Cinema Junkie: Viva Hollywood RICKY RICARDOOkay, I'm going to tell you your favorite bedtime story. Capero sita roja now, once upon a time aburama mujashita muy bonita. Calcium. Caperocia roja for cassian pretania on red bonnet.
BETH ACCOMANDOSettle in for a special Cinema Junkie story as we look to a book about Latinos in Hollywood. Welcome back to Listener supported KPBS Cinema junkie. I'm Beth Accomando. Whether you're looking for a last minute Christmas gift or just want to take a deep dive into film history, cinema Junkie has a two part book edition to help you out. First, I speak with author Luis Reyes about his book, Viva Hollywood the Legacy of Latin and Hispanic Artists in American Film that he wrote for TCM Library. And then for part two, I speak with Graham Skipper about his new ultimate illustrated guide to toho's Godzilla. Both books are perfect for either the cinephile who wants to add a well researched and entertaining book to their library, or for someone who's just starting out on a cinematic journey and wants to learn more about these topics. Luis Reyes is a scholar, author, and lecturer who specializes in the history of Latinos in the Hollywood film industry. He has written or cowritten such books as Hispanics in Hollywood, made in paradise, hollywood's Films of Hawaii and the South Seas, and made in Mexico, Hollywood South of the Border. He's also worked in Hollywood as a publicist, where he met such stars as Selma Hayek, Jennifer Lopez, and Andy Garcia early in their careers.
BETH ACCOMANDOHe's also appeared as a guest on TCM. And Viva Hollywood is part of the TCM library of books.
PROMOLights, camera, action. Whether it's in front of or behind the camera, the story of Hollywood cannot be told without the significant contributions of Latin and Hispanic artists. Impossible.
BETH ACCOMANDOI need to take one quick break before getting to my interview and revealing some fascinating facts about Latinos in Hollywood. I even learned some amazing behind the scenes information about Latinos working on one of my all time favorite films, the original King Kong. So join me on this deep dive into some amazing cinema history.
KING KONG CLIPAnd now, ladies and gentlemen, before I tell you anymore, I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a king and a god in the world he knew. But now he comes to civilization merely a captive, a show to gratify your curiosity.
BETH ACCOMANDOWelcome back to Cinema Junkie. As I mentioned, luis Reyes has been writing about Latinos in Hollywood for decades. But I began my interview by asking what got him started on this path?
LUIS REYESWell, I've been a movie fan of everyone. I've been passionate about movies since I was a kid. Didn't matter whether they were Latino or not. But being Latino, I did identify with some of the Latino stars, particularly Desi Arnez, because of the immediacy of I Love Lucy on television.
RICKY RICARDOAnd don't you make fun of my English.
LUCY RICARDOThat's English. How dare you say that to me?
RICKY RICARDOWhat did I say?
LUCY RICARDOI don't know, but how dare you?
LUIS REYESAnd then someone like Anthony Quinn, who was a Latino, but was able to portray so many different facets and ethnicities of humanity.
ANTHONY QUINNDid you say, dance? Come on, my boy, you get it?
LUIS REYESAnd that every ethnicity, nationality, identified with his characters and with him.
ANTHONY QUINNLet's go.
LUIS REYESBut on the same token, I love John Wayne and Joel McCray and everyone else, susan Hayward, all the people of my era. So when I graduated from college, I came to Los Angeles and I joined the organization Nosotros, which means we the people in Spanish. And it was the organization that was started by Ricardo Montalvan in 69, 70 in response to the Civil Rights movement, and also in response to the many disparaging stereotypes that had been part of Hollywood's legacy regarding Latinos. And there seemed to be very little improvement. So he started this organization to improve the image of Latinos and films, as well as improve the opportunities for Latino performers working in films and television. So every year, they would have a Golden Eagle Awards banquet to honor Latinos in the industry, or non Latinos who had helped to advance the cause of Latinos in the industry. At these banquet, I got to meet many of the stars that I had fallen in love with on the screen and on television. I got to meet Caesar Romero, ricardo himself. John hall, who had started those Arabian Nights fantasies with Maria Montez, Continflas, Robert Redford, Frank Sinatra. I mean, Frank Sinatra was one of the first people to help Nosotros set a fundraiser. I mean, he was Italian American, but he had faced discrimination in his early career. So he knew and he felt it. He was one of the first persons to step up and help Nosotros. Sammy Davis, Jr. All the people that I admired and loved on the screen. But what I realized and noticed was that there was no documentation of Latinos in Hollywood. Meeting these people, they would tell wonderful stories to each other. But later on, when I went to interview them, they were surprised that anyone would take an interest in their careers, because for many of them, it was just a job as you and I would go to the office to go to work, or to the factory to go to work. Their factory was the dream factory, which was Hollywood. So for them, it was just a job of work which they excelled at and which they took seriously and did well. But as far as that movies being recognized or television shows recognized 20 or 30 years into the future, and that anybody would really be interested in their careers, they were quite surprised.
LUIS REYESAnyway, that's basically what led me to write the book, start writing these stories down, was that no one was documenting them. There were plenty of books on Latin American cinema, plenty of books on Mexican cinema, but no one had documented the participation of American Latinos for the most part in Hollywood movies. So I decided to start writing down these stories of achievement of the early pioneers to the present day. And I came at the right time because I was able to get a lot of the classic movie stars, and I've grown up with a lot of the present day stars. So my career has parallel with a lot of the I worked with Salma Hayak on her first film. I worked with Jennifer Lopez on her first film with Andy Garcia, Edward James Olmos, pepe Serna, a lot of the prominent people of today. So I was able to bridge both the past and the present and even the future.
BETH ACCOMANDOTalk about how you wanted to organize this book, viva Hollywood.
LUIS REYESWell, it wasn't easy because there's so much material. When I first proposed a book, they said, oh, it's going to be a very small book. And I go, no, I don't think so, because Latinos did not work in a vacuum. We worked opposite all the major stars, and in the process, Latinos became stars in themselves. And we were there not only in front of the camera, but behind the scenes as well. So since we didn't work in a vacuum, it's part of the whole history of Hollywood, which many ethnic groups, nationalities, races participated in. Certainly there were restrictions, certainly there were obstacles of bias, of prejudice. Films reflect the society that produces them, and certainly films reflect that in their depictions. So I wanted to make sure that we documented the people not only in front of the camera, but behind the scenes as well. So I started giving a background of the diversity of the Latino experience and also dealing with somewhat with the stereotypes and the images that we grew up with because they were not invented by Hollywood. As you read in the book, these images come from historical narratives. They come from written narratives, from sociopolitical, from wars.
LUIS REYESSo many of these stereotypes took form before the movies were even invented. So the movies just put a picture on stereotypes that already existed and in the process, created some of their own.
BETH ACCOMANDOI have to say that my favorite chapter in the book was the one called Present and Accounted For Hollywood Film Classics. I mean, I feel like I know a lot about film, but that chapter just opened my eyes to some things because you highlight some of the behind the scenes people who worked on films that we don't really think of as having any kind of Latino context. Like King Kong.
KING KONG CLIPLadies and gentlemen, look at Kong. The 8th wonder of the world.
LUIS REYESCorrect. Marcel Delgado. He was an art student who was discovered by Willis O'Brien. And Marcel Delgado was the one that actually molded and sculpted the creatures, particularly King Kong. Not only the little models that appear huge on the screen, but also a giant hand, a practical hand. The hand that grabbed Fey Ray. And a head too. And then Mario Lady Naga who did all the background scenic painting. When you see Khan running around through the jungle those backdrops were painted backdrops by Mario Ladinaga. And Ladinaga also went on to do Citizen Cain.
CITIZEN KANELegendary was the Xanadu where Kubla Khan decreed his stately pleasure dome. Today almost as legendary as Florida Xanadu.
KING KONG CLIPWorld'S largest private pleasure ground.
LUIS REYESOkay, when you see Xanadu the Citizen cane mansion the reason it's so big is because of the paintings of Mario Lady Naga and then Casablanca. No one ever talks about Joy Page who played the Bulgarian girl in the film trying to get the letters of transit. And she's put into a compromised position by Colonel Reno, played by Claude Reigns. But people don't realize that she's Latina. Joy Page.
CASABLANCA CLIPMr. Rick, what kind of a man is Captain Reynolds? Just like any other man, only more so. I mean, is he trustworthy? Is his word. Oh, just a minute. Who told you to ask me that? He did. Captain Reynold did. I thought so. Where's your husband? At the roulette table trying to win enough for our exit visas. Of course he's losing. How long have you been married? Eight weeks. We come from Bulgaria. Things are very bad to Monsieur. The devil has the people by the throat. So Jan and I, we did not want our children to grow up in such a country. So you decided to go to America. Yes. But we have not much money and traveling is so expensive and difficult. It was much more than we thought to get here. And then Captain Renault sees us and he is so kind. He wants to help us. I'll bet. He tells me he can give us an exit visa. But we have no money. Does he know that? Yes. And he's still willing to give you a visa? Yes, sir. And do you want to know? Will he keep his word? He always has that.
LUIS REYESHer father was a Latino actor from Albuquerque, New Mexico whose name was really Don Page. But he started out in the Late Silence and early thirty s of sound films as Don Alvarado. And then recently we're talking about most recently Elvis. When you see that classic jailhouse rock.
JAILHOUSE ROCKNumber one through a party in the county jail the prison band was that they began to wait the band was jumping down the jump began to swing he should have had your knock down.
LUIS REYESJail it was done by a Latino, Alex Romero. Because at MGM they said oh, we're going to do this number with Elvis. Let's turn it into a Gene Kelly kind of musical number. And Alex Romero, who was the choreographer, goes I don't think that's going to work for Elvis. So he said, Elvis, what do you do? Naturally. What do you do when you do your stage presentations. What are your moves? What do you do? Elvis showed him. He said, okay, give me an hour. He went back in an hour. And he fashioned this choreographed this number, which is a classic musical number utilizing the moves that Elvis did naturally. And he backed it up with professional dancers in prison uniforms. And if you want to be contemporary about it, you could say that Elvis was the first male full dancer, so he was ahead of his time.
BETH ACCOMANDOYou've been writing about Latinos in Hollywood for decades now, but in writing this particular book, did you uncover anything through your research that surprised you?
LUIS REYESJust what surprised me was the amount of people that were involved in the industry. Just uncovering some of the people that maybe weren't as well known, and the breadth and scope of the participation of Latinos and some of the restraints that they had to go through. Because, as Ricardo Montevan would say, I don't mind if Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven can play a better Mexican bandit than me based on our talent, but don't discard me because of my last name. So I think now we're more easily accepting of people with different last names or foreign sounding last names. You can get used to Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, I guess you can get used to Jennifer Lopez or Antonio Banderas, okay? But one of the surprising things is the fact, number one, is that no surprise to me, but to the general public that we are not recent immigrants. Number one, latinos have been involved in the Hollywood film industry since its inception. The reason they came to Hollywood was the fact or Los Angeles was the fact that there was an available labor pool. And when you're starting a new industry, you need people to build sets.
LUIS REYESThey did a lot of westerns. You need people to ride horses, ranches, ETCA. Charlie Chaplin's, casting director, was Latino. One of the first film heroines, action stars was a woman, Myrtle Gonzalez. Okay? So we've been there since the beginning. And secondly was the fact that people say the Latinos had to change their names. No, everybody changed their names, okay? In order to get more theatrical or to fit into the image that either you as a performer or the studio felt was appropriate for what they were trying to sell you as, okay? So. I mean john wayne had a girl's name. Marion. Okay would carry grant have made it as archie bald leach? Okay. Or John Garfield was Julius Clarfinkle. So everybody changed their name. Rita hayworth was Rita Cancino. She even has film credits as Cancino, but she changed her name when she changed her image to Rita Hayworth. And Hayworth was her mother's name. So, I mean, Gilbert Rowland, his real name was Luis Alonzo. So everybody changed their name. It wasn't strictly because they just wanted to whatever the image was, it wasn't because they were ashamed of their image. No, or they wanted to hide their ethnicity.
LUIS REYESNo, it was just a matter of whatever was selling and got you the job. Like I said, Rita Hayworth, she was always proud of her Spanish heritage. Actually, when she got the opportunity to produce her own films what was the first film that she produced under her own production banner at Columbia? It was the loves of Carmen.
LOVES OF CARMEN CLIPLook at them, the bride. They paid out their last destiny to get rid of her.But it was worth it. The bride, she'll hate him, but you'll cling to him like a leech. There's a pio wife for you and the fine groom. In a week, you'll be beating her. There's a pile marriage for you. Shut up, you. You talk that way because nobody'd marry a gypsy like you. No. I could marry any man in Seville I wanted to, but I'd rather be dead. You here. I'd rather be dead than be the stale wife of the spiritless paleo buddy. Wellito, remember me, little pig of a paleo? I told you she'd catch you up. Little stupid.
LUIS REYESYou can't get any more Spanish than besee's opera and beze's character of garment. So it's all part of the same story of Hollywood in which so many different ethnicities I didn't realize that Billy Wilder, who wrote and directed some of the greatest American comedies like Some Like It Hot or dark films like Sunset Boulevard I didn't realize that he was a German emigrate. English was not his first language, but he mastered the English language, Anna Mae Wong, it was Chinese American. There's so many different ethnicities, as I've discovered that we weren't always aware of who they were. Well, Charlie Chaplin, the father of our industry one of the fathers of our industry was English, okay? That's what I'm saying. It's all part of the Hollywood story. A more complete picture of everyone who contributed to this great art form.
BETH ACCOMANDOAnd in trying to get information from the early silent days how difficult was it to kind of verify some of this information and find some of the names of these people?
LUIS REYESIt wasn't easy because a lot of people didn't document their information. Some people did try to hide their ethnicity or it wasn't a big deal for them. So they might have had Spanish last things but I wasn't sure if they were Spanish, if they were born here, if they came from Spain. And sometimes you could not verify because I had no way of verifying. I would read documents at the academy library. But they lied a lot of times or they exaggerated. They would say Anthony Quinn's mother was a descendant, direct descendant of an Aztec princess. Come on. Things like that. So you're going, Wait a second. They would do things with Lupe Valley where they would try to imitate imprint her the way she spoke with an accent, okay? The way she mangled the English language sometimes. And part of that was true. And part of that was an act on her part. Lupe Velez, to me, was very inspiring. I mean, she was a singer, a dancer, comedian, a legitimate actress. I mean, we just know her, if we know her at all from the Mexican Spitfire films that she did later on.
LUPE VELEZSo you want me to get out of his life so you can get him yourself? Well, you know what I think of you. Hello? She hung me up.
LUIS REYESBut she worked in her early career with some of the greatest directors of her era. I mean, she worked with DW. Griffith. She worked with Henry King. She worked with the man of 1000 faces, LAN Cheney. She was discovered by Douglas Fairbanks. So her career really needs a reevaluation because she did a lot of serious, legitimate work in silence and early sound that needs to be readdressed. And she was one of the pioneers to help the Mexican film industry because after she became a star here in the United States she went back to Mexico and did several films in Mexico that helped to jump start the Mexican film industry. She did that before Dolores del Rio did that. So that's one person that needs to be reevaluated.
BETH ACCOMANDOTCM has been doing this programming called Reframed where they look back at films that are problematic in one way or another because of stereotypes or plot points. What do you feel is the importance of kind of remembering or revisiting films where there are problematic things or stereotypes or cliches? Is it important for us to kind of see those, to place them in a context and to kind of see where movies have evolved from?
LUIS REYESIt's very important to see films in the context of the times because we respond to these films in a different way today than people did. Then again, we're a product of our society and the people with the way films reflect that society. So I think it's really important to discuss it because sometimes a lot of the portrayals were biased and were stereotyped but they did provide work for a lot of people. And we were there. So as somebody said, it doesn't matter what the characterizations were. We were there. Okay? We were represented. But I think it's important that we look at these films. But I'm also of the opinion that an actor is an actor and should play any role he or she is capable of portraying that they are capable of portraying and also that audiences will accept. In the past, there were very few opportunities for ethnic actors in leading roles for the most part because of societal restraints, industry restraints and the business restraints that occurred. Business decisions. Because they would say, oh, there are no Latino stars but if you don't give them the opportunity, how can they be? So it became kind of a self fulfilling prophecy.
LUIS REYESAnd then when you did have Latino stars they were relegated to stereotype or secondary roles like Pedro Armandari's and Dolores del Rio could play any role in Mexican films. But in American films, Armandari wound up playing being a supporting player. He wasn't the leading player. An example is Dolores del Rio. In her early career, she played lots of different things. But then as sound came in and audience tastes changed, she found herself quite limited in roles. So she went to Mexico, where she could play any kind of role, and she did, and she became one of the leading stars of Mexican cinema. But she did a film called La Otra, which was about two sisters, a good sister and a bad sister conniving and one commits murder. Great little movie. It was shot and done in Mexico. When Dolores came back to Hollywood, what was she asked? To play a Native American, which was okay. But she was a Native American mother to Elvis Presley inflaming Star.
FLAMING STAR CLIPThanks, sir. I'm dying. No, ma, I can feel close to me, the flaming star of death. Stop talking like that, mom, I don't think it's too bad.
LUIS REYESAnd Native American again, along with Ricardo Montevan and Gilbert Roland in Cheyenne Autumn for John Ford. But consequently, Betty Davis did a remake of La Otera, which Dolores could have played easily. But no, betty Davis wound up making a remake of it, and they called it Dead Ringer. But Dolores didn't get that opportunity in Hollywood films. She was kind of relegated to certain roles, and that was it. Same thing with Copy Burado. The same thing. Another Mexican Kin actress. Again, opportunities were there, but they were limited in certain kind of roles. But within that sphere, Latinos worked a lot, because Latinos, because of their look, because there are diverse looks, we can play many different types of roles, okay? So we could play Native American. We could play Polynesian, South Sea Islander, Italian, Greek, as the Quinn did in Zorba the Greek. So within that sphere, there was more accessibility to more roles, which provided work and exposure.
BETH ACCOMANDOAnd Luis, you also have a chapter dedicated to what you call authentic voices. And these are filmmakers who are reimagining latinos on the screen.
LUIS REYESNow, as Latinos, we're starting Latino filmmakers, we're starting to define our own image within the Hollywood system. So people like Lee Valdez, probably the most important filmmaker, Latino, American Latino filmmaker, is Robert Rodriguez because he does films that are about Latinos. But as part of the American fabric of America, he took an actor that I call him the Mexican Charles Bronson, Danny Trejo, and made him a star with Machete. I give credit to the Mexican filmmakers. They have certainly profoundly affected Hollywood. But their sensitivity is a little different because they grew up in Mexico. They're not Americans from here. They have contributed. The three amigos have contributed. They're geniuses. But their sensitivity is different because they grew up in Mexico, they didn't grow up here. So that's what we're now with Luis Valdez, Robert Rodriguez, we're starting to define our own image as part of the American experience and the Hollywood experience. So we're getting away from those stereotypes.
BETH ACCOMANDOWell, I want to thank you very much for writing Viva Hollywood.
LUIS REYESWell, thank you, Beth.
BETH ACCOMANDOThat was author luis Reyes. His new book for TCM is Viva Hollywood. It makes the perfect gift or the perfect addition to your library. On the next episode, I'll speak with Graham Skipper about his toho approved ultimate illustrated guide to Godzilla. And again, I discovered a fascinating bit of trivia about one of my favorite films. So if you want to discover something shocking about Hetero, join me for my interview with Graham Skipper. That wraps up another edition of KPBS listener supported Cinema Junkie. If you enjoy the podcast, then please share it with a friend, because your recommendation is the best way to build an addicted audience. You can also help by leaving a review till our next film fix. I'm Betha Gamondo, your residence and Majunky.
