Liz's CLEOPATRA shattered the gender salary bigotry glass ceiling. |
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In this Election Year, when one of the Democratic Party's front-runners is a woman, and the other is a multi-racial man, we're looking at bigotry and the box office. On the other side of the aisle, John Mc Cain is the presumptive Republican nominee. If Mc Cain wins, perish the thought, he'll be the oldest person to assume first-time control of the Oval Office. A favorite joke these days goes like this: If John McCain is looking to move, he should be eyeing a nursing home, not the White House.
There are voters who are bigoted against all three of the Presidential frontrunners because they are women, multi-racial, and geriatric. But bigotry runs deeper and wider than politics. Bigotry and the motion picture box office go together like "love and marriage."
As much as we worship our motion picture divas (Cher, Bette Midler, Julia Roberts) and screen sirens (Monroe, Harlow, Jolie), women have always been the target of bigotry at the box office. In the early decades, women were 
Ageism never stopped Cary from playing opposite younger leading ladies. |
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commonly paid much less than their male equivalents. In 1960, then box office giant, Elizabeth Taylor, broke through that box office gender salary glass ceiling by asking for, and receiving, an unheard of $1 million payday for starring as CLEOPATRA. Matters financial improved for the box office's women after La Liz's record-setting salary, but, to this very day, the ladies still struggle to command what their testosterone-fueled counterparts receive.
Bigotry targeting African Americans and the multi-racial has played major roles in the box office's history.
At the pre Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier box office – (everything before the 1950s) - most African American film performers were used only as singers and dancers. Rarely was a Black artist cast in a role critical to the flick's plot. That's because, through most of motion picture history, exhibitors in the American south simply removed all scenes that featured African American performers. Therefore, for the most part, 
Racism plagued Lena Horne's Box Office career. |
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Blacks were only seen in musical sequences. Songs and dances could be edited from the movies of the time without seriously diminishing the plot.
There are hundreds of Hollywood stories about how Caucasians were cast in motion picture roles intended for African-Americans, or for the multi-racial.
Here's my personal favorite: In 1950, MGM was making the first Technicolor motion picture version of the classic Kern & Hammerstein musical SHOWBOAT. One of the principal roles in the piece is that of Julie LaVerne, a mulatto songbird forced to leave the SHOWBOAT after it's discovered that her husband is Caucasian. Lena Horne, already under contract to MGM, was perfect for the role. But Julie's role is integral to the story's plot, and MGM knew that her scenes would be scissored in the South if the role were played by a Black woman. Thus, Caucasian beauty, Ava Gardner was cast as Julie, her singing voice dubbed by the also lily white Annette Warren.
In the current Presidential 
If McCain wants a new home, here it is, not the White House |
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Election, it is John Mc Cain who is the subject of ageism. At the box office, women have largely been ageism's prey. Just for openers, middle-aged and senior male stars have always coupled romantically on screen, and off, with much younger leading ladies. Think: Cary Grant, Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty, to name just a few. But when did we ever see Shirley Mac Laine, Julia Roberts, or Angelina Jolie with a Boy Toy half her age? Also, at an age when Harrison Ford is still playing the dashing, jaunty Indiana Jones in this summer's highly anticipated blockbuster, most actresses of Ford's age are being offered secondary leads in the roles of mothers, grandmothers, or eccentric aunties.
It remains to be seen how major an effect age, gender, and racial bigotry will play in determining the next President of the United States. At the box office, we still have a significant road to travel before all of the long-held prejudices evaporate as completely and irrevocably as Steven Sagal's motion picture career.
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| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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