Customer Reviews

The Great White Hope: A Play

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This long but oft-gripping play covers the first Black heavyweight champion. Jack Johnson (1878-1946) held the title from 1908-1915, leading many to search for a great white hope to defeat him. As the play recounts, Johnson was a mix of proud, defiant and arrogant, and he dared date white women, which could get a black man lynched in parts of the South. The play doesn't hide his tendency towards unkindness even to those that loved him (like his white girfriend Eleanor). There is also heavy focus on Johnson's legal struggles that forced him to leave the USA for Europe and Cuba - some suspect the Mann Act of 1910 against white slavery was passed in response to his traveling across state lines with white girlfriends. The play takes place in his adopted home of Chicago (he was born in Galveston, Texas), plus New York, London, Budapest, Cuba, and Mexico. It recounts what was probably his most famous fight against ex-champion James Jeffries (perhaps the top great white hope) who unretired to fight him in Reno, Nevada on July 4, 1910. Johnson's 15-round TKO victory caused rioting in some cities, although the champ also had many white fans.

The Great White Hope had a successful two-year run in New York from 1968-1970, winning the New York Drama Critics Award, a Tony Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. It also was made into a 1970 film with James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander. I once discovered a highly-racist newspaper editorial in which the Chicago Tribune was utterly alarmed by a black champion. Still, his victory over Jeffries a few days after that editorial appeared led many kids to sing a jingle that went: "What's the matter with Johnson, he's alright...what's the matter with Jeffries, he can't fight...On the Fourth Day of July, Johnson knocked out Jeffries eye...what's the matter with Johnson, he's alright."

With over 40 characters, plus numerous extras, three acts, 5-6 scenes per act, constant non-stop dialogue, heavy in negro dialect, some German, and a whole scene in French language, this makes a challenging read!

Much of the reading (in boldface type) is not a character's lines, but dialogue/narration meant to be addressed to the audience. Again, quite confusing.

The Great White Hope is a lengthy play that has garnered, the triple crown - receiving the New York Drama Critics' Award, The Tony Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. The play opened in Oct of '68 and ran til Jan '70, with 556 performances. A movie version in the 70's starred James Earl Jones.

The play spans from 1908 to 1915 and the scenes are set throughout the world, Chicago, London, New York, Budapest, Havana, Juarez.

The Great White Hope is based on the story of Jack Johnson, who in 1908 became the first black heavyweight champion of the world. Here, the name is Jack Jefferson, with a white girlfriend and a white community's quest for a white boxer, Great White Hope, to defeat him.

Although it won a Pulitzer Prize, it may not be for me to understand, but some folks may. If one can get through this...Good Luck! .....Rizzo