Recently I viewed a promotion for the January 20th release of a movie called “Red Tails.” It’s a black action movie (possibly the only), produced by Star Wars famed George Lucas, and is focused on the historic battles of the famous Tuskegee Airman. My father, Homer Tyler Sr., was one of the actual Tuskegee Airman Cadets.
Hollywood film studios did not want this movie made, -Star Wars famed director, George Lucas disagreed. During a recent interview with two of the lead movie stars (Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrance Howard) they spoke of some challenges faced when reknowned director George Lucas was shopping the Tuskegee Airmen film idea to the seven (7) major Hollywood studios. They said he was flatly turned down. Reportedly studio execs gave Lucas various excuses on why they wouldn’t be able to market a black action movie to the public. Yes, George Lucas was turned away, and apparently told by Hollywood’s studio executives, there’s are no such thing as a ‘black action’ movie.
Well Lucas was shocked with what might have been him actually experiencing face-to-face encounters with Hollywood’s closed door policy of continual exclusion of making big screen movies about Black and Brown historical accounts. (How long has it been since Spike Lee’s X - 1992, Spielberg’s Amistad – 1997, Salma Hayek’s Indie film Frida – 2002, I’m sure you can name just a couple more)
Inspired, Lucas reportedly went back to his own studio accountants and ordered $58-Million-Dollars of his own money to be put on the table to guarantee the making of what he believed to be an American story about American heroes. Lucas felt this American hero & action movie should be told on the big screen, and so he decided to invest his own money and then set out to make “Red Tails” which will be released January 20, 2012.
Appeal for your action: Please consider seeing “Red Tails” during the first weekend of its release beginning Friday January 20 – Sunday January 22, 2012. It’s during the first weekend when the studio heads determine if the opening weekend total receipt sales are high enough to call the movie a success. Although I know it’s always a struggle to battle against those who believe their world and history is the only thing that matters, I ask that you continue in this small effort to change perceptions towards the need to celebrate all cultures by having their stories acknowledged and shared openly. I hope you will participate in this small action which could mean so much. I appeal to you to make sure the Hollywood studio execs can’t continue to cite there is no such thing as a successful black action movie. That is, if you have hopes of seeing more movies produced with your own diverse culture in mind.
FYI…This interview is from Roland Martin’s Washington Watch program aired on TV One. The short interview is with Cuba Gooding Jr. (Academy Award winner for his ‘show me the money’ role in Jerry Maguire) and Academy Award nominee Terrance Howard (Hustle & Flow). Later I discovered musical writer/producer, Ne-Yo is also in this movie, adding on to his dramatic acting credits since his roles in Battle Los Angeles, Stomp the Yard, and Save the Last Dance 2.
Tyler History
On a personal note, you may not know that my dad was a Tuskegee Airman Cadet. He told me that during one of his training flights the training officer told him to complete what was at that time, an aerobatic trick flying turn. After my father completed the turn the trainer promptly told him he should never do anything like that, and then proceeded to ground him out of the fighter pilot program. Since my dad was a college graduate, he was re-assigned in a communication focused on
non-commissioned officer ‘field’ command position which at various times placed him in the same vicinity of the Red Tails fighter group (Ramitelli, Italy). He joked about having a jeep at his disposal, which meant he had some comfort amenities during the war. After the war my dad was accepted into the Tuskegee Airman Chicago chapter.
Actual recounts from Tuskegee Airmen documented their trainers were consistently coming up with tactics focused on trying to get rid of as many of the cadets as possible in an attempt to prove African-American pilots were not competent enough to be fighter pilots. Their key objective was to shut down the entire program.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s counter tactic - The ~1-hour plane ride by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with Tuskegee pilot Charles Anderson was believed instrumental with trumping the attempts to shut down the program. After the flight she said to her Tuskegee pilot Charles Anderson, “I always heard that colored people couldn’t fly airplanes, I (now) see no reason why blacks could not fly.”
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Historic notes –
Benjamin O. Davis Jr, who was assigned to command the Tuskegee Airmen, later became the first African-American general in the US Air Force. His father, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was the first African-American general in the US Army.
Among their many accomplishments they forced the surrender of a ground garrison as a result of their air attack and were the first fighter group to destroy a German navy destroyer battleship. Their ability to protect bombers was so notable that it has been reported they never lost
an escorted bomber in approximately 15,500 combat sorties. No other WW-2 combat fighter escort unit could claim such a record. For every black pilot there were approximately 10 other black civilian, officer and enlisted men and women providing on ground support duty.
When the war ended, the Tuskegee Airmen returned home with one hundred and fifty (150) Distinguished Flying Crosses, Legions of Merit and the Red Star of Yugoslavia. Although they were known as the Red Tails after painting the tails of their fighter plane red, bomber crews called them the Red Tail Angels as a result of their unbelievable ability to successfully escort hundreds of bomber units to and from each mission.