Sidney Poitier: Narrator
Quotes
-
Narrator : In 1949, he went on a triumphant European concert tour. Between concerts, Robeson spoke out plainly as to what he believed and there was a severe reaction in the United States... At Warsaw, there were new changes in "Old Man River." The Mississippi was now the Old Man he didn't like to be... And "You gets a little drunk, And you lands in jail" became "You show a little grit, And you land in jail."
-
[first lines]
Narrator : There are moments in a great artist's life which should be remembered forever. Yet, for Paul Robeson, those moments were nearly obliterated, blotted out, by the fears and political anxieties which gripped America in the early nineteen hundred fifties.
-
Narrator : 1938, at Teruel, Spain, Robeson had come to the front to sing to the Republican soldiers. Somehow the shooting quieted down. Loudspeakers were put up and for a day a war stopped while two opposing armies listened to a man sing. In Spain, another change in the words of "Old Man River." "I'm tired of living, And scared of dying" became "We must keep fighting, Until we're dying." "Old Man River" was beginning to turn from a song of lament to a song of political protest.
-
Narrator : In 1928, Robeson opened in the London production of 'Show Boat'. And it's interesting that when he recorded Old Man River for the first time, a year earlier, he sang the original Hammerstein lyrics using the word 'niggers'.
Paul Robeson : [singing] Niggers all work on de Mississippi, Niggers all work while de white folks play, Pullin' dem boats from dawn to sunset
Narrator : By 1928, Robeson had persuaded Hammerstein to change the word to 'darkies' - which may seem less than any change at all, in terms of today's thinking, but the lyrics of Old Man River were eventually to change mightily in the years to come.
