reflecting on both the racist theme dealt with in the play and Sackler's notion that the play is about a man fighting society, Muhammad Ali, greatly impressed with James Earl Jones' performance in the play, reportedly commented to the actor, "Hey! This play is about me! Take out the interracial love stuff and Jack Johnson is the original me!" [5] He added, "You just change the time, date and the details and it's about me!" [6] Ali was fighting being drafted into the Army at the time on grounds of being a conscientious objector. [7]

Productions

The Great White Hope premiered at the Arena Stage in December 1967. [8] [9] [10]

The initial production at Arena Stage, paid for in part by two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, was so well-received that the entire original cast, including James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander, moved to Broadway. [11] It was the first time the cast of a regional theater production was brought to Broadway. [7] The play opened on Broadway on October 3, 1968, and closed on January 31, 1970, after 546 performances. [12] Using proceeds from his screenwriting contract, Sackler substantially funded the Broadway production by investing a reported US$225,000. [4] In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Jones won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and Alexander won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, as well as the Drama Desk Award for each, for their respective portrayals of Jack Jefferson and Eleanor Bachman. [12] [13] A recording of the production was released by Tetragrammaton Records.

Yaphet Kotto replaced Jones [14] and Maria Tucci replaced Alexander on September 8, 1969. [15]

In 2000, Arena Stage mounted a new production of The Great White Hope in honor of the theater's 50th season. [7]

Film adaptation

The Great White Hope was adapted by Sackler for a film released in 1970, directed by Martin Ritt, starring James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Chester Morris, Hal Holbrook, Beah Richards and Moses Gunn. Jones and Alexander, who both had starred in the theatrical version, each received best actor Academy Award nominations for their performances. The Oscars for their categories were ultimately presented to George C. Scott for Patton , and Glenda Jackson for Women in Love.

In the movie, the role of "the Kid," or the "great white hope," was played by professional heavyweight boxer James J. Beattie (6'9", 240 pounds), the #10-ranked world heavyweight contender and an Ali sparring partner.

"The Great White Hope"

The term, "the great white hope," reflects the racism and segregation of the era in which Jack Johnson fought. Johnson, the first African American to hold the World Heavyweight Championship title, was one of the best fighters of his generation. Yet, white reaction against Johnson's win and his very public relationships with white women was so strong that, in 1912, the United States Congress, concerned that film scenes of Johnson pummeling white boxers would cause race riots, passed a law making it illegal to transport prizefight films across state lines. [16] "The great white hope" is a reference to the white boxer who many hoped would finally defeat Johnson.

William Warren Barbour, who won the American and Canadian amateur heavyweight championship in 1910 and 1911, respectively, was "Gentleman Jim" Corbett's choice to be "the great white hope," but Barbour declined to take up the mantle. Some 30 years later, it was Barbour who, as U.S. Senator (R) from New Jersey in 1940, worked successfully to repeal the 1912 law prohibiting interstate transportation of boxing film footage. [16] About 30 years after that, William Warren Barbour's nephew, Thomas Barbour, played four small parts, including Sir William Griswald, in the Broadway production of The Great White Hope. [13]

The first "great white hope" boxer to accept the challenge was Jim Jeffries, who came out of retirement to fight Johnson unsuccessfully in 1910. Johnson's title was eventually lost to Jess Willard, a white boxer, in 1915. There was some controversy surrounding Willard's win, with Johnson claiming he threw the fight. In part because of white animosity toward Johnson, it was 20 years before another African American boxer was allowed to contend for the world professional heavyweight title. In 1937, Joe Louis defeated James J. Braddock, "The Cinderella Man," to become the second African-American boxer to hold the world heavyweight championship title. [7]

Awards and nominations

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Alexander</span> American-Canadian actress (born 1939)

Jane Alexander is an American-Canadian actress and author. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. From 1993 to 1997, Alexander served as the chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Margulies</span> American playwright

Donald Margulies is an American playwright and academic. In 2000, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Dinner with Friends.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Patrick Shanley</span> American writer

John Patrick Shanley is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Moonstruck. His play, Doubt: A Parable, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play; he wrote and directed the film adaptation and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Guare</span> American playwright and screenwriter (born 1938)

John Guare is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation.

Great White Hope may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arena Stage</span> Regional theater in Washington D.C.

Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C., and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. Its theater complex was completed for the company in 2010; it is called The Mead Center for American Theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie White</span> American actress (born 1961)

Julie K. White is an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in The Little Dog Laughed in 2007. She has also received three other Tony Award nominations for her performances in Airline Highway in 2013, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus in 2019 and POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022. She played Sam Witwicky's mother in Transformers film series (2007-2011).

Zelda Fichandler was an American stage producer, director and educator.

Howard Oliver Sackler was an American screenwriter and playwright who is best known for having written The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope enjoyed both a successful run on Broadway and, as a film adaptation, in movie theaters. James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander both starred in the original Arena Stage production of the play in Washington, DC, then brought their roles to Broadway and later to the film version. Both Jones and Alexander received Academy Award nominations for their work in the movie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MCC Theater</span> American theater company

MCC Theater is an off-Broadway theater company located in New York City. The theater was founded in 1986 by artistic directors Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey and William Cantler. Blake West joined the company in 2006 as executive director. MCC opened its current location in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, as The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, on January 9, 2019.

Edwin Sherin was an American-Canadian director and producer. He is best known as the director and executive producer of the NBC drama series Law & Order (1991–2005).

Daniel John Sullivan is an American theatre and film director and playwright.

The Gin Game is a two-person, two-act play by Donald L. Coburn that premiered at American Theater Arts in Hollywood in September 1976, directed by Kip Niven. It was Coburn's first play, and the theater's first production. The play won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Gretha Denise Boston is an American singer and actress.

They Knew What They Wanted is a 1924 play written by Sidney Howard. The play premiered on Broadway in 1924 and had three Broadway revivals, as well as a London production.

<i>The Great White Hope</i> (film) 1970 film by Martin Ritt

The Great White Hope is a 1970 American biographical romantic drama film written and adapted from the 1967 Howard Sackler play of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Earl Jones</span> American actor (born 1931)

James Earl Jones is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances on stage and screen, and "one of the greatest actors in American history". His deep voice has been praised as a "a stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas" to his projects. Over his career, he has received three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985. He was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009 and the Honorary Academy Award in 2011.

Pam MacKinnon is an American theatre director. She has directed for the stage Off-Broadway, on Broadway and in regional theatre. She won the Obie Award for Directing and received a Tony Award nomination, Best Director, for her work on Clybourne Park. In 2013 she received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for a revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She was named artistic director of American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California on January 23, 2018.

Sweat is a 2015 play by American playwright Lynn Nottage. It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015; it was produced Off-Broadway in 2016 and on Broadway in 2017. The play is centered on the working class of Reading, Pennsylvania.

References

  1. ↑ Clive Barnes (October 4, 1968). "Theater: Howard Sackler's 'Great White Hope'" (PDF). The New York Times .
  2. ↑ Vincent Canby (October 12, 1970). "'Great White Hope' Brought to Screen". The New York Times .
  3. ↑ Unforgivable Blackness Retrieved May 11, 2016
  4. 1 2 Lawson, Carol (October 15, 1982). "Howard Sackler, 52, Playwright Who Won Pulitzer Prize, Dead". The New York Times .
  5. ↑ Hamill, Pete (October 25, 1968). "Muhammad Ali: 'This is about Me'". Life. p. 68.
  6. ↑ Canby, Vincent (October 12, 1970). "'Great White Hope' Brought to Screen". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Ghost in the House: Jack Johnson's Legacy". PBS. January 11, 2005. Retrieved March 24, 2008.
  8. ↑ "Arena Stage History, see 1967-68" arenastage.org, accessed September 15, 2015
  9. ↑ "Great White Hope' Will Open On Oct. 3", The New York Times, May 10, 1968, p.5
  10. ↑ Barnes, Clive. "Theater: 'White Hope' Tale of Modern Othello, Opens in Capital: Howard Sackler's Play Given at Arena Stage Jack Johnson Depicted as a Tragic Hero", The New York Times, December 14, 1967, ISSN   0362-4331, p.57
  11. ↑ "Arena Stage Takes a Risk on The Great White Hope". National Endowment for the Arts. February 2, 2007. Archived from the original on July 11, 2009. Retrieved March 24, 2008.
  12. 1 2 "'The Great White Hope' Broadway" playbillvault.com, accessed September 15, 2015
  13. 1 2 "The Great White Hope". Internet Broadway Database . Retrieved July 10, 2009.
  14. ↑ "Yaphet Kotto Broadway" playbillvault.com, accessed September 15, 2015
  15. ↑ "Maria Tucci Broadway" playbillvault.com, accessed September 15, 2015
  16. 1 2 "Boxer's Triumph". Time . July 15, 1940. Archived from the original on March 10, 2007. Retrieved March 24, 2008.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.