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Tuesday, Nov 24, 2009
Mort Sahl, comedian
"Marching for publicity?"
"When Brando decided to march to Mississippi, he called me up one night and asked me to dinner. He's the only artist, one of a select few, whom I can separate from his character. I mean, his work is so monumental that I would stand in line to see him. In the past, I'd found him less than civil. For instance, at the time he directed and acted in the movie 'One-Eyed Jacks,' all the studios were jockeying and lobbying in the trade papers for awards. I took out an ad in the back of The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety and nominated him as the best director.
"I went over to his house and Richard Harris was there. Now, Brando prides himself on being cagey, and he said, 'I've got Harris here because I'm suing "Mutiny on the Bounty." Harris was in the cast and he can be my witness.' In other words, it wasn't just a free dinner. He was going to get that much out of Harris. Then he turned to me and said, 'Will you go to Mississippi on Sunday and march for us?' That's one thing about the liberals: they knew that when I march, nobody laughs. Brando said he was going to march for the Negroes in Mississippi. Did I want to go? I said I didn't. He said, 'It'll be great publicity.' I found that shocking, but I still don't think publicity motivates him." (Los Angeles, early 1960s)
[from "Heartland," by Mort Sahl (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976)]
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Knowlton Nash, broadcast journalist
"At civil rights march"
"As part of our [CBC] program [on the civil rights march], we interviewed Marlon Brando at the top of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. At that point I was halfway up the stairs and had the only microphone in that areas. So I tossed it up to reporter Kingsley Brown who was to do the interview, but my aim was bad and it struck Brando on the side of the head. Brown looked aghast and apologized while Brando massaged his head, slowly smiled, and still did the interview." (Washington, D.C., 1963)
[from "History on the Run: The Trenchcoat Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent," by Knowlton Nash (McClelland and Stewart, 1984)]
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Miriam Makeba, singer
"Strong opinions of Stokely Carmichael"
"... I perform at a small coffee house called the Ashgrove. It is on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood ...
"...
"... I look in the mirror of my tiny, two-by-four dressing room and there he is standing at the door. My mouth drops open and my eyes go pop!
"'I'm Marlon Brando. I've been asking for you to join us at our table.'
"... Brando stays for [the remaining sets] ... After, he asks me, 'Would you like to come and have some coffee with us?'
"We stop at his house ... Right away, Mr. Brando starts talking to me about South Africa. The next thing I know, we are arguing. He wants to know everything, and he has strong opinions. I must say, he is the first celebrity who has ever asked me about home. He wants to know when the Boers came. I tell him. He goes to the encyclopedia and says, 'That's not true! That's not what it says here!'
"I am mad. 'Well, who wrote that?' I won't let Mr. Brando or anybody tell me about South Africa. I tell him this, too.
"He laughs. 'Miriam, you have a split personality.'
"'I do?'
"'Yes,' he says. 'Because when you're singing you come alive. And then when you're off stage you're quiet. And now that I'm talking to you about South Africa, you become a lioness!'
"...
"Before he says good night and leaves me, he takes my hand and looks into my eyes. He smiles in a quiet and almost sad way. 'Miriam, you have something that most of us have lost. Something very special. And that's humility.'" (1963)
[from "Makeba: My Story," by Miriam Makeba with James Hall (New American Library, 1987)]
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Joan Baez, folk singer
Weary of everything
"I first saw Marlon Brando in person during the civil rights march on Washington, in 1963. He was standing about twenty feet away, surrounded by newsmen and stargazers; I was barefoot, leaning against a pillar on the Capitol steps, wearing a purple dress. I tried to see his face clearly, hoping he would glance over just once and look straight into my eyes. As he evaporated into the crowd my heart pounded so hard my body shook.
"Sometime in the late sixties I finally met Marlon Brando under the legitimate guise of raising money for some cause. When I stepped up to his front door [in Los Angeles] to greet him, he handed me a gardenia. I see the white gardenia now through a wistful, fragrant haze. I can say that he was a gentleman, and that he was funny. He seemed a little weary of everything, a little sad, though he told me that he was happy. We shared stories about crazy people we'd met as a result of being the object of other people's fantasies. Though he was aging somewhat it was not difficult to match up his eyes with the eyes of a young lion, the wild one, and all of my phantoms. Time was a veil. My memories of that meeting are as heavily laden with pathos as the gardenia was with its heavenly perfume."
[from "And a Voice to Sing With: A Memoir," by Joan Baez (Summit Books, 1987)]
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