Southern Bookman

Shaquille O'Neal opens new door for media diversity

Former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, one of the most successful black TV personalities, has made a major commitment to increasing media diversity.

O'Neal announced the creation of a new ad agency that will expand opportunities for minority creative professionals.

Based in his adopted hometown of Atlanta, the agency will be called "Majority" because it seeks a talent pool that's 75 percent "black, brown, women and LGBTQ," co-founder and CEO Omid Farhang told the Wall Street Journal. 

“Most agencies still struggle to meet a 25% diversity target,” Mr. O’Neal said in a telephone interview with the WSJ. “We want to flip that diversity ratio to turn the minority into the majority.

“I’m just motivated to do this in a way to create new opportunities,”  he told the newspaper. “A lot of people talk about it. I’m tired of talking about it. I want to do something about it. I just want to make progress.”

While identified as an ad agency, Majority is well-positioned to expand into marketing and public relations, drawing from Atlanta's music, film and media businesses, as well as image-savvy corporations like Delta, Coca-Cola and UPS.

If successful, Majority could revitalize Atlanta's ad industry, which has withered since the 1960s.

O'Neal will not involve himself in Majority's day-to-day operations but will participate in conference calls, give advice and generate deals using his contacts as a TV pitchman. Farhang, an industry veteran, says the agency's diversity will build business opportunities.

The ad agency is the latest venture for O'Neal, one of the most successful entrepreneurs among former pro athletes. Along with endorsing a variety of products, O'Neal owns a number of Papa John's Pizza and Auntie Annie's pretzel franchises.

The owner of Midtown Atlanta's iconic Krispy Kreme restaurant recently destroyed by fire, O'Neal endeared himself to the city by vowing to rebuild the beloved doughnut shop.

O'Neal's also looking to purchase Reebok from Authentic Brands group, according to the WSJ article. Last fall, he participated in the launch of a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, to make media and technology acquisitions.

Along with fellow former Laker Magic Johnson, O'Neal is gaining recognition as a business legend as well as an all-time NBA great.

Pro basketball fans love the former LSU All-American's jousts with Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson Jr. on TNT's NBA show, often more entertaining than its accompanying game.

An all-star center for championship teams with the Lakers and Heat, O'Neal stands out for his witty sallies with Barkley and Smith, and his astute understanding of the game.

While O'Neal has expressed political ambitions and explored a law enforcement career, he has not spoken out on black issues as much as Barkley, and current Laker superstar Lebron James. O’Neal’s new agency shows he’ll be more engaged in widening the playing field for minorities. 

 

 

 

Norman Lear, Jane Fonda steal the show at Golden Globes

Norman Lear and Jane Fonda received special Golden Globes awards Sunday night, nostalgic nods to a vanished entertainment environment.

The 1950s and 1960s are revisited in many of today's productions that received Golden Globes recognition. Lear and Fonda rocketed to fame in that era of media uniformity, now as distant as that of the silent movies.

Yet, the Lear and Fonda career retrospectives broadcast Sunday night showed their defining work as more revolutionary than anything in the Netflix era.

Lear's "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons" and "Maud" changed American culture, unlike "The Queen's Gambit," "Emily in Paris," "Schitt's Creek" and "The Crown." Fonda's "Klute," “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They” and "Coming Home" excel over "The Trial of the Chicago 7,"  featuring Fonda's ex-husband Tom Hayden, and the overrated "Mank" and "That Night in Miami."

Yes, kids, my boomer arrogance strikes again.

The 98-year-old Lear flourished in an era when three networks produced all of American television. The 83-year-old Fonda gained stardom when the big Hollywood studios still ruled, although the films she appeared in were among those that shattered the old Hollywood model in which her father, Henry Fonda, rose to fame.

While NBC broadcast the Golden Globes, touting new and established network productions, not one show or star from NBC, CBS, ABC and late-comer Fox received a Golden Globes nomination. All of the TV honorees came from streaming services, dominated by Netflix, which has supplanted HBO as the leader in "quality TV."

Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon's Prime Video, HBO Max, Hulu and Apple now control the movie business. The Covid shutdown of theaters has made streaming services the primary distribution model for films.

Now, Time Warner puts its movies directly onto HBO Max as well as showing them in theaters, making HBO as much of a player in film as TV. All of the movies favored to receive Oscar nominations have much bigger audiences on TV screens than in movie theaters.

Even with Covid slowdowns, the streaming services are churning out a glut of new productions, often more artistically challenging than the superhero franchise flicks that now dominate Hollywood.

But Lear and Fonda's shows and films still stand out for their originality and breaking of barriers.

 

Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke talk things over in "One Night in Miami"

It's a dull party when Malcolm X invites Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Cassius Clay to his hotel room for talk and vanilla ice cream after Clay wins the heavyweight boxing championship on Feb. 25, 1964, in Miami.

But the dramatic intensity builds to a knockout punch in director Regina King and writer Kemp Powers' "One Night in Miami," showing on Amazon Prime.

The four really did get together after Clay beat Sonny Liston in Miami to take the heavyweight crown at age 22.

But there's little historical record of what they said to each other. Powers, who wrote the screenplay based on his play, imagines an impassioned debate over black civil rights.

A raging dispute between the popular soul singer Cooke and the Black Muslim leader Malcolm brings the film's dramatic climax.

Malcolm accuses Cooke of pandering to white popular tastes and not stirring protest with his music. Cooke defends himself, pointing out that his song-publishing and recording company increases opportunities for black artists.

Brown and Clay - soon to announce his membership in the Nation of Islam and his name change to Muhammad Ali - also express the ambiguities of black fame.

Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm, Eli Goree as Clay/Ali, Aldis Hodge as Brown and Leslie Odom Jr. as Cooke raise the film above an almost fatal profusion of flaws.

After a sputtering, aimless start, the gathering at Malcolm's room brings focus and momentum for a rousing finish. What risks terminal dullness succeeds like a well-made play.

Goree's portrayal of Clay/Ali is uncannily accurate, down to the register of the fighter's famous voice. At times, Goree's too flamboyant, edging toward caricature. He captures Ali's ebullient spirit, with a dose of implausible self-reflection. His increasing qualms about Muslim life make his immediate conversion unconvincing, countering Clay's historical enthusiasm.

As the tormented, introspective Malcolm, Ben-Adir delivers the film's defining role. Alienated from Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, he's planning to leave and form his own organization. Ben-Adir portrays Malcolm as a black American Hamlet, torn between intellectual rationality and emotional turmoil.

The film implies that Muhammad conspired with the FBI in Malcolm's assassination almost exactly a year later. Increasingly paranoid, Malcolm keeps glancing at shadowy figures whom he believes are following him.

In one of the film's dramatic highlights, he's shown fleeing with his family when their home is firebombed.

The film in one of its most glaring inaccuracies implies that Ali followed Malcolm, when the boxer turned against his mentor and remained loyal to the Nation of Islam founder.

Known for his stunning portrayal of Aaron Burr in "Hamilton," Odom gives the most in-depth performance. His Cooke ranges from hip show-biz self-indulgence - he, in contrast to Malcolm stays at the ritzy Fontainebleau - to reflective self-doubt.

Suggesting that Cooke went on to greater success, the movie neglects to mention his death less than a year later in a sordid murder at a seedy Los Angeles motel.

Hodge as Brown gives the most conventional performance, showing signs of the violence that has marred Brown's career. He expresses Brown's primitive attitudes toward women that match his history of sexual abuse.

All of the talk of black dignity clashes with the group's dehumanization of Liston. Clay taunts Liston as an ugly bear, and Malcolm and the others also view the fighter as a brutal beast.

While several references are made to contemporary events - Clay's meeting with the Beatles in Miami a short time before the fight, the killing of four young girls in the Birmingham Church bombing - no mention is made of Martin Luther King and his civil rights movement, despite its prominence.

Outside of the controlled space of the hotel room, King's direction is uneven. The play is enlivened by secondary performances by Beau Bridges as a family friend of Brown who shockingly displays his racism, Michael Imperioli as a bizarrely ebullient Angelo Dundee, Ali's manager, and Lance Reddick as a menacing Black Muslim bodyguard.

The movie takes even more historical liberties than Aaron Sorkin's Netflix production "The Trial of the Chicago 7." The two films, both streaming after limited theatrical runs, give alternating visions of 1960s protest movements.

"One Night in Miami" is similarly flawed, but more coherent dramatically. At the end of the film, Odom's stirring performance of Cooke's anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come" renews the promise of the '60s.

 

Happiness is a warm puppy for Raphael Warnock, Democrats

Let's hear it for Alvin the Beagle, who made Snoopy proud in aiding Raphael Warnock's Senate victory in Georgia.

Alvin was the star of Warnock's endearing TV ads that effectively countered incumbent Kelly Loeffler's hysteric attacks about the pastor of Martin Luther King's Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Rivaling Naomi Klein's Intercept piece about the significance of Bernie Sanders' Inauguration Day mittens in analyzing pop political images, The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher Monday examined how Alvin came through for Warnock.

Mittens and beagles are the new progressive images as the GOP already plots to derail Joe Biden's administration.

Before the strident Loeffler unleashed her first scare ad, Warnock was shown embracing Alvin, assuring voters that he loves puppies.

Later, in one of the most effective ads in recent political campaigns, Warnock compares the GOP's racist and inflammatory claims to the dog's poop. The secondary message: Democrats unlike Republicans clean up after their pets and will also help the average Georgian.

In contrast to Alvin, GOP ads showed ranting Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and AOC. Georgians liked Alvin's floppy ears better.

The victories of Warnock and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff gave the Democrats control of the Senate, or at least we thought so until Miserly Mitch McConnell brought up his filibuster dead skunk.

Keep Alvin away from Mitch and the other Republicans. They like Rotweilers.

I liked the Alvin ads, and their composition is a legitimate news story. Yet, as one who cut his teeth on Theodore White, Haynes Johnson and Timothy Crouse's "The Boys on the Bus," I shook my head reading it, over the decline of American political discourse.

One question the New York Times piece didn't cover: Was Alvin named for the chipmunk?

 

 

 

 

Robert Caro donates extensive archive to New York Historical Society.

Robert Caro's archive will inspire future scholars and history lovers.

The New York Historical Society announced earlier this month the acquisition of Caro's interviews, research materials, notes and writing drafts.

Caro's files for his massive biographies of  New York City public works director Robert Moses and Sen. and President Lyndon Johnson will be open to researchers without restrictions, as stipulated by the 85-year-old Caro, the Historical Society said.

The writer's book on Moses, who transformed New York City and surrounding areas with his massive 20th century construction projects, examines New York history from the 1920s through the 1970s.

Covering Johnson’s origins in rural Texas and his long political career, the multi-volume biography gives an expansive account of American and world history over the same era.

A former investigative reporter for the Long Island newspaper Newsday, the New York City native in his monumental books traces the dynamic eras of World War I, the Jazz Age, the Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. Caro's won multiple awards, including the Pulitzer Prize.

Ducuments also will be displayed in a permanent installation, "Robert Caro Working," that will feature rotating materials "allowing practitioners and lovers of history and biography to observe the writer and his craft," according to the Historical Society.

The installation will feature recordings of Caro speaking about his research methods, along with TV appearances.

The collection includes the extensive interviews Caro has conducted. For his biography of Moses, "The Power Broker," Caro carried out more than 500 interviews, including many with the the last people then alive who had known New York Gov. Al Smith and New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

He also conducted a multitude of interviews for his Lyndon Johnson biography, of which four volumes have been published.

Along with extensive rewriting, Caro is known for his immersive research methods, such as moving to Johnson's Austin, Texas, for an extended period.

For work on his forthcoming final volume of the Johnson biography, which covers Johnson's presidency, Caro and his wife, Ina, who works with him, moved for a time to Vietnam.

Caro's devotion to old-fashioned writing methods will also be honored. The archives include his outlines, the legal pads on which he's written the first versions of his work, the succeeding drafts hammered out on Smith Corona electric typewriters and galleys of his books, including comments scribbled by his well-known editor, Robert Gottlieb.

"The Power Broker" is receiving a new burst of fame during the Covid-19 pandemic as one of the books often viewed on bookshelves of reporters and analysts when they do TV Zoom interviews from home. Volumes of Caro's Johnson biography are also frequently visible.

Caro said he chose the New York Historical Society as the permanent home of his memoirs because of his warm memories of spending hours there as a child. When his mother was seriously ill, a favorite aunt often took him to the historical society, he said.

As Caro enshrines his legacy, his readers hope that the exhibit eventually will mark the completion of his Lyndon Johnson biography. After detailing Johnson's rise to the leadership of the U.S. Senate, vice presidency and presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the final volume will encompass Johnson's tragic demise.

After the passage of landmark civil rights legislation, Johnson's presidency collapsed over his escalation of the Vietnam War. In striking contrast to Donald Trump's refusal to accept Joe Biden's election as president, Johnson gave up the presidency when his support eroded.

The Caro exhibit will honor historical truth, which Trump and his followers have attacked.

 

 

 

Giannis Antetokounmpo fulfills the American dream

The Giannis Antetokounmpo story is appealing.

A poor Greek kid comes to America and finds NBA stardom. In the free agent age, with self-regarding stars like Anthony Davis betraying small-market franchises, the 6-9 Giannis shows old-fashioned fan loyalty.

Giannis, as he's called by the first-name-friendly basketball media, is admirable for staying with the small-market Milwaukee Bucks, signing a five-year "supermax" deal with the team this week and vowing to bring a league championship to Lake Michigan's second city.

Many league observers thought the free agent superstar would jump to a team like the Knicks or Lakers instead of staying in the fifth-largest city in the Midwest.

But Giannnis said of the baseball, beer and brats town overshadowed by Chicago to the south and NFL icon Green Bay to the north, "This is my home. This is my city. I'm blessed to be part of  the Milwaukee Bucks for the next five years."

That was sweet news for a team that’s less popular than Major League Baseball's Brewers and Green Bay's Packers.

As Giannis expressed his love for the city that lost the Braves and Lou Alcindor, NBA pundits like ESPN's Michael Wilbon didn't flinch at the $228 million the two-time MVP will receive under the largest contract in league history. 

None of the NBA followers wondered how the Bucks can afford such a deal as Covid-19 devastates revenues.

Even if fans pack the stands when the pandemic ends and TV revenues revive, that's a lot of money to make up in beer and pretzels.

While Giannis is undeniably a great talent, winning the regular season MVP honors two years in a row and the defensive player of the year title last season, he's fallen short in the NBA playoffs, never leading the Bucks to the league finals.

Like other NBA stars today, he appears one-dimensional on offense, mainly driving to the basket and displaying inconsistent shooting outside. That's hurt him in the playoffs, where defenses have shut him down.

Led by Alcindor and superstar guard Oscar Robertson, the Bucks won their only NBA title in 1971. Afterwards, Alcindor changed his name to Kareem Abdul Jabbar and jumped to the Lakers, playing for several championship teams.

Unlike Kareem - another NBA first-name star - Giannis will remain in Milwaukee. Good luck to him in winning a championship or more for the Bucks. The Greek immigrant is proof the American dream still lives, with a $228 million glow.

 

 

 

 

SEC football says farewell to CBS Saturday afternoon broadcast

Goodbye to another tradition like no other: SEC football on CBS.

For years, SEC fans have grown up watching the game of the week on the network with the big eye.

Similar to its Masters broadcasts, CBS made the games beginning at 3:30 Saturday afternoons into a semi-religious ritual.

As shadows lengthened across the South's gridirons, we witnessed epic clashes between Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Tennessee and South Carolina.

Heisman winners such as Johnny Manziel, Derrick Henry, Tim Tebow and Joe Burrow have blazed across the screen.

Bigger than life coaches Nick Saban, Dan Mullen, Hugh Freeze, Steve Spurrier, Les Myles, Ed Orgeron, Bobby Petrino, Mark Richt, Kirby Smart and Gus Malzahn have scowled and screamed, lost and triumphed.

Now, ABC will take over the broadcast made famous by Verne Lundquist, thanks to a 10-year deal that will reportedly pay the conference around $300 million a year, substantially boosting each school's payout. The SEC received around $55 million from the CBS contract begun in 1996.

ESPN, which has been broadcasting a prime-time Saturday SEC game for years, will increase its SEC presence under the deal. ABC/ESPN runs the SEC Network.

With the ABC bonanza, the SEC will overtake the Big 10 as the richest conference, according to reports, at least until the Big 10 is able to shake more money from a TV network.

SEC schools' new riches cast a lurid light on the exploitation of players, who receive no salaries outside of their scholarships.

The league will have vastly more money to pay coaches and assistants and build lavish facilities, as the players risk injury hoping to someday receive an NFL deal.

Covering the old Confederacy, the SEC represents states that wallow at the bottom in education, health, and social services. But they're No. 1 in football, and getting even stronger.

 

 

 

Charlie Brown holiday classics headed to public TV

A bit of good news emerged amid Trump's scorched earth exit and the raging Covid 19 pandemic.

The beloved Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Christmas specials will be shown on public television this year as well as Apple's subscription-based streaming channel.

Broadcast on commercial networks for years, cartoonist Charles Schultz's TV classics were to be shown only on the Apple + channel until public outcry resulted in Apple reaching a deal with PBS to broadcast the shows.

The Thanksgiving show will air on PBS Sunday, and the Christmas special featuring Vince Guaraldi's haunting jazz score Dec. 13. The shows will also be offered on Apple +, including times of free viewing.

Alas, the agreement arrived too late for the Charlie Brown Halloween special and the Great Pumpkin, absent from the public airwaves this autumn. Maybe next year, big boy.

Charlie Brown's Christmas includes a Bible verse and the singing of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."

But the widespread love for the show likely will head off any protest about it being shown on a channel partially funded by taxpayers.

We only hope that PBS avoids any temptation to carry out pledge drives.

 

 

Random musings on Veterans Day

One more reason to worry: China's way ahead of the United States in rolling out 5G technology, according to a Wall Street Journal special report.

The Chinese can download a movie in 15 seconds, while it takes an American 15 minutes. Movies are censored in China, however.

China's huge lead in 5G technology seems like a major national security concern. But, as with climate change, there's no sense of urgency.

A strange Veterans Day, on the eve of the Masters beginning. A big story is how Augusta National's fall foliage compares with its usual April azaleas. Will players get a free drop from fallen leaves?

ESPN's College Game Day will broadcast Saturday morning from Augusta National's Par 3 course. Good the gang can talk about golf, with so many football games canceled because of Covid-19.

I never thought America would turn into Belarus. Trump in refusing to accept Joe Biden's election is acting more and more like Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

Following Saturday's spontaneous street celebrations of Biden's victory, Americans now need to stage massive protests as the people of Belarus did.

Christmas TV commercials have arrived again. I'm puzzled at car companies recycling last year's ads. Haven't the models changed?

World War I  ended on this day 102 years ago, followed by a global flu epidemic. Now, Covid-19 is resurgent throughout the world.

On this somber day, let's remember those lost to our 21st century pandemic and hope that an effective vaccine arrives soon.

 

 

Farewell, Alex Trebek

Alex Trebek's battle with cancer ended Sunday, surprising "Jeopardy" fans who'd come to believe that the dapper and genial "Jeopardy" host would go on forever.

The Canadian-born TV icon, who died Sunday at age 80, made "Jeopardy" America's daily cocktail party, a throwback to 1960s television.

Trebek's "Jeopardy" enjoyed a widespread popularity only eclipsed by pro football. Like Johnny Carson and Walter Cronkite, Trebek was welcome each night in American homes.

Recalling Carson, Trebek was a witty straight man. Trebek's cool demeanor complemented the oddball personalities of a series of "Jeopardy" champions. His interviews with contestants were like strange absurdist plays, or Nichols-May routines.

While he showed brief moments of consternation when contestants whiffed on easy questions, Trebek was mostly encouraging and sympathetic, the classic TV Dad.

In his months-long battle with pancreatic cancer, Trebek presented a model of composure, courage and devotion. Even when suffering tremendous pain, he persevered with the show's grueling daily schedule of shooting several episodes.

Resembling the French nobleman in Jean Renoir's "La Grande Illusion," he was always Trebek.