…has an air of great power. The dudes have envied him for so long.
Wil Haygood of the WashPost gives us a nice appreciation of Ron O’Neal, aka Priest, the original Superfly, who died last week of cancer.
Bonus for Central Ohio readers: Some nice details of black life in my hometown circa the era of the film’s release. I flipped when I saw the reference to Lee’s department store on Mount Vernon Avenue, which advertised on the Top 40 stations for years, using the Bobbettes’ “Mr. Lee” as background music.
I saw Ron O’Neal as Superfly, in a similarly memorable evening, and also as Othello at Stratford. In between, there was his turn as the Cuban commander in “Red Dawn.” That, folks, is some range.
KCK said on January 17, 2004 at 1:02 pm
I lived and worked on the near-east side in 71-72. Lived on Franklin Park West in a converted ex-mansion with another UAHS alum; the landlord described the neighborhood as “mixed”, which it was after we moved in. Lots of folks from the ‘hood assumed we were undercover cops, no other explanation for a couple of white boys to be hangin around the area. I worked for the city parks and rec dept at Maryland Park swimming pool, which was one block north of Mt Vernon, as a lifeguard. Vernon Tailoring on Mt Vernon was another source for some fine threads. I even worked a few months at “the Buckeye” as it was called (Buckeye Steel) as a steelworker to get some extra traveling money – then split for ‘Frisco.
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mtk said on January 19, 2004 at 4:11 pm
Red Dawn… haven’t thought about that movie in a long time. How wrong it was — the idea of Russian paratroopers dropping into the U.S. and winning against U.S. forces on our own home soil. Reality was so inconceivably 180% the other direction.
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