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Behind the Slate

25. Melvin Van Peebles Part 5 - A Natural Death

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Melvin takes over Broadway only to see his midas touch leave him. Later in life he experiences a Renaissance as the first black trader on Wall Street and ages gracefully into one of the greatest elder statesmen in cinema history. Rest In Peace Melvin Van Peebles (8/21/32-9/21/21), one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century.


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Producer: Greg Kleinschmidt


Sources:

'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' by Melvin Van Peebles (1971)


'How to Dismantle a [Theatric] Bomb: Broadway Flops, Broadway Money, and Musical Theater Historiography' by Dr. Elizabeth Wollman (May, 2020


'2008 Interview with Red Bull Music Academy': https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/melvin-van-peebles-dont-write-a-check-your-ass-cant-cash


'Unstoppable: Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks, and Ossie Davis in Conversation': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHuW5bxVamg


Visionary Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeRJLgAbW-4&list=PLCwE4GdJdVRLS1R8f9-G8hihJQKmePpCW&t=116


'How To Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)' (2005) Dir. Joe Angio


Black Arts/West History by Douglas Q Barnett: https://www.historylink.org/File/3523


Paul Carter Harrison Archives: Emory University Rose Reading Room


'Le Fete a Harlem' Program Archive: https://data.bnf.fr/fr/39467577/fete_a_harlem_spectacle_1964/


1972 Tony Awards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weVm6vn7SOg


Mario Van Peebles/Melvin Van Peebles interview with Charlie Rose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9N3D7ZzjkY&t=996s


June 6th 1972 Episode of Black Journal: https://www.criterionchannel.com/don-t-play-us-cheap/videos/melvin-van-peebles-on-black-journal-2


NYT 'The Boadasssss Success' (1972): https://www.nytimes.com/1972/08/20/archives/the-baadasssss-success-of-melvin-van-peebles-van-peebles-counting.html?searchResultPosition=76


NYT 'Melvin Van Prolific' (1972): https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/28/archives/melvin-van-prolific-melvin-van-prolific.html?searchResultPosition=15


NYT Review of 'Waltz of the Stork' (1982): https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/06/theater/stage-waltz-of-van-peebles-opens.html?searchResultPosition=13


'Making Do the Right Thing' Dir St. Clair Bourne: https://archive.org/details/making-do-the-right-thing


'Classified X' Dir. Melvin Van Peebles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOfwnPJtHJM


Joshie Jo Armstead Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMcWYsDOm8M


'Melvin Van Peebles The Real Deal': https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/melvin-van-peebles-on-sweet-sweetback-s-baadasssss-song-2002



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