Harry Belafonte Exposed the 7 Worst Racist Stars He Knew in Old Hollywood Golden Age History

Harry Belafonte's seven decades inside the American entertainment industry, from his 1946 arrival at the American Negro Theatre in Harlem through his April 25, 2023 death at age 96, gave him direct observational access to the beloved American stars who actively worked against the interests of Black entertainers across the Golden Age of Hollywood. As the first Black recording artist to sell a million copies of an album, the first Black leading man permitted to romance a white leading actress on a major Hollywood screen, and Martin Luther King's closest entertainment ally, Belafonte occupied a vantage point on Hollywood racism no other Black entertainer of his generation could match. His 2011 memoir My Song, and hundreds of interviews he gave in the last decade of his life, documented the specific list of beloved American figures whose public warmth had concealed the private behavior he witnessed for six decades. This video traces the seven stars from Old Hollywood Belafonte named: from Ronald Reagan's Screen Actors Guild years cooperating with the FBI as informant T-10, through Bob Hope's segregated USO tour circuit, through Elia Kazan's April 10, 1952 HUAC testimony that helped destroy Paul Robeson, through Walt Disney's 42-year all-white animator hiring policy and Song of the South, through Charlton Heston's transformation from 1963 civil rights ally into NRA president, through Frank Capra's all-white Bedford Falls filmography, and into John Wayne's May 1971 Playboy interview declaring his belief in white supremacy. What's covered in this video: Ronald Reagan's 25-year Hollywood career across 53 films, his Screen Actors Guild presidency from 1947 to 1952 and 1959 to 1960, his cooperation with House Un-American Activities Committee investigations, his role as FBI informant T-10 documented in Seth Rosenfeld's 2012 book Subversives, and his 1983 initial opposition to the Martin Luther King federal holiday. Bob Hope's May 1942 first USO tour in Alaska, his five decades of segregated USO shows across World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, his 19 Academy Awards hosting appearances, and his all-white NBC television specials contrasted with Belafonte's February 1968 Tonight Show guest hosting week featuring Martin Luther King, Aretha Franklin, Bill Cosby, and Nipsey Russell. Elia Kazan's direction of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951 and On the Waterfront in 1954, his April 10, 1952 friendly witness testimony before HUAC naming eight Group Theatre colleagues as Communist Party members, the resulting blacklist that destroyed Paul Robeson's career and revoked his passport from 1950 to 1958, and Belafonte's public opposition to Kazan's 1999 honorary Academy Award. Walt Disney's 42-year all-white animator hiring policy across the Disney Nine Old Men era, his 1946 production of Song of the South, the NAACP protest of the film at its 1946 debut, and James Baskett's honorary 1948 Academy Award followed by his exclusion from the film's Atlanta premiere because of segregation laws Disney's production accommodated. Charlton Heston's 1959 Ben-Hur Academy Award, his August 1963 March on Washington participation alongside Belafonte and Martin Luther King, his 1998 election as National Rifle Association president, his 2000 cold dead hands speech, and his sustained public feud with Belafonte across the late 1990s and early 2000s. Frank Capra's 1946 direction of It's a Wonderful Life, his three Academy Awards for Best Director, his all-white Bedford Falls and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington casting choices across his 30-year directing career, and his 1942-1945 wartime production of the Why We Fight film series featuring racial content that provided intellectual cover for the Japanese American internment. John Wayne's 170 films, his 1969 Academy Award for True Grit, his May 1971 Playboy magazine interview containing his white supremacy statements, his 1960 rejection of Sidney Poitier as co-star for The Alamo, his 1973 Academy Awards backstage assault attempt on Sacheen Littlefeather, and his FBI file documenting cooperation with FBI investigations of Hollywood civil rights sympathizers. Mentioned in this video: Harry Belafonte, Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope, Elia Kazan, Walt Disney, Charlton Heston, Frank Capra, John Wayne, Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King, Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, Sacheen Littlefeather, James Baskett, Aretha Franklin, Bill Cosby, Nipsey Russell, Bing Crosby, James Dean, Richard Warren Lewis, Seth Rosenfeld, John Ford, Screen Actors Guild, HUAC, National Rifle Association, NAACP, American Negro Theatre, Warner Brothers, Playboy magazine, My Song, Subversives, A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, Snow White, Song of the South, Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, Planet of the Apes, It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Why We Fight, Stagecoach, True Grit, The Searchers, The Alamo, FBI informant T-10, Old Hollywood Golden Age. #HarryBelafonte #GoldenAgeHollywood #HollywoodSecrets