MovieChat Forums > Billie (1965) Discussion > Progressive!

Progressive!

posted 13 years ago by workingdee
5 replies | jump to latest

I'm watching this movie right now on netflix and I'm kind of impressed with the diversity of the extras. There are were black girls in the senior class when Billie's father was giving her speech and there are black boys on the track team and in the dance sequence. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I think of other teen movies from that time period and they often didn't show black people in the same social situations as whites. I just think it's progressive and probably inadvertently (or maybe intentionally) helped civil rights.

[–] solex10 13 years ago

Afro-American star Olympian Rafer Johnston (supposedly) helped out with the track & field scenes, but it's obviously a guy or a woman in a wig doing them.

[–] swinggold 12 years ago

Not really that progressive for the time. It was 1965 not the 50s. Hollywood had opened up a lot as a result of the Civil Rights era and it wasn't unusual to see more blacks in movies during the early 60s and after. Had this been a 50s movie, you'd probably not see any blacks at all or maybe one or two in servant roles or in a crowd.

[–] vpilutis 9 years ago

Oh well I don't recall any blacks in GREASE except member(s) of Sha Na Na

See some stars here
http://www.vbphoto.biz/

[–] rycki1138 9 years ago

Grease was set during the late 50s, during the 1958-1959 school year. The main characters were in the graduating class of 1959. Schools were still segregated in the late 50s.

(knock,knock,knock) Penny (knock,knock,knock) Penny (knock,knock,knock) Penny

[–] vpilutis 9 years ago

Maybe down south but not in NYC or LA or most northern cities.
Trust me I was in school in those yrs