The Rape of Rita Hayworth: The WB Network, Hispanic Racism, and "Authentic Learning"

A Different Drummer ^ | 15 October 2003 | Nicholas Stix

[cyborg]

Yes and when Sammy was yucking it up and posing for a pic next to Kim Novak, he sat next to Kim Novak to save Sammy's career. That may sound ridiculous, but back then that would have spelled DOOM for Sammy's career. I hate it whenever someone messes around with the rat pack ESP. Frank Sinatra.

[mrustow]

Rumor also has it that the Mob squelched Sammy's impending marriage to Kim Novak.

Veddy interesting.

[dennisw]

It used to irritate me to no end, when that jerk, Phil Hartman (may he rest in peace!), would do his Frank Sinatra impression on Saturday Night Live. He would make Sinatra sound like a dumb (read: racist, etc.) mob enforcer.

I wish I had a copy of the shows where Joe Piscopo does Frank. The best ones are where he's singing a medley of contemporary songs. Such as "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". Also the one where he's arguing over who "calls the shots" when Frank and Dean and Sammy are out on the town.

I liked the Phil Hartman one too.

[EagleMamaMT]

Read later.

[tallhappy]

Imagine if a white TV host said, "I think it’s hard for non-whites to understand how important Frank Sinatra was to whites."

Wrong analogy. Better would be "hard to imagine non english speakers understanding..."

Hispanic is not a race.

The whole PC diversity stuff is garbage thought.

But too often criticisms of it are off the mark.

[cyborg]

That's not rumor. That's fact. I know because my father knew Frank Sinatra, and my dad had shall we say... friends in some low places? Some movie producer not in the mob wanted her for himself and sent some goons after Sammy to give him a little education.

Oh well, Sammy ended up with some beautiful wives either way. His biography is out. I like him because he never let the racism of the day keep him down. Makes me frustrated to see people today who don't have anything compared to what Sammy faced WHINE WHINE WHINE.

[mrustow]

That reminds me of a story I heard the late Rosie Clooney tell, a few years before her death, about Nat Cole. Around 1958-59, Cole had a variety show, and he once had Clooney on as a guest. Rosie was such a naturally affectionate sweetheart, who never worried about peculiar "social proprieties," that Cole had to beg her to ple-a-se never touch him, while the cameras were running. It would have lost him all his southern stations.

[Clemenza]

Many African-Americans claim Celia, who, after all is AFRO-CUBAN and was proud of it! Even the well-intentioned yokel who wrote this article fails to comprehend that what are grouped by the the "Booboisie" and the civil rights pimps as "Latinos" are a racially and culturally diverse lot. Don't get me started on the idiots here in NYC who refer to Afro-Dominicans as "Spanish."

This guy makes some good points, but sounds like another whiner to me for the most part. Besides, Frankie S was half-Sicillian, making him an "African" in the eyes of many northern Italians anyway.

I LOVE the games we play with race and ethnicity in this country, don't you? :-)

[Clemenza]

As I have said before, Celia is just as "Afro-Carribean" as Bob Marley or Peter Tosh.

Frankie S was widely respected by many for his work in the Civil Rights movement. If you ever get a chance, read the memoirs of George Jacobs, Frank's personal assistant who happend to be a "person of color."

[Verginius Rufus]

An Hispanic in the Confederacy who was more important than Robert E. Lee? Do they think Pierre Beauregard was Hispanic? Or are they confusing Judah P. Benjamin with Benjamin Disraeli?

[mrustow]

"The House I Live in" -- they gave him a special Oscar for it, and in his case, it wasn't mere words.

[okie01]

"She really was, wasn't she, a fantasticly beautiful woman?!"

Sometime in the nineties, we rented "They Came To Cordura". I had not seen a Rita Hayworth movie since, oh, probably the fifties. That is, for about 35-40 years. My wife, who was born in 1948, barely recalled her -- more by reputation than anything else.

But, when Rita made her first appearance in that movie, my jaw dropped and my wife gasped. My Gawd, she was a fantastic looker, wasn't she? I'm convinced the term "drop dead gorgeous" was coined for her.

Speaking of such things, I'm probably of the same generation as Nicholas Stix. And Rita Hayworth's Latin blood was very well known and a recognized part of her mystique -- even to us rubes in the outback of Oklahoma.

[mrustow]

Wow, C., you're one tough customer. Glad I never had to wait on your party!

[Peter Porcupine]

Better Joe Piscopo's Sinatra. In the perfect send-up of Paul McCartney's well-intended (the best that can be said about it) "Ebony and Ivory," Piscopo-as-Frank, in a duet with Eddie Murphy doing his patented Stevie Wonder impersonation, utters the line "That was groovy thinkin', Lincoln, when you set them fre-e-e-e-e-e..." There. An appropriate nod to a Republican president and a wholly righteous sentiment.

[nkycincinnatikid]

bump

[mrustow]

They Came to Cordura was my first Rita Hayworth movie! I saw it because it starred Coop; Rita was a delicious extra. I think she looked even better than in the '40s pinups some education-oriented FReeepers were so kind as to post. IIRC, she wore a small, round, black hat at an angle, and walked, cool as a cucumber, on the tracks, as Coop was forced by rogue soldiers (including Tab Hunter, cast against type) to drag a flat railroad car (I think it was a broken relay car, the kind you normally pumped yourself), all by himself.

Since it's 30 years since I saw the flick, I won't vouch for the accuracy of the above -- excepting for the impression that R.H.'s startling beauty made on me.

And did I mention, that she was a serious actress?

[wjcsux]

WOW! One of the most beautiful women to ever be on the Silver Screen. She was a babe!

[mrustow]

Bumpbackatcha!

[mrustow]

Bumpbackatcha!

[cyborg]

It's all so stupid. Hey Raquel Welch just came out and said she's Latina not white. There... give them that bone. Why don't they make a big deal about Raquel Welch? Because she's not as famous as Rita Hayworth?

You're right about Celia Cruz. It's all so ridiculous. Besids most of these useful idiots wouldn't like her politics anyway... too conservative.