| The Great White Hope | |
|---|---|
 Book cover of the play | |
| Written by | Howard Sackler |
| Characters |
|
| Date premiered | 1967 |
| Place premiered | Arena Stage Washington, D.C. |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Pugilism;racism |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | years before and during WWI |
The Great White Hope is a 1967 play written byHoward Sackler, later adapted in 1970 for afilm of the same title.[1][2]
The play was first produced byArena Stage inWashington, D.C., and debuted onBroadway at theAlvin Theatre in October 1968, directed byEdwin Sherin withJames Earl Jones andJane Alexander in the lead roles. The play won the 1969Tony Award for Best Play and the 1969Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with the only singing role asBarbara Johnson Tucker. Subsequent touring companies of the play featuredBrock Peters andClaudette Nevins in the lead roles.
The play is based on the true story ofJack Johnson (fictionalized under the character name "Jack Jefferson") and hisfight against Jim Jeffries, and also covers the controversy over his marriage to first wife, Etta Terry Duryea, and Duryea's death by suicide in 1912.[3]
While the play is often described as being thematically aboutracism, this is not how Sackler viewed his work. Though not denying the racist issues confronted in the play, Sackler once said in an interview, "What interested me was not the topicality but the combination of circumstances, the destiny of a man pitted against society. It's a metaphor of struggle between man and the outside world. Some people spoke of the play as if it were a cliché of white liberalism, but I kept to the line straight through, of showing that it wasn't a case of blacks being good and whites being bad. I was appalled at the first reaction."[4]
In a comment reflecting on both the racist theme dealt with in the play and Sackler's notion that the play is about a man fighting society,Muhammad Ali, greatly impressed withJames Earl Jones' performance in the play, reportedly commented to the actor, "Hey! This play is about me! Take out the interracial love stuff and Jack Johnson is the original me!"[5] He added, "You just change the time, date and the details and it's about me!"[6] Ali was fighting being drafted into the Army at the time on grounds of being aconscientious objector.[7]
The Great White Hope premiered at the Arena Stage in December 1967.[8][9][10]
The initial production at Arena Stage, paid for in part by two grants from theNational Endowment for the Arts, was so well-received that the entire original cast, includingJames Earl Jones andJane Alexander, moved to Broadway.[11] It was the first time the cast of a regional theater production was brought to Broadway.[7] The play opened on Broadway on October 3, 1968, and closed on January 31, 1970, after 546 performances.[12] Using proceeds from his screenwriting contract, Sackler substantially funded the Broadway production by investing a reported US$225,000.[4] In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Jones won the 1969Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and Alexander won the 1969Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, as well as theDrama Desk Award for each, for their respective portrayals of Jack Jefferson and Eleanor Bachman.[12][13] A recording of the production was released byTetragrammaton Records.
Yaphet Kotto replaced Jones[14] andMaria Tucci replaced Alexander on September 8, 1969.[15]
In 2000, Arena Stage mounted a new production ofThe Great White Hope in honor of the theater's 50th season.[7]
The Great White Hope was adapted by Sackler for a film released in 1970, directed byMartin Ritt, starringJames Earl Jones,Jane Alexander,Chester Morris,Hal Holbrook,Beah Richards andMoses Gunn. Jones and Alexander, who both had starred in the theatrical version, each received best actorAcademy Award nominations for their performances. The Oscars for their categories were ultimately presented toGeorge C. Scott forPatton, andGlenda Jackson forWomen in Love.
In the movie, the role of "the Kid," or the "great white hope," was played by professional heavyweight boxer James J. Beattie (6'9", 240 pounds), the #10-ranked world heavyweight contender and an Ali sparring partner.
The term, "the great white hope," reflects the racism and segregation of the era in which Jack Johnson fought. Johnson, the firstAfrican American to hold the WorldHeavyweight Championship title, was one of the best fighters of his generation. Yet, white reaction against Johnson's win and his very public relationships with white women was so strong that, in 1912, theUnited States Congress, concerned that film scenes of Johnson pummeling white boxers would cause race riots, passed a law making it illegal to transport prizefight films across state lines.[16] "The great white hope" is a reference to the white boxer whom many white people hoped would finally defeat Johnson.
William Warren Barbour, who won theAmerican andCanadian amateur heavyweight championship in 1910 and 1911, respectively, was"Gentleman Jim" Corbett's choice to be "the great white hope," but Barbour declined to take up the mantle. Some thirty years later, it was Barbour who, as U.S. Senator (R) fromNew Jersey in 1940, worked successfully to repeal the 1912 law prohibiting interstate transportation of boxing film footage.[16] About thirty years after that, William Warren Barbour's nephew, Thomas Barbour, played four small parts, including Sir William Griswald, in the Broadway production ofThe Great White Hope.[13]
The first "great white hope" boxer to accept the challenge wasJim Jeffries, who came out of retirement to fight Johnson unsuccessfully in 1910. Johnson's title was eventually lost toJess Willard, a white boxer, in 1915. There was some controversy surrounding Willard's win, with Johnson claiming he threw the fight. In part because of white animosity toward Johnson, it was twenty years before another African-American boxer was allowed to contend for the world professional heavyweight title. In 1937,Joe Louis defeatedJames J. Braddock, "The Cinderella Man," to become the second African-American boxer to hold the world heavyweight championship title.[7]
